These bakery-style vegan chocolate muffins are moist and decadent with a gorgeous domed top and heaps of chocolate chips and chocolate chunks!
These vegan chocolate muffins are double chocolate and bakery style to the max!
They are basically designed to be the most decadent and delicious chocolate muffins ever. There is so much chocolate involved here that you could even call them triple chocolate if you wanted to.
There is cocoa powder plus a mix of chocolate chips and chocolate chunks. My thought process is: cocoa powder alone equals single chocolate; add chocolate chips and chunks and then we have double chocolate.
But if you want to count the chocolate chips and chocolate chunks separately, well then you have some triple chocolate vegan muffins on your hands.
So if you’re a chocoholic this is going to be your new favorite recipe for sure. You’ll also love our vegan carrot muffins and our vegan bran muffins.
How to Make Vegan Chocolate Muffins
You will find full instructions and measurements in the recipe card at the bottom of the post. This is a summary of the process to go along with the process photos.
- Sift all purpose flour and cocoa powder into a mixing bowl and add brown sugar, baking soda, salt and some instant coffee powder.
- Make a cup of vegan buttermilk by adding some lemon juice to a measuring jug and then adding soy milk up to the one cup line. Let it curdle.
- Add the vegan buttermilk, vanilla extract, melted coconut oil, applesauce and vinegar to the mixing bowl.
- Mix into a thick batter.
- Add in the chocolate chips and chocolate chunks.
- Fold them into the batter.
- Divide the batter evenly between the muffin partitions. Add more chocolate chips and chunks to the top of the muffins.
- Bake for 25 minutes at 350°F.
- Remove the muffins from the muffin tray and place onto a wire cooling rack to cool.
Ingredient Notes
The key to making the best vegan chocolate muffins is a nice thick batter. The batter needs to be thick so that your chocolate chips and chunks are evenly spread throughout the muffins and don’t just sink straight to the bottom.
Vegan buttermilk not only helps in creating a thick muffin batter but it also creates wonderful moisture and a really tender crumb.
I prefer using soy milk for making vegan buttermilk as it creates a much thicker buttermilk, but you can also use almond milk if you can’t use soy.
Coconut oil also helps to keep this batter thick. It goes in as melted coconut oil but as you stir it into the batter you will notice the batter thickening up more as you stir. This is great.
Brown sugar creates wonderful flavor and moisture but it can be substituted for white sugar or any granulated sugar that you have on hand without too much of an impact.
The instant coffee is added in to really bring out more chocolate flavor, but can be omitted if you prefer.
Vinegar reacts with baking soda to create extra lift in these muffins and contributes to the lovely domed top!
Chocolate chips and chocolate chunks! Do I need to even say more? Well, you don’t have to use a mix, you can use one or the other, but I loved the mix of the two because my chocolate chunks were bigger and fatter than the chocolate chips and also different in flavor and color so it really worked great.
For chunks, just chop up your favorite vegan chocolate bar into chunks.
Double Chocolate Muffins Q&A
Can you make these muffins gluten-free? I have not tested these as gluten-free, but if I was going to try and make these gluten-free the first thing I would do is switch out the flour for a gluten-free all purpose flour blend. It must be a blend, do not try it with a single type of flour like almond or coconut. Try the recipe with just the simple switch of flours and see how it turns out before making any other changes.
What can be used instead of applesauce? The applesauce creates moisture in this recipe and also functions as an egg replacer of sorts. You could use mashed bananas in its place but that might result in a little banana flavor whereas applesauce is neutral.
You can also try it with a flax egg in place of the applesauce if you happen to have some flaxseed meal on hand and no applesauce, but the best result for this recipe is going to be as written.
Storing and Freezing
Keep them covered at room temperature where they will stay fresh for a few days or covered in the fridge where they will stay fresh for up to a week.
They can be frozen for up to 3 months. When you want them, let them thaw overnight in the fridge then bring them to room temperature on the counter, or microwave them briefly to make them nice and warm.
