Vegan Chocolate Muffins
These vegan chocolate muffins have large bakery tops and are made in 1 bowl! They’re rich, full of chocolate and soft and moist thanks to the dairy-free yogurt, brown sugar and oil.
Simple ingredients you’ll need
The full list of ingredient quantities and instructions are in the recipe card at the bottom of this post.
Notes about the ingredients
Dairy-free yogurt is the secret to making these muffins moist and soft! Cocoa powder is very drying but yogurt puts moisture back into the muffins. Yogurt also helps thicken the batter so you get taller muffin tops! Alternatively, you can use applesauce (this will make the muffins slightly sweeter).
You can replace the yogurt with dairy-free milk, but I suggest making your muffins smaller otherwise the muffin tops will spread out too much. Your muffins will be less moist after the first day but you can work around this by heating the muffins before serving.
Dairy-free milk. I used soy milk as its higher protein makes muffins more tender. However, any milk will work (for example oat milk or almond milk).
Brown sugar adds moisture and depth of flavor to these muffins. Granulated sugar will work but your muffins will spread out a little more.
Oil keeps muffins moist for longer, compared to using butter.
Unsweetened cocoa powder is the main flavor of these muffins, so make sure you choose a brand that you like! I used an unsweetened natural cocoa powder.
How to make vegan chocolate muffins
It’s really easy to make these muffins as we’re just mixing the wet ingredients and then the dry ingredients in one large bowl. We’re mixing the wet ingredients first because it encourages the sugar to dissolve quicker which allows the muffins to rise more evenly.
For the best vegan chocolate muffins, here are some tips:
- Make sure your yogurt and milk are at room temperature. Cold ingredients don’t mix well and the oil may separate from the batter and leak out of the muffins.
- After you mix the wet ingredients, stir in the cocoa powder before mixing in the flour. This ensures that the chocolate flavor is evenly distributed (Image 2).
- Once you add the flour, avoid overmixing the batter. This will make the muffins drier and denser.
- If your flour is lumpy, sift it into your mixing bowl.
Baking these muffins
These vegan double chocolate muffins bake beautifully as they are. However, for taller muffin tops I suggest baking the muffins in every other cavity in your muffin pan. If you only have 1 muffin pan, this means that you’ll bake 6 muffins at a time, in 2 lots.
For even more moist muffins, fill every empty muffin cavity with a small amount of water (around 1 tablespoon of water in each cavity). In the oven, the water turns into steam, and this is partially absorbed by the muffins.
Customizing this muffin recipe
Yes! These muffins are also delicious with:
– chopped pecans or walnuts
– vegan white chocolate chips or chunks
– fresh or frozen berries
– peanut butter, or see my vegan peanut butter chocolate muffin recipe.
– ganache filling
As these muffins are already very big, if you add any more ingredients you may end up with 1-2 extra muffins. Or, you may like my vegan chocolate banana muffins or vegan chocolate zucchini muffins.
Yes, you can reduce the sugar to 1 cup (190g) without any big impact. Keep in mind that cocoa powder is very drying (even more than flour) so your muffins will not be as moist on the second and third day.
My team and I have tested these with King Arthur’s measure for measure flour and they work beautifully. You can use whole wheat flour or spelt flour for more wholesome muffins. I just recommend adding an extra dash of milk as those flours are more absorbent.
If you’d like to make chocolate muffins with no gluten, no oil and no refined sugar, I recommend using my flourless vegan chocolate cake recipe and baking it in a muffin tin.
More vegan muffins
Or see all of my vegan muffin recipes!
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Vegan Chocolate Muffins
Ingredients
Wet ingredients
- 1 ¼ cup (240g) packed brown sugar, (note 2)
- 1 cup (240g) dairy-free yogurt, or applesauce, room temperature
- ⅔ cup (165g) neutral flavored oil
- ½ cup (125g) dairy-free milk, room temperature
- 1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar, white vinegar or lemon juice, optional
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract, optional
Dry ingredients
- ½ cup (50g) cocoa powder
- 2 ½ cups (310g) all-purpose plain flour, spooned and leveled (note 3)
- 3 teaspoons baking powder
- 2 teaspoons espresso powder, optional for depth of flavor
- Pinch of salt
- 1 cup (190g) vegan chocolate chips, or roughly chopped vegan chocolate
To decorate
- extra vegan chocolate chips, or roughly chopped vegan chocolate
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 180°C (350°F). Line a 12-cup muffin pan with muffin liners (note 1 for jumbo Olympic-style muffins).
