Zucchini Spelt Muffins

I was feeling like I wanted to bake some muffins one morning last week. With no idea what kind of muffin I wanted, I started flipping through some cookbooks. That might have been a bit of a mistake because then I wanted one of everything just about. When I opened to the Zucchini Spelt Muffins recipe in Vegan Brunch, I started thinking about how much I used to like zucchini bread when I was a kid. Then it hit me that the last time I had zucchini bread was probably also when I was a kid. That just seemed wrong, somehow.

I've been trying to use different types of flours when I'm baking lately instead of just using plain old wheat flour all of the time. The fact that these muffins were made from spelt definitely didn't hurt. In fact, I think it made them a bit tastier. The spelt flour gave the muffins a bit more of a wholesome sort of flavor that went so well with the zucchini and spices. Oh, the spices! These muffins smell so wonderful when baking with the aromas of cinnamon, allspice and nutmeg filling the air. I almost want to bake them just to smell them!

The recipe is pretty bare bones, just zucchini and the muffin batter, but I added a cup of chopped, toasted walnuts to mine. If you like nuts in your muffins and breads, I definitely think it's a welcome addition. I like the bit of added texture and flavor. The recipe says to let the muffins cool for 10 minutes before eating them. I recommend doing that. If you don't they'll likely stick to the muffin papers. Your muffins will still be warm 10 minutes after being removed from the oven, so don't worry.

Overall, the muffins were absolutely delicious. They turned out nice and fluffy and quite tasty all on their own. I did cut my muffins in half and add a bit of Earth Balance as I was eating them a few times. They seem quite good for that sort of thing if you're into it.

These freeze really well, too! If you're not familiar with this trick, here's what you do. (I got this from one of the side notes in Vegan with a Vengeance. Such a great idea.) Go ahead and put paper muffin cups in an entire muffin tray. Fill them up with batter just as you would if you were going to eat them all right now. Put the entire tray in the freezer. Once everything is frozen, take the muffins and transfer them to some sort of freezer-safe food container or a freezer bag. Now you have muffins ready to go whenever you want just one or two at a time! When you bake them, set the temperature to the same as you would if they weren't frozen and just cook the muffins for 10 minutes longer than the regular cooking time. I suggest labeling your muffin container with the kind of muffin, the baking temperature and the length of cooking time when frozen. That way you won't have to wonder what they are or go look it up every time you want to bake one.

It's a pretty sweet way to go if you want to make a bunch of muffins and you can't eat an entire dozen or if you want freshly baked muffins in the morning before work or something. I do that frequently. It's nice to have something freshly baked on a dreary Monday morning when you're not really feeling like going to work.