Does anybody else have a fridge full of zucchini right now? I can barely close the my crisper drawer! Between summer sautés, stewed summer squash, and the long list of ways to bake with it, zucchini is one of my favorite bits of seasonal summer produce.
It adds moisture, structure, and a tiny bit of nutrition to cakes, cookies, quick breads, and anywhere else you can think to throw in a handful or two. I’m not saying adding zucchini to your bakes will absolve them of sugar and butter, but that sentiment has certainly worked as my excuse when reaching for a second Zucchini Coffee Cake Muffin. I mean, they have two cups of squash in them—they’re practically salad. Or something.
Zucchini Coffee Cake Muffins are what happens when you take all the good things about zucchini bread and coffee cake, combine them in a batter, scoop it into a muffin tin, top it off with a cinnamon crumb, bake until golden, and drizzle a glaze on top. Health food, these are not, but you don’t come to this corner of the internet for health food. You come here because you are looking for more ways to get crispy cinnamon crumb topping into your diet.
Here, zucchini serves as a replacement for the usual liquid ingredients in our batter, like milk and sour cream. While I usually suggest wringing the shredded squash in a towel to remove excess moisture, this is one of those rare zucchini recipes where you can bypass the wringing and throw it directly into the batter. You need all the moisture you it can offer—when you first add the squash to the batter, it’ll be super dry, but after sitting a few minutes, it’ll be thick, rich and ready for the oven!
The rest of the recipe is standard muffin and coffee cake fare, all the way down to the crunchy crumb and glaze. That said, I won’t tell anybody if you eat one and call it a serving of vegetables.
Zucchini Coffee Cake Muffins
makes 12 muffins
Crumb:
2/3 cup all-purpose flour
1/3 cup light brown sugar, packed
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
pinch of Kosher or sea salt
1/4 cup unsalted butter, melted
Muffin Batter:
1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/4 cup light brown sugar, packed
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon Kosher or sea salt
1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened to room temperature
2 large eggs, room temperature
2 cups zucchini grated on the large side of a box grater, not drained (about 1-1 1/2 medium zucchini)
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
Glaze:
1/2 cup confectioner’s sugar
2-3 teaspoons milk of choice
Make the crumb. In a small mixing bowl, use a fork to whisk together flour, light brown sugar, cinnamon, and salt. Add melted butter and stir together until everything is moistened and clumps form. Set aside.
Preheat oven to 400F. Line a 12-cup standard muffin pan with cupcake liners. Set aside.
Make muffin batter. In a medium mixing bowl, whisk together flour, granulated sugar, light brown sugar, cinnamon, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Set aside.
In a large mixing bowl, use an electric mixer to beat butter until fluffy. Mix in egg and vanilla; mixture may be a bit lumpy. Mix in the dry ingredients—mixture will be dry and crumbly. Use a silicone spatula or wooden spoon to fold in grated zucchini. Let sit 10 minutes and stir again; batter should be thick and no longer dry.
Divide batter among muffin cups—they will be full. Top with crumb and lightly press with your fingers to adhere. Carefully tap the pan on the counter five times to release any large air bubbles. Bake for 5 minutes, then turn the oven temperature down to 350F and bake for an additional 14-15 minutes.
Remove muffins from the oven and let cool in the pan for at least five minutes before removing to a rack to cool completely.
Make glaze. In a small bowl, use a fork to whisk together confectioners sugar and milk until thick, but pourable. Drizzle over muffins. Let sit 5-10 minutes before serving. Glaze will set completely after several hours.
Leftovers will keep covered at room temperature for up to two days or in the refrigerator for up to four.
I’ve made a point of keeping this blog apolitical over the years because I didn’t want to offend anyone. I wanted this site to be neutral on everything but quality baked goods. Even after our current president 
So…what do Powdered Doughnuts have to do with anti-racism? I’m not exactly sure, but they were supposed to be on the blog last week.
I mean, can you blame me? These crispy-fried sour cream cake doughnuts are great by themselves, but double coated in powdered sugar (confectioner’s sugar), they’re…beyond. So. dang. good.
The doughnuts themselves are made with the 
Fluffy on the inside and sugar-dusted on the outside, these are pretty irresistible. Sure, Powdered Doughnuts a bit messy, but almost all wonderful things are.
Take a note from my mom and serve these on leisurely weekend mornings, or make a batch to share while you figure out your next step in finding equality for all. This is only the beginning and there is much to do.
I had the idea for this Chocolate Chip Cookie Crumb Cake after making 
Generally speaking, I’m not a big celebrator of food holidays, but I seem to always remember 
I mean, look at that pillowy soft chocolate chip cake! It’s buttery, tight-crumbed, and super moist thanks to half a cup of sour cream. It’s almost enough to restore my hope for the future.
Oh, and speaking of restoring hope in things, let’s discuss the crispy chocolate chip cookie crumb topping! It’s the real star of this show. Think streusel, but instead of cinnamon there’s a bunch of brown sugar and chocolate chips in the mix—it’s actual perfection.
If you want perfectly clean slices and have slightly more patience than I do, you can wait til the cake has cooled completely before divvying it up. I ceased having extra patience 42 days ago, so the pictured slice is a little scraggly…but as a perk, the chocolate chips are still soft. I will choose melty chocolate over aesthetics any day, anytime. But, like, especially today and right now. The future can wait while I finish my slice of cake.
Happy Chocolate Chip Day, dear readers.
I want you to know that these took me a while—like 24 test batches, and also years of making subpar pancakes and wondering if there was something wrong with me or if I should give in to a lifetime of Bisquick.
These Buttermilk Pancakes are on the thick and fluffy side of things—perfect for piling high with butter and maple syrup. They are so soft and tender that I can’t get enough, which is a very good thing considering that I have 24 batches-worth triple-wrapped in plastic and stacked into columns in my freezer. I’d invite you all over for pancakes and 
Anyway…I didn’t reinvent the wheel here. Flour, sugar, baking powder & soda, salt, buttermilk, melted butter, eggs, and vanilla—those are the ingredients you’ll find in most buttermilk pancakes, including mine. You’ll notice that the volume of wet ingredients far surpasses the dry, so these are fluffy but not heavy or rubbery.
I don’t have any magical tips for you except to rest the batter for a few minutes (it will change dramatically as the gluten develops), make sure your surface isn’t too hot, and don’t cook your batter in too much fat. That last bit of advice seems to be the secret to evenly-browned pancakes, at least when it comes to this recipe. I brush the pan with oil and then wipe out any excess with a paper towel before pouring batter.
These are buttermilk pancakes, so I tested them primarily with full- and low-fat buttermilk. If you don’t have buttermilk on hand, you can use a 
You may think this batter is particularly thick, or at least I do (maybe from my lifetime of Bisquick?), but it’s still pourable. I find that rotating my wrist/the measuring cup 90 degrees while pouring batter onto the pan helps to develop a good round shape…not that I’ve ever discriminated against a pancake based on its shape. Pancake positivity all the way.
As for when to make and eat Buttermilk Pancakes, I know the weekend is traditional, but days are just days now, and there’s never really a bad time for pancakes, now is there? Maybe, just this once, be like me–Stop nitpicking and get out of your own damn way. Very good, very easy pancakes happen when you stop nitpicking and get out of your own damn way.
e2 bakes brooklyn 