Gluten Free Chocolate Zucchini Muffins
- January 13, 2021
- Last Updated: February 27, 2025
- 13 Comments
- Recipes
Gluten free chocolate zucchini muffins are made with chickpea flour and naturally sweetened with bananas. Chocolate zucchini banana muffins are great for babies, toddlers, or those looking for a healthy chocolate muffin with veggies.
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As a mom, I’m always thinking about nutrient-dense snacks for my kids.
There’s no way around it – kids love snacks. And muffins are a great snack because they provide enough nutrition between meals and can be fun to enjoy!
Kids can hold them (they are a great finger food snack for toddlers!), decorate them and eat half and save for later.
These zucchini banana chocolate chip muffins give that afternoon boost you’re looking for without a ton of sugar and taste great.
My gluten free strawberry muffins are another huge hit, made with chickpea flour. But these gluten free chocolate chip zucchini muffins are delicious in their own right.
I like to switch these gluten free zucchini chocolate muffins off with my healthy baby french toast recipe for fun weekend eats, and the girls love to help.
Having kids in the kitchen with you is one of my tips for intuitive eating for kids because they learn what they like and spark curiosity by helping.
And, getting them involved in this gluten free zucchini muffins recipe is perfect!
Ingredients Used in this Recipe
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Why We Love Gluten Free Chocolate Zucchini Muffins
We love these chocolate banana zucchini muffins for so many reasons, and you will too!
- Great for kids and babies – With both bananas and zucchini, they make for great baby led weaning muffins or toddler muffins. Healthy chocolate muffins with veggies are hard to come by!
- Not overly sweet – Sometimes, when muffins are too sweet, they can be off-putting. These have just the right amount of sweetness for little ones. Bananas add natural sweetness and I’ve added a bit of brown sugar, too.
- Great for on the go– Throw a bunch in your diaper bag or stasher bag, and take with you to practice, appointments, school pick up, etc. They are very portable, and we love them as road trip snacks for kids.
- Ready in minutes – From start to finish, you can have these gluten free chocolate zucchini muffins ready in under 30 minutes.
- Extra protein – Chickpea flour chocolate muffins offer 4 grams of protein each, making them a great snack to actually hold kids over and not keep asking for more snacks.
- Easy to eat one handed – breastfeeding hunger, anyone? These are great for middle of the night breastfeeding snacks!
What You Need To Make Zucchini Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins
Here’s what you need to make these chocolate banana zucchini muffins, and some of the additions or substitutes you could use.
- chickpea flour – a gluten free flour that is also high in protein and flour. This is the staple base for these gluten free muffins.
- oat flour* – You can buy these pre-made or simply put your oats in a blender and grind into a flour. It’s light and airy, and great for baked goods!
- cocoa powder – I like unsweetened, and we’re balancing it with the sweetness of bananas and maple syrup. Plus, it offers lots of antioxidants!
- brown sugar – You could also use coconut sugar or granulated sugar if you’d like.
- zucchini – I promise you don’t taste the zucchini, but it’s a wonderful way to add extra nutrition and veggies to these muffins!
- bananas – When mashed and baked, bananas are a great source of natural sweetness for chocolate zucchini banana muffins.
- eggs
- apple cider vinegar – This is the magical ingredient to help the muffins rise!
- vanilla extract
- coconut oil – You could also substitute with butter, however using coconut oil makes them dairy free zucchini muffins.
Ingredient Modifications
These dairy free zucchini muffins are so versatile and easy to adjust, based on your allergies, taste preferences and nutrition needs.
Flax egg – If you want to make a vegan gluten free zucchini muffin, use a flax egg for the egg.
Reduce the sugar – If you want to serve this to babies or younger children, you can omit the brown sugar and chocolate chips. You could add more mashed bananas for more natural sweetness.
Add a topping – Muffins can be dry for babies sometimes, so I like to add spinach puree baby food as a topping for extra nutrition.
Add in more veggies – You could also add in shredded carrots or other veggies if you’d like.
Add nut butter – You can boost the healthy fats by adding nut butter in here.
How To Make Chocolate Zucchini Muffins Gluten Free
These chocolate banana zucchini muffins only require only about 15 minutes of baking time.
And the secret to making the chocolate zucchini muffins gluten free is our friend, chickpea flour!
Once you do the prep work, just toss them in the oven and tend to your other tasks – emptying the dishwasher, packing kids lunches, playing with kids, etc.
There’s two forms of chocolate in these chocolate banana zucchini muffins, boasting heart-friendly cocoa powder and chocolate chips.
These healthy double chocolate muffins are far from underwhelming.
To chop the zucchini, I first peel the zucchini and then use this onion chopper to get it into smaller cube shapes.