More Vegan Muffins
- Vegan Blueberry Muffins
- Vegan Chocolate Chip Muffins
- Vegan Pumpkin Muffins
- Vegan Zucchini Muffins
- Vegan Banana Muffins
- Vegan Blackberry Muffins
Did you make this recipe? Be sure to leave a comment and rating below!
Vegan Chocolate Muffins
Ingredients
- 1 ¾ cups All Purpose Flour (220g)
- ½ cup Cocoa Powder (42g) Unsweetened
- 1 cup Light Brown Sugar (200g)
- 1 teaspoon Baking Soda
- ½ teaspoon Salt
- 2 teaspoons Instant Coffee Powder
- 1 cup Vegan Buttermilk (240ml) 1 Tablespoon lemon juice + soy milk up to the 1 cup line
- 2 teaspoons Vanilla Extract
- ⅓ cup Coconut Oil (80ml) Melted
- ¼ cup Applesauce (60ml)
- 1 Tablespoon Distilled White Vinegar or Apple Cider Vinegar
- 1 cup Vegan Chocolate Chips and Chunks (175g) plus more to place on top.
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350°F (180°C) and spray a muffin tray with non-stick spray. Set aside.
- Sift the flour and cocoa powder into a mixing bowl and add the brown sugar, baking soda, salt and instant coffee powder.
- Prepare the vegan buttermilk by adding 1 Tbsp lemon juice to a measuring jug and then adding soy milk up to the 1 cup (240ml) line. Allow it to curdle. Add to the mixing bowl.
- Add in the vanilla, melted coconut oil, applesauce and vinegar and stir into a thick batter.
- Add in the chocolate chips and chunks and fold in.
- Divide the batter evenly between the muffin partitions and then add a few more chocolate chips and chunks to the tops of the muffins.
- Bake for 25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center of one of the muffins comes out clean (melted chocolate is fine but wet batter is not).
- Transfer to a wire cooling rack and allow to cool and then enjoy!
Video
Notes
- Weigh your flour for the most accurate results or make sure to measure it correctly using the spoon and level method. Spoon it into a measuring cup and then level off the top with a knife.
- You can use either chocolate chips or chunks but I liked using a mix because as you can see from the photos, you have the different colors and textures of the two different types of chocolate. For chunks just chop up a bar of your favorite chocolate. If you are going to do half/half like I did, then use 88g chocolate chips and 88g chocolate chunks.
- This recipe was first published in January 2019.
LOVE this recipe! Is there a way of making them gluten free you could recommend? Thank you so much
Hi Sophie, I think if you use a gluten free all purpose flour blend it should work! So glad you love the recipe! 🙂
I love all of your recipes. Thank you so much!. Question: Can you leave out the instant coffee without affecting the recipe?
Hi Karen! Thanks so much! You can definitely leave out the coffee if you prefer to, it won’t have any big impact. 🙂
Perfection! I used rapeseed oil instead of coconut for less saturated fat and halved the sugar. The apple sauce gives moisture and reduces any oiliness. Kids love it. Thank you Alison!
Awesome! Thanks Satin! xo
Just a quick update; 60g of grated apple works well in this recipe as a great substitute for apple sauce! Also I’ve managed to cut the sugar right down to 50g and the kids didn’t even notice. I suspect it depends on the sweetness of your chocolate chips though…ours are quite sweet. Thank you we love this recipe ????
Does the applesauce need to be sweetened?
Not at all, unsweetened is just fine. 🙂
hello, can I use a flax egg instead of applesauce?
Hi Ester, yes you can. 🙂
Cooked these muffins yesterday. Absolutely delicious! Even non vegans asked what was inside because they taste the same if not better. They are all gone in less than 24h.
I used flavorless sunflower oil since I had no coconut. Still worked out fantastic. Thank you so much. I will use some of your other recipes.
So glad to hear Kitty! Thanks for the wonderful review. 🙂
I just made these and they turned out perfectly. ???? Even my finicky daughter loved them! Thank you for a wonderful recipe!
