When you think of bread or muffins using something for moisture, you probably think of banana. I am a banana hater (sorry not sorry) so you will not find any banana recipes on this site. However, zucchini I adore. Chai lattes I adore and drink most mornings. So how can I further improve my breakfast experience? Chai zucchini muffins of course. The flavors of the tea you love into a muffin, so you can grab it and go when you’re in a hurry – or just want to enjoy a flavorful ass muffin.
If you ask me what my favorite vegetable is, zucchini is up there. The past two years I’ve had a garden and growing my own zucchini is one of the best treats. I love going into my garden and telling my plants.. I GREW YOU FROM A SEED AND LOOK AT YOU NOW! My neighbors think it’s weird, but that’s on them. However, if you have ever grown zucchini, or most any fruit or vegetable is you can often find yourself with a bit more than you could possibly eat.
So what else would I do with extra zucchini than bake it. Duh. So normal zucchini bread is a hit with me. What’s not to love. I usually add cinnamon to it, so of course my next thought was.. I wonder if I could add all the other chai spices to this. How would that taste. The answer? Amazeballs. Spiced chai zucchini muffins you are now my favorite over the old standby of blueberry. Not even sorry.
These muffins don’t have actual tea in them, but are packed with the spices you would taste in a cup of chai. I also have tried several glazes on these: vanilla, cinnamon, cardamom, maple butter, cream cheese. The recipe card includes the chai glaze. If you want to make the glaze using tea bags, I’d recommend Stash Chai Spice Tea Bags and strongly brew it. Either with less water or extra tea bags. If you want to use a premade concentrate, this chai concentrate is really flavorful.
Now, I’m a very picky muffin eater. I basically won’t eat muffins from coffee shops or restaurants because they are so sweet, and the tops are always weirdly sticky. It’s also a hard pass on prepackaged. I guess it’s one of those things where I got used to the ones my mom made as a kid and those were really only all I ever tried until I was a teenager.
I like my muffins less sweet, and a little more on the drier side. I feel like if it’s more sweet/moist it’s just cake.. and I don’t like cake. These chai zucchini muffins are sweet, but not overly so. If you leave off the glaze they are even less sweet, so that is 100% a way to make them feel more nutritious. I love these both with and without glaze. Spice though? Full steam ahead. And the zucchini insures they are NOT dry. Let me know if you make them and if you too are a muffin snob.
If you’re a chai spice lover like me, I’d encourage you to also try Chai Sweet Rolls, Chai Spice Rice Krispies Treats or Spiced Chai Tiramisu
Spiced Chai Zucchini Muffins Key Ingredients
- Oil – Muffins can be made with oil or butter, however I chose for these to be made with oil as I wanted the chai spice flavors to be star flavors and oil really gives a luscious texture that feels moist.
- Chai Spice Mix – There’s no actual tea in the muffins (however a glaze can be made using it) but the mix of spices here gives the flavors of a chai latte.
- Zucchini – Fresh zucchini grated gives so much moisture to these that no other liquid (other than oil) is needed.
Ingredients
- 150-170 g Grated zucchini 2 cups
- 330 g All Purpose Flour 2¾ cups
- 1 tsp Baking powder
- 1 tsp Baking soda
- 1 tsp Sea salt
- 2 tsp Cinnamon
- 1 ¼ tsp Cardamom
- ½ tsp Nutmeg
- ½ tsp Ground ginger
- ¼ tsp Clove
- ¼ tsp All spice
- 150 g Dark brown sugar ¾ cup
- 50 g Granulated sugar ¼ cup
- 218 g Neutral oil 1 cup, vegetable, canola
- 2 large Eggs room temp
- 1 tbsp Vanilla extract
Glaze
- ½ cup Confectioners' sugar sifted
- 2 tbsp Chai concentrate/Strongly brewed chai
- ¼ tsp Vanilla extract
- ¼ tsp Cinnamon
Instructions
- Lightly grease or line muffin tins with liners, set aside. Preheat oven to 425°F
- Grate zucchini and spread into an even layer on paper towels or a tea towel. Place another tea towel or layer of paper towels and press the water out. Alternatively, place grated zucchini into a colander and lightly sprinkle with a pinch of sugar. Let sit for 20-30 minutes to release water, then put zucchini in a tea towel and squeeze out additional moisture. Either method is fine!
- In a small/medium size bowl, add flour, salt, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, cardamom, nutmeg, ginger, cloves and allspice. Whisk together.
- In a large bowl, add your sugar and oil and stir together.
- Add your eggs and vanilla. You don't have to add one at a time or use a whisk, but make sure the mixture is completely homogenous before moving on.
- Add in your zucchini and mix.
- Add your dry ingredients and fold together with a rubber spatula until just incorporated. Do not overmix.
- Fill muffin cups ¾ full and bake at 425°F for 5 minutes, then reduce temperature to 350°F and bake for another 15 minutes. Toothpick inserted into center will come out clean. Remove from tins immediately and let cool on wire rack.
I am trying to use up all the zucchini I have frozen in my freezer from last summer’s garden. So I had to try this recipe. I loved the spice blend in this muffin. I don’t have dark brown sugar so I used light brown sugar and added a 1/2 teaspoon of molasses and I skipped the glaze. Muffins were flavorful. Definitely keeping this recipe!
Kristina, I’m so glad you loved them! Thank you!
These muffins are so flavorful and moist! I substituted over 1/2 the flour with whole wheat and used Turbinado sugar instead of granulated. Lastly, I did not work to drain the zucchini, but let it sit for a while and used the shredded zucchini on the top of my food processor to avoid the liquid.
Oh I’m so glad that this worked and you enjoyed them! Subbing half with whole wheat is a great idea and I think not getting more moisture out probably helped because whole wheat tends to suck up more moisture. Now I’ll have to try them with this blend! Thank you so much for trying!
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