My husband is “that” gardener.  You know, the one who likes to present unsuspecting victims with a bag of zucchini?  There is only so many times a week one can eat zucchini, and it doesn’t preserve all that well.  Maybe you have great success freezing yours, but mine always gets soggy when I freeze it in bigger chunks. 

Anyhow…I was requested to bake goodies for a meeting the next day.  This request was made shortly after my clean counter was piled with zucchini (and a day of playing with bagels again).  I’m not a fan of zucchini bread, IMHO it’s oily and I wanted an easy grab and go snack.  Mini cupcakes are easy to eat at a meeting, and chocolate makes people happy…so Mini Chocolate Zucchini Cupcakes it was.  My youngest son protested vehemently, even though I explained that they were not for him.

I grated a few zucchini then wrung it out in towels (it took 2).   I wring because I’m too impatient to press using a strainer, and too lazy to wash the salad spinner.  I chopped the shreds so the pieces would mix in more uniformly.  The recipe calls for 1 cup, and I packed it in the cup pretty well (after all that work – it was getting used, darn it!).

This recipe makes 33 cupcakes.   I have only one mini pan.  I had two, but, I also have children…  If you have this problem (the pan, not the children), the best thing to do is rinse the pan under hot water, and allow the water to get progressively cooler.  Going straight to cold water results in a warped pan.  I filled 9 cups with the remaining batter, and the rest with water.   When you have empty cups, you fill them 1/2 way with water to keep the pan level and to absorb excess heat.  I’ve noticed that not filling the empty cups makes that 2nd batch drier; so that explains the excess heat part.  Noteworthy Advice:  If you put the water filled pan on a rimmed baking sheet there is less of a chance that you will spill hot water on your feet and say bad words.

A note about paper liners…it’s a personal decision – do I want to grease those little cups and then scrub each one?  Do I want to have a pile of wrappers next to me declaring how many I ate?   Decisions, decisions…

So, mission accomplished.  My son came by and took a swipe at the mixing bowl, pronounced it delish, and snagged a cupcake  His father came by, and also snagged one.  Then they came back for seconds.  I made another batch…

You can shred and dry zucchini and freeze the shreds for later use in baked goods or casseroles (or Individual Spinach Quiches) and it works very nicely.  Like I said above, freezing in big chunks never works for me – but this does, and I manage to use up the entire harvest well before the next crop.

If you add these to your meal plan, be advised that this isn’t really adding a major nutrition boost, it’s simply adding moisture and texture, and getting zucchini off of your counter!