You could also shred it for smaller pieces.
Then, you’ll mix your wet and dry ingredients separately before you combine them together in a medium bowl.
Pour the batter in a greased muffin tin or use these awesome silicone baking cups.
The zucchini is hidden nicely in these.
Nutrition Content
As I previously mentioned, chickpea flour is high in protein and fiber, making these a higher protein muffin option.
Chickpea flour does not taste like chickpeas, so you wouldn’t even know this chocolate zucchini muffin recipe is made with garbanzo flour. And, neither will your kids!
From a nutrition standpoint, one cup of chickpea flour offers:
- 20 grams of protein
- 10 grams of fiber
- Micronutrients like iron, folate, phosphorus, magnesium, manganese and copper
Plus, you’re getting electrolytes and potassium from bananas, iron and copper from cocoa powder, and several antioxidants all around.
All things considered, these nutrients make these gluten free chocolate chip zucchini muffins a great snack for athletes, too!
One of the biggest challenges that my athletes face is having easy to pack, portable and quick healthy snack options, and gf zucchini muffins fit that bill.
Since these also happen to be dairy free zucchini muffins, they can be great for athletes with sensitive stomachs or a dairy sensitivity (more on that in this runners stomach post).
I trialed a modified dairy free (or I should say limited dairy) eating style for breastfeeding snacks with both Camryn and Hannah for short periods, because some symptoms seemed like a dairy allergy for nursing.
Luckily, that didn’t pan out for the long term (I’m not sure I could ever give up dairy, although it was easy to use a non-dairy substitute in breastfeeding smoothies). These chocolate chickpea muffins gave me hope.
Recipe FAQs
Are chocolate chickpea muffins sugar free?
No, these chocolate chickpea muffins are not sugar free, but the cocoa powder is so bitter that I felt these healthy chocolate zucchini muffins needed a sweetener. So, while there’s not a ton of added sugar, there is some. Of course, you can always omit it!
I used brown sugar, but you could also try coconut sugar, honey or maple syrup! The bananas also add a nice natural sweetness too, especially if they’re riper.
How to store gf zucchini muffins
These gf zucchini muffins will be fine for a few days in an airtight container on the counter or in the fridge.
They are freezer friendly, so they also make for great snacks to save for later in a stasher bag or freezer friendly bag. Freeze for up to 3 months!
How long do you bake gluten free zucchini banana muffins?
You will bake them for 16-20 minutes at 375 degrees F. Mine came out perfectly at 17 minutes.
- Dairy free blueberry muffins
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Gluten Free Chocolate Zucchini Muffins
Ingredients
- 1 cup chickpea flour
- 1/2 cup oat flour
- 1 tsp baking soda
- ¼ tsp salt
- 1/4 cup cocoa powder
- ½ tsp cinnamon
- ¼ cup brown sugar or coconut sugar can use up to 1/3 cup for sweeter muffins
- 1/2 cup zucchini, diced or shredded
- 2 medium ripe bananas, mashed
- 2 large eggs
- 1 tsp apple cider vinegar
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
- 2 tbsp coconut oil, melted and cooled or butter
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 375.
- In a medium bowl, combine all dry ingredients (chickpea flour through brown sugar).
- In a large bowl, combine zucchini, mashed bananas, eggs, ACV, vanilla and coconut oil.
- Pour dry ingredients into wet and stir until combined and moistened.
- Pour batter into a greased muffin tin. Bake for 16-20 minutes (mine took about 17), or until tops are set, browned and a toothpick comes out clean.
- Let cool on a wire rack before enjoying!
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Support Bucket List TummyI am obsessed with chocolate and I also can’t eat gluten, so these gluten-free chocolate muffins are the absolute perfect snack for me – and healthy too!
Love that zucchini is in here but you can’t taste it
Hi, I just tried your strawberry chickpea muffins and they are delicious! I wanted a chocolate version and I found this. Does this muffin have the same texture as the other muffins? Or maybe more moist or drier? thanks!
Love this recipe!
If I make any kind of muffin in chocolate form, it’s guaranteed to get eaten by our whole family! We all love chocolate! Great, healthy recipe!!
I like the idea of the chick pea flour in these Looking forward to giving them a try soon.
I like the idea of chick pea flour looking forward to these
I have a bag of chickpea flour waiting to be used. I’ll be making this for my boys over the weekend. Looks delicious. And so healthy!
I have never heard of chickpea flour so I am VERY intrigued by using it in this recipe! So creative!!
These sound like the perfect breakfast! I don’t think I’ve ever used chickpea flour, but I’m confident I’ll love it.
These are so yummy for kids! I love how moist they came out and my boys really enjoyed them.
So happy to hear that!
Loved these!