To make the vegan chocolate muffins:
- Add all the wet ingredients to a large mixing bowl and stir until combined. Add the cocoa powder and whisk until there are no lumps.
- Add the flour, baking powder, optional espresso and salt, and whisk until just combined. Some small lumps are fine, as long as they aren't lumps of dry flour. Do not overmix the batter otherwise your muffins will be dense.
- Add the chocolate chips to the batter and gently fold in.
- Use an ice cream scoop or a spoon to divide the batter in your muffin pan. The muffin batter should be close to the top of each cavity (note 4). If desired, sprinkle extra chocolate chips on top of the muffins.
Baking and storing the muffins:
- Bake the muffins for 23-27 minutes or until you can insert a toothpick in a muffin and it comes out with just a few moist crumbs. Make sure you insert the toothpick in a few places as the melted chocolate may give the impression that the muffins are still still wet, but they are ready.
- Allow the muffins to cool in the muffin pan for at least 15 minutes (or until they aren't too hot to handle). Then transfer them to a wire rack.
- Enjoy the muffins warm at room temperature. Store leftover muffins in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 3 days. These muffins also freeze well for up to 1 month, but it's best to enjoy them slightly warmed up.
Notes
- To make jumbo Olympic-style muffins, line only 10 muffin cups with tulip muffin liners/wraps, add an extra 3 tablespoons of milk (45g) to the batter and bake the muffins for about 30 minutes. Jumbo muffins take longer to bake, and the extra milk ensures they don’t dry out. To make a ganache filling, melt 80g of dark chocolate with 100g dairy-free cream of choice (I used coconut) and let it cool. Poke a hole in the warm muffins and pipe the ganache into the hole.
- For refined sugar-free muffins, you can use coconut sugar or a granulated sugar replacer. If you prefer less sweet muffins, you can reduce the sugar to 1 cup (190g). The muffins will have a stronger bitter cocoa flavor and will be less moist than the original, but still delicious!
- Measuring the flour: To spoon and level your flour, fluff up the flour in its container, use a spoon to add flour to a measuring cup, then level it off with a knife. Using a measuring cup to scoop flour out of a container will pack in too much flour and result in dry and dense muffins. Or for the best results, use the grams measurements.
Gluten-free option: These muffins work well with King Arthur’s measure for measure flour and no other changes. - For the highest muffin tops, I recommend baking 6 muffins at a time in a 12-cup muffin tray. Spacing apart the muffins allows the hot oven air to bake them faster, resulting in higher tops. This means you’ll need to bake the muffins in 2 lots, if you have only 1 muffin tray. You can also pour about 1 tablespoon of water in each of the empty muffin cavities. The water turns into steam and makes the muffins even more moist.
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Hi anthea, can this recipe be used for a chocolate cake? Thanks
Hi! This recipe is definitely better as muffins as the batter is quite thick and will dry out if in the oven for too long. You could try adding more milk to the recipe to make it cake-like but I haven’t tested it myself. Hope that helps!
Sooo good. The muffins rise so well they look like I got them from a fancy bakery.
Hi Hilana, aw that’s wonderful to hear!! Thanks so much for your feedback 🙂
I needed a quick afternoon bake with things I had in my pantry and this was perfect. Second recipe I made from here and both were a huge success. Suuuper yummy. The notes and extra information are very clear and handy to get the best results.
10/10 recommend. Very moist chocolate muffins👌🏽👌🏽
We’re so pleased to hear the muffins hit the spot for a quick afternoon bake! And it’s great to know the extra notes helped you get the results you wanted. Thanks for coming back to try another recipe and for the lovely review ❤️
I made them for my daughter’s birthday! They were a success 😍😍
We’re thrilled to hear these were part of your daughter’s birthday celebration and that they turned out so well! Thank you for sharing your feedback 🥰
Thank you so much for this Chocolate Muffin Recipe they were..AMAZING….I’ve tried so many recipes without success….this is so simple to do no stress what’s so ever…I’m looking forward to trying more of your wonderful recipes….Thank you Anthea..🧁XXX🧁
Hi Jenny, that’s amazing!! I’m so glad that you found these muffins easy to make and enjoyed them too! I understand how frustrating it can be to make a recipe and when it doesn’t work out :). Thanks so much for letting me know and I hope you get to enjoy many more recipes on my site!
These are ✨ PERFECT ✨
Soooo delish! Thank you so much for the recipe!
