Varying Zucchini Mini-Muffin Methods

I previously posted recipes for round and square mini-muffins, using zucchini that a co-worker provided from his summer bounty. I coarse-shredded it with my trusty Salad Shooter. I varied for pans—one type being round aluminum, and the other type being square-well silcone. As the batches were at least a week or so apart, it wasn't easy to contrast taste and texture results between them.

Since then, I baked another two batches, using both kinds of pans at the same time. One batch (upper part of pixstrip) had zucchini that I shredded, which another co-worker provided. (I have such sharing co-workers!) The most recent batch (lower part of pixstrip) had zucchini that I previously shredded, froze, and thawed.

Contrasting Round (Aluminum Pan) and Square (Silicone Pan)
For starters, neither recent batch of silicon-pan mini-muffins tasted of siliconey weirdness. As for different baking times, I encountered that issue in the most recent batch, when I positioned the baking pans differently from the batch before. More on that later.

The round mini-muffins look to have perfect crowns. The square ones, although also having crowns, seem to favor one edge over another. The slight lopsidedness might result from my not having sprayed the shots of oil as evenly into the squares as into the circles.

Contrasting Pan-Type Positioning in the Oven
The pixstrip shows the two different pan positionings in the oven. For the most recent batch, I placed the round-well aluminum pan on the bottom rack, closest to the oven element. The mini-muffins wound up browner and drier than the square ones, which were on the upper rack. (I had baked both batches at 350 for 15 minutes each, with pre-heating.)

Contrasting Fresh-Shred and Previously Frozen Zucchini
The thawed zucchini was very watery and less bulky than fresh-shredded. I poured and mixed in the entire thawed 8 ounces without draining the fluid. The batter was slightly easier to stir than when using fresh-shred. The results seemed the same as using fresh-shred. As noted, however, the pan positioning and timing seemed to affect the results.

Conclusion

• No significant difference between using fresh-shredded zucchini and frozen/thawed zucchini. Frozen means convenience for using the zucchini whenever, and without fear of having too much or too little fluid.
• If using metal pans, bake for a minute or so less than if using silicone. Or put the metal pan on a high rack.
• My silicone pans have more wells for area than the aluminum pans, making them more compact for quantity.
• It seems the silicone pans yield a slightly more moist result, but not by much.
• The slight downside of silicone is that it requires structural support (a metal pan) in the oven because of its floppiness.

Update—Another batch
Yesterday (Th September 4), I baked a batch of 12 round and 24 square mini-muffins—using one aluminum and one silicone pan. The frozen zucchini that I took down from the freezer the previous night had ice crystals in it. Thus, when thawed, was very watery. Although I didn't think to weigh the bagful, it didn't feel any fuller than the bagful that I used in a previous baking session.

The results, after 16 minutes of baking, were 12 round mini-muffins that were nicely browned at the edges and tan on the surfaces and 24 square mini-muffins that were pale and had a texture as though I steam-cooked them. Delish as expected!

Fresh-Shred Zucchini Mini-Muffins (Square)

My previous article was a recipe for round mini-muffins, which I initially thought came out a little crier and chewier than I expected. I wondered if maybe vertical-side wells might make a difference. For this batch of 36 mini-muffins (same volume as 12 regulars), everything's the same except for using square silicone pans.

My pixstrip shows ten image areas:

1. Dry ingredients (flour, salt, baking powder, baking soda, nutmeg, cinnamon, sugar)
2. Wet ingredients (eggs, oil, vanilla)
3. The wet ingredients, plus grated zucchini
4. Implements
5. Partial view of the implements, plus spray oil
6. Bowl of stirred dry ingredients, bowl of stirred oil, eggs, and vanilla, and jar with shredded (or grated) zucchini (Yes, you do need to pre-process some zucchini for this recipe.)
7. Bowl of stirred dry ingredients, bowl of stirred oil, eggs, vanilla, and the grated zucchini
8. Bowl of the ingredients (now batter), stirred together
9. Batter in square silicone pans (using only 1 and a half pans), which I sprayed oil on before filling with batter
10. Baked square mini-muffins

