Ingredients
For the muffins:
- 2 cups (254 grams) all-purpose flour
- 2/3 cup (133 grams) packed brown sugar
- 1/2 cup (43 grams) unsweetened cocoa powder, sifted
- 1 tablespoon instant espresso powder*
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon fine sea salt
- 6 tablespoons (85 grams) unsalted butter, melted
- 1 1/2 cups buttermilk
- 2 large eggs
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 cup (170 grams) semisweet chocolate chips
For the toffee crunch topping:
- 1/4 cup (32 grams) all-purpose flour
- 2 tablespoons brown sugar
- 1/2 cup toffee bits (such as Heath)
- 1 tablespoon butter, at room temperature
Directions
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Preheat the oven to 375°F. Line a muffin tin with paper muffin cups.
For the muffins:
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In a large bowl combine the flour, brown sugar, sifted cocoa powder, espresso powder, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.
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In a small bowl combine the melted butter, buttermilk, eggs, and vanilla. Pour the butter mixture into the flour mixture and stir until combined. Stir in the chocolate chips. Do not overmix.
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Divide the batter evenly among the muffin cups.
For the toffee crunch topping:
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In a small bowl combine the flour, sugar, and toffee bits. Cut the butter into the mixture using the back of a fork until it is coarse and crumbly. Sprinkle about a tablespoon of the mixture over each unbaked muffin.
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Bake for 20 minutes, or until a cake tester inserted into the center comes out clean. Transfer the pan to a wire rack to cool for 5 minutes before removing the muffins to the rack to cool completely.
Recipe Notes
*This can be found at many grocery stores and gourmet food stores. If you can't find it you can also use dark roast instant coffee.
Yes, I love the name of this post. You are right, it just sounds good!! Plus, they looks delicious and any chocolate muffin is normally a winner in my eyes!
How amazing are these, Tessa? I love recipes that rhyme. It makes me smile. I’m so corny! But these look delicious and I wouldn’t mind jumping out of bed any morning for one!
Chocolate, coffee, and toffee?? This muffin looks and sounds amazing! Will have to give this a try–thanks for sharing!
These look amazing. I can’t wait to try them.
These muffins look beyond amazing and the toffee crunch is making me swoon! And they’re beautiful too, I love pretty food haha
I love the name and I love the muffins – homemade muffins are one of my favorite things!!
Love the flavors in these muffins! Wish I were snacking on one right now!
I would love to have this for breakfast. Everyday 🙂
Loving these! I am always looking for things I can make for breakfast that we can have around for a few days. Although, I’m guessing these wouldn’t stay around that long 🙂
Wow! Are these real life?! They look absolutely incredible. Pinning!
These sound so good…way to take the classic double chocolate muffin and make it new again! I haven’t had a chocolate muffin in ages, but they used to always be my favorite. Adding the coffee and toffee would make them even better, I’m sure!
Yum – I am a huge muffin person, and that toffee topping sounds incredible!
Love every word of this recipe title! Wish I had that basket in front of me for breakfast tomorrow.
I am loving every single thing you have in these muffins! I could definitely go for a few of these with my coffee this morning!
These muffins look amazing Tessa!! And they look like the perfect thing to use the buttermilk that is sitting in my fridge!!
WOW. this look phenomenal! just pinned this recipe to try…thanks so much for sharing. I love toffee flavored things! Have you ever had the hersey nuggets? its like milk chocolate + almonds + toffee? so good!
These muffins look mouth-watering good! I can’t wait to try them this weekend.
I was so excited when I saw this recipe it sounded amazing. So for a party three of us all made this recipe three different homes. They all turned out the same and all three of us were disappointed. Flavor was nothing what the name would lead you to believe it tastes like. :0( hope the next recipe I try of yours is better.
Hi Sally, I’m sorry you didn’t enjoy the recipe. I’m not sure what makes you say the flavor wasn’t like the name, there is plenty of each namesake ingredient in the recipe!
Any substitute for egg or I can make without egg follows the recipe
Substitute for egg or I can make without egg follows the recipe
Can freshly brewed coffee be substituted for espresso powder? Can’t wait to try this recipe!
I love muffins but haven’t made any in a while!! I think I may have to get back in the muffin groove and whip up a batch of these! I mean, toffee streusel, you can’t go wrong!! I can’t wait to try them!!
The pictures alone made me want to try this muffin recipe. I love chocolate and toffee. These were delicious muffins! I followed the recipe except for adding the espresso powder, since I don’t drink coffee. These are a definite keeper! Thanks for the recipe!
Glad you made it work for you, Kristin!
This looks amazing!! What is espresso powder? Brand name? I went to my local grocers and they don’t carry it.
Sometimes it can be hard to find, but Walmart and Target both carry it near me! There’s King Arthur and Medaglia D’oro. Hope that helps!
Is the espresso powder instant?
Yes!
I was really disappointed. These looked so good, but I made them tonight and they’re horrible. They have no flavor and a strange texture. I bake all the time, and followed the recipe exactly. What a waste of ingredients!
I just made these exactly like the recipe except for adding about a cup of pecan chips. Came out fabulous! Made 12 muffins and small mini-loaf. Thanks!