I wonder if there’s a protein rich version of this!?
Hi Shivani, I’m thrilled you loved these muffins!! I don’t have a protein rich version of these muffins, though it’s a great idea for my future recipe list! The muffins may work if you replace some of the flour with protein powder. Hope that helps!
Okay so I made these again and replaced half coco powder with chocolate protein powder. They were sliiiiightly on the drier end but still very very very tasty!
But yes, would love a recipe from you whenever you get a chance.
Thanks!!!
Had the most amazing muffins thanks to this recipe. Substituted half of the flour by nuts flour to make them a little bit more healthier. Thanks for the recipe.
Aw that’s wonderful and glad that some nut flour worked too!! Thanks so much for your lovely feedback 🙂
Hi Anthea!
I have been making your recipes for quite some time now, and I just must comment to tell you — THANK YOU!! You make baking such an enjoyable and uncomplicated activity for me. Everyone always loves the end result as well and is so surprised when I say the product is vegan. So, really, thank you. Thank you for sharing your knowledge, I appreciate all the tips and tricks, substitutes, that all ingredients are listed in grams (European girlie here heheh), just for all that you do. 🙂
Hi Michaela!! Aw, this is honestly the sweetest and most uplifting comment. Thank YOU so much for reading through my recipes/posts, for being here and your support! I’m thrilled that you’ve enjoyed a few of my recipes and found them approachable :). And I love that people couldn’t tell that the baked goods were vegan! (and grams are truly the best haha). Thank you again xxx
I live in a small town and the only non dairy yogurt I could find is vanilla flavored So Delicious coconut alternative. Fortunately it isn’t sweet so it didn’t add much sugar. I used oatmilk chocolate chips. I used soy milk (I read it gets a better curdle) and white vinegar in place of the apple cider vinegar. I used the metric measurements. I made some jumbo and some standard size. I spaced them out and used water in the empty wells. I tried cupcake papers and made my own parchment tulip papers. (Sounds like a lot of work, but it took 1:10 from start to finish.) They are sooo delicious! I will make again, gluten free. I’ll let ya know how it goes
Hi Maryse, I’m so glad that you enjoyed these muffins! Thanks for letting me know which ingredients you used – I’m sure other readers will also find this helpful. And I would love to know if you make them gluten-free! Thanks so much for taking the time to leave a comment here 🙂
Delicioso!!
Delicious for the first time I get a perfect muffin. From Puerto Rico I made some changes with the flour and they are on point.
That’s great to hear, and glad that they worked with your changes!
What is the shelf life of this muffin? As it has high water content.
It depends on your climate, but I would only keep them at room temperature for 3-4 days. They last up to a month in the freezer if stored properly.
The best muffin recipe EVER! THANK YOU! For the first time in my life I’ve made the perfect muffin and I’m so glad!!!
Hugs from Italy!
Awww! That’s the most wonderful feedback – thank you so so much for letting me know!!
Omg, these cupcakes were so delicious, moist and so easy to bake. Made them for my mum’s birthday. The whole family loved one, one of my favourite receipe.
I’m so glad that you loved these muffins! And it’s so thoughtful of you to bake for your mum and family too. Thanks so much for your wonderful feedback 🙂
Any oil free options, maybe nut butter or tahini?
I have only tested the recipe as it’s written but you can experiment with a runny nut butter using a similar quantity as the oil. The muffins will be different texture, but it may work. Let me know how you go if you try it!
Hi🤗
My question is if these beauties can be made with gluten-free flour?🤔
Thank you ♥️
Hi! I haven’t tested it with gluten-free flour, but I’ve been able to make some of my other baked recipes with half almond flour and half gluten-free all-purpose flour. It may work with some 1:1 gluten-free flours such as King Arthur’s measure for measure, but I haven’t tested it. Hope that helps!
Delicious! They rose beautifully, and the texture is on point!
That’s amazing to hear!! I’m so happy that you enjoyed these muffins and thank you for letting me know so quickly after I published the recipe :).
Hi, thanks for this lovely and delicious vegan recipe ❤️
Please share what can be done with any left over batter as I have a 6 cup tray only to bake at once.
(Can the batter be put in freezer?)
Hi! I wouldn’t freeze the raw cake batter as it can negatively affect how the muffins rise. Try making just half of the recipe or you can keep leftover batter in the fridge for only 1-2 hours. The batter will start to bubble in the fridge, so make sure you don’t mix the batter again, otherwise it will knock out the air. Hope that helps!