Veronica’s Chocolate Zucchini Muffins with Chocolate Ganache

On June 1st, Veronica marked the first anniversary of her blog My Catholic Kitchen and it has certainly been a busy year for this Mom of one and wife of 17 years.  Since deciding to chronicle her life out in the world wide web, Veronica has shared stories of her Mom’s yeast rolls made thousands of times over in the little house close to the ocean in Fox Harbour, Newfoundland along with tales of how a cooler full of fresh crabs paid it forward for home-made bread and butter pickles.  She also shares her Catholic Faith through wonderful desserts and favourite recipes marking special days on the Catholic calendar and even has a page dedicated to recipe ideas for the Lenten season.  My Catholic Kitchen is a wonderful blog full of  personal little vignettes and great photos all combined with recipes that are also neatly catalogued in their own pages including but not only; Main Dishes, Desserts, Appetizers and Canning, Soups and Salads, etc.  Veronica has been keeping very active participating in many other web communities including Facebook, Cook, Eat, Share, Tasty Kitchen and Foodista just to name a few.  Veronica also finds time to be a regular contributor to Foodbuzz.  I’m very happy that she is here today sharing her story and recipe with us.

♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥

This is my story, this is my daughters legacy.

Will you help us find a cure in her lifetime?

They call themselves Team 3rd Generation and they have been walking together to find the cure for breast cancer for over 10 years. Four of them make up 3 Generations of breast cancer survivors. Mary, Dorothy, Janet and Jill have a combined 69 years of survivorship. Jill, my niece started her battle at the tender age of  25. We are a family struck by genetic breast cancer, and it is our mission to help find the cure for this horrible disease.  We dream of creating a world free of breast cancer so that our daughters and grandaughters do not ever have to hear the words “you have breast cancer”.

Today I will bake.

I will bake for my beloved Mary, who has battled this disease three times. Her strength, courage, and beautiful spirit inspire us all each and everyday.

I will bake for Jill my niece and our advocate, who has single handedly  raised tens of thousands of dollars to help find a cure. She continues to fight the good fight each and every day.

I will bake for Janet, who is our rock, even when everything around us is falling apart, she pulls us through it all.

Mostly though, I will bake for my precious mother-in-law Dorothy, who in 1976 had a breast removed because of cancer, to find out this year, at age 83, it had returned, this time in the other breast.

Help support us by donating to Frosting for the Cause, to show that you too want to end the epidemic that is breast cancer. Your participation not only shows your support for my family, but for all of the women that are currently battling this disease.

Here is my contribution. I hope you enjoy it.

Chocolate  Zucchini Muffins with Chocolate Ganache

2 cups all purpose flour

1 cup cocoa

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 teaspoons baking soda

1 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

1 1/2 cups brown sugar

1 cup canola oil

3 eggs

1/2 cup sour cream

2 cups zucchini grated

1 cup Hershey’s syrup

For the Ganache:

8 ounces of semisweet chocolate chips

1/2 cup heavy cream

2 tablespoons light Karo syrup

Directions

Preheat the oven to 425. Line 24 muffin tins with liners.

In a large bowl combine flour, cocoa, salt, baking soda and cinnamon.

In a mixing bowl mix together sugar, oil, eggs, sour cream, zucchini, and syrup. Gently put the dry ingredients in and combine. Divide the batter equally among muffin cups filling up almost all the way. Bake the muffins for 6 minutes then turn the temperature down to 325. cook another another 15-20 minutes, until toothpick inserted in cupcakes come out clean and muffin tops are springy when touched. Allow to cool completely before applying ganache.

For the ganache, combine the cream and chocolate chips in small bowl. Microwave in  increments of 30 seconds stirring after each, until chocolate is melted and it is combined. Add syrup and stir Dip the top of the muffins in the ganache Sprinkle with pink ribbons. No need to refrigerate.

Peace be with you,

Veronica