These double chocolate muffins have been our favorite chocolate muffin recipe for over a decade. I love them so much that I published the easy recipe in my 1st cookbook back in 2014! (We now add even more chocolate chips and a touch of vanilla for extra flavor, as you’ll see in the recipe below.) The muffins are incredibly rich, mega chocolate-y, and loaded with chocolate chips in every single bite. Sour cream helps guarantee a soft and moist muffin that has a denser texture than chocolate cupcakes.
Not pointing fingers or anything but chocolate sweet rolls, you’re kind of high maintenance for the morning. (Worth the hype and effort for sure though.) Here’s something easier that satisfies your chocolate craving and doesn’t require a ton of effort, time, or patience. Ha!
Double Chocolate Muffins Details
- Flavor: Chocolate. Seriously, that’s all you really need to know! This chocolate muffin recipe comes together with cocoa powder and chocolate chips. In recent years, I began adding vanilla extract to the batter for a touch of extra flavor. You can certainly leave it out if you’d like (and as mentioned above, the cookbook recipe doesn’t include it).
- Texture: Unlike chocolate cupcakes and chocolate cake, these muffins don’t really have a sponge-like texture. And that’s mostly because we aren’t adding hot water to the batter. They’re more like a bakery-style muffin with a tighter crumb and satisfying bite.
- Ease: Besides the deep chocolate flavor, what you’ll love most about this double chocolate chip muffin recipe is its ease. The recipe uses common baking ingredients, doesn’t require a mixer, and is super straightforward like this pumpkin muffins recipe—2 cups of this, 1 cup of that, and whole eggs. (No separating needed.)
Key Ingredients in Double Chocolate Muffins
The full written recipe is below, but let’s walk through some key ingredients so you understand their importance. This is always helpful when looking for substitution options.
- Cocoa Powder: Use unsweetened natural cocoa powder. You could get away use dutch process cocoa powder, but the muffins may not rise as much. For best taste and texture, stick with natural. Most of the flavor comes from the cocoa powder, so choose a good one! I’ve baked with many over the years and I always go back to Hershey’s.
- Sour Cream: If you were to skip the sour cream and replace it with milk, the chocolate muffins would be thin, flat, and wet. Just like it does in chocolate covered strawberry muffins, sour cream lifts the crumb and keeps the muffins moist. You can replace it with plain yogurt and I often do—in fact, that’s how the recipe is written in the book!
- Oil: We usually use creamed butter and sugar in muffin recipes like blueberry muffins. However, cocoa powder is a very drying ingredient so it’s best paired with oil to keep the muffins moist. If you replace it with melted butter, the muffins will dry out. You won’t miss the flavor of butter because chocolate overpowers it.
By the way, if you enjoy banana + chocolate together, you’ll love these chocolate banana muffins—they’re whole wheat, too!
Expect a thick and sticky batter.
Avoid Overmixing & Use Room Temperature Ingredients
Really all you’re doing here is whisking the dry ingredients together in one bowl and the wet ingredients together in another bowl. The dry ingredients include the sugar and chocolate chips. This way you’re only mixing the ingredients together once—dry + wet instead of dry + wet + mixing in the chocolate chips. Make sense?
- The reason why you’ll mix the chocolate chips into the dry ingredients is to avoid over-mixing the final batter. Over-mixing muffin batter can lead to a tough, dense baked good. While these chocolate muffins are certainly denser than our soft and spongy chocolate cupcakes, they aren’t heavy as bricks.
- What will also help you avoid overmixing is using room temperature ingredients. Bring the eggs, milk, and sour cream to room temperature before starting. As a shortcut, place the eggs in a glass of warm water for 10 minutes and—honestly this is what I do—microwave the sour cream and milk for 10-15 seconds to take the chill off.
Tip: You won’t regret eating one warm out of the oven. Those melty chips!
Double Chocolate Muffins Recipe Video
PrintDouble Chocolate Chip Muffins
- Prep Time: 10 minutes
- Cook Time: 21 minutes
- Total Time: 40 minutes (includes slight cooling)
- Yield: 12-14 muffins
- Category: Breakfast
- Method: Baking
- Cuisine: American
Description
These double chocolate muffins are incredibly rich, mega chocolate-y, and loaded with chocolate chips in every single bite. Sour cream helps guarantee a soft and moist muffin that has a denser texture than chocolate cupcakes.
Ingredients
- 2 cups (250g) all-purpose flour (spooned & leveled)
- 1 cup (200g) granulated sugar
- 1/2 cup (41g) unsweetened natural cocoa powder
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1 and 3/4 cups (315g) semi-sweet chocolate chips
- 2 large eggs, at room temperature
- 3/4 cup (185g) full fat sour cream or plain yogurt, at room temperature
- 1/2 cup (120ml) vegetable oil*
- 1/2 cup (120ml) whole milk, at room temperature
- 1 and 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 425°F (218°C). Spray a 12-count muffin pan with nonstick spray or use cupcake liners. This recipe yields about 14 muffins, so prepare a second muffin pan in the same manner or bake in batches and reserve leftover batter at room temperature for when the first batch is done.
