And today’s muffins are totally acceptable for dessert. Double chocolate, anyone?
I made these muffins twice last weekend. I developed the recipe as I went. Sometimes the best of recipes just come as I’m mixing the whole wheat flour and baking soda together. Other times I have recipe fails, other times I lay in bed and scribble down ideas as I’m falling asleep. All Day I Think About Recipes.
Today’s chocolate muffins are very easy to make. Start with some of your wet ingredients: unsweetened applesauce, some sugar, and honey. Applesauce takes the place of butter and oil in this recipe. For a traditional chocolate muffin recipe, you’ll love these double chocolate muffins.
Sometimes baked goods without fat can be dry and crumbly. I can’t stress enough that these are NOTHING like that. There is only 1/2 cup of granulated sugar in the recipe yielding 12 large muffins. 1/2 cup of sugar is not enough, so I use 1/4 cup of honey as well. A few more wet ingredients are egg whites, greek yogurt, and vanilla extract. Instead of using 1 egg, I use two egg whites.
The dry ingredients are simple: all-purpose flour, whole wheat flour, unsweetened cocoa powder, and your leavening agents. You will use 1/2 cup of both flours and the cocoa powder, which I loved. It’s so easy to remember! You can sift the dry ingredients together, which I did, but this step is not necessary. Sifting gets rid of any cocoa powder lumps, making it easy to mix with the other ingredients in the recipe.
The last thing you’ll add? Chocolate chips of course! I used mini chocolate chips, but regular size work too.
If you are looking for a recipe that uses all whole wheat flour, try my healthier chocolate banana muffins instead!
Today’s muffins are the perfect breakfast recipe. No mixer required, taking 10 minutes to prepare the batter, and are made with so many easy ingredients: greek yogurt and applesauce keep the muffins moist and soft, they are sweetened with only a little sugar and honey, and include whole wheat flour. Not bad for a chocolate treat!
For another lightened up muffin option, try my strawberry chocolate chip muffins next.
Print
Skinny Double Chocolate Chip Muffins
- Prep Time: 10 minutes
- Cook Time: 18 minutes
- Total Time: 40 minutes
- Yield: 12 muffins
- Category: Muffins
- Method: Baking
- Cuisine: American
Description
You won’t realize these double chocolate muffins are lightened-up and low fat!
Ingredients
- 3/4 cup (180g) unsweetened applesauce
- 1/2 cup (100g) granulated sugar
- 1/4 cup (85g) honey
- 2 large egg whites (or 1 large egg)
- 3/4 cup (183g) vanilla Greek yogurt*
- 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
- 1/2 cup (63g) all-purpose flour (spooned & leveled)
- 1/2 cup (64g) whole wheat flour (spooned & leveled)
- 1/2 cup (41g) natural unsweetened cocoa powder
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/2 cup (90g) mini chocolate chips, plus a few more for sprinkling on top
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 425°F (218°C). Spray 12-count muffin pan with nonstick spray. Do not use liners.
- In a large bowl, whisk the applesauce, sugar, honey, egg whites, greek yogurt, and vanilla extract until smooth.
- Sift* the flours, cocoa powder, salt, baking soda, and baking powder together. 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.
- Divide the batter evenly among the muffin cups – fill them all the way to the top. Bake for 5 minutes at 425°F (218°C) then, keeping the muffins in the oven, reduce the oven temperature to 375°F (191°C). Bake for an additional 13 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
- Allow the muffins to cool for 10 minutes in the muffin pan, then transfer to a wire rack to cool until ready to eat.
Notes
- Make Ahead & Freezing Instructions: Muffins stay soft, fresh, and moist at room temperature or in the refrigerator for up to 5 days. Muffins freeze well for up to 2-3 months. Thaw overnight in the refrigerator and heat up (if desired) before enjoying.
- Special Tools (affiliate links): 12-count Muffin Pan | Glass Mixing Bowl | Whisk | Fine Mesh Sieve | Cooling Rack
- Yogurt: You can also use regular yogurt—plain or vanilla.
