Chocolate Zuchinni Muffins

I grew zucchini in my little garden spot this summer. While I do enjoy freshly prepared zucchini in healthy dishes.....I must confess that I mostly grew zukes to bake and freeze these muffins. They are so yummy! I got the recipe from a gal at work 8 or so years ago. I have made the tasty batter into bread or muffins every single summer since. They're such a hit that when I measure the dry ingredients, I measure for 2 batches and keep one batch ready in a Ziploc for when I want to make more. I find that measuring dry ingredients is the most time consuming part of baking.

1/2 cup melted butter
1/2 cup oil
1 3/4 cups sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp. vanilla extract
2 cups shredded zucchini (I peel them first, but you don't have to)
1/2 cup buttermilk

Mix all well.

Sift: (yes, I really do sift the trick is to sift 1 1/2 cups flour through on it's own then sift the rest of the flour with the other ingredients)

4 Tbs. baking cocoa powder
1 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 tsp. ground cloves
1/2 tsp. salt
2 1/2 cups flour

Mix into wet ingredients until combined. You can either divide the batter into 2 loaf pans and top with a generous sprinkling of semi-sweet chocolate chips or pour into muffin tins and again, top with semi-sweet chocolate chips. This recipe makes 18 muffins. Bake @ 325 degrees for 1 hour if going the bread route, or for 20-22 min. if doing muffins. I only bake one loaf or 1 muffin pan at a time.