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!
One reader, Teck, commented: “It’s truly a superb recipe. Moist and full of flavor. Easy to follow. Voted the best muffin by my family. ★★★★★”
Another reader, Paulina, commented: “They turned out just perfect and looked so good, you’d think I bought them. This will definitely be my go-to chocolate muffin recipe from now on! ★★★★★”
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 silicone 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 Silicone 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.
Reader Comments and Reviews
Wow. These muffins are so delicious. Definitely for chocolate lovers. Followed the recipe exactly. Perfect.
Have you ever tried these as mini muffins? If so, what adjustments need to be made especially in regards to baking time?
Hi Debbie, the mini muffin instructions are in the printable recipe card: For mini muffins, bake 13-14 total minutes at 350°F (177°C) the whole time. Enjoy!
This is the best chocolate muffin recipe you’ll find! Extremely moist, perfect taste of sugar (not too sweet), wonderful velvet chocolate taste, and the splash of vanilla is the plus on the A. I used one of Hiland’s Low Fat Plain Yogurt cups and it was the perfect amount. I’m personally not a fan of chocolate chips in my treats (which I excluded), however, I am one of the biggest peanut butter addicts. I put a scoop of batter in the greased muffin wrapper, used a squeeze peanut butter packet to add a few swirls inside, and then topped with another scooped of batter (I love to do this with Sally’s brownie recipe as well). It’s amazingly delicious. This is one recipe you wouldn’t want to miss out on!
Not to be dramatic but this is a quite literally the best chocolate muffin recipe I’ve ever made/tasted. I may never buy another chocolate muffin from a coffeehouse or bakery ever again. My children may lock me in the kitchen to keep these in constant supply. I cannot overstate the deliciousness of these. The ease of the recipe is also astounding but I would have done quite a bit more complex recipe and called it a win for this taste. But an easy recipe AND the best chocolate muffin??? This feels wrong. Blasphemy. The nectar of the gods in my mouth and it took less than 30 minutes?! Cannot be real.
We are so glad you love these muffins, Ashley!!!
I used Lemon Greek yogurt, and olive oil. Loved a batter taste. Omg they look better then Costco!!!!
This is a must-have for Christmas morning in our house. I use a gluten-free flour blend (KAF measure for measure) but reduce the amount of flour by 10%, so 225g, and measure the other dry ingredients by weight. I make 12 muffins so they’re bigger and have to bake a little longer, but the oil and yogurt/sour cream keep them moist. A winner!
Struggling. Batter not thick as stated and told a little crumbly and dry. Love all your items so much but can’t get this one. Brand flour you prefer please and what would weight of flour be? Any ideas I’m open for! Thank you!
Hi Tammy! Did you weigh your flour? You need 250g flour here.
I’m making these as a birthday gift for my partner, but want to test it out first as one big cake, would it be possible? and if so how long would you recommend baking it for?
Hi Eleanor! We would use our chocolate cake recipe instead.
This recipe turned out so amazing! The batter seemed a little oily when I was scooping them into the tins, but thankfully I trusted the recipe because these were the softest, moistest, delectable double chocolate muffins I’ve ever had and made. It gave me a full dozen of regular size, and 3 jumbo (nobody is complaining about having a few extra!) I have yet to find a recipe that fails me on this website!
Can you use a jumbo 6 muffin tin ?
You bet! See recipe Notes.
Thanks very much Sally. The muffins are super-fantastic!
These are great, recipe is easy and simple. I have a gluten intolerance and a lactose intolerance so a converted the recipe a little. I substituted King Arther gluten free flour, half a teaspoon of Xanthan gum and Lactaid milk and sour cream. I will have to try some of your other recipes.
This looks amazing and I was wondering about adding in some toasted almonds or toasted hazelnuts. Should I take out some chocolate chips and replace with the nuts or just add some in?
Hi Jennie, You can swap some of the chocolate chips with almonds or hazelnuts. We’d keep the total amount of add-ins about the same.
Thank you. I wound up sprinkling some chopped hazelnuts on top. These were for a student’s birthday and she asked for something with chocolate and nuts. Since I have her 2nd period in they day these were perfect!
My favorite muffin. But would like to know what the calorie content is.
Hi Tom! 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
I found this recipe after googling chocolate muffins and my goodness I’m glad I stumbled upon them! My husband is so picky and in his words, “these are so f*cking good” lol! They did not last long in our house. My picky 4 year old and 24 year old hubs absolutely loved them. And so did I!