- Sifting: Sifting the dry ingredients is optional, but recommended to rid any cocoa powder lumps.
- Tall Muffin Tops: Why the initial high temperature? The hot burst of air will spring up the top of the muffin quickly, then the inside of the muffin can bake for the remainder of the time. This helps the muffins rise nice and tall.
- Nutrition: According to SparkRecipes, these muffins have 165 calories, 3g fat, and 34g carbs each.
Reader Comments and Reviews
Made these many times and they always turn out great. Thank you!! Been using white whole wheat flour lately and 1 cup works great as a sub for the 1/2 cup wheat and 1/2 cup white flour. Also, 1/2 cup honey or maple syrup works as a sweetener. With the yogurt, they have more of a brownie texture (so good!). Using buttermilk instead (3/4 cup whole milk and 3/4 tablespoon fresh lemon left at room temp for 10 min) makes them like cake (also so good!). Thanks again!
Before I experiment myself, would these muffins work as a layer cake (for a small family birthday). I’ve made them as muffins with 60ml oil replacing the applesauce and extra sugar to suit my tastebuds so will do that again for the layer cake too FYI. Thank you!
Hi SNL, you can use a 8 or 9 inch square bake pan – at 350F – around 30-34 minutes. If you want a few layers, we recommend making each batch separately. Enjoy!
Thanks for the quick reply! I can buy the ingredients now
Thought I’d share that I made the full recipe with 60g/2/3 cup extra flour (I did 50/50 blend), 2tbsp milk and no choc chips (so I had still had a decent sized cake). Like I said earlier I replaced some of the applesauce/yoghurt mix with 60ml/1/4 cup of oil and used 100g/1 cup of sugar for slightly sweet/regular cake or 125g/2/3 cup of sugar for extra sweet, dessert cake because I don’t like bitter chocolate. It fitted two 8in cake tins nicely! Made a 1in cake layer each. Baked at 160C fan/325 F for 20 minutes. If you don’t have a fan oven bake at 180C/350F for 25 minutes instead. I have a bad experience with one large tin and slicing even layers so I went with two tins instead. Thank you for sharing a denser cake! My wider family don’t enjoy the devil’s food cake/chocolate fudge cake (weirdos lol). And this is a nice size for a small gathering/birthday party when you also have a Victoria sponge cake (drier vanilla cake with buttercream and jam) for choices.
I have made these muffins for years. They’re light and yummy. I use parchment paper liners and substitute 1/4 cup brown sugar for the honey and 1/4 cup Truvia for the sugar.
My now 6 year old requested chocolate muffins (instead of cupcakes) for her birthday! So we made these! Our son has celiac, so we replaced the flour with Bob’s Red Mill 1 to 1 Gluten Free Flour and they were perfect! Also only had sweetened applesauce, so I cut the sugar in half. Everyone loved them and the teenage girls across the street said they were better than brownies!
Woke up tryingnto find something to do with my bananas. I want to somehow combine this recipe with the sweet one. Really just trying to figure out substitutes. Can I use the appplesauce and sugar instead of the agave (that I don’t have)? Do I need the honey? Same portions? Without the chips, does it make it taste different?
Hi Natasha! I recommend following our whole wheat double chocolate banana muffins recipe. Since you are trying to combine this recipe with that one– and I hope I’m understanding the ingredients you’d like to use– you can use 1/3 cup of regular sugar or honey in that recipe instead of agave. You can leave out the chocolate chips. The muffins will taste the same, but they won’t have the extra chocolate kick or the extra texture in each bite.
Can I omit the honey?
That should be ok, or replace with maple syrup!
Taste great. I subbed yogurt with sour cream (thats all I had), and I used half of sugar called for. It stuck to the cupcake pan even with PAM spray so I don’t understand why the recipe asks for “no liners”. I will definitely use liners next time.
I just made them and they are AMAZING. The texture is so soft and fudgy almost like eating a brownie! Thank you very much for sharing these. This is the second recipe now I’ve tried from this site and they’ve both been fantastic. thanks Sally!
