Good Morning Muffintops

I've been MIA, dear friends, and for that, I apologize profusely-- it's been a heck of a couple of weeks!

Things are going full steam around here with my thesis work and wrapping up some projects, so I'm lucky to have time to breathe. I'm pretty sure that, at this point, my body composition is 90% cold press coffee, 10% protein and DNA.

To cut the caffeine/keep me from shaking like a madwoman, I've been baking and consuming muffins like they're going out of style. These are chock-full of wholesome goodness, like fruit, zucchini, and oat bran.

And dark chocolate. Antioxidants, right? Right?  (Wrong.)

I love you all, and will do my best to get back here posting more often-- things should be calming down soon enough!

Good Morning Muffintops

Adapted from Flour

1/2 cup oat bran
1/2 cup hot water
1 medium zucchini, grated
1/2 cup raisins
1/2 cup pecan halves, chopped
1 apple, diced
2/3 cup packed light brown sugar
3 eggs
1/2 cup miniature semisweet chocolate chips
3/4 cup canola oil
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup rolled oats
2 tbsp baking powder
1/2 tsp kosher salt
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp freshly ground nutmeg

Preheat oven to 350F. Spray a muffintop pan (or a regular muffin tin) with nonstick baking spray and set aside.

In a bowl, stir the oat bran and hot water together until mixed; fold in the zucchini, raisins, pecans, apple, and chocolate chips, and stir to combine.

In a stand mixer fitted with a paddle, beat the eggs and sugar together until the mixture lightens in color. Slowly drizzle in oil while mixing and vanilla.

In another bowl, stir together the flour, oats, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, and nutmeg. Stir in to the egg mixture until combined, then mix in the zucchini mixture. Spoon into muffin top pans or muffin tins until almost overflowing. Bake for 35-45 minutes, until golden and the muffin tops spring back when touched. Serve with a good cup of coffee on a summer day, then hit the trails!