Zucchini season is here!!
Every year, I have the best intentions of planting an incredible garden. I imagine myself out there every day watering the plants by hand, weeding with great care, and tending to that garden’s every need and in turn I am rewarded with an amazing crop of fresh vegetables . . .
Then reality hits.
I plant my garden, but then am lucky if it ever gets weeded. Thankfully the sprinklers hit it a little bit each day, so I don’t have to water it too much. And the weeds seem to grow higher than my actual plants . . . it’s a pretty sad sight.
But no matter how much I neglect my garden, I can always grow an amazing crop of zucchini without even trying. In years past, I have found myself with oodles and oodles of zucchini and have no idea what to do with it, so I start leaving bags of it on my neighbors’ porches, ring the doorbell, and run away. I guess you could call me the Zucchini Fairy. 🙂
After making a million loaves of zucchini bread, I wanted to try something different. I found this recipe for these cookies in one of my grandma’s old church cookbooks (those cookbooks where everyone donates a recipe and they compile it into a book- there are some amazing recipes in them and then some really weird ones . . .) and it will become a staple in my home each year when my zucchini crop starts to pump out zucchini by the ton.
(PS- These cookies freeze well once the frosting hardens . . . you could fill your freezer with zucchini cookies and have them last all winter long!)
Iced Zucchini Cookies Recipe
Ingredients
- 1 cup butter, 2 sticks, softened
- 1 cup sugar
- ½ cup brown sugar
- 2 eggs
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 2 cups grated zucchini
- 2¾ cups all-purpose flour
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 cup milk chocolate chips, (optional- but highly recommended!)
Frosting Ingredients
- ¼ cup butter, ½ stick
- 2 Tablespoons milk
- ½ teaspoon vanilla
- 3 cups powdered sugar
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
- In a bowl, beat together butter, sugar, and brown sugar until fluffy. Add eggs and vanilla; mix well. Add zucchini to all ingredients. Add flour, baking powder, cinnamon, and salt to wet ingredients and combine until thoroughly incorporated. Fold in chocolate chips and drop by tablespoonfuls onto large baking sheets (these cookies grow a lot, so keep that in mind as you drop them onto the pans).
- Bake for 12-18 minutes, until golden brown. Let cookies cool.
- Mix together frosting ingredients and scoop frosting into a piping bag (or a large Ziploc bag with a tiny corner cut off). Drizzle frosting over cooled cookies and let harden.
Notes
- These cookies freeze well once the frosting hardens . . . you could fill your freezer with zucchini cookies and have them last all winter long
Nutrition
Did You Make This Recipe?We’d love to hear your thoughts! Leave a review or a question in the comment section below the post.
This is such a great idea! I have only had zucchini bread or muffins so it would be great to try it in a cookie!
Quick question about zucchini cookies, do the shredded zucchini need to be put in a strainer to reduce some liquid?
I just threw the zucchini in there- liquid and all! And they turned out just fine! 🙂 So don’t worry about straining anything!
Looks good will have to try them when this (heat ) cools down before I do any cooking or baking,in my oven.living on the 3rd floor,I don’t do much baking,and some cooking,but thanks for sharing.
We didn’t strain it, but if you have a lot of liquid it wouldn’t hurt.
Made these cookies today! I put raisins in them instead of chocolate chips at my daughters suggestion. They were yummy. I did have to add more flour too because my zucchini had a lot of fluid and the cookies just totally flattened out and were too runny. That little adjustment made them perfect. The icing was great too. Thanks for the recipe!
Would almond flour be okay to use instead? I can’t have gluten and these sound fantastic! Thanks
So excited to try this – the zucchini fairy has been busy in North Carolina and I am always looking for new, interesting ways to use it! Thank you for sharing!
I LOVE zucchini cookies – I’ve tried many different recipes and this one will be next. I might substitue the chocolate chips for toffee bits as I like the combo a lot… perhaps i’ll do a half a batch of both.
A little tip – you can also freeze zucchini if you don’t want to bake with it right now. I shred mine first and then pop it into freezer bags =)
Haven’t tried it with almond flour. Not sure how that would work.
These cookies were really flat even after I used a spinner on the zucchini. I used butter not margarine which I know margarine can make cookies flat. Should the recipe use baking soda rather than baking powder?
My cookies turned out very flat too. I ended up adding a tsp. of baking soda and 3/4 cup flour.
Maybe if I had pressed much of the liquid out of the zucchini before I added it, they might have turned out better.
I was wondering if you needed to take the skin off the zucchini before shredding it up?
We shred the zucchini with the skin on.
I made these delicious cookies about two years ago, when I first found the recipe. I haven’t made them for over a year, as I hadn’t been able to find my recipe. Who-Hoo, here it is again and I can’t wait to make these again! My family LOVED these cookies and the grandkids enjoyed making them with me (of course, I enjoyed cooking with them just as much!!)