Based on my beloved Cheese Muffins, these savoury Zucchini Muffins are the cheesy kind rather than the sweet zucchini bread kind. Quick to make, stays fresh 4 days, these are great to tuck into lunch boxes or take into work to share for morning tea!

Cheesy Zucchini Muffins

I don’t mean to undermine the (many!) sweet muffins I’ve shared over the years, but I’m a savoury gal so I’d take these these Zucchini Muffins over sweet ones any day of the week. I love how crusty and golden they are on the inside, and cushiony soft inside with a hint of garlicky flavour. And though they’ve got a good mound of grated zucchini inside, to be honest, you can’t actually taste zucchini at all, just cheesy goodness.

But the zucchini fills it out, adds nice little green specks, keeps the muffin moist and stay fresh for days and days. Plus, you get to feel a little virtuous, snacking on a muffin with hidden greens!

(PS If you’re worried about your eaters being turned off by suspicious green bits, just peel the zucchini. They’ll never even know!)

Ingredients in Cheesy Zucchini Muffins

Here’s what you need to make these soft, cheesy savoury muffins.

A zucchini (courgette) – A medium size one around 180g/6oz in weight, though you don’t need to be meticulous about the size. This recipe will work fine if yours is a little smaller or larger. Just don’t use a gigantic baseball bat size one!
And as above, if you have picky eaters who will be suspicious at the sight of green specks in the muffin, you can always just peel it! 🙂
Cheese – Shredded cheddar, tasty cheese, or any other cheese you like that melts well, except mozzarella as it doesn’t have enough flavour by itself. Store-bought pre-shredded is fine here – I don’t always say that! My go-to is the Devondale 3 Cheese Blend (mozzarella, parmesan and Colby), carried at Woolworths and Coles here in Australia.
Flour – Just plain / all-purpose flour. I rarely use self-raising flour which has baking powder built in because things just don’t rise as well, and the crumb is not as soft.
Olive oil – This is the fat in these muffins, instead of butter. Oil, rather than butter, makes muffins stay fresher and with for longer for a number of reasons, but the most obvious one being that oil stays fluid at room temperature whereas butter solidifies.
One egg – Just one egg rather than two which you’d usually expect to see for a batter to make a dozen muffins. Egg holds the crumb together, but eggs also dries out baked goods. So when I can get away with using just one egg, I’ll take it! The muffin stays fresher than when using two, something I specifically tested when I made the original Cheese Muffins on which this batter is based.
Yogurt (or sour cream) – A bakers’ trick, for soft fluffy muffins! It adds moisture into the batter but because it’s thicker than liquids like milk, you don’t need to add as much flour to keep the batter thick to make the muffin dome nicely. Full-fat makes nicer muffins, but low-fat will work too.
Milk – I also use milk because using just yogurt would make the batter too thick! Also, milk is cheaper than yogurt, so I’d rather use more of that where I can. 🙂
Baking powder and baking soda (bi-carbonate soda) – Both of these are leaveners that make muffins rise. They behave differently in different batters and for this muffin, I use a combination of both for the best rise, dome shape and soft fluffy crumb. But if you don’t have one of them, you can substitute with more of the other, I’ve popped the directions in the recipe card.
Garlic – Just one, for a little bit of tasty garlicky goodness!
Salt – To add a little seasoning into the muffin. Bit bland without!

How to make Cheesy Zucchini Muffins

One thing about these muffins – they have a tendency to get stuck in the muffin tin, even with a generous oil spray, because of the cheese. Admittedly though, the non stick coating on my muffin tin has seen better days! So I dust the muffin tin lightly with flour. If you can’t be bothered to do this, you can just line with paper muffin cases, though you’ll forgo the golden base and sides.

1. Preparation

Before you start the batter, get the muffin tin prepared and grate the zucchini. No need to salt and sweat, we’re just going to squeeze out excess water using our hands.

Grate the zucchini using a standard box grater.
Squeeze – Then grab handfuls and squeeze out excess water. No need to go crazy here with superhuman strength or use a tea towel to wring out every droplet. The muffins are actually designed to use water released from the muffins as they bake.

Flour coat muffin tin – As noted above, these muffins have a tendency to stick so I use flour as a precaution for easy release! Spray the holes of a standard muffin tin lightly with oil. Spoon a little flour into each hole then shake and rotate to coat the sides and base with flour.
Remove excess – Bang over sink to remove excess well (if it’s coated thickly, you’ll end up with visible flour on the muffins).
Alternatively, just line with paper muffin cases!

2. make and bake

These muffins are made the standard way: whisk wet and dry in separate bowls, then mix them together, stirring the zucchini and cheese in at the end. Use all the batter to fill the muffin tin holes – so they dome nice and tall!

Whisk dry – Put the dry ingredients in a large bowl and whisk to combine.
Whisk wet – Put the wet ingredients in a medium bowl and whisk to combine.

Combine – Pour the wet into the dry ingredients and mix with a rubber spatula until you can only see a bit of flour (about 8 big stirs). I am limiting your stirs because excess stirring = tough muffins = 😭!
Zucchini and cheese – Add the zucchini and cheese, then stir just until they are mixed through, then stop stirring. Try to limit to 10 stirs. The mixture will be quite thick. The muffins get extra moisture from water released by the zucchini as they bake.

Fill – Divide the batter between the muffin tin holes. A cookie scoop is efficient here!

Bake for 25 minutes at 200°C/390°F (180°C fan-forced) until the tops are golden. They will dome impressively!
Cool for 10 minutes in the pan before removing onto a cooling rack.
Stuck? If the muffins seem stuck, run a knife around the rim of the muffin tin holes (muffin top overflow tends to adhere) and if they still won’t come out, bang the pan on the counter to loosen (it really works and it’s so satisfying!). I have been known to bang quite furiously in order to loosen stubborn muffins.

These muffins will keep for a good 4 to 5 days in an airtight container in the pantry. Though if it’s warm in your house, keep them in the fridge or they’ll grow fur! (I mean mould. I didn’t want to say mould, but then I thought I’d better clarify. 😂)

Enjoy them as a snack (it’s such a great one for taking places because the muffins are lovely and soft even if it’s a cold winter day), tuck them into lunch boxes, serve them alongside a a warm bowl of soup like this Creamy Chicken Noodle Soup, cosy Country Harvest Root Vegetable Soup or a delicious Leek and Potato Soup.

Or take them to work for morning tea to share with you co-workers. Well, your 11 favourite co-workers. Must have one for yourself of course! – Nagi x

PS I forgot to mention the giant slab-form of this muffin I have previously shared. Large format that you cut up into squares rather than individual muffins! Here’s the recipe. 🙂