These double chocolate muffins are rich and moist with a robust chocolate flavor from cocoa powder and chocolate chips. Buttermilk gives them a beautiful, tender crumb and best of all, they’re super easy to make and ready in about 30 minutes! What are you waiting for??
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A tray of bakery style chocolate muffins in 30 minutes!
I don’t always get on my soapbox, but these chocolate muffins are worth it ~ they’re soft, rich, and deeply chocolatey in that satisfying, not-too-sweet way. You get a double hit from cocoa powder and chocolate chips, so every bite has real depth and those little pockets of melted chocolate.
The texture is exactly what I’m always after ~ super moist and tender, with that bakery-style crumb that makes you wonder how they pulled it off. And unlike most muffins, these don’t fade after day one. They’re just as good the next day, maybe even better, when the chips firm up and contrast with the soft cake.
If you’ve ever thought muffins were a little dry or forgettable, this is the one that will change your mind.
Important ingredient notes
This recipe is super pantry-and-fridge-staple friendly, just make sure these ingredients are on your regular grocery list.
- unsweetened cocoa powder
- Dutched cocoa gives the extra rich color and flavor to these chocolate muffins, but you can use any kind you have on hand. Just be sure the label says unsweetened.
- baking powder and baking soda
- the combination gives these muffins their high rise, make sure your baking powder isn’t over a year old.
- vegetable oil
- using oil instead of butter keeps these muffins incredibly moist.
- Experiment with a healthy mild olive oil for rich flavor!
- buttermilk
- buttermilk makes for a tender, moist crumb. I highly recommend using real, cultured buttermilk from the store, in my experience it makes for the best final texture.
- In a pinch, you can make your own buttermilk by adding a teaspoon of lemon juice or white vinegar to milk and letting it sit on the counter for 15 minutes.
- chocolate chips
- use regular chips, mini chips, or chocolate chunks, they turn chocolate muffins into double chocolate muffins!
Pro tips for beautiful high rise bakery style muffins
- Don’t over-mix!
- Don’t use a stand mixer or electric beaters for muffin recipes; a whisk and silicone spoonula works better because you don’t want to over mix the batter, which can result in a tough texture.
- Muffin batter tends to be lumpy, so don’t try and smooth it out, a few lumps are fine. Again, too much mixing will make the muffins tough.
- Fill your muffin cups fairly full, the muffins won’t overflow the cups, they’ll spring up nicely in the oven.
- The traditional advice is to fill muffin cups 2/3 full, but you can push that a bit farther to get nice big tempting muffins.
- I prefer muffin liners with this kind of sweet muffin; the sides will stay soft and moist in the paper and won’t stick to your pan. Look for parchment paper liners, they don’t stick to the muffin, either!
- The chocolate chips in this recipe will be mostly under the surface of the muffin once baked. If you’d like them to be visible, I recommend popping a few into the tops of the muffins before baking.
- Think ahead! Make sure your oven has been preheated properly.
- Muffins require a nice hot oven to give them that initial rising boost.
- Remember that muffins are small – they don’t take long to bake, and they can over-bake in a flash. Keep alert!
You asked…
Yes, it’s generally ok to reduce the sugar by about 1/3 without too much trouble. If you’re looking for a sugar substitute you might try the new sugar alternative from King Arthur Flour because it’s a dry sugar substitute that is used in a 1 to 1 ratio, which is ideal.
Yes, use any unsweetened cocoa powder you have on hand, just be sure it’s unsweetened. Each brand will give a little bit different result, which is fun.
Yes, you won’t use liners in that case, and the baking time will be quick, anywhere from 9-13 minutes, but check them in case your oven runs differently.
Yes, they’ll freeze well, just double wrap them to keep air out. I like to wrap the cooled muffins in plastic wrap, and then in foil.
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Chocolate Muffins
Video
Equipment
- 12 cup muffin pan
- paper muffin liners
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
- 3/4 cup cocoa powder, I used Dutched cocoa
- 2 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 3/4 tsp salt
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 2 large eggs
- 1/2 cup vegetable oil
- 1 1/4 cup buttermilk
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 heaping cup chocolate chips
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 375F and line a 12-cup muffin tin with muffin tin liners.
- Whisk together the flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda, and salt, and set aside.
- In a separate bowl, whisk together the sugar, eggs, vegetable oil, buttermilk, and vanilla extract.
- Add the flour mixture to the wet ingredients and mix together well. Then, fold in the chocolate chips. Don't over-mix!
- Divide the batter evenly between the 12 muffin tins. (note: as you can see, this means filling your muffin tins almost to the top, which results in nice, large muffins. You can also fill your muffin tins more like 2/3 full for more traditional size muffins, which will yield more than 12 muffins for this recipe.)
- Bake for 20 minutes, or until risen and a toothpick inserted into the center of a muffin comes out without wet batter clinging to it.
- Allow the muffins to cool for a few minutes in the baking pan, then cool them completely on a baking rack.
Nutrition
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Hi, me and my son just had the opportunity to try your double chocolate muffin recipe this afternoon and my I’m lost of words it came out as you said and we can get enough of endulging ourselves, the melt in the mouth kinda muffin cake I can never bake anything else but only them. We are saving some for dessert with homemade custard for later on , thank you so much for sharing your recipes, God bless you for your unselfishness
Doreen & Njabulo
I’m really excited to try these, but is there any chance I could refrigerate the batter overnight and then bake them in the morning? Or would you just recommend baking ahead of time?
I’ve had luck doing that with muffins in general, Reyna, so I’d say it’s worth a try. But these muffins keep pretty well, so you could do it either way.
I made them as vegan mini muffins, and they came out perfect! I used unsweetened applesauce as egg replacement and milk with lemon instead of the butter milk. Thank you!
If you don’t have buttermilk, is there something to use in it’s place?
You can use whole milk, or make your own buttermilk substitute by adding a bit of lemon juice or vinegar to milk and let it sit for 15 minutes. Generally it’s 1 tsp per cup of milk.
I love, love this recipe! So easy and delicious. I’m out of buttermilk. Can I do the lemon juice technique with 2 percent milk?
Yes, you can, for sure!
I do e
Thank you for your recipe. I used Dutch processed cocoa as you did and felt the muffins lacked enough chocolate flavor even though it made my kitchen smell like brownies. I think next time I will omit the vanilla extract and add 1 t. espresso powder to bring out the chocolate flavor. The muffins are not too sweet, I’m glad I didn’t reduce the sugar.
This is my first visit to your site. I like many things about your posts, especially the details and extra information. But I wish the recipe specified weights for the ingredients, I would give it a try.
Thanks Michael, glad you found me! I am trying to find an efficient and accurate way to do that, there are lots of sites that use an automatic converter but in my opinion they can be way off, and very frustrating for cooks. Giving weight measurements is one of my 2021 goals for the blog, for sure.
Love the muffins, looking forward to making rhubarb jelly
I made these today, we loved them! I swapped the flour for Gluten Free flour and still fantastic 🙂
Greetings from the Black Forest Germany
Wow thanks Heather, you’re quick! Great to know that this works gluten free 🙂
SCHOKOLADEN MUFFIN…. lieben meine ENKELKINDER,,,
wünsche noch einen schönen TAG
bis bald die BIRGIT aus TIROL
Genieben!