Zucchini Muffins with Candy Pecan Topping

Community Supported Agriculture - It's cooled off enough that it's time to bake now. What should we do with all of that great zucchini? Zucchini muffins of course! We've put a healthy spin on the muffin, and then balanced it out with a great topping! Girl math - you "up" the nutritional value of the muffin = you can have a great topping!

For the topping we used broken up pieces of candied pecans. I've given directions for the candied pecans back in June. Look for the recipe Cranberry, Feta, and Pecan Salad-Ann's Salad. 

We used ground whole wheat from our wheat farmers at ACME farms. To loosen up the course flour and make it soft, we added a ripe banana into our recipe. The banana combined with the zucchini and Agave Nectar really add the right amount of moisture that works with the whole wheat flour.

Eggs from our farmer, and whole grated fresh nutmeg are important too!

Baking with Agave Nectar is super easy. It is a liquid so if you are simply substituting Agave nectar for granulated sugar, reduce the Agave Nectar slightly. But, for recipes like this where we are using whole wheat flour instead of white flour, use the equivalent amount of Agave for sugar.
Spray the inside of the measuring cup with cooking spray so the Agave Nectar slides right out of the cup.

Zucchini Muffins with Candy Pecan Topping

3 cups grated farm fresh organic zucchini

2/3 cup melted butter

1 1/3 cup Agave Nectar

1 ripe banana, mashed

2 farm fresh eggs, beaten

2 teaspoons vanilla

2 teaspoons baking soda

Pinch salt

1 1/2 c. all-purpose flour

1 1/2 c. whole wheat flour

2 teaspoons cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon fresh grated nutmeg

Candied pecans for topping

Melt butter in the microwave. Grate zucchini. Combine zucchini, butter, Agave Nectar, and mashed banana. Add the eggs and vanilla and stir to combine.

In a separate bowl, sift together all of the dry ingredients. Combine the dry ingredients with the wet ingredients. Let them sit together and bubble. The moisture softens the dry ingredients and activates the baking soda so that the mixture forms bubbles. This will help the muffins be fluffier, and lighter. 

Divide into muffin tins that have been sprayed with cooking spray and top with broken pieces of candied pecans. Make sure that you center the candy. If it gets too close to the edge, the candy will melt and run onto the muffin tin, and it will be messy (we found this out the hard way!). 

Bake at 350 degrees for 20-25 minutes.