These 130 calorie chocolate muffins taste like dessert. Lightly flavored with pumpkin, spices, and maple!
To make today’s muffins, I took my Skinny Double Chocolate Chip Muffins and switched some things around to include pumpkin puree. Pumpkin is a powerhouse! So much goodness for so little calories. I add a little bit of coconut oil for tenderness to offset pumpkin’s dense texture. A bit of brown sugar and maple syrup sweeten the muffins while complementing the light pumpkin taste. Lots of tasty fall spices in each bite, too. You could absolutely use homemade pumpkin pie spice here!
While warm, all you really taste is chocolate. Not a bad thing! After a few hours, the pumpkin taste intensifies. Sort of like how banana bread and pumpkin bread are more flavorful on day 2.
So, I consider these chocolate muffins with a little pumpkin rather than pumpkin muffins with chocolate.
I use a mix of whole wheat flour and all-purpose flour for these muffins. However, feel free to use all all-purpose flour or even white whole wheat flour. I do not recommend using all whole wheat flour (or whole wheat pastry flour) because the muffins will have a pretty dense texture.
If you want to use all whole wheat flour, I recommend my mini whole wheat pumpkin muffins. And if you’re looking for a regular, non-chocolate muffin recipe, try my favorite pumpkin muffins or even these mini cinnamon sugar pumpkin muffins.
The chocolate chips are optional. But let me tell you, the melty chocolate chips inside the muffin put these over the top! I like to use mini chocolate chips so there are more in each bite. If you like nuts, try toasting some chopped walnuts and tossing them in.
Or swipe some cream cheese frosting on them to get a lightened-up pumpkin chocolate cupcake of sorts.
130 Calorie Chocolate Pumpkin Spice Muffins
- Prep Time: 10 minutes
- Cook Time: 18 minutes
- Total Time: 45 minutes
- Yield: 12-13 muffins
- Category: Muffins
- Method: Baking
- Cuisine: American
Description
These 130 calorie chocolate muffins taste like dessert. Lightly flavored with pumpkin, spices, and maple!
Ingredients
- 3/4 cup (185g) pumpkin puree (fresh or canned)
- 1/2 cup (100g) packed light brown sugar
- 1/4 cup (60ml) pure maple syrup
- 2 large egg whites
- 2/3 cup (160g) nonfat Greek yogurt*
- 2 Tablespoons (28g) coconut oil, melted
- 1 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
- 1/2 cup (63g) all-purpose flour (spooned & leveled)
- 1/2 cup (66g) whole wheat flour
- 1/2 cup (41g) unsweetened cocoa powder
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 and 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
- 1/3 cup (60g) mini chocolate chips (optional)
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 425ยฐF (218ยฐC). Spray 12-count muffin pan with nonstick spray. If using cupcake liners, spray those lightly with nonstick spray. Set aside.
- In a large bowl, combine pumpkin, brown sugar, maple syrup, egg whites, greek yogurt, oil, and vanilla extract. Whisk them all together until smooth, with no yogurt lumps remaining.
- Sift* the flours, cocoa powder, salt, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon, and pumpkin pie spice together into a large bowl. Slowly stir in the wet ingredients, being careful not to overmix. Get any dry pockets of flour out. Fold in the mini chocolate chips. The batter will be a little chunky and extremely, extremely thick.
- Divide the batter evenly among the muffin cupsโfill them all the way to the top if you can. If desired, sprinkle a few more mini chocolate chips on top before baking.
- Bake for 5 minutes at 425ยฐF (218ยฐC). Keeping the muffins in the oven, reduce the temperature down to 375ยฐF (191ยฐC)* and continue to bake for 13 more minutes. Insert a toothpick into the center of one muffin. If it comes out clean, they’re done.
- Remove from the oven and allow to cool for 5 minutes in the pan, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.
- Muffins stay fresh in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 1 week.
Notes
- Freezing Instructions: Muffins freeze well up to 3 months. Heat up for 45 seconds to thaw. They are so good warm!
- Special Tools (affiliate links):ย 12-count Muffin Pan | Cupcake Liners | Glass Mixing Bowl | Whisk | Fine Mesh Sieve | Cooling Rack
- Yogurt: I prefer nonfat Greek yogurt in these muffins. If using regular yogurt, a different fat percentage, and/or a flavored variety such as vanilla, the calorie count may be different.
- Pumpkin Pie Spice: You can use store-bought or homemade pumpkin pie spice. You will still add the 1 and 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon that is also called for in this recipe.
- Sifting: Sifting the dry ingredients is optional, but recommended. It helps get out any little cocoa lumps and ensures the heavy whole wheat flour and lighter all-purpose are evenly combined.
- Why the initial high oven temperature?ย Like I do for mostย muffin recipes, bake the muffins for 5 minutes at a very hot temperature. Then, keeping the muffins in the oven, switch to a lower temperature for the remaining bake time. This initial high temperature will quickly lift the muffin tops so theyโre extra high, then the centers will bake during the lower temperature bake time. This trick makes beautiful bakery-style muffins every time.
Reader Comments and Reviews
How long would the cooking time be for mini muffins? This is one of my favorite muffin recipes ever!!
Hi Linsey, should be about 11-13 minutes at 350. So glad you love these muffins!
These are delicious! They do not taste healthy at all – and that’s wonderful! I like just the hint of pumpkin flavor. I will make these again and again. I used a whole egg instead of 2 egg whites and regular size chocolate chips since I didn’t have any mini’s. Just perfection!
I followed directions to a tee, and they are barely puffed above the Tim. And I used fresh baking powder!
Glad you gave them a try! Did you fill the liners to the top?
I thought these were delicious and came together easily! No mixer needed. Thanks!
Sadly, I really did not like these. I found the cocoa was overpowering and the flavours didn’t really work together with the pumpkin. I liked the pumpkin cake a lot, so I’ll be making that again.
I make a lot of muffins (my husband and I each eat one per day), and this is my new favourite muffin recipe. These muffins taste like such a treat; I canโt believe theyโre only 130 calories! I have a huge sweet tooth so I usually use milk chocolate chips whenever a recipe calls for semisweet chocolate chips, but I use semisweet for this recipe and the flavour works much better. I definitely recommend using the chocolate chips because they add little bits of melted chocolate goodness to each bite. I donโt think these muffins taste like pumpkin at all. In my opinion, the pumpkin and pumpkin spices just add more diverse and deep flavour to the muffins. Thank you for another amazing recipe, Sally!
Of all the muffin recipes on this site, I make these the most. They combine two of my favorite flavors: pumpkin and chocolate. These taste great right out of the oven, and even better a few hours later. The only thing I change is that I use pancake syrup instead of maple syrup.