Enjoy the softest, fluffiest muffins with this simple no-mixer-required batter! These chocolate covered strawberry muffins are exceptionally light and each bite is filled with chocolate chips and sweet strawberries. Sour cream is the main ingredient and you can easily swap it out for Greek yogurt instead.
I originally published this recipe in 2012 and have since added new photos, a video tutorial, and more success tips.
One of my favorite cookbooks, Cooks Illustrated: The New Best Recipe cookbook, contains a recipe for fluffy & moist blueberry sour cream muffins. I used to make them quite often and over the years, I’ve made some changes to the batter including using a combination of baking powder and soda, adding vanilla and 1 extra Tbsp of butter, reducing the sugar, reducing the sour cream and adding milk, plus adding plenty of strawberries and chocolate chips. The recipe below reflects my edits—you’ll love them because they brown nicely (baking soda), aren’t as sweet (reduced sugar) and the batter isn’t quite as heavy (adding milk).
One reader, Sarah, commented: “If I could give these 6 stars, I would. Fluffy, light, absolutely perfect muffin consistency. It doesn’t get better than strawberries and chocolate! ★★★★★“
Tell Me About These Chocolate Covered Strawberry Muffins
- Flavor: These muffins are buttery, mildly sweet, and studded with melty chocolate chips and sweet juicy strawberries. If you love chocolate, don’t skip the chocolate drizzle on top. These muffins could basically be cupcakes in disguise!
- Texture: Sour cream keeps the muffins light, moist, and fluffy. Because it leaves such a desirable texture, sour cream is my secret ingredient in many other baked goods like vanilla cupcakes, 1-layer sprinkle cake, double chocolate muffins, and banana bread. Since we’re using 1 cup in this batter, the muffins are lighter than other muffin recipes that may use less sour cream. And if you don’t have sour cream on hand, Greek yogurt (non fat, low fat, or full fat) works as a wonderful replacement.
- Ease: This is a recipe suitable for beginners. In fact, muffins are my #1 suggestion if you’re looking for a quick, fun, and easy baking recipe and that’s why I recommend them when baking with kids. Plus, I know you’ll appreciate that there’s no mixer required; you can whisk and fold this batter by hand.
Success Tips for These Chocolate Chip Strawberry Muffins
- Room Temperature Ingredients: Bring your egg, sour cream, and milk to room temperature before mixing together this batter. If any are too cold, they will change the temperature of the batter and solidify the melted butter—same is true when making banana muffins too. The batter will no longer be uniform in texture so you’ll have some greasy muffins and some dry muffins.
- Thick Muffin Batter: As you put together this muffin batter, you’ll notice it’s quite thick. Thick muffin batter is actually perfect because the thicker the batter, the more likely your muffins will hold a tall shape. Thin muffin batters usually spill over the top of the muffin liner giving you flat, mushroom-topped muffins. Additionally, thick muffin batter keeps the slippery strawberry pieces suspended in the baked muffins.
- Initial High Temperature: Bake the muffins for 5 minutes at an initial high oven temperature and then lower the oven temperature down. The initial high oven temperature quickly lifts up the muffin top. Once you lower the temperature, the centers of the muffins bake. You’ll notice I suggest this in nearly all my muffin recipes.
Fresh strawberries are best, but see the recipe note if you’d like to use frozen. If you prefer plain strawberry muffins, you can absolutely skip the chocolate chips and chocolate topping.
Chocolate Topping
A drizzle of melted chocolate turns these strawberry muffins into dessert. (But still definitely acceptable for breakfast!) Use baking chocolate such as Ghirardelli or Bakers brands—both are sold as 4 ounce bars in the baking aisle. One 4-ounce bar is plenty to melt down and drizzle over the muffins.
If you love these flavors and you really are looking for dessert, these chocolate covered strawberry cupcakes should be on the menu. They’re chocolate cupcakes with strawberry buttercream filling and rich chocolate ganache on top.
Looking for chocolate muffins instead? You will love these double chocolate muffins because they’re soft, moist, and filled-to-the-brim with chocolate chips.
More Muffin Recipes
If you love baking muffins, here are more quick and easy recipes:
- Applesauce Muffins
- Blueberry Muffins
- Apple Cinnamon Muffins
- Morning Glory Muffins
- And, of course, my favorite base muffin recipe (any add-in/flavor!)