Fabulous! Off to make the Skinny chocolate and banana ones now! Mardie UK.
I was nervous about making these because my family can always tell when I’ve made something ‘healthy’, but these were a massive hit! I did use only all-purpose flour because I can’t eat whole wheat, and I added milk chocolate chips. I used a silicon cupcake tray to bake too so no baking spray needed.
These are delicious! I replaced the yogurt with almond buttermilk & used maple syrup instead of the honey and regular chocolate chips. They turned out lite & could be cupcakes!
Delicious! I wanted to make them non dairy, so I subbed out the Greek yogurt for “buttermilk”- almond milk with a bit of lemon juice-and they’re light, fluffy, and perfect. Thank you!
These are FANTASTIC !!!
So moist and the chocolate is the perfect amount. I was worried about these being too sweet but they perfectly balanced! I never write reviews but this deserved one!
Can you use sour cream instead of yogurt? I’ve made these 3-4 times and I love them. I use 60% cacao chips. I just didn’t make it home from the store with yogurt, only sour cream.
Hi Amy! Yep, you can use sour cream instead. Same amount.
Hi if I wanted to substitute the applesauce with oil, would I still add 3/4 cup?
Hi Niya! 3/4 cup of oil would be a little too much, so reduce down to 1/2 cup. No need to replace the extra 1/4 cup with anything.
could I bake these in a loaf pan instead? 🙂
Absolutely! Bake time will be longer.
What do you think about replacing all the flour with oat flour? What kind of ratio would you suggest for that?
I haven’t tested it, but let me know if you do!
Bob’s Red Mill Gluten Free 1-to-1 baking mix works perfectly in this recipe subbed for the flour!
Seriously the best muffins.
These are so delicious! My son called them “a brownie in muffin form” They were all gone before I could get any in the freezer to save for school lunches! And that is why I’m pulling the ingredients out for the second time in two days. I was sceptical, but I even used the initial high heat, and they turned out beautifully!
I would like to try this recipe, looks delicious and healthy. I have all ingredients except whole wheat flour. Is there anyway I can do without or use more regular flour ? Thanks!
You can use all all-purpose flour.
I made these muffins today and they are fantastic!!!! I followed the recipe exactly and they turned out great. This is a quick and easy recipe!! Thank you!!!!
Hi Sally! Any chance these can be made into a cake? How would that go in terms of timing/temp? Thanks!!
Yes! Use a 8 or 9 inch square bake pan – at 350F – around 30-34 minutes.
Can you make 6 jumbo muffins instead of 12 regular sized ones?
Absolutely! I’m unsure of the bake time.
I loved these and so did my kids! A must keep recipe!
These are my all time FAVORITE muffin of yours. I make them at least once a month. ~Thank you~
These turned out wonderfully and just like the picture! They were very light and moist tasting but still had great flavor. Thanks Sally 🙂
Hi there, Sally! Really want to make these but I don’t have applesauce. I have maple syrup in hand and will be using that to replace honey. I also know that you can substitute the applesauce for mashed bananas. That’s two substitutions though. Will that intervene with the success of these muffins? Or alter the taste in a huge way? Thanks, sweetie!
Hi Francesca. You may use mashed bananas and maple syrup here, no problem. They should still be just as tasty.
This muffins are so good!! I’m so so glad I made them. And as I was making them I was doubtful, but OMG i was blown away by how good they are. You cannot tell at all that these have some lighter subs in them. Great recipe I will definitely be trying a few more of your skinny recipes. Thanks!
I made these today for our Saturday breakfast and we loved them. My daughters helped me and they still turned out great 🙂 They tasted delicious and were super easy. I used silicone muffin cups filled to the top and they came out perfect. Did not stick at all, though I did spritz the liners lightly with Olive oil spray. Yum!
Just baked these and they taste AMAZING!!!! So pleased with the way they turned out, thanks for posting the recipe 🙂