Best Dark Chocolate Muffin Recipe

These Chocolate Muffins have intense chocolate flavor, with a light and moist crumb. They have double chocolate, with cocoa in the batter and chocolate pieces folded in.Make them from start to finish in 30 minutes!

It took many rounds of testing and revisions to get to this final chocolate muffin recipe, but here we are. This, to me, is a perfect chocolate muffin.

There’s quite a range of baked goods that all fall under the label of “muffin, ” so I realize this is partially personal preference.

Healthy Chocolate Muffins

On the far end of the spectrum are the “muffins” sold in coffee shops and grocery stores, which I find are really more like chocolate cupcakes without the frosting. Too sweet, and a bit too rich.

On the other end, sometimes muffins can get a little too “healthy” and become quite dense and dry. And dry muffins are the worst!

This recipe makes for the best chocolate muffins, and lands somewhere in the middle of all these scenarios, balancing out all my favorite elements.

Bourke Street Bakery Dark Chocolate Raspberry Muffins

I originally shared the first version of this recipe in 2011, which was adapted from Alton Brown’s Chocolate Muffins#7 from his cookbook I’m Just Here for More Food(affiliate).

As I’ve been going through the archives of this blog, I recently re-made them and found them to be too dry and heavy. I think Alton is great, and maybe the muffins are just how he likes it, but I found quite a few reviews also saying his version is too dry.

So I recently did several rounds of revisions and recipe testing, most importantly to change the texture to something much lighter. These ended up with a similar light and bouncy texture closer to theseChocolate Peanut Butter Cupcakes, but not quite as sweet.

Moist Chocolate Muffins Recipe

One of the secrets to these moist muffins is using buttermilk. I found this to yield the best flavor and texture, over other choices like sour cream, greek yogurt, and plain yogurt.

We also use real butter for superior flavor, over other flavorless options like vegetable oil or canola oil, or less suitable choices like olive oil or coconut oil. Their flavors clash considerably compared to butter.

Use quality cocoa – Quality TOTALLY matters for this recipe. I recommend higher end brands like Guittard, Callebaut, Vahlrona, and Scharrfen Berger, though Ghirardelli is a decent option as well.

Healthier Chocolate Banana Muffins

Don’t use an electric mixer, and leave it lumpy – Resist the urge to stir out every single lump in the batter. Because stirring develops gluten, you’ll want to stir as little as possible, so the chocolate muffins turn out tender and not tough. This means it’s best to stir by hand, and not use an electric mixer.

Watch like a hawk at the end of baking – I recommend turning the oven light on toward the end of bake time and watching for doneness, but do not open the door too early or the muffins may deflate. You should be able to see when the tops are no longer shiny and raw-looking.

Start by sifting together the dry ingredients into a large bowl, which include cocoa powder, all purpose flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.

Healthy Chocolate Muffins {moist And Easy!}

Yes. I know it’s slightly more work, but I tested this without the sifting step, and the muffins were not as light and also drier, probably because extra stirring was required to break up the cocoa lumps.

I’ve tried both chips and chunks, and really it’s just whatever you prefer. The chunks are slightly more gooey, with bigger pools of melted chocolate, which I enjoy slightly more.

It’s also up to you to decide what kind of chocolate chips you use. I consider milk chocolate chips and dark chocolate to be the best options, though there’s nothing stopping you from adding white or ruby chocolate chips. You could also use mini chocolate chips.

Moist Chocolate Cupcake Recipe

For the wet ingredients, combine buttermilk with granulated sugar, egg, vanilla extract, and melted butter in a separate medium bowl or large measuring cup:

Buttermilk tends to come in a quart size container, which is more than you need for this recipe, but it’s a good excuse to also try these wonderful Blueberry Muffins orLemon Buttermilk Pie.

Whisk and stir together to combine. I usually start with the whisk, then switch to a spatula when the batter gets thicker and almost all of the flour pockets have disappeared.

Easy Chocolate Muffins, How To Make Chocolate Muffins

Make sure to leave the batter nice and lumpy. If you stir it until it’s totally smooth and consistent, you have stirred too much.

