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
Double 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.
Keywords: double chocolate muffins
Hi again dear Sally❤️❤️❤️
Finally I’ve tried this and
It was a big hit
Really the best ever
Can’t say how much I am thankful
I am really addicted to your recipes
You’re the best
Love you so much dear Sally ❤️
★★★★★
Hi again and thank you so much one other question: can I substitute baking powder for baking soda?if yes how much deat Sally❤️
Hi Sara, we don’t recommend it — best to stick with the baking soda here as written.
Baked these today Jumbo size – decided to fill mine with your chocolate ganache but making your ganache and chilling it in the fridge covered for an hour. Turned out sooo good, divine and scrumptiously indulgent! Double chocolate muffins become triple chocolate muffins – highly recommend everyone tries it! Thank you Sally for your helpful notes and it was super easy without needing to pull out my hand mixer.
★★★★★
Hi dear Sally ❤️
Can I bake this muffins in ramekins?
If yes how long for which temperature? Thanks alot
Hi Sara, We haven’t tested it but I’m sure you can! The exact bake time will depend on the ramekins you are using (they are likely larger than a muffin pan) so just keep your eye on them and bake until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Same oven temperature!
Hi, this recipe of Sally’s uses ramekins and they are sooo delicious and easy to make . https://sallysbakingaddiction.com/chocolate-fudge-cakes-2/
Her molten lava cakes https://sallysbakingaddiction.com/chocolate-lava-cakes
are also really good but if you don’t want to worry about turning them out then go for the fudge cakes and scale them up to how any you need.
★★★★★
Thank you so much my dear friend
I will try them
★★★★★
Hi Sally. Finally I got the right recipe. I used sour cream. The taste and texture is perfect. Thank you for sharing.
★★★★★
Hi, is it possible to add instant coffee powder and if yes, how much? I would like to make mocha muffin from this recipe. 🙂
We can’t see why not! We’d recommend starting with half a teaspoon then adjusting for taste in future batches. Let us know what you try!
I often put a little coffee in chocolate recipes (either powder or strong liquid) as it brings out the flavor.
Would subbing 1/2 the AP flour for whole wheat flour work with this recipe? If not, is there another ratio of AP to whole wheat flour I could use? Thanks!
Hi E, you can certainly give it a try, but the muffins will be dense and heavy with the whole wheat flour. We don’t recommend doing any more than 1/2 whole wheat, 1/2 all-purpose.
You should try it with white whole wheat flour, I do a 1:1 swap many times and its not that noticeable, especially on a muffin recipe.
Can these be baked in the mini bundlette pan (like your mini vanilla pound cakes)? Or would you recommend a denser/cakier recipe to help hold the shape?
Hi Carole, we haven’t tried it ourselves, but these muffins should work out okay in a mini Bundt pan. Bake at 350 degrees for the entire time (we’re unsure of the total bake time, though). Or, for a thicker / denser batter, our triple chocolate muffins would also be a delicious choice (similar to this recipe, but fudgier and more like a brownie). Let us know if you give either a try!
These are absolutely AMAZING! Made some changes, like instead of all white sugar, I used half white and half dark brown sugar (not packed). I also sifted the dry ingredients, which I think why it turned out to be so tender. I also used a cup of dark chocolate chips and 3/4 cups semi-sweet. This is now my go-to chocolate muffin recipe. 🙂
I just want to pass on my adjustments. Our “dairy free ” family used Silk Almond 30 cal unsweetened milk and Tofutti cream cheese in place of the sour cream or yogurt in the recipe. These muffins are award winning! Thank you Sally for amazing recipes.
★★★★★
As in OMG! Your recipe is heaven! I made it and it is so easy to make and it’s the yummiest! Thank you so much for sharing.
★★★★★
I decided to use this recipe as a base for some Rocky Road muffins, and so I added mini marshmallows to the batter and sprinkled chopped pecans to the top, and they were absolutely delicious!
I just baked those muffins, so delicious, so easy and quick. Those are my favorite, so far the best recipes I have tried. Thank you so much for sharing it.
Amazing everyone loved it (◕ᴗ◕✿) I put 2 types of chocolate it was sooo good !
★★★★★
Thank you for this recipe. This was my first baking project with my 2yo. We managed to ‘squeeze’ the mix into 12 muffin tray. The top of the muffin was huge. And it was so moist. And not overly sweet even after we went crazy on our Choco chips – a whole bag went into these muffins. Next time I’ll prolly add sea salt flakes cos I love the balance between salty and sweet. Can’t wait to Bake them again.
