Cheesy Zucchini and Basil Muffins

These Cheesy Zucchini and Basil Muffins are savory and moist, and are perfect with a salad or soup for lunch or a light dinner. 

These zucchini, Parmesan, cheddar, and basil muffins are loaded with two kinds of cheese, zucchini, basil, and whole wheat flour. They are topped with a dash of cayenne pepper and a sprinkling of pine nuts.

This is a muffin that I will be making again and again.

When you make these muffins (and you must!), please skip the green can and grate your own Parmesan cheese. If you get a good quality wedge of Parmesan cheese, it will last a long time in your refrigerator if you wrap it properly, and you'll be so much happier with the flavor. I like to weigh the amount of cheese that I need with my kitchen scale, and then grate it with my Microplane grater. No measuring cups needed.

While this recipe calls for buttermilk, I used powdered buttermilk, which I always have on hand. If you decide to use powdered, just whisk the buttermilk powder into the dry ingredients, and the equivalent water into the wet ingredients. I can never tell the difference in the final flavor, so if you hate throwing away buttermilk because you can only buy it in one quart cartons, definitely consider trying the powdered version.

These muffins are best the day they are made. They also can be individually wrapped after cooling and then frozen. I like to take one out of the freezer in the morning, and take it to work to have with lunch.

On the last Monday of every month, I've been participating in Muffin Mondays, making a new muffin recipe each time. This is absolutely one of my favorites so far.

After the recipe, be sure to check out the rest of the creative muffins from the Muffin Monday bakers. All of the flavors sound amazing!!

For another muffin taking advantage of zucchini season, be sure try zucchini carrot muffins. 

Cheesy Zucchini and Basil Muffin Recipe

Ingredients

• 150 grams (1 cup) all purpose flour
• 150 grams (1 cup) whole wheat flour
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt, plus coarsely grated black pepper to taste
• 70 grams (2/3 cup) finely grated Parmesan cheese
• 65 grams (2/3 cup) extra sharp white cheddar cheese
• 2 to 4 tablespoons finely chopped basil, to taste
• 185 ml (3/4 cup) buttermilk
• 80 ml (1/3 cup) olive oil
• 2 eggs, room temperature
• 200 grams coarsely grated zucchini (courgette), about one large squash
• Cayenne pepper for sprinkling
• About 2 tablespoons (20 grams) pine nuts

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F, and line a 12 cavity muffin tin with paper liners. Lightly spray the inside of the liners with spray oil.
2. In a large bowl, whisk together the flours, baking powder, salt, and pepper. Stir in the Parmesan, cheddar, and basil.
3. In a medium bowl, whisk the buttermilk, olive oil, and eggs. Mix in the zucchini.
4. Add the wet ingredients to the center of the dry ingredients, and using a rubber spatula, fold the ingredients together until just combined.
5. Using a cookie scoop, divide the batter among the 12 muffin cavities. Sprinkle each muffin with cayenne pepper, and sprinkle with pine nuts.
6. Bake the muffins on the center rack for 25 to 30 minutes, until golden. Let cool in the pan for 5 minutes, and then remove the muffins from the pan and cool on a wire rack. Serve warm or at room temperature.

Yield: 12 muffins
Recipe adapted from Bake From Scratch, May/June 2017

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#MuffinMonday is a group of muffin loving bakers who get together once a month to bake muffins. You can see all our of lovely muffins by following our Pinterest board.

Updated links for all of our past events and more information about Muffin Monday, can be found on our home page.