Cherry Nutella Zucchini Muffins

It always starts out innocently enough. I find one little zucchini in the garden, and life is good. Then, before I can figure out what I want to do with that one little zucchini, there are 262095135173 zucchini in the garden.

It goes from YAY! to OMG! very quickly.

This evening, for example, I went outside thinking I would quickly water the garden. The next thing I know, I have this little pile of zucchini that need to grow up to be something delicious. The problem with that is that I had just finished making something delicious with zucchini and the giant bag of cherries in the fridge.

And there were still four zucchini in the house.

It's going to be very zucchini-rific around here for the next month or two.

Cherry Nutella Zucchini Muffins

Muffins
2 cups flour
1 cup powdered cocoa
2 tablespoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup butter, melted
1/2 cup milk
1 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup light brown sugar
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
2 eggs
2 cups grated zucchini
1 cup chopped cherries
1/4 cup Nutella

Nutella Streusel
2/3 cup flour
2/3 cup light brown sugar
1/4 cup unsalted butter
1/4 cup Nutella
1 cup mini chocolate chips

1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees.

2. Line muffin pans. You're making about 24 muffins, so plan accordingly.

3. In a large mixing bowl, combine the flour, cocoa, baking powder, and salt. Use a whisk to mix it all up.

4. In a separate large mixing bowl, combine the butter, milk, sugar, brown sugar, vanilla, and egg. Use a fork to mix it up all proper and stuff.

5. Gradually pour the dry ingredients into the bowl with the butter and stuff, using a fork to keep stirring. When it's all mixed, throw the zucchini and cherries in there and stir it up some more.

6. Place a heaping tablespoon of the muffin batter in each liner. You should still have some muffin batter left. Set it aside for a second because it's time for some magic.

7. You know that Nutella that you haven't used in the muffins yet? IT'S TIME. Forget measuring it. Just stick a spoon in that Nutella jar and scoop some out. Put about 1/2 teaspoon in the center of each muffin. If you accidentally put a little too much in there? It's okay.

8. Time to finish filling those cupcake liners. You should have enough to put somewhere around a heaping teaspoon in each one, on top of the Nutella. The liners should end up about 3/4 full, if not a bit fuller.

9. Time to make some streusel. Combine your flour, brown sugar, butter, Nutella, and chocolate chips in a medium bowl. I mashed it all up with my hands until it became crumbly.

10. Top each muffin with some steusel. Get a little carried away, please. You'll be glad you did it later.

11. Bake at 425 for 5 minutes. Then, reduce the heat on your oven to 375 degrees and bake for another 20 minutes. Total baking time is 25 minutes.

12. Eat one while they're still warm. Yes, that really is part of the directions. That means you have no choice.