Zucchini Apple Spice Muffins

This morning I was up quite a bit before Logan. Eric was still here and doing some work at the kitchen table before it was time to leave for his appointment with the collision place*. I took the opportunity to chat with him while I worked on emptying the dishwasher and loaded what didn't make it in last night. Morning visits like that are not a regular occurrence in our house. Hubby usually leaves for work before I'm even up, so today was a treat.

After a bit, Logan came down and saw me in the kitchen. He wanted to know what I was making. For what? - I was confused because I hadn't been making anything and wasn't sure what he was talking about. He already had muffins in mind for breakfast. I already had a bowl of freshly grated garden zucchini. It looked like a plan to me.

I love that he had a request for me. I love that it was something we could enjoy together. There isn't a lot of that with him being such a picky eater. I love that he knows that he can ask me to make him something special and that I love to do it for him. I love that I used zucchini I grew myself.

Zucchini Apple Spice Muffins
adapted from Simply Recipes

• 5 cups grated fresh zucchini
• 1 cup grated apple
  
• 3/4 cup melted unsalted butter
• 2 cups sugar
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
  
• 4 eggs, beaten
• 4 teaspoons vanilla
• 1/2 cup applesauce
  
• 4 teaspoons baking soda
• Pinch salt
• 6 cups all-purpose flour
• 5 teaspoons cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon nutmeg
• 1/2 teaspoon allspice
• couple dashes of ginger
  
• Zest of 1 medium orange

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. In a large bowl, mix together the sugar, eggs, vanilla, and applesauce. Mix in the grated zucchini and apple and then the melted butter. In a separate bowl, stir together the flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice, and ginger. Add these dry ingredients to the zucchini mixture. Fold in the orange zest.

Line muffin cups with paper liners. Divide batter evenly among cups - I used a scant 1/4 c per muffin. Bake on the middle rack until muffins are golden brown, and the top of the muffins bounce back when you press on them, about 25 to 30 minutes. Set on wire rack to cool for 5 minutes. Remove muffins from the tin let cool another 20 minutes (if you can wait that long!).

Note: this was a double batch from the original recipe, in addition to a few other changes. Recipe made approximately 3 dozen.


*He was rear-ended 2 weeks ago. Long story short, we finally found out last Friday that the person's car was uninsured, so our car still hasn't been fixed and I've been picking Eric up at the transit station after work for the past two weeks.