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.
AMAZING!
Thanks Christy!
Second time I made these and both times the muffins broke up into big pieces What am I doing wrong?
I followed the recipe eactly how do you take them out of the muffin tin?
Please advise
Hi Katherine, sorry to hear you had issues! Mine usually pop out quite easy but I use a fair amount of non-stick spray. The other thing is to let them cool for a few minutes before you remove them. But since you have had this issue twice already I think the best solution would be to use muffin liners.
Love these muffins! Super chocolatey and fudgey. I loved them but may be a bit too intense choc for some people. I used whole wheat flour, reduced the sugar a bit and also reduced the oil (subbed with some extra milk). Delicious!
Hi there,
I have a question.. I’m making these for my daughters birthday at school and we are vegan but the school is nut free, can I use coconut milk instead? We always make your recipes with almond milk : )
Hi Desiree, you can really use any non-dairy milk that would be suitable, even if it doesn’t curdle for the buttermilk it will still work in the recipe. All the best!
Hi Alison,
Is the sugar dark brown or light brown?
Can I use any oil instead of coconut?
Can I make this into two pan cakes?
Many Thanks
Hi Tara, you can use either light or dark brown sugar, but we used light brown. Another oil should be fine, but I’m not sure about making making it in different cake pans. You could definitely try it but you’d just have to keep a check on it to determine the baking time.
Delicious! Followed recipe exactly except I used 1/4 c aquafaba instead of applesauce. I will say, having not eaten a chocolate muffin in absolutely forever, over a decade, I was wondering how these would be any different from chocolate cake, and they’re not! These basically came out like chocolate cupcakes minus the frosting.
Glad you enjoyed them! Haha yes, there isn’t that much difference between a muffin and a cupcake! 🙂
First of all, I’ve loved every recipe I’ve tried from you so I wasn’t expecting less!
I’ve used yogurt instead of applesauce and I even forgot to add the vinegar and they still were delicious and beautiful :3
I only had a 6 muffin mold so I baked the rest of the batter as a mini cake, it came out great too ^^
Thanks so much Luz!
These are so delicious! If I’m feeling extra healthy, I’ll sub a banana for the coconut oil. They don’t turn out quite as bakery-ish, but they’re still really chocolatey and yummy! Thank you for a wonderful recipe!
Awesome Andrea! Thanks for sharing!
They taste absolutely perfect 🙂
Yay! Thanks for the great review Tanja!
My son and I made these tonight and they are delicious! I can’t believe how well they turned out. We tried a vegan brownie recipe two weeks ago that was a total fail! I’m trying to eliminate dairy (due to his allergies) while still making some of his favorites. This was a winner!
Awesome Jamia! Thanks so much for sharing!
These were fantastic! I may have added more chocolate chips and chunks lol. This was easy and makes a decadent muffin I will make over and over. I used Ripple Pea milk and it curdles great and Apple cider vinegar. I think even less cooking time next. I took out at 20 minutes. Thanks for this recipe!
Awesome! Thanks so much for sharing! 🙂
Absolutely delicious!!! I didn’t have white vinegar or apple cider vinegar, I’ve used white wine vinegar and they still turned out bloody amazing. Thumbs up!
Fantastic! Thanks Tanya!
So moist and held up their shape very well (no sunken middles). Used finely ground coffee – excellent flavor! Thank you!
Fantastic! Thanks so much for sharing!
Absolutely mouthwateringly tempting! Will try this soonest. I just need some applesauce..
Love the recipe especially the coffee part ! Do u think I could use honey instead of brown sugar?
Thanks Lisa! Honey won’t work great as a sub as it will throw off the balance of the recipe.