Pineapple Zucchini Muffins
on Oct 31, 2024
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Made with crushed pineapple, grated zucchini, and warm spices, these muffins are perfectly sweet, fluffy, and moist. Pineapple zucchini muffins are easy to make and sure to be a hit!
Made with wholesome ingredients, these pineapple zucchini muffins are full of flavor and make a wonderful snack! The recipe is easy to follow and doesn’t require any special equipment. In just about 10 minutes, the muffins will be ready to go in the oven and bake until they are set.
Each ingredient plays an important role in giving these muffins a light and fluffy texture that will have you going back for more. The sweet pineapple and subtle zucchini are a delicious yet unique pair that balance each other so well! I always like to have a hearty and yummy snack on hand, and these muffins do the job perfectly.
Table of Contents
Why You’ll Love This Recipe
- The pineapple and zucchini is a bold, unique, and flavorful combination.
- You don’t need any special equipment as the batter is easy to mix by hand.
- The texture of the muffins is soft, fluffy, and moist with each bite.
Recipe Ingredients
- Granulated Sugar— To sweeten the muffins and add a soft texture.
- Zucchini— Shredded. For a mild savory flavor to balance the spices and sugar.
- Pineapple— Crushed. To add a bright, sweet, and tangy flavor.
- All Purpose Flour— This gives the baked muffins the proper structure.
- Applesauce— Mixed with the oil, this keeps the muffins moist and delicious.
- Eggs— To act as a binding agent for all of the ingredients.
- Oil— Vegetable oil works well to prevent the muffins from being dry.
- Baking Soda and Powder— You’ll need both for light, airy, and fluffy muffins.
- Cinnamon— The warm spicy flavor compliments the mild zucchini well!
- Salt— This will enhance and balance all of the flavors perfectly.
- Vanilla Extract— To bring out the natural sweetness of zucchini and pineapple.
See the recipe card for full information on ingredients and quantities.
How to Make Pineapple Zucchini Muffins
Step #1. Preheat your oven. In a mixing bowl, add the sugar, applesauce, oil, eggs, and vanilla. Stir to combine.
Step #2. Sprinkle the flour across the top of the wet ingredients, then sprinkle on the baking soda, cinnamon, salt, and baking powder.
Step #3. Stir everything until just combined. Add the zucchini and pineapple. Stir to incorporate.
Step #4. Pour the batter into a muffin tin and bake until the center is set. Remove from the oven and allow to cool. Serve and enjoy!
Recipe FAQs
It is totally up to you! Since the recipe is already sweetened with sugar and calls for cinnamon and vanilla, we keep it simple with unsweetened and unspiced applesauce. We do this to avoid overpowering the muffins, but truly any type of applesauce will work well! Any kind you use will not make a huge difference in how the muffins taste in the end.
There is a lot of moisture in this muffin recipe due to the zucchini, pineapple, applesauce, and oil. If the pineapple is not drained well or the zucchini has too much moisture, then the muffins will have a gummy or dense texture. To get any extra moisture out of the zucchini, place the shredded zucchini on top of two stacked paper towels, then press with two more stacked paper towels.
Absolutely! If you want to use fresh pineapple, I would suggest blending it up in a blender or food processor until it is in small chunks. This will be a lot easier than trying to chop it all by hand. Once it is blended, strain it with a colander to remove the juice. About 1 cup of the fresh crushed pineapple will be equivalent to 1 can of crushed pineapple.
How to Serve and Store Pineapple Zucchini Muffins
You can serve these delicious muffins warm out of the oven or at room temperature! They are great as a quick snack or on-the-go breakfast. The sweet flavor of the muffins makes them a nice side to eggs, hash browns, or breakfast casserole, or serve them on their own with some butter.
If you have any leftovers, these zucchini muffins can be stored at room temperature for up to 3 days or in the fridge for up to 5 days. Be sure to keep them in an airtight container or bag for freshness. Once the muffins are completely cooled, transfer them to your bag or container. I like to place a layer of parchment paper in between the muffins if they are stacked to avoid them sticking together!
Expert Tips
- The white flour can be substituted for whole wheat flour if that is what you prefer! Just be sure to add an extra ½ teaspoon of baking powder.
