These vegan chocolate muffins have large bakery tops and are made in 1 bowl! They’re rich, full of chocolate and soft and moist thanks to the dairy-free yogurt, brown sugar and oil.
Simple ingredients you’ll need
The full list of ingredient quantities and instructions are in the gray recipe card at the bottom of this post.
Notes about the ingredients
Dairy-free yogurt is the secret to making these muffins moist and soft! Cocoa powder is very drying but yogurt puts moisture back into the muffins. Yogurt also helps thicken the batter so you get taller muffin tops! Alternatively, you can use applesauce (this will make the muffins slightly sweeter).
You can replace the yogurt with dairy-free milk, but I suggest making your muffins smaller otherwise the muffin tops will spread out too much. Your muffins will be less moist after the first day but you can work around this by heating the muffins before serving.
Dairy-free milk. I used soy milk as its higher protein makes muffins more tender. However, any milk will work (for example oat milk or almond milk).
Brown sugar adds moisture and depth of flavor to these muffins. Granulated sugar will work but your muffins will spread out a little more.
Oil keeps muffins moist for longer, compared to using butter.
Unsweetened cocoa powder is the main flavor of these muffins, so make sure you choose a brand that you like! I used an unsweetened natural cocoa powder.
How to make vegan chocolate muffins
It’s really easy to make these muffins as we’re just mixing the wet ingredients and then the dry ingredients in one large bowl. We’re mixing the wet ingredients first because it encourages the sugar to dissolve quicker which allows the muffins to rise more evenly.
For the best vegan chocolate muffins, here are some tips:
- After you mix the wet ingredients, stir in the cocoa powder before mixing in the flour. This ensures that the chocolate flavor is evenly distributed in the batter (Image 2).
- Once you add the flour, avoid overmixing the batter. Overmixing the final batter will make the muffins dry and dense, and rise less.
- If your flour is lumpy, sift it into your mixing bowl.
Baking these muffins
These vegan double chocolate muffins bake beautifully as they are. However, for taller muffin tops I suggest baking the muffins in every other cavity in your muffin pan. If you only have 1 muffin pan, this means that you’ll bake 6 muffins at a time, in 2 lots.
For even more moist muffins, fill every empty muffin cavity with a small amount of water (around 1 tablespoon of water in each cavity). In the oven, the water turns into steam, and this is partially absorbed by the muffins.
Customizing this muffin recipe
Yes, you can reduce the sugar to 1 cup (190g) without any big impact. Keep in mind that cocoa powder is very drying (even more than flour) so your muffins will not be as moist on the second and third day.
You can use whole wheat flour or spelt flour for more wholesome muffins. I just recommend adding an extra dash of milk as those flours are more absorbent. I haven’t tested this recipe with gluten-free flour.
If you’d like to make chocolate muffins with no gluten, no oil and no refined sugar, I recommend using my flourless vegan chocolate cake recipe and baking it in a muffin tin.
More vegan muffins
Or see all of my vegan muffin recipes!
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Vegan Chocolate Muffins
These vegan chocolate muffins have large bakery tops and are made in 1 bowl! They’re rich, full of chocolate and soft and moist thanks to the dairy-free yogurt, brown sugar and oil.
Servings: 12 large muffins
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Instructions
To make the vegan chocolate muffins:
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Add all the wet ingredients to a large mixing bowl and stir until combined. Add the cocoa powder and whisk until there are no lumps.
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Add the flour and whisk until just combined. Some small lumps are fine, as long as they aren’t lumps of dry flour. Do not overmix the batter otherwise your muffins will be dense.
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Add the chocolate chips to the batter and gently fold in.
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Use an ice cream scoop or a spoon to divide the batter in your muffin pan. The muffin batter should be close to the top of each cavity (note 3). If desired, sprinkle extra chocolate chips on top of the muffins.
Baking and storing the muffins:
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Bake the muffins for 23-27 minutes or until you can insert a toothpick in a muffin and it comes out with just a few moist crumbs. Make sure you insert the toothpick in a few places as the melted chocolate may give the impression that the muffins are still still wet, but they are ready.
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Allow the muffins to cool in the muffin pan for at least 15 minutes (or until they aren’t too hot to handle). Then transfer them to a wire rack.
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Enjoy the muffins warm at room temperature. Store leftover muffins in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 3 days. These muffins also freeze well for up to 1 month, but it’s best to enjoy them slightly warmed up.
Notes
- For refined sugar-free muffins, you can use coconut sugar or a granulated sugar replacer. If you prefer less sweet muffins, you can reduce the sugar to 1 cup (190g). The muffins will have a stronger bitter cocoa flavor and will be less moist than the original, but still delicious!
- To spoon and level your flour, fluff up the flour in its container, use a spoon to add flour to a measuring cup, then level it off with a knife. Using a measuring cup to scoop flour out of a container will pack in too much flour and result in dry and dense muffins. Or for the best results, use the grams measurements.
- For the highest muffin tops, I recommend baking 6 muffins at a time in a 12-cup muffin tray. Spacing apart the muffins allows the hot oven air to bake them faster, resulting in higher tops. This means you’ll need to bake the muffins in 2 lots, if you have only 1 muffin tray. You can also pour about 1 tablespoon of water in each of the empty muffin cavities. The water turns into steam and makes the muffins even more moist.
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