Friday, August 10, 2007

Well, they're both green...

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Okay, so I was going to post a recipe that provides yet another use for summer squash but instead I have another recipe to share that involves (drum roll please)...chocolate and cucumber!
That’s right, thanks to Regula Scheifele who passed this recipe along to me, I can now share with you a use for all those excess cucumbers and chocolate (get your pen and paper, Meg! :) ).

The background behind the chocolate cucumber muffin is that the use of cucumber was quite by accident as the original recipe called for, you may have guessed, zucchini. The woman that prepared this recipe grabbed a cucumber by accident and much to her surprise it actually worked. Now, since cucumbers contain much more water than zucchini she did amend the recipe to account for that (nobody likes a soggy muffin) by draining the cucumber. I’m not really sure how one would go about doing that but I suspect that much of the water would come out when you grate/ chop the cucumber and then you could pat it dry??
She also mentioned that when making this recipe again she would use the zucchini because she liked the texture and it was more flavourful than the cucumber. That said, in the event that there weren’t any zucchini on hand she certainly wouldn’t hesitate to use a cucumber instead.

So, without further ado, the combination I never fathomed could happen:


Chocolate Cucumber Muffins (aka- Bonnie’s Chocolate Zucchini Muffins from the White Lace Inn)

Directions:
Preheat Oven to 400 deg.

Mix together:
1 c. Brown Sugar
1 c. White Sugar
3 c. Flour
3 tsp. Baking Soda
1 tsp. Baking Powder
1 tsp. Salt
1 tsp. Cinnamon
3 oz. Grated Hershey Bar
1 Cup Mini Chocolate Chips
1/2 Cup Nuts (Optional)

Mix Separately and then add to dry ingredients:
3 Eggs, beaten
3 tsp. Vanilla
1 Cup Oil
2-1/2 Cups Grated Zucchini or Cucumber (remember to drain excess water from cucumber)

Fill Muffin Cups about 3/4 full
Bake at 400 for 18-20 minutes
Makes approximately 26 - 28 Muffins

Now, I haven’t actually tried this recipe yet (maybe a “project” for this week-end?) so as far as adjusting the cucumber content goes I’ll have to provide an update on that. Conversely, if anyone else tries this if you could drop me a line and let me know how it worked it would be much appreciated! :)

So, enjoy your week-end, dear reader, and be sure to check back again next week when I’ll have even more work relating to my colour project. Toodles!

6 comments:

Jennifer Rose said...

Maybe leave the grated cucumber in a colander to drip dry and pat it too? a microwave might work too for a few seconds, probably make a mess though :p I have no idea...only ever successfully baked things with fruit in them. :)

Anonymous said...

Awesome! Thanks. I gotta try it!

"Draining the cucumber" reminds me of Bunnicula. All you need is a vampire bunny to get rid of that excess veggie juice.

Jennifer Rose said...

Bunnicula!! I used to love those books when I was a kid. I even had The Fright Before Christmas, just so I could look at the pictures :p. (sorry for the off topic comment Rita :) )

Rita said...

Good idea Jennifer. I'd be afraid of the cucumber exploding in the microwave because with my luck something like that would happen! ;)

I remember Bunnicula!! That's funny, now I have an image in my mind of bunnies coming into my garden at night and sucking all the water out of the cucumbers...and then fleeing before sunrise! :D

Regula Scheifele said...

Ehmm... Considering we started out with a simple Muffin recipe I really like how we ended up with cucumber-sucking bunnies at dawn.... ;-)
But then the image of exploding cucumbers in the microwave isn't bad either!
I'd really like to know how these Muffins turned out if someone volunteers to try them!

Rita said...

It's kinda funny, isn't it? :D
Maybe the vampire bunnies would like the muffins too?