★★★★★
Thanks for the recipe, these came out well! I did not have milk in the house so I used some unsweetened applesauce instead. I also used Greek yogurt, low-fat, instead of the sour cream. And I threw a handful of walnuts into half the recipe and let me say, that was even better. My only negative feedback is that I wish it wasn’t a half a cup of oil, because that’s a lot of oil. Even the bottom of the muffin cups were permeated with oil after I removed them from the muffin pan and it was a couple hours later. I would love to have this recipe with a lot less oil or a good substitute. Otherwise, the cake part was light and not too sweet. I used chocolate chunks instead of chips so of course it’s very chocolatey, which is not a bad thing! 🙂 I will definitely make these again.
★★★★
Hi B,
From what I understand from reading Sally’s recipe for a Skinny version of these, the applesauce would replace the oil. I’m thinking that’s why yours turned out greasy. I hope that helps!
Wonderful! The crumb texture is so nice and they fluffed up but are still decadent. No changes needed.Ma
★★★★★
Turn out really delicious. I used chocolate spreading it…..and it was a great combination.
★★★★★
For this recipe, why don’t you use baking powder? Also, can you put sparkling sugar on these muffins?
Hi Senthil, We turn to chemistry for this question! When a recipe calls for baking soda (BASE), it usually calls for some type of ACID like natural cocoa powder. The two react to each other, which in turn creates carbon dioxide and allows your baked good to rise. For more details you can visit our post on Baking Powder vs Baking Soda.
Yes, you can top the muffins with sparkling sugar if you wish!
I made these muffins today and they are delicious, I love that there not to sweet and that they actually are muffins A lot of muffin recipes seem to be to sweet and are more like cup cakes.I’m going to use this muffin recipe in place of cup cakes.
★★★★★
Super good… Amazing…Delicious! Both my 9 and 3 year old sons approve ❤️ This reminds me of a recipe my mom was given by a Spanish family when she lived in California. (only there was a pudding mix and Kahlua involved)
I thought I messed these up big time though. I thought I had grabbed the cocoa powder, and mixed it in, and noticed there wasn’t the cocoa scent and it wasn’t that dark. I loved at the container and it read Double Mocha Cappuccino mix. I went with it, and still added the correct cocoa. I did splash a little more milk, oil and sour cream. And I threw in some brown sugar too, it just felt right.
I’m not a professional, I’m not an experienced baker.
I was just excited to use my new confetti design silicone Trudeau steel framed muffin tray.
Perfect first time
★★★★★
Great recipe, super easy and LOVE that the ingredients are weighed out. Makes so much less mess. Followed exactly as is. Made 14 muffins.
★★★★★
Just made these and they are delicious! Thanks for such a great receipe!
★★★★★
These double chocolate muffins were fantastic! I always love a new chocolate recipe of any kind from Sally because I know it will be a hit every time. These muffins were so quick and easy to make, and they have a wonderful texture and chocolate flavor. Thank you Sally for another great recipe!!
★★★★★
Delish! I recommend taking it out of the oven when it is still nice and gooey in the middle, not when a toothpick comes out clean.
★★★★★
Super easy and yummy recipe. My chocoholic son loved it and said this one is the best so far and he is not being biased 🙂
★★★★★
I made these for myself as a special second-vaccine-dose treat, and they were a delight! They’ve got a good, soft texture (if you’re careful not to overbake), and they’re not too sweet. I used yoghurt instead of sour cream, and that worked just fine. Another winner from my fave recipe site!
★★★★★
I’ve tried 3 or 4 chocolate muffin recipes in the past and were never happy with them. But this… is PERFECT. The muffins turned out moist.
I would recommend pulling out the muffins from the oven 1 or 2 minutes before indicated baking time and checking if they are ready so as not to over bake them as everyone’s oven is different.
Thanks for coming out with this recipe that uses cocoa powder. As always, recipes from here do not disappoint!
★★★★★
Would it be ok to do half granulated and half brown sugar? Just do the white with dry and brown with wet? I just really like brown sugar in things.
Hi Lauren, that should work fine! We haven’t tested it but you could certainly give it a try – if you do, let us know how it goes!
The most wonderful chocolate muffins! I only used 120 grams of sugar and they were sweet enough for us.
And I just love how quickly they come together!
★★★★★
Can I use a donut pan with this recipe for double chocolate donuts?
Hi Nick, we haven’t tried it before, but we can’t see why not! Let us know if you do.
Hi Sally. All purpose flour is not readily available here in my country. We do however have easy access to cake flour. Could I substitute cake for all purpose flour in this recipe and just use the same amount of flour? Or are any changes
needed? Also can cake flour be used as a substitute in ALL other recipes which stipulate all purpose flour?
Hi Lindsay, that’s a great question and it truly depends on the specific recipe. We don’t recommend using cake flour in this muffin recipe- it’s simply too light for this batter. Cocoa powder is extremely light and takes the place of some all-purpose flour in this recipe. Here are all of our recipes with cake flour!