Implements

• square silicone mini-cupcake-volume pans
• large mixing bowl
• medium small mixing bowl
• pastry blender or wire whip
• measuring cup
• measuring spoons
• cooling rack for done muffins

Ingredients

• Dry, listed in the order that the 2nd pic shows
• 1 1/2 C all-purpose flour
• 1/2 t salt
• 1/4 t baking powder
• 1 t baking soda
• 1/2 t nutmeg
• 1/2 t ground cinnamon
• 3/4 C sugar
• Wet (and also zucchini), listed in the order that the 3rd pic shows
• 2 eggs
• 1/3 C oil
• 1 t vanilla
• 1 1/2 C fresh, shredded or grated zucchini

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 350°.
2. Measure and pour the dry ingredients into the larger mixing bowl, blending them together with a pastry blender or wire whip.
3. In the smaller bowl, mix the wet ingredients, then stir in the zucchini.
4. Pour the mixed wet ingredients with zucchini into the larger bowl and stir the ingredients until they're moistened.
5. Spray oil into the pan wells.
6. Scoop about a rounded tablespoon spoonful of batter into each well.
7. Bake for about 13 to 17 minutes or until the muffins are lightly browned. (Use toothpick test for doneness if desired.)

Post-Recipe Thoughts
Gee, they came out sooo cute! And they popped out of the flexible pans so easily. I turned each pan upside down, flexed it, and gently pressed from the back. I did pulled some from the topside, but the effort seemed a lot easier and faster than extracting the morsels from aluminum pans.

Another upside about silicone pans, besides easy fall out (grin), is each pan compactly having 24 wells, while my aluminum pans have only 12 wells. Mini-muffin pans with 24 wells are available, but I myself am not inclined to replace pans I already have. A downside to the silicone pans, because of its floppy nature, is needing a rigid pan underneath for physical support. On the other other hand, one of those rigid pans was convenient for flipping the freshly baked square mini-muffins into.

Were these square mini-muffins more moist and less doughy than the round ones? I thought so. My co-worker who brought me the zucchini wasn't sure, but then, he had liked the round mini-muffins fine. Another friend whom I gave some square mini-muffins to was very enthusiastic about them. Well, gotta do a followup experiment where I use both pans!

That batch will be a 3/4 recipe (3 eggs and appropriate proportions that are based on the Betty Crocker and Paula Dean amount of ingredients for zucchini bread). I'll put batter in both types of pans. The only other difference will be using shredded zucchini that I have stored in the freezer. I'll try not to crush or squeeze the thawed squash.

Will also see if the material (silicone) could itself could affect the outcome. One site has commenters talking about time required. Another site talks about odors.

8/21/2014—Published today! I contrast zucchini mini-muffins for round (aluminum pan) and square (silicone pan), pan positioning in the oven, and using previously frozen vs. fresh-shred zucchini. This article is the followup to July 2014 zucchini mini-muffin recipes, complete with pixstrip.

Fresh-Shred Zucchini Mini-Muffins (Round)

Make use of the abundance of zucchini! These round mini-muffins are 1/3 the volume of regular cupcakes. They're good for snacking when you don't want to commit to eating a larger unit. For potluck events, the small size helps spread the goodies around, particularly if lots of other desserts are available.

I wanted to find a zucchini bread recipe that fulfilled the following conditions:

• Easy to make
• Reasonable number of ingredients that are easily btainable
• Easily convertible to mini-muffin portions
• Recipe yield that could be easily downsized if appropriate

The Betty Crocker recipe fulfilled the conditions, and more.