- Whisk the flour, sugar, cocoa powder, baking soda, salt, and chocolate chips together in a large bowl. Set aside.
- Whisk the eggs, sour cream, oil, milk, and vanilla extract together until combined. Pour wet ingredients into dry ingredients and fold together with a rubber spatula or wooden spoon until completely combined. (Batter is quite thick, so I recommend a spatula or spoon over a whisk.) Avoid overmixing. The batter will be thick and sticky.
- Spoon the batter into liners, filling them all the way to the top. Bake for 5 minutes at 425°F then, keeping the muffins in the oven, reduce the oven temperature to 350°F (177°C). Bake for an additional 15-16 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. The total time these muffins take in the oven is about 20-21 minutes, give or take. (For mini muffins, bake 13-14 total minutes at 350°F (177°C) the whole time.)
- Cool muffins for 10 minutes in the pan, then transfer to a wire rack until ready to eat.
- Cover leftover muffins and store at room temperature for 5 days or in the refrigerator for 1 week.
Notes
- Freezing Instructions: For longer storage, freeze the muffins for up to 3 months. Thaw overnight in the refrigerator, then heat up in the microwave if desired.
- Special Tools (affiliate links): 12-count Muffin Pan | Cupcake Liners | Glass Mixing Bowls | Whisk | Wooden Spoon or Rubber Spatula | Cooling Rack
- Jumbo Muffins: If you’d like to make about 6 jumbo muffins instead of standard size, follow the recipe through step 3 using a greased jumbo 6-count muffin pan. Spoon batter into the liners, filling all the way to the top. Bake for 5 minutes at 425°F then, keeping the muffins in the oven, reduce the oven temperature to 350°F (177°C). Bake for an additional 25-28 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
- Sour Cream: Use full fat sour cream. In a pinch, you can replace it with plain yogurt. (Full fat Greek style or regular yogurt would be best.)
- Oil: For best taste and texture, use vegetable oil. In a pinch, you can replace with canola oil or olive oil. The muffins can taste greasy with melted coconut oil, but if you try it, it’s imperative the other ingredients are room temperature so the coconut oil doesn’t solidify as you mix the batter together.
- Milk: Whole milk is best. 2%, 1%, or nondairy milk work in a pinch. Do not use nonfat milk. Don’t use buttermilk. (You could use buttermilk if replacing both the sour cream AND milk, but the muffins taste a little spongy that way. Best to use sour cream and whole milk.)
- Recipe excerpted from Sally’s Baking Addiction. This version includes more chocolate chips and the addition of vanilla extract for a little extra flavor. The cookbook version also uses plain yogurt, but you can use sour cream as noted here.
I just made these double chocolate muffins and thought they were so good! I’ve been trying to find a recipe that my 8 year old daughter likes, as she’s super picky…she tried these and said they were “spicy”, I have no idea why cause I don’t taste anything spicy. Do you have any suggestions for things I could try to substitute? Thank you in advance.
I also wanted to say that I love all the notes and detailed instructions you have in your recipes, it makes them so much easier to follow!
That almost sounds like an allergy to me. Sometimes things we are allergic to can make our mouths feel “spicy”. Worth checking out!
I just want to say thank you for this recipe and your blueberry muffin recipe. I’ve made them several times and they always success and a big hit with my friends!
Best recipe ever! Its so fail proof that it makes me brave enough to add cacao nibs or instant coffee to it for different batches.
The muffins came out soft, moist, and have just the right amount of gooey chocolate. Thank you for sharing your recipe and tips, Sally!
This recipe as written is definitely deserving of five stars. Decadent and delicious.
I have been making these for a few years now and have made some slight changes. I use half applesauce for the oil, I add three scoops of protein powder, I use only egg whites, white whole wheat flour, cup sugar to half a cup and use brown sugar, half the amount of chips called for and use some butterscotch. I also use full fat Greek yogurt in place of sour crea and one tablespoon of hot coffee mixed in at the very end. The resulting muffins are really wonderful. I feel slightly better about making them a regular school morning breakfast with these changes.
The original recipe is really really great. I just like my changes for serving them often.
Another amazing recipe by Sally. I just made these today and we absolutely loved them! So good and the perfect amount of sweet and chocolatey without being too over the top. Will be adding to a list of favorite recipes!
Amazing! I made them “black forest” style. All I did was sub out the plain yogurt for black cherry flavored yogurt. It was such a hit with my sons. This was for my sons 6th birthday, a special breakfast.