These sound wonderful. I love the flavor of coffeee, but I can’t have caffeine though. Do you think I could use an instant decaf coffee? Or is espresso powder even more fine than regular instant coffee? Thanks.
These made way more than 12 muffins. Were you using a standard muffin tin? I doubled the recipe, and got 36 muffins out of these, so one batch for 24 would have been fine.
Can this recipe be made as regular brownies? What baking time would I use?
Oh. My. Gosh. These are amazing! I didn’t have buttermilk so I did the milk & vinegar trick. Worked great.
A pet peeve of mine is when people alter the recipe and then complain about the outcome…so, the toffee crunch part just seemed too sweet for me today. So, I did zero crumb topping, omitted the chocolate chips, and stirred in a cup of peanut butter chips instead. They are delicious! (See? No complaining!) I’m fighting off the urge to have a third…
I would love to actually see this recipe BUT the mobile version has an INSANE amount if ads that pop up. When you try to close them they are on top if other ads which causes you to accidentally click in THAT ad! Nope. Not wasting my time trying to avoid ads, wltgat yes you get PAID for when people click on them!! Nope. I’ll find another recipe. Your ad amount is ridiculous. Shame on you!!!
Can I use something else apart from buttermilk
I want to make these so bad today but it’s a holiday where I live and all the stores are closed, do you think I would be able to make the omitting the espresso powder?
Of course! You just won’t get that coffee flavor.
How amazing are these? I love the recipe you shared and I can’t wait to try them. Thank you so much, I really appreciated.
Could this be made into a loaf?
I made this exactly as written and they are bakery worthy. Thank you for such an awesome recipe!
Just looking to clarify… for the topping would you want the toffee bits with chocolate or the ones without? I would assume the ones without? Thanks!
You can do either! I like the chocolate ones 🙂
hi there are a susstitut for butter milk
I made this over the weekend and shared it with my cousins. We all loved it! The muffins weren’t overly sweet as you’d expect and wasn’t too heavy. I followed the recipe as is, the only thing was I wasn’t sure how much to fill the cups to get the “muffin top” so a lot of people did mistake them for cupcakes.
I absolutely will be making this recipe again in the future!
I’m planning on making this tonight and after having read through the comment to make sure I’m not being duplicitous…has anyone tried this as a “coffee cake” style and baked in a 9×13 pan? We have a staff meeting in the morning and this will hopefully make everyone happy to meet at 8 am. (yeah, right! 😉 )
They look and sound delicious but are more a cupcake than a muffin. To me muffins are contain healthier ingredients such as oatmeal, shear or oat ran, fruit, nuts and less sugar.
Excellent, made it with espresso as we have to watch the caffeine, but they were awesome!!! Family loved them
Do they freeze well?
This looks so good! What a perfect treat to share at weekend brunch!
I made these and gave them away before I got a picture of them… very decadent with all the flavors of coffee chocolate and heath bits … Delish! I did eat one before I delivered them to neighbors!
Can you use fresh coffee grounds in this recipe? Does it have to be instant? Thank you!
The overnight refrigeration method for the lemon/poppy seed muffin, does that method apply to all muffin batter? I’m really looking forward to the chocolate/toffee muffin and was just wondering if that (and then I thought, hey, how about all muffins) would benefit from overnight refrigeration. Thank you Tessa for your awesome recipes. I look forward to joining a challenge one of these months!
It should! 🙂
These muffins are absolutely delicious. But I have a recommendation – the coffee flavor is very mild, so mild, that the muffins taste like dark chocolate rather than chocolate coffee flavoring. If you want to really taste the coffee, I would recommend tripling the instant espresso/instant coffee crystals. The second time I made these muffins, I did just that – 3 tablespoons of Instant Espresso (I used Medaglia D’Oro brand instant espresso) and it was just right – perfect chocolate to coffee balance. If you melt some dark chocolate and mix in a little bit of the espresso powder than drizzle it on top of each muffin, they are even better! BTW I also used Heath Toffee Bits for the topping & doubled the toffee amount, which turned out really good.
how can we made it eggless?
I made these muffins and drizzles dulce de leche on top and sprinkled extra toffee bits. They were a hit !
Hi Tessa, sorry to bother, is there’s any possibility that these muffins can be able into gluten free?
Ps: love the recipes and the pictures
Could I use the new nestle mocha chips in this? I’m thinking, I should leave out the expresso powder if I do? What are your thoughts on this?
I would love to try these. Unfortunately I can’t see it because you have too much pop-up Crapola that is blocking the recipe.
These came out delicious.. I used only 1 cup of buttermilk and added 1/2 cup of Greek yoghurt.. moist and divine.. two words to describe them!!
Hi! Can’t wait to try this recipe! Can these be frozen after completed?
Sure! Place cooled muffins on a baking sheet and freeze until solid. Remove them to an airtight
container and freeze for up to 3 months. More info in my Make Ahead Baking Guide!
Wow,the most tasty muffins!!
What do you use as a buttermilk? I put milk+vinegar..
I buy buttermilk from the dairy section at the grocery store! I don’t find buttermilk substitutes to yield the same results.