Chocolate Covered Strawberry Muffins
- Prep Time: 15 minutes
- Cook Time: 24 minutes
- Total Time: 50 minutes
- Yield: 12 muffins
- Category: Muffins
- Method: Baking
- Cuisine: American
Description
Enjoy soft and fluffy strawberry muffins with chocolate chips and a chocolate drizzle on top. See recipe note if using frozen strawberries.
Ingredients
Muffins
- 2 cups (250g) all-purpose flour (spooned & leveled)
- 1 and 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1 large egg, at room temperature
- 3/4 cup (150g) granulated sugar
- 5 Tablespoons (71g) unsalted butter, melted and slightly cooled
- 1 cup (240g) sour cream, at room temperature*
- 1/4 cup (60ml) milk, at room temperature
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- 1 cup (about 180g) chopped fresh strawberries (see note about frozen)*
- 3/4 cup (135g) semi-sweet chocolate chips
Chocolate Topping
- 4 ounce (113g) semi-sweet chocolate bar, coarsely chopped
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 425°F (218°C). Spray a 12-count muffin pan with nonstick spray or line with cupcake liners. Set aside.
- Whisk the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt together in a large bowl until combined. Set aside. In a medium bowl, whisk the egg, sugar, and melted butter together until combined. Whisk in the sour cream, milk, and vanilla extract. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients, whisk a few times to begin combining, and then stir with a silicone spatula to finish combining. Batter is very, very thick. Fold in the strawberries and chocolate chips. Avoid overmixing.
- Spoon the batter into liners, filling them all the way to the top. Bake for 5 minutes at 425 then, keeping the muffins in the oven, reduce the oven temperature to 350°F (177°C). Bake for an additional 17-19 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. The total time these muffins take in the oven is about 22-24 minutes, give or take. (For mini muffins, bake 12-14 minutes at 350°F (177°C) the whole time.)
- Allow the muffins to cool for 5 minutes in the muffin pan, and then transfer to a wire rack to continue cooling.
- Chocolate Topping: In a microwave-safe bowl, melt the chocolate in 15 second increments stopping and stirring after each until perfectly smooth. (Stir in 1 teaspoon vegetable oil if chocolate seems too thick for drizzling.) Drizzle over muffins. Muffins can still be warm when adding the chocolate topping.
- Allow chocolate to set completely at room temperature or in the refrigerator OR enjoy muffins while chocolate topping is still warm.
- Muffins stay fresh covered at room temperature for a few days, then transfer to the refrigerator for up to 1 week.
Notes
- Make Ahead Instructions: For longer storage, freeze muffins for up to 3 months. Allow to thaw overnight in the refrigerator, then bring to room temperature or warm up in the microwave if desired.
- Special Tools (affiliate links): 12-Count Muffin Pan | Muffin Liners | Glass Mixing Bowls | Whisk | Silicone Spatula | Cooling Rack
- Sour Cream: If you don’t have sour cream on hand, Greek yogurt (non fat, low fat, or full fat) is the best substitute.
- Milk: You can use any milk, dairy or nondairy such as skim milk, whole milk, coconut milk, etc.
- Strawberries: Cut the strawberries into 1/2 – 3/4 inch pieces. Fresh strawberries are ideal, but you can use frozen and thawed berries if needed. I recommend thawing and patting them dry with a paper towel before folding into the batter.
- Room Temperature Ingredients: It’s best if any cold ingredients are brought to room temperature before starting. The melted butter will slightly solidify if other ingredients are too cold and you may notice greasy oily pockets in the baked muffins.
- Adapted from the blueberry sour cream muffins in Cooks Illustrated: The New Best Recipe. The recipe above includes the changes—using a combination of baking powder and soda, adding 1 Tbsp of butter, adding vanilla, reducing the sugar, reducing the sour cream and adding milk, plus adding plenty of strawberries and chocolate chips.
Reader Comments and Reviews
I used common yogurt and made these muffins.. tastes wonderful.. made nearly 48 muffins… Your recipes really work!! Dhanyabaad!
Rupa in Kathmandu
Hi! How would you adjust the recipe (how much filled and bake time) for mini muffins?
Hi Kim, For mini muffins, bake 12-14 minutes at 350°F (177°C) the whole time.
These were a huge hit with a community group! The strawberry/chocolate combo was delicious. It was like being given permission to have dessert for breakfast.