Wonderful! So happy to hear that! Thanks for the wonderful rating. xo
This is FANTASTIC!!!!!
I will be making these again tonight. Since I don’t use coconut oil do you think the best replacement would be vegan butter or some kind of vegetable oil? I have grape seed and olive oil. Thank you!
Hi Vivi, I think olive oil should work fine. 🙂
I ended up using grape seed oil. The muffins turned out amazingly moist and decadent! I also baked for 20 minutes and that was perfect for me. Thank you for the wonderful recipe!
These are in the oven now and will go into the freezer once cooled to stash up for after I give birth. I won’t know how they turn out until like another month haha.. Well.. thats if I have the willpower to not eat one..
Recipe is easy to follow. I used all the recommended ingredients except canola oil instead of coconut (sadly, I JUST made vegan banana bread right before this recipe and ran out of coconut and butter). I used presidents choice semi-sweet chocolate chips, and ~50% dark chocolate bar chopped into chunks. I did kind of large chunks haha hopefully its okay and not too chocolatey.
Only other thing I changed was using a large size muffin tin, so the batter was spread to 6 muffins instead of 12.
Okay these just came out of the oven! 25 mins was good even for the xl size muffins! the toothpick came out clean in my tests. if theyre a bit underdone thatll be ok as theyll need to retain moisture for a month in my fridge. theyre gorgeous!!!!
Thanks so much for sharing! So glad they came out looking good and hope they will taste as good as they look. And congratulations and all the best for the exciting times ahead! 🙂
This recipe is perfect. The muffins are delicious- really moist, and the coffee is a perfect addition. I used apple cider vinegar (as I had no white vinegar) and oat milk for the vegan buttermilk, which didn’t curdle but it did thicken a bit. It all worked out though in the end and I got a nice thick, airy batter. I got 6 full-size muffins and 12 fairycake-size muffins as I only have one muffin tin ? Thank you Alison for another gorgeous recipe!
So happy they were a success! Thanks so much for sharing your adjustments, I think as long as the milk is thick it will work great! Thanks a million for the awesome review. 🙂
Made these last night. So amazing! Most heavenly and chocolaty muffins ever! I baked them for the full 25 minutes, but next time I think I will do 22 to retain more moisture. I also used melted vegan butter (earth balance) instead of coconut oil. I don’t use coconut oil because of the high saturated fat content. I think the coffee powder was an excellent addition; it really brought out the chocolate flavor! Thank you for the terrific recipe!
Awesome Vivi, so glad they came out well! I wonder if the switch for vegan butter caused them to be slightly less moist since vegan butter has a lower fat content than oil, but I think a shorter baking time might work great for the next time you try them. Thanks so much for posting! 🙂
I will be making these again this weekend. Since I don’t use coconut oil do you think the best replacement would be vegan butter or some kind of vegetable oil? I have grape seed and olive oil. Thank you!
I haven’t made any of your muffin or cookie recipes. They look delicious. However, for me, they have too much oil in them. If you could figure out a way to substitute the oil, it would help. I know I’m probably in the minority but I have to follow a very restricted diet and tons of oil is not allowed.
Hi Liz, I totally understand that if you’re on a restricted diet then maybe oil is something that is restricted, but 1/3 cup of oil in a recipe for 12 muffins is definitely not tons of oil. It works out to a little less than 1 and 1/2 tsp per muffin. However, I think you could try these with extra applesauce to replace the coconut oil. All the best! 🙂
Can cashew milk be used with lemon or is soy milk the only one recommended ? Thank you! Can’t wait to try these
Hi Maddie, I’m not sure if cashew milk will curdle, but even if it doesn’t, you could use it anyway. It is creamy enough that I think it would work well.
Looks so delish and perfect sweet treat for a Valentine’s sweetheart! I think the addition of the coffee powder sounds perfect but we don’t use instant. Is there a way for brewed coffee to be added in partial place of some of the liquid?
You can leave it out and I think that would definitely be easier to do rather than using brewed coffee. 🙂