- As you are measuring your flour, be sure to stir or sift it first. This will prevent you from over measuring, which can affect the integrity of the muffins.
- Feel free to add chopped nuts or mini chocolate chips for extra texture and flavor!
- You can either grease the muffin tin before adding the batter, or use cupcake liners to make removing and storing the muffins easier!
More Muffin Recipes To Consider
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Pineapple Zucchini Muffins
Ingredients
- 2 cups granulated sugar
- 1/2 cup applesauce
- 1/2 cup oil
- 3 eggs
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 3 cups all-purpose flour
- 2 teaspoons baking soda
- 1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
- 2 cups shredded zucchini, water squeezed out
- 1 can crushed pineapple, (8-ounce), well drained
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
- In a medium mixing bowl, add the sugar, applesauce, oil, eggs, and vanilla. Stir to combine.
- Sprinkle the flour across the top of the wet ingredients and then sprinkle the baking soda, cinnamon, salt, and baking powder across the top of the flour. Stir everything together just until combined.
- Add the zucchini and pineapple and stir to incorporate.
- Pour the batter evenly into 24 muffin cups and bake until the center is set and a toothpick inserted comes out clean, around 20-22 minutes.
Notes
- The pineapple adds a lot of sweetness and moisture to the bread. It is delicious!
- If the pineapple is not drained well or the zucchini is left with all of its water, then the muffins will come out gummy. To get the extra moisture out of the zucchini, place the shredded zucchini on top of two stacked paper towels and then press on it with two more stacked paper towels.
- You can sub the white flour for whole wheat (I did and loved it and it is still just as moist). Just bump the baking powder up to 1/2 teaspoon if using whole wheat flour.
Can’t wait to try this out. Love to make muffins for our family DIY project. Haven’t tried pineapple before.
I followed this recipe exactly. Drained the pineapple, squeezed the liquid out of the zucchini. Although the flavor was ok, they were very heavy and a little gummy. I probably won’t try them again.
I should have gone with my gut on this one (the gut reaction being, this sounds tasty….and will be WAY too dry). I made these exactly as listed, except I used 1 cup of sugar (we don’t like super sweet muffins, and I don’t like all the added sugar), and used white whole wheat flour, doubling the baking powder as suggested. I used melted coconut oil too. These were doughy and clumpy though, and certainly weren’t “pourable”. I had to add 1/2 cup milk to even get them slightly workable (they still didn’t pour). Having said that, they were still pretty tasty and my husband gave them a thumbs up, so I will be making these again. Next time I will try to add even more milk though. They certainly weren’t as moist and fluffy as yours. Is the ingredient list missing a sort of milk, or did I do something wrong!? I did forget to add the sugar in first since it is a dry ingredient, but I wouldn’t think that would change much.
I have never cooked with zucchini before and I have a question please. When baking with zucchini, should you peel it or no? Your pictures look like you did not peel, but I just want to make sure. I plan to make this recipe soon, it looks so tasty. Thanks so much.
It just depends on how big it is. If it’s small, say 8 or 10 inches long and maybe 3 inches thick then I wouldn’t peel it. If it’s much larger than that I would though! It’s kind of up to you! Good luck friend and let me know what you decide.
I only have larger cans of crushed pineapple. Do you have an idea of how much it should measure or weigh after you drain the juice?
I do that pretty often and just end up using half of the strained pineapple and saving the second half for another batch. It always works out great. Enjoy!
How many calories per muffin?
No idea friend… I’m sure there’s some kind of calculator online but I just haven’t used them. Good luck!
Is this muffin very sweet due to the 2 cups of sugar? if I reduce to just 1 cup will it be ok?
It is quite a sweet muffin. The recipe is a bit older and I have made it very successfully with only 1 cup of sugar. If you family isn’t used to super sweet then they won’t mind either! Let me know how they turn out 🙂
These look great! And I would have never thought of pairing zucchini and pineapple. So creative! I hope your camping adventure went well. 🙂
Love your blog and your recipes and pictures are great!
These look good! I can’t wait to try them. One trick to draining zucchini that works really well: put grated zucchini in a clean dish towel and squeeze it out over the sink. You can usually get a lot more water out of it, and the towel won’t tear (like its paper counterpart). It is amazing how much water zucchini holds!