Zucchini Cream Cheese Muffins
It’s zucchini season! The biggest downside of living in a city-based apartment is the lack of land to plant a garden. It’s on my list when we get a house! Thankfully, my parents had an abundance of zucchini this year and brought 4 huge zucchini when they visited this month – which meant I needed a new recipe and fast.
Zucchini is one of my favorite veggies to cook – usually in the skillet with some salt and olive oil – but it’s also a great baking ingredient. Seems like we’ve been doing muffins a lot lately, helps when I need new recipes to pack with Matt’s lunch. With my zucchini abundance – cue research into zucchini muffins!
One of Matt’s favorite things is cheesecake, so these zucchini cream cheese muffins from Sally’s Baking Addiction were a perfect fit! A spiced zucchini muffin with cheesecake filling mixed in creates a delicious, rich treat. You can’t taste the zucchini, but it adds the moisture into the muffin. These are the perfect breakfast pastry – or any time snack!
Original recipe from Sally’s Baking Addiction.
Zucchini Cream Cheese Muffins
Yields 10 muffins
Ingredients
Muffin Batter
1 and 1/2 cups (190g) all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
1/2 cup (120ml) canola oil
1/4 cup (50g) light brown sugar
1/2 cup (100g) granulated sugar
1 large egg, room temperature
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 1/4 cups (about 175g) shredded zucchini (about 1 medium zucchini, do not blot dry)
optional: coarse sugar for topping
Cheesecake Filling
5 ounces (140g) cream cheese, room temperature
1 egg yolk, room temperature
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
3 Tbsp (36g) sugar
Instructions
Preheat oven to 425°F. Add 10 parchment cupcake liners to a muffin tin.
In a small bowl, whisk the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon and nutmeg. Set aside.
In a medium bowl, whisk together oil, brown sugar, granulated sugar, egg, and vanilla extract until combined. Mix in the zucchini.
Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and stir until just combined.
Using a mixer, beat the cream cheese in a medium bowl on medium-high speed until smooth and creamy. Add in the egg yolk, vanilla extract, and sugar and mix until combined.
Spoon 1 heaping Tbsp of zucchini muffin batter into the muffin cups. Add 1 Tbsp of cream cheese filling, then top with another heaping Tbsp of muffin batter – or however much batter it takes to fill to just below full. Sprinkle with coarse sugar, if desired.
Bake for 5 minutes 425°F then, with the muffins in the oven, reduce heat to 350°F and continue baking for another 15-17 minutes, until a toothpick comes out clean. Allow to cool for at least 10 minutes in the pan before flipping onto a cooling rack.
Muffins should be stored in the fridge, up to 1 week.