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
I decided to make these for a friend while I was in a rush and they were very quick and easy. I ran out of sour cream and because I didn’t have time to run to the store I added buttermilk for half the sour cream. I don’t know wether or not the buttermilk affected the result too much but they were soft and delicious!
★★★★★
I am about to try this recipe but am very curious as to why there is no baking powder? How do they rise? I’ve made the jumbo blueberry muffins and the master muffin recipe with wonderful results, so I’m very apprehensive about the lack of baking powder. Can I add some to help with rise? Thank you for all of your wonderful recipes!
Hi Nan! We typically test recipes using natural cocoa powder (acidic ingredient) with baking soda first. And these turned out wonderfully as is, so there is no need to add baking powder or replace some baking soda with baking powder.
Best recipe I’ve tried for muffins! My kids loved them!
★★★★★
Excellent!!!! Followed recipe to the tee (used whole Greek Yogurt). Thank you!!!
Sounds delish! Has anyone done mini muffins with this recipe?
Hi Jayme, For mini muffins, bake 13-14 total minutes at 350°F (177°C) the whole time.
Thank you!
Just wondering if nonfat milk and nonfat greek yogurt would work. I understand if they don’t come out as rich but will it jeopardise the recipe?
Hi Emma! The texture may not be quite as soft. Non fat yogurt is totally fine, but we do really recommend sticking with a milk with some fat in it for best results.
Have you ever frozen the batter in muffin liners for future baking?
Hi Anna, we haven’t tried that, but you can definitely freeze the baked muffins!
I didn’t have any oil so I used applesauce. Idk if that did it but these didn’t taste like a chocolate muffin.
Hi Kristen, oil is imperative here for the best tasting muffin, so the applesauce could be the culprit. Be sure that you’re using natural unsweetened cocoa powder, too.
delicious, perfect chocolate muffins. i somehow managed to turn the oven to 450 rather than 350, (took them out earlier, as soon as i noticed) yet they still came out so so good. moist, tender, chocolatey bliss. you are a blessing and these muffins have saved me. i am so happy thank you
★★★★★
Thank you for the recipe!
I modified it a bit by using cherry instead of chocolate chips and lowering the amout of sour cream (-30 mg). It was really tasty.
My cooking time was 25min in total. Maybe because of cherries.
★★★★★
How much did you lower the amount of the sour cream to, please?
The muffins were very moist. Love it! I added blueberry to it and reduced sugar to about 3/4 cup. Sweetness was just right. I baked 220 deg for 10 mins and then 32 mins at 180 deg. The recipe yielded a 16 muffins for me.
★★★★★
This recipe is great! I took my time and followed the instructions to the letter. I’ll be making these again.
★★★★★
The taste of these muffins are okay. They don’t taste sweet and the texture is kinda rubbery. I would not recommend these unfortunately.
★
Hi Cecilia, thank you for giving this recipe a try. Did you happen to make any changes? Make sure not to over-mix the batter, which can lead to a rubbery texture.
Hi! Can I use walnuts instead of chocolate chips? And can I stuff them with chocolate truffles?
Hi Sofia, you can definitely replace the chocolate chips with walnuts. We haven’t tested the recipe with a chocolate truffle filling, so are unsure of the results. You may want to take a look at this recipe for chocolate coconut cupcakes, which are stuffed with chocolate ganache (like the inside of a truffle!), to see how we did that.
Hi! 2 questions: 1. If I usually cook with nut oils, do you have a recommendation? I always use avocado, coconut or olive oils. Any other oil besides vegetable you recommend? If it doesn’t work or you haven’t tried, I will have to buy vegetable oil!. 2. Have you ever used dark chocolate chips? I am making them for an extreme dark chocolate lover. Any tips on this would be appreciated. Looks amazing
Hi Nicole, see recipe Notes for oil details: 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. Dark chocolate chips would be great here!
Amazing muffins ! I appreciate the extra Sally always adds to her posts – like don’t use butter because the cocoa is drying….etc !! I follow recipe exactly but used whole wheat flour and hemp seeds and turned out fabulous. The richness and texture satisfied my picky 8 year old.
★★★★★
What frosting can I use for these cupcakes?
I have my little sister’s birthday party and I want to decorate them
Hi Andi! Chocolate buttercream would be great on these. You can browse all our frosting recipes here.
Terrific muffins! I only filled the 12 large cupcake papers half way but the muffins came out perfectly cooked and light. I was expecting more batter but they were outstanding.
I baked these as written. I cannot recommend. The pictures on Sally’s website look photoshopped to me because the dark color is not actually what occurs in reality using natural Hershey’s cocoa powder. As far as taste goes, the muffins were not sweet and instead, more on the savory side. I am going to try Alton Brown’s double chocolate muffin recipe next time.
★★★
Jessica must have made an error while following the recipe or perhaps her ingredients weren’t good, as I followed this recipe without changing anything and the muffins look just like sally’s photos. They also taste amazing; very moist and chocolatey.
★★★★★
I’ve made these so many times and they are perfect each time. I never tweak this recipe as my family loves them as is. It’s my go to for chocolate muffins… actually Sally Baking Addiction is usually my go to for most bakery recipes. Never had a bad one yet.
★★★★★
Thank you so much for making and trusting our recipes, Christina!
I am very pleased with the muffins! They turned out perfectly. I used light olive oil as that is the only oil I had and that was fine. I will make again. Mine looked just like the picture.
I made this recipe as jumbo muffins (I make all of your muffins as jumbos). I over baked these double chocolate muffins. Its would be awesome if you could include bake times for making your muffins in jumbo form but you mostly just reference regular and mini sized. I looked on internet and saw many different answers and ended up baking too long. I want to make these again. Do all of your muffin recipes made jumbo bake for the same time or does it depend on the recipe? I took them out to test and they weren’t done so I put them back in and then they over baked. 🙁
Hi Terry, thanks so much for your suggestion and feedback! In general, yes, you can make most of our muffins as jumbo sized muffins. We recommend following the bake time and directions from these jumbo blueberry muffins as a guide. You may also want to keep a close eye on them and start checking on the earlier side to see if their done (use a toothpick). Hope this helps for next time and thanks so much for giving these a try!
My 13 year old daughter made these muffins. They were AMAZING bakery quality muffins.
★★★★★
So happy to hear this, Hadeel!