So glad they were a hit, Bibi!
Easy to make and Delicious!!
I’ve been trying out different chocolate muffin recipes and I’ve found the winner! My kids loved them. I did add almost 1+ cups of ground walnuts (food processor) and for whatever reason a single recipe made 24 muffins. I’ll make this again!
I really liked this recipe, I used a silicone muffin pan and it still worked well. It made exactly 12 muffins. I’ll definitely be using this recipe next time, I might make a few changes next time I make this.
The flavor was good, and they were nice and big due to the five mins baking at high temp, but they were drier than I like…I may have baked them a tad too long. Or maybe they need more oil. First time baking muffins in a convection oven too, so I may try turning off the fan.
Hi Joann, We always recommend conventional settings for baking (not convection/fan). The flow of air from convection heat can cause baked goods to rise and bake unevenly and it also pulls moisture out of the oven. If you do use convection/fan settings for baking, lower your temperature by 25 degrees F and keep in mind that things may still take less time to bake.
I don’t understand why this recipe is so highly rated. It was too dry, and tasted super bland. There’s barely any chocolate flavor and it’s not sweet enough.
Can I freeze the batter
Hi Patrick, we don’t recommend freezing muffin batter. The muffins freeze well, though – see recipe Notes!
Hi my cakes are sinking in the middle.
Hi Sam, sinking in the middle usually means the baked good is slightly undercooked. An additional minute or two in the oven should help for next time!
I’ve made these several times and they are so delicious! I have made a couple substitutions I wanted to share in case anyone is curious. We have an egg allergy in our home and I had a lot of success swapping the eggs for an egg replacer (I used bob’s red mill) in this recipe. I also was out of sour cream and plain Greek yogurt once, so I used blended cottage cheese, which worked surprisingly well
I was craving Costco double chocolate muffins, but I HATE shopping at Costco, so made this recipe. I’m here to say that sally has ruined every other store bought double chocolate muffin with this recipe. Don’t waste your money buying mass produced crap, instead buy good chocolate and make these instead.
I’m not sure what I did wrong here. I made normal size ones first and they were great (I may have left them in a little too long, but the bigger ones were really good). Then I tried making them jumbo size, and they came out as heavy, dense brownie-style bricks. Still great flavor, but the texture was all wrong. What did I do and how do I fix it for next time?
Hi Jaime, that’s odd. I wonder if they were over-baked as the jumbo size? Or maybe too much batter in each jumbo muffin cup, and they didn’t bake properly? I haven’t experienced this before when making them jumbo size.
I didn’t love these. This was my first time baking these muffins. I baked them in a jumbo muffin pan and followed the instructions to the letter. The problem with baking them in jumbo muffin tins is that the outsides are a little to hard/overdone before the inside bakes all the way through. I think I would have liked them much more if I had baked them in regular muffin tins. Dear readers, learn from my mistake! Furthermore, the muffins are VERY heavy if baked jumbo style. Far too much to eat at one sitting. I think this is a fine recipe, especially if you have kids. It’s tasty and sweet but I don’t think it was anything special. Kindly note my opinion doesn’t mean it’s not a wonderful recipe. It’s simply not something I’d bake again.
This is super good!! i used top flour cos i didnt hv AF. reduced sugar to 75g, used melted butter instead and tasted delicious!!
This is a much loved and raved about recipe in my house.
I would like to make mini muffins out of these. Same temperature and less time would work?
Hi Aisha, For mini muffins, bake 13-14 total minutes at 350°F (177°C) the whole time.
also i wanted to ask, when you say plain yogurt do you mean greek yogurt? if not can i use greek yogurt?
Hi Vishaka, you can use plain regular or plain Greek yogurt.
These double chocolate muffins look absolutely amazing! I love how simple the recipe is and that it’s packed with so much chocolate flavor. The tip about using sour cream to keep the muffins moist is super helpful. Definitely going to try this recipe soon!
Hi, can I use this recipe for loaf or bread? Any instructions? I have a 9 x 12 loaf pan. Thank you in advance
Hi Elsa! You can use this recipe, but we recommend a 9×5 loaf pan. Same temperature, but we’re unsure of the exact bake time. Keep a close eye on it and use a toothpick to test for doneness. Hope you enjoy!