• Bread pan sizes, with baking times
• Cupcake pan usage, with baking times and instructions
• Recipe deviations, including substituting canned pumpkin
• Nutritional stats
• Easy-to-follow numbered steps

In poking around the web for zucchini bread recipes, I noticed most yield two loaves. Because the Betty Crocker recipe conveniently noted the cupcake quantity yield, I decided to hunt for recipes that easily divided by half. BC filled the divisibility condition with the call for four eggs. Numerous other recipes called for three—not so easily divided.

I wasn't totally sold on using only the BC recipe. I didn't want to add nuts, cloves, raisons. I also wanted to find recipes that called for nutmeg, which is something I use seldom and have a lot of. Paula Deen's recipe calls for nutmeg and four eggs. Convenient! She does also call for water, lemon juice, and nuts (option), which I skipped in my recipe.

The two recipes varied from each other for quantity of main ingredients—zucchini, oil, flour, sugar, salt. My version of the recipe is for mini-muffins (36). Based on the Betty Crocker recipe, however, you can consider that the yield equals one loaf or 12 cupcake-size muffins. (Refer to the BC recipe for those baking times.)

My pixstrip shows ten image areas:

1. Dry ingredients (flour, salt, baking powder, baking soda, nutmeg, cinnamon, sugar)
2. Wet ingredients (eggs, oil, vanilla)
3. The wet ingredients, plus grated zucchini
4. Implements
5. Partial view of the implements, plus spray oil
6. Bowl of stirred dry ingredients, bowl of stirred oil, eggs, and vanilla, and jar with shredded (or grated) zucchini (Yes, you do need to pre-process some zucchini for this recipe.)
7. Bowl of stirred dry ingredients, bowl of stirred oil, eggs, vanilla, and the grated zucchini
8. Bowl of the ingredients (now batter), stirred together
9. Batter in mini-muffin pans, which I sprayed oil on before filling with batter
10. Baked round mini-muffins

Implements

• mini-cupcake pans
• large mixing bowl
• medium small mixing bowl
• pastry blender or wire whip
• measuring cup
• measuring spoons
• cooling rack for done muffins

Ingredients

• Dry, listed in the order that the 2nd pic shows
• 1 1/2 C all-purpose flour
• 1/2 t salt
• 1/4 t baking powder
• 1 t baking soda
• 1/2 t nutmeg
• 1/2 t ground cinnamon
• 3/4 C sugar
• Wet (and also zucchini), listed in the order that the 3rd pic shows
• 2 eggs
• 1/3 C oil
• 1 t vanilla
• 1 1/2 C fresh, shredded or grated zucchini

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 350°.
2. Measure and pour the dry ingredients into the larger mixing bowl, blending them together with a pastry blender or wire whip.
3. In the smaller bowl, mix the wet ingredients, then stir in the zucchini.
4. Pour the mixed wet ingredients with zucchini into the larger bowl and stir the ingredients until they're moistened.
5. Spray oil into the pan wells.
6. Scoop about a rounded tablespoon spoonful of batter into each well.
7. Bake for about 13 to 17 minutes or until the muffins are lightly browned. (Use toothpick test for doneness if desired.)

Post-Recipe Thoughts
I thought the mini-muffins seemed a little chewy (doughy?) and drier than I expected. I brought some in to share with the co-worker who gave me the zucchini. He thought they came out great! I speculated pan well shape might affect the texture and moistness outcome. My next recipe article describes using square mini-muffin-capacity silicone pans instead of the round aluminum pans.

I recall Paula Deen's recipe calls for 1/3 cup (5 1/3 T) of water in her double recipe, which would be 2 2/3 T for a half recipe like mine. I might try adding some water in a future batch.

8/21/2014—Published today! I contrast zucchini mini-muffins for round (aluminum pan) and square (silicone pan), pan positioning in the oven, and using previously frozen vs. fresh-shred zucchini. This article is the followup to July 2014 zucchini mini-muffin recipes, complete with pixstrip.

Also look into the square mini-muffin version—same ingredients, but using square-well silicone pans.