Don’t you just love the crazy fun name of these muffins? They’re almost as fun to say as they are to eat!
I was inspired by my best friend Ashley who posted a recipe for Toffee Coffee Chocolate Chip Blondies.
The name is what caught my attention at first, but the flavor concept sounded too delicious not to try!
I’m happy to report that these muffins are not only moist and tender, but loaded with cocoa and coffee flavors. Plus that crunchy toffee topping is just to die for. So much better that most boring, bland, and dry grocery store muffins.
I can’t even think about muffins without thinking about Jenna Maroney from 30 Rock and her Muffin Top song. Try not getting that stuck in your head all day long.
When I want to watch something light on TV I almost always stream one of the following: The Office, Parks & Rec, Friends, or 30 Rock. What’s your favorite comedy series to rewatch over and over?
How to Make The BEST Muffins
How to make muffins from scratch:
- Whisk together your dry ingredients.
- In a separate bowl, beat together your wet ingredients. Pour into the dry ingredients. Don’t overmix or you’ll have rubbery muffins. A few streaks of flour remaining is perfectly normal!
- Add your toppings or flavor variations.
- Divide among muffin tin, bake, and enjoy!
How to prevent muffins from sticking to the liners:
These are my favorite muffin liners that won’t stick. They’re usually sold at Target as well. If sticky liners are a common problem for you, check out this helpful blog post.
How to bake TALL muffins:
I recently experimented with the science of muffins and how to achieve beautiful, TALL muffins that look like they belong on the shelf of a fancy bakery. Check out my 3 tips for baking tall muffins here!
Hint: Chilling your muffin batter overnight makes for the BEST ever muffins!!
How to store muffins:
Muffins are best served the day they’re baked. If you have leftovers, store them for up to 1 day in an airtight container at room temperature. Refresh in a 300°F oven for 5 minutes or reheat in the microwave for 10 seconds.
For best results, freeze leftover muffins in an airtight container for up to 3 months. Defrost overnight at room temperature or reheat in the microwave for about 1 minute.
My Ultimate Muffin Cheatsheet:
If you want more muffin baking tips, plus tons of flavor variations, check out my Free Ultimate Muffin Cheatsheet:
More Muffin Recipes You’ll Love:
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 brand or homemade, recipe linked in directions)
-
1
tablespoon
butter, at room temperature
-
Preheat the oven to 375°F. Line a muffin tin with paper muffin cups.
For the muffins:
-
In a large bowl combine the flour, brown sugar, sifted cocoa powder,
espresso powder, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.
-
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.
-
Divide the batter evenly among the muffin cups.
For the toffee crunch topping:
-
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.
-
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.
*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.
This post was originally published in 2013 and recently updated with weight measurements and new photos by Ashley McLaughlin Photography.
Forget my question on whether then can be frozen or not. I was looking for the notes after the recipe. I found it above. I have them in the oven now and can’t wait to try them!
Yay! I hope you enjoyed your muffins 🙂
Can these be frozen?
Great Recipe! One of my favorites!
Wonderful to hear this!
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.
Wow,the most tasty muffins!!
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!
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!!
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.
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?
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
I was wondering if these muffins have been done gluten free or not?
Thank you!
I made these muffins and drizzles dulce de leche on top and sprinkled extra toffee bits. They were a hit !
how can we made it eggless?
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.
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! 🙂
Can you use fresh coffee grounds in this recipe? Does it have to be instant? Thank you!
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!
This looks so good! What a perfect treat to share at weekend brunch!
Excellent, made it with espresso as we have to watch the caffeine, but they were awesome!!! Family loved them
Do they freeze well?
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.
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! 😉 )
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!
hi there are a susstitut for butter milk
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 🙂
I made this exactly as written and they are bakery worthy. Thank you for such an awesome recipe!
Could this be made into a loaf?
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.
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.
Can I use something else apart from buttermilk
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!!!
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…
Oh. My. Gosh. These are amazing! I didn’t have buttermilk so I did the milk & vinegar trick. Worked great.
Can this recipe be made as regular brownies? What baking time would I use?
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.
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.
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!
Is the espresso powder instant?
Yes!
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!
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!
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!!
Can freshly brewed coffee be substituted for espresso powder? Can’t wait to try this recipe!
Substitute for egg or I can make without egg follows the recipe
Any substitute for egg or I can make without egg follows the recipe
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!
These muffins look mouth-watering good! I can’t wait to try them this weekend.
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 amazing Tessa!! And they look like the perfect thing to use the buttermilk that is sitting in my fridge!!
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!
Love every word of this recipe title! Wish I had that basket in front of me for breakfast tomorrow.
Yum – I am a huge muffin person, and that toffee topping sounds incredible!
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!
Wow! Are these real life?! They look absolutely incredible. Pinning!
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 🙂
I would love to have this for breakfast. Everyday 🙂
Love the flavors in these muffins! Wish I were snacking on one right now!
I love the name and I love the muffins – homemade muffins are one of my favorite things!!
These muffins look beyond amazing and the toffee crunch is making me swoon! And they’re beautiful too, I love pretty food haha
These look amazing. I can’t wait to try them.
Chocolate, coffee, and toffee?? This muffin looks and sounds amazing! Will have to give this a try–thanks for sharing!
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!
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!