These are a family favorite. We freeze baked muffins and pull out on weekends or for a mid-week treat. Can I bake these as jumbo muffins? I noticed on the double chocolate muffins (another crowd pleaser in my house) you say we bake for additional 25-28 minutes. Can we do that here too?
Thanks!
Hi Susan, That should work fine! We would follow the baking instructions from our jumbo blueberry muffins recipe.
My mom gave this recipe a 10/10 and I completely agree! These strawberry muffins are delicious! They turned out so soft and fluffy. I used white chocolate chips instead of semi-sweet and I think it is the perfect pairing with the strawberries. I love that these muffins aren’t overly sweet too. I didn’t need to add the chocolate drizzle on top. Also, I truly believe that using room tempter ingredients really helped for this recipe. I’m definitely making this recipe again!
These came out fluffy and delicious! Perfect for camp week. No need for chocolate drizzle for my household. I made sure those certain ingredients were room temp. I may replace some flour for unflavored protein powder next time. Thank you for this delicious and easy recipe!
Just needed to say – these are my favourite muffins ever! I subbed eggs with flax eggs, add hemp seeds and replace some flour with unflavoured protein powder. I also use locally grown strawberries that I freeze to have all summer… and let me tell you. These explode with flavour in my mouth despite making them a touch healthier! I triple the batch and freeze, perfect for a quick breakfast while I am trying to get the kids out the door! Thank you for this incredibly delicious recipe! Sally, your recipes never disappoint!!
We’re so happy to read this, Melanie! Thank you for giving these muffins a try.
Sally, you are the absolute best! I’m making this recipe tonight but I just realized I’ve never posted a comment on your website before. You are my go-to for all things baking, including finding new inspiration for goodies to bake for my loved ones. Everything I’ve ever made from your recipes have been delicious, especially the brown butter zuchhini cake. I’ve had loads of ladies ask for that recipe.
Sending many thanks to you from Galway, Ireland! <3
Thank you so much for making and trusting our recipes, Shawna!
Can you use buttermilk instead of sour cream/greek yogurt…or regular yogurt??
Hi Laura, you can use the buttermilk in place of the regular milk and plain regular yogurt in place of the sour cream. Hope you enjoy the muffins!
Can i replace the butter with oil?
Hi Bertle, that should work in a pinch, but you’ll lose that buttery flavor.
I made these using frozen strawberries and they are delicious even without adding the chocolate drizzle. The only problem I had was the muffins stuck to the cupcake papers. Should I have sprayed the papers before filling them? I use a lot of your recipes and thank you for sharing them with us. I love your recipes!
Hi Sonja, you can definitely try spraying the liners, but some brands of liners do work better than others. You might try a different brand before your next batch to see if that helps!
I used frozen strawberries, patted dry as recommended. Baked for the full 5 plus 19 minutes. Did not add the chocolate drizzle as these are absolutely delicious as is. Soft, moist and fluffy, lots of flavour. Will be making them again. Thank you for such delicious recipes.
These were moist and yummy, but there just wasn’t enough strawberry flavor. And I worry that if I added more strawberries, it would mess up the consistency (due to the water content of the strawberries). I think next time I might use blueberries instead, or maybe even use the same amount of strawberries and add banana. The vanilla “base” was wonderful though, I just need to experiment
Hey Jennifer! If it’s a price option for you look at freeze dried strawberries. You can blend them into a powder and add a little to boost the strawberry flavor. I do it all the time with my icing and it should not alter the recipe to add a little, if you add a lot you may to add a little milk to make sure the batter remains the same consistency.
Can I use white chocolate chips instead?
Hi Dee! For inside the muffins, yes, white chocolate would be great. If you add the chocolate drizzle, make sure to use a white chocolate baking bar instead of chips because they won’t melt properly.
this was a great recipe! i added a little cinnamon to spice things up just a bit!
Hey guys at Sallys! I have so far tried the banana nut muffins, homemade biscuits, croissants, danishes, and probably more I can’t recall (haha) but I LOVED this one! I used room temp every thing liquid and listened to the 5 minutes at 425 before lowereing the temperature and beautimous!!!
So glad you loved these muffins!
this recipe is a favorite in my family
These are easy and delicious! I didn’t add the chocolate drizzle because I thought it was nicely balanced as is.