Made it gluten and dairy free and they were so moist and delicious! My family couldn’t believe they were gf and df! Thank you so much!
What did you sub for when making dairy free? I’d love to make these for a df friend of mine!
We made these muffins for the children after returning to our ho.me after the annual Thanksgiving Day apple and pumpkin picking, for their afternoon snack. They were a big hit for the youngsters and the parents. Will try another flavour at Christmas but will certainly make these again .
We LOVED these muffins! I’m making them again and was wondering if I can add walnuts along with the chips? Would I need to reduce the chips? Thanks
Hi Kristi, absolutely! You can swap some of the chocolate chips with walnuts. We’d keep the total amount of add-ins about the same. So glad you enjoyed these!
Hi, can I use 200g of brown sugar instead of caster sugar?
Hi Anisa, you can use brown sugar, but the muffins will taste a little heavier.
These are great muffins. However, I’m not sure what kind of sorcery you’re using to only bake up 12-14. I have made this recipe twice, doubled it each time (weighing ingredients!) and ended up with around 40-42 cupcakes each time as opposed to 24-28. Not complaining, just baker beware.
I get 12 large ones using (2) 6 muffin pans. The recipe is perfect for that size.
These muffins are absolutely perfect! So delicious. The recipe was so easy and the baked up so beautifully. My son is going to love them! Thank you! I wish I could leave a picture here for all to see!
Tried to 1/2 the recipe but accidentally forgot to half the milk. Still delicious but came out like a cupcake with all the chocolate chips at the bottom. Will be trying again bc I’m sure they’re better as muffins.
I made these for my daughter’s birthday today. I used Nestle’s lava cake chunks instead of chocolate chips and boy were they delicious. For dessert we served them warm with some vanilla ice cream.
These muffins are perfect! I just sold my first batch (15) today . One of my friends enjoyed them the last time i made them and insisted i immediately start a business with her being the first client. She says I’m gifted because my pastries are always perfect. She doesn’t know its all aunt Sally hahah thank you Sally.
Fantabulous recipe… Keep it coming!!
I halved the recipe and made 12 mini muffins. There was still a lot of leftover batter. I microwaved the leftover for 1.5 minutes on high. The muffins were delicious but were stuck to the muffin pan. Also it took more than 20 minutes to bake the mini muffins.
My family loves this recipe so much! Their new favorite request for camping trips, they travel well!
Great chocolate muffins!
Better than brownies
Thank God for chocolate He made all things, like He said He looked upon everything He had made and “it was very good.”
Delicious afternoon pick me up that I will be making again soon.
First time making muffins that rise so high
These were not nice at all, not sweet enough and very bitter
I had the same problem. Super dry and bitter.
i absolutely love this recipe!!! turns out just as good every time and tastes delicious. i love themmm
I wasn’t impressed with Thai recipe the muffins seemed to be very dry and lacking that deep chocolate flavour I feel because the batter was so thick it didn’t get to develop any flavour. I think muffin batter should be a little more silky and I wish I would have added the chocolate chips to the muffin rather than just on top, this recipe calls for way to much sugar I would next time cut back on the amount or use brown sugar instead. The muffins are dry and missing that spark, won’t be making again.
Hi Janthan, thank you so much for giving these muffins a try. If they were dry, it’s likely they were simply over baked (even just a minute or two can cause them to dry out!). The batter is intended to be a bit thicker to give it a denser muffin-like texture, rather than a lighter chocolate cupcake. Thanks again for giving them a try!
Would these work with gluten free flour?
Hi Leeza, we haven’t tested this recipe with gluten free flour, but other bakers have reported success using a 1:1 gluten free flour. Let us know if you give it a try!
I baked with gluten free flour and they look and taste amazing
Love everything you post, especially your muffins! With this recipe, I assume I can do 1 1/2 times the recipe? I don’t need 28 muffins. Need around 20. Thanks Sally!
Hi Robyn, that should be fine!
Can’t find the nutrition facts for this recipe?
Hi Nikki, We don’t usually include nutrition information as it can vary between different brands of the same ingredients. Plus, many recipes have ingredient substitutions or optional ingredients listed. However, there are many handy online calculators where you can plug in and customize your exact ingredients/brands. Readers have found this one especially helpful: https://www.verywellfit.com/recipe-nutrition-analyzer-4157076
These were FANTASTIC!! I didn’t have plain yogurt so I used 2 parts Greek yogurt and 1 part milk, it seemed to be a perfect substitution. These are definitely a new staple for my family
I made these for my family and they LOVED them! They asked me to make more and asked for seconds & thirds! This is definitely my go to muffin recipe! (The muffins didn’t even last a day!) I am a HUGE fan of Sally’s Baking Addiction and am so glad to make and try out all of her recipes! Thank you for your awesome and amazing recipes!