With their puffy, cracked top and rich chocolate flavour, these triple chocolate muffins make a wonderful sweet breakfast or lunchbox treat. They’re so easy to make too with a simple mix-by-hand muffin batter.
These perfectly moist and dense triple choc muffins are so good, and simple, you’ll never want to buy them from a bakery again. Have them dessert-for-breakfast style teamed up with a cup of coffee or add a little scoop of ice cream and enjoy them as an indulgent dessert.
If you love this, you’ll also love my chocolate chip pistachio muffins.
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Ingredients you’ll need
Jump to the recipe for full ingredients and instructions.
- Flour: Use plain flour, aka all-purpose flour.
- Cocoa powder: Regular unsweetened cocoa powder is fine here but you can use dutch-processed cocoa powder instead.
- Baking soda: Make sure to use baking soda (aka bicarbonate of soda) not baking powder.
- Sugars: I use a combination of sugars in these muffins – white granulated and brown. Both add sweetness but the brown sugar adds a little more depth of flavour and moisture.
- Chocolate: I use dark chocolate chips (or semi-sweet chocolate chips) in these triple choc muffins but you can also use a good quality eating chocolate chopped up into chocolate chunks.
- Eggs: I always use free range large eggs.
- Buttermilk: Buttermilk keeps the chocolate muffins tender and also helps them to stay moist. While you can technically make it using milk and a little vinegar, I find real buttermilk works best. You can also use sour cream, let down with a little milk.
- Oil: Use a neutral flavoured vegetable oil. This adds so much moisture to these muffins.
- Vanilla: Use vanilla extract, not essence. It’s used to intensify the chocolate flavour, not so that there is any taste of vanilla as such.
How to make triple chocolate muffins (step-by-step)
These triple chocolate muffins are seriously easy to make. Just a couple of bowls but no special equipment as it’s all easy to do by hand. I use paper cupcake liners in the muffin tins so that they’re easy to get out of the tins but you can just grease the tin really well and dust with cocoa.
Jump to the recipe for full ingredients and instructions.
- Melt chocolate: Start by melting the chocolate for the top of the muffins so that it has time to cool slightly.
- Dry ingredients: In one bowl mix together the dry ingredients (photo 1).
- Wet ingredients: In a separate bowl, whisk together the wet ingredients.
- Combine it all: Now add the wet ingredients to the flour mixture (photo 2) and stir it together with a spatula. Stir in the chocolate chips (photo 3) but be careful not to overmix.
- Portion: Divide the chocolate muffin batter among the 12 cupcake cases (photo 4) then swirl the melted chocolate over the top of each (photo 5) then bake them.
Tips and tricks
- Weigh ingredients: You will ALWAYS get the best result from weighing ingredients and I recommend using a kitchen scale – they last forever and you also don’t have a bunch of cup measures to wash. That said, if you don’t have kitchen scales, spoon ingredients like flour and sugar into your cup measure, then use the back of a knife to scrape along the top to remove the excess. Don’t scoop from your flour container.
- Don’t want the paper liners? Just grease the muffin tin holes and dust well with cocoa, then allow the muffins to cool before removing them from the tin.
- Don’t overmix: Take care just to mix until everything is combined and don’t continue mixing after that. Overmixing batter can lead to dry, tough or very dense muffins.
- For taller muffins, bake only 6 at a time. Use the 12 hole muffin tin but only fill every second hole so they have gaps between them.
- Give them a pep up in the microwave: After your muffins have cooled completely or been sitting for a day or two, just 10-20 seconds in the microwave will make them fluffy and make those chocolate chips gooey all over again.
FAQs
Aside from the obvious frosting that a cupcake has and a muffin usually doesn’t, muffins have a denser, tighter crumb than a cupcake. Muffins are also less sweet.
Storage
Store leftover muffins in an airtight container at room temperature for 2-3 days. Give muffins more than a day old at least a 10 second zap in the microwave to make them fluffy and soft all over again.
Triple chocolate chip muffins can be frozen as well. Store in a freezer-safe airtight container or zip lock bag for up to 3 months.
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Ingredients
- 260 g plain flour (all purp flour) (2 cups / 9.2oz)
- 45 g unsweetened cocoa powder (½ cup / 2oz)
- 1 teaspoon baking soda (bicarb soda)
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 100 g white granulated sugar ½ cup / 3 ½oz
- 100 g brown sugar ½ cup / 3 ½oz
- 250 g dark chocolate chips (1 ¼ cups)
- 2 large eggs, room temperature
- 1 cup buttermilk, room temperature (250ml)
- ½ cup vegetable oil (like rice bran or canola oil) (125ml)
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
For best results, always weigh ingredients where a weight is provided
Equipment
- 12 hole muffin pan
- Large mixing bowl
- Cupcake liners (optional)
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 180C (160C fan forced) / 350F. Line a 12 hole muffin tin or silicon muffin tray with cupcake cases or grease them well.
- Melt ¼ cup of chocolate chips in a small microwave-safe bowl, in the microwave in 20 second increments, stirring well after each until just melted and melted. Set aside.
- In a large bowl sift together the flour, cocoa, baking soda and salt. Add the remaining chocolate chips and both sugars and mix well.
- In a separate bowl, gently whisk together the eggs, milk, buttermilk, oil and vanilla until just until combined.
- Add the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and mix with a spatula until just combined.
- Divide the batter equally among the 12 muffin holes. Drizzle the melted chocolate over the top and swirl with a toothpick.
- Bake for around 22 minutes (notes), turning the tray half way through, until a toothpick inserted comes out with just a crumb or two attached (you’ll have to try to miss the choc chunks though).
- Let them cool for 5 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.
- Please take a moment to leave a comment & rating. It's appreciated and so helpful.
Notes
- For best results you should always weigh ingredients like flour and sugar. Kitchen scales are relatively cheap but if you can’t weigh the ingredients, use the spoon and level method (don’t scoop).
- Baking time will be shorter if you don’t use cupcake papers.
- All ovens vary so start testing for doneness 2-3 minutes before the recipe suggests.
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4 Comments on “Triple Chocolate Muffins”
WOOPS! lol!! A portion of the chips turns into a drizzle! I didn’t read through as I should have! I am sorry! OK, cool! Thanks!
That’s not triple…cocoa + chips. Where is the third? Frosting? I don’t see a frosting here…
You don’t have sour cream in the list of ingredients. How much is required for wet ingredients in step 4?
Sorry Jodie. Just a type – corrected now.