ZUCCHINI MUFFINS

This is my grandmother's recipe. I have loved it ever since I knew how to bake.It makes two loaves of bread or about 24 muffins (I ALWAYS make 23 muffins with this recipe. Maybe that's just because I fill the cups pretty full).


2 cups sugar
3 eggs
3 cups flour
1 cup oil
2 cups zucchini, chopped fine or shredded (about one medium zucchini)
3 tsp. vanilla
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. baking soda
1 T. cinnamon
1/2 cup raisins (optional)
1/2 cup walnuts, chopped (optional, but strongly suggested)

Mix in the order given. Pour into greased loaf pans or muffin tins. Bake at 350 F for 1 hour, or 20-25 minutes for muffins.


Things I learned:

1. I have made this recipe multiple times in the last few days. Lots of company = many muffins eaten. The first batch came out with burned bottoms, though the tops looked perfect. After doing a quick search on the Internet (exactly what I usually do), I found a few mistakes.
a) I put both muffin tins on the top shelf of the oven so that I wouldn't have to switch them halfway through baking them. Problem. I was crowding the pans and so the muffins were baking unevenly. So instead of taking this "easy" way out and burning the muffins, I put one on each shelf and set the timer for half the time. When that was done, I switched them. Problem solved. This second batch is worth everything before.
b) My oven could be baking unevenly to begin with. We recently moved into the house we are in now, and I am still getting used to the new oven. In the last place, we had a beautiful, pretty much brand new oven, and here, I'm sure it's from the 70s. I believe that it bakes a little differently than my last one and I still have to get used to it. Hopefully, I will be able to take the time soon to really understand how off it really is.

2. This recipe truly does make a lot of muffins and doesn't use a ton of zucchini. I got a zucchini from a friend a few days ago that is literally the size of my forearm. When they are that big, it isn't very tasty to just stick them in a stir-fry and munch them up at dinner. You really should put them into something, like bread. But now, I've made two batches of this recipe and I still have about a third (or more) left of the original zucchini! I will have to find some other way to use it, as I believe B is getting tired of all the zucchini muffins hanging around the house.