You can see below that the flour pockets have nearly *just* disappeared, with two small specks of cocoa flour in the center here:

Use a large cookie scoop or ice cream scoop (affiliate) to portion the batter into paper liners. Then, I like to add a few more chocolate chunks or extra chocolate chips on top:

Small Batch Chocolate Cream Cheese Muffins (yields 6)

You can check with a thermometer for doneness (they should be 195F), or, I like to touch the top with my fingertip, and if it springs back to the touch (rather than sinking in and staying sunk in), it’s done.

I only let them cool for about 5 minutes, at which point the chocolate will still be gooey but won’t burn your mouth.

First let your homemade muffins cool to room temperature before storing, then you may either store them at room temperature or in the freezer. At room temperature they will keep well for 2 days (no preservatives, so they don’t keep long), but in the freezer they can be kept for 2 months.

High Altitude Double Chocolate Muffins

If the muffins seem dry after a couple days, try microwaving for 10 seconds to make the chocolate gooey and soften the crumb. Eat promptly.

Store in an airtight container at room temperature, or they will dry out. These keep well for about two days at room temperature before losing too much flavor and freshness. Technically they will keep longer than this, but the flavor goes downhill, so I’d recommend considering freezing them.

This recipe was tested using a regular or natural cocoa powder here, as opposed to Dutch process cocoa. Most cocoa powders you see at the store, such as Hershey’s, are natural.

Dark Chocolate Banana Bread Muffins Recipe By Tasty

Preferences on sweetness are so personal and depend on your palate, but I think these are on the less sweet side. The cocoa is quite bitter and I find that the amount of sugar here is balanced to be slightly sweet against the cocoa.

Yes, but if you use a mini muffin pan the baking time will be significantly less. Check for doneness starting at 8 minutes, and watch like a hawk so they don’t dry out.

These Chocolate Muffins have intense chocolate flavor, with cocoa in the batter and chocolate chips folded in. They're a delicious breakfast treat!

Basic Chocolate Muffins

Be careful not to overstir the mixture, it should be lumpy. I recommend not using an electric mixer, and instead stirring by hand in a bowl.

Storage: Let cool completely, then store at room temperature for two days in an airtight container. Or, you can freeze for up to 2 months.

Calories: 155 kcal , Carbohydrates: 25 g , Protein: 3 g , Fat: 6 g , Saturated Fat: 3 g , Cholesterol: 28 mg , Sodium: 104 mg , Potassium: 159 mg , Fiber: 2 g , Sugar: 14 g , Vitamin A: 174 IU , Calcium: 55 mg , Iron: 1 mgChocolate muffins that truly taste of chocolate and stay fresh for days are a rarity! This recipe delivers, thanks to some tidy tricks including hot milk to bloom the cocoa, and a little coffee to enhance the chocolate flavour (you won’t taste the coffee). Using brown sugar, oil, sour cream and less egg meanwhile is the secret to keeping the crumb ultra-moist and tender!

World's Best Dark Chocolate And Pumpkin Muffins Recipe

Chocolate muffins are not all created equal. I’m fussy about mine and make no apologies about it – there are a lot of calories in a muffin, so every one of them better be worth it! 😂 Here’s my laundry list of things a great chocolate muffin needs to have. It must:

While this list of chocolate muffin characteristics might sound obvious to you, finding a recipe that ticks all these boxes is much harder than you think! In fact, in my whole cooking life, I have never come across a keeper.

After (many!) years of attempts, I finally buckled down and committed myself to pursuing the ultimate chocolate muffin recipe, even if it killed me. In the end, it was a plethora of simple baking tricks that came together in creating what is my idea of the perfect chocolate muffin. I’m VERY happy with the end result and thrilled to share it!

Easy Chocolate Banana Muffins

Mix Dry , mix Wet, mix Dry into Wet. Bake. Do you really need me to give you any more detail? 😂

The nice thing about these muffins is that you don’t need to be as careful about not over-mixing the batter (which causes a dry muffin) because this batter is not as thick as most muffin batters.

These Chocolate Muffins will stay very fresh for 3 days which is a rare feat in the muffin world! Most muffins begin to turn stale within hours of being made. By the next day they usually need

The Best Chocolate Cupcakes