Whole-Wheat Vegan Zucchini Muffin

There is so much good stuff in a delicious Whole-Wheat Vegan Zucchini Muffin (please note, depending on how you emphasize that sentence, it rhymes… 🙂 ) Anyways, so long as you can tolerate gluten, these muffins are great in every way. Warm cinnamon flavour, soft and crunchy textures, perfect moisture – they’ve got it all.

Whole-Wheat

We love getting organic whole-wheat flour from Oak Manor Organic Flour Mill. Whole-wheat flour is made up of ground-up wheat grains. 

Our Fluffy Whole-Wheat Zucchini Pancakes recipe elaborates on why we always encourage purchasing organic flours. In short: there are harmful pesticides and herbicides used on conventional crops which may be contributing to serious health conditions.

Wheat Grain

There are three parts to a wheat grain:

1. Bran, which is packed with fibre and makes the grain brown
2. Endosperm, which is the largest part of the seed (mostly starch)
3. Germ is the embryo of the seed, containing the most nutrients in the grain

Why Whole-Wheat Flour Over White?

First, whole-wheat contains all three parts of the grain. The human body is able to metabolize this better without getting sugar highs that can come with white flour, which contains only endosperm (the starchy part). Why? The bran helps to slow the digestion of the grain.

Secondly, remember how the germ portion of the grain contains the most minerals and nutrients (selenium, phosphorus, copper and folate aka B9). The processing of white flour eliminates the germ along with most of its nutrients. This turns wheat into an empty carb, meaning there’s very little natural nutritional value relative to the caloric intake.

Thirdly, white flour is often bleached with chemicals. This makes it whiter so that it’s more pleasing to the eye.

Our Flour Mix

In this vegan zucchini muffin batter, we use 1 cup of hard and 1¼ cups of whole-wheat cake and pastry flour. It’s a PERFECT ratio for these Whole-Wheat Vegan Zucchini Muffins.

If you only have white all-purpose flour, you’ll find it’s less thirsty than whole-wheat. You’ll likely need to add more flour (I’m not sure how much more?). This option lacks nutritional value and will cause higher blood sugar spikes after your snack. So…

We encourage you to keep whole flours in your pantry (1-3 months in a sealed container) or in a freezer (up to a year). This will prevent the germ from going rancid.

Vegan

Flax eggs are an excellent alternative to chicken or turkey eggs as they provide wonderful nutritional value without the cholesterol. Flaxseeds help to reduce estrogen levels in women with estrogen-dominance (I am all too familiar with this plague). This is why women with mastalgia (breast tenderness) benefit from a daily intake of flaxseed.

According to oncologynutrition.org:

Flaxseed is the richest dietary source of lignans, a type of phytoestrogen. A phytoestrogen is a plant nutrient that is somewhat similar to the female hormone estrogen… Most of the research regarding flaxseed and breast cancer focuses on the lignans found in flaxseeds, and their potential for weak estrogenic or anti-estrogenic effects in a woman’s body.

Zucchini

A cup of zucchini has 40% of the recommended daily intake of vitamin A. This is important for both vision and immune function. It’s a fantastic fruit to sneak into baked goods.

To hide zucchini shreds in baked goods, like in these Whole-Wheat Vegan Zucchini Muffins, grate them fine instead of coarse. Green and yellow varieties work just the same.

Zucchini will release more water the longer it’s baked. For this reason it’s important to bake just until the muffins are done (the toothpick stab test), or else they might become too moist and dense.

Whole-Wheat Vegan Zucchini Muffin

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Prep Time 20 minutes mins

Cook Time 2 hours hrs 25 minutes mins

Servings: 12 muffins

Course: Snack

Ingredients Method

Ingredients

  

• ½ cup oil almond, avocado etc.
• ½ cup hot water
• ¾ cup maple syrup
• ¼ cup flax seed ground
• 1 tbsp apple cider vinegar
• 2 tsp vanilla
• 2¼ cups whole wheat all-purpose flour or 1 cup hard and 1¼ cups cake a pastry flours
• 2½ tsp cinnamon ground
• ½ tsp Himalayan sea salt
• 1½ tsp baking soda
• ⅛ tsp clove ground
• ¾ cup zucchini
• ½ cup dates chopped

Optional

• ½ cup almonds, walnuts or pecans chopped
• ½ cup chocolate chips

Crisp Topping

• ¼ cup almonds chopped
• ¼ cup old fashioned rolled oats
• 1 tbsp oil avocado, almond, coconut etc.
• 1 tbsp maple syrup
• ¼ tsp cinnamon ground
• Sprinkling Himalayan sea salt fresh ground
• Sprinkling black pepper fresh ground

Method

 

1. In a 2-cup measuring cup add oil, hot water, maple syrup, flaxseed and apple cider vinegar. Allow these to sit for a few minutes while preparing other ingredients so that the flaxseed has time to gel.
2. In a separate, medium-sized bowl, sift flour and add all dry ingredients. Fold in zucchini, dates and the optional ingredients, if you wish.
3. Preheat oven to 350°F
4. Line the muffin tins with silicone muffin cups, paper cups, or oil the tin. Fill each with batter to the brim.
5. Combine all crisp topping ingredients and spoon onto the tops of each muffin.
6. Bake muffins for 25 minutes or until a toothpick test comes out clean. Let sit for 10 minutes, then remove muffins and finish cooling on a wire rack.

Bon appétit!