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
Used self-raising flour (so skipped the baking soda) and greek yoghurt as that was what I had. My muffins turned out perfectly, and it was so easy. Thank you!
Hi Sally, have you tried using black velvet cacao in place of regular? Also, if so, do you know if there is a different amount I should use and if I would need to change the amount of baking soda or if I need baking powder instead & how much? Thank you.
Hi Crystal, you can use cacao powder if that’s all you have, however natural unsweetened cocoa powder is ideal here. Cacao powder can be drying and bitter and may require some tweaking of the other ingredients. Let us know what you try!
has anyone ever substituted applesauce for the oil successfully? are they still good?
Hey Danielle! I’ve made this muffin recipe before as well as others from this website using Applesauce instead of oil every time. I have yet to have a failed batch! They’ve all come out delicious!
I followed the directions exactly, but mine did not “dome” on the top, just spread out and touched the other muffins in the pan. I’m guessing this has something to do with living in Denver, at a somewhat high altitude. I read back through many pages of reviews hoping someone would have mentioned high altitude adjustments, but didn’t see any. I know that Sally and her team do not give high altitude adjustments, but in case anyone on the site happens to make them with some high altitude adjustments and has good results, please post for the rest of us! Thanks!
Not sure about the altitude but I find the key for doming muffin tops is 1. Let your batter sit for 15 mins before filling/baking 2. Filling them to the brim of the liner 3. Spacing every other muffin in the tray (ex. if the tray fits 12 you are only putting in 6 spaced apart)
4. 425 F for 5 mins then reducing temp and finish baking (this recipe already includes that step!)
The recipe says it makes 14 but I have 17 full muffin cups in the oven right now…crossing fingers!
Just finished reading the notes now that I have them cooking them in the oven.
My muffins will be 100percent dairy free, substituted with oat milk and dairy free cream in place of sour cream. And chocolate for whizzed up Whittaker’s dark almond.
I never have issues changing dairy recipes into no dairy.
I’ll update when I get the results
Hi Sally!
Thank you for all the great recipes. As a “new” baker, they are very detailed and user friendly. You’re amazing…and very pretty!
Darrin from Las Vegas
Love this recipe so good I make these one a week!! So so so good!!
I’ve been making these for a long time with all purpose gluten free flour and dairy free replacements (almond milk, coconut milk pain yogurt, etc), just in case anyone is curious about how that would turn out. My child is so grateful for this recipe!
Your muffin recipes are crazy good. I’m 2 for 2 on delicious muffins. I tried your banana bread muffins first and they were perfect. These turned out just as amazing. I’ve had mixed luck with other muffin recipes in the past, they usually fall flat and bake all goofy. But yours rise beautifully and come out of the oven looking like I bought them at a professional bakery. I also really appreciate that you included size options in the baking notes. I did the jumbo muffin option with these and my kids nearly lost their minds when they saw them. Thank you!
Hello! I was wondering if these would work in mini muffin pans and if so what would you recommend for baking times?
Hi Kendra, For mini muffins, bake 13-14 total minutes at 350°F (177°C) the whole time.
What temp for fan assisted oven? Thanks!
Hi Carrie! 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.
AMAZING! Super moist and delicious. I used part plain yogurt part greek yogurt and it came out so so good.
how to add protein powder to this recipe?
really liked how easy they are to make but also how tasty they are! i also added some cherry jam in the middle after baking are they are delicious! will make again
Cherry jam in these sounds delicious, good idea!
Hi Sally, can I use dairy free yogurt like coconut yogurt instead of sour cream and almond milk instead of whole milk to make this dairy free?
Hi MV, we haven’t tested it, but some readers have reported success with using nondairy yogurt and milk here. If you try it, please report back!
Made this today with the substitutions and they turned out great! Thank you so much!
Delicious and so moist! Exactly what I wanted! I used the trick of checking the temp and pulling them at 205deg to make sure I didn’t over bake them. Also, I sprinkled a little salt on top…sooo good!!! Love me some sweet and salty!:)
Perfect when you might want something a little less sweet than a cupcake. We all loved them, and they were gone before I even thought of needing to freeze any.
I’d love to make these today but unfortunately I don’t have any milk on hand. I have half and half, heavy cream, and almond milk. Can I use any of these as a substitute somehow?
Hi Stephanie, almond milk would work in a pinch. Happy baking!
Can I substitute the sour cream/plain yoghurt for anything else? I don’t have it in at the minute
Hi Stevie, You could use buttermilk if replacing both the sour cream/yogurt AND milk, but the muffins taste a little spongy that way. Best to use sour cream/yogurt and whole milk.
These are such a treat! Perfectly satisfied my chocolate craving.
Hello! I LOVE all your recipes! I plan to make these muffins for the first time this weekend and I was wondering if they might be good with sanding sugar on top prior to baking for a little more sweetness and crunch; I usually do that with blueberry or banana muffins but wonder if they might be too sweet with chocolate? What do you think?
Hi Lauren! These muffins are pretty sweet already, but if you would like the added crunch, you certainly can try it.
FINALLY a recipe with results of what I think they should be. Yummy! They actually taste like chocolate vs, just a dark brown cake. I make them in the Jumbo size, we have to split them they are so large. Problem is, now I have to keep making them. Time for double batches and freezing.
These were pretty good chocolate muffins, but I was hoping for SUPER moist, decadent muffins and these were a little dry to me. Not bad for a basic chocolate muffin recipe!
How about shortening instead of vegetable oil?
Hi Samantha, for best results we recommend sticking with oil. It guarantees a moist muffin!
They turned out just perfect and looked so good, you could think I bought them. This will definitely be my go to chocolate muffin recipe from now on!
Today I tried out this recipe and it turned out so delicious,Thank you for mentioning a detailed recipe.
Follow-up to my earlier message- made jumbo, total ended up being 34 min, 5 at 425, then I did the 16 at 350 but raw inside, added 5, still raw, added 8 more and perfect. Nice crumb, pretty sheen on the top and slightly crunchy tops. Very delicious.
What brand of cocoa do you use or recommend?
I had Ghirardelli and Hershey on hand and went with Ghirardelli to use it up. Would like to know what you prefer.
Thanks, as always wonderful recipe
Hi Ruth, instructions for making these in a jumbo muffin pan are in the Notes section of the recipe: 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. The total time jumbo muffins would take is 30-33 minutes.
Delicious and easy to make. These muffins are light, chocolately, not overly sweet, and have a great texture. My daughter loved them.
I’m knoiwn as “The Muffin Man” at my late wife’s old employer. But, this recipe tops all others I make. I make it again and again. Chocoholics – it’s the “fix” you need. You’re the best Sally.