Tessa’s Recipe Rundown
Taste: These muffins have so much more flavor than almost all store-bought muffins I’ve ever tasted.
Texture: The muffins are soft with bits of melty chocolate chips throughout but the best part is definitely the crunchy toffee topping. It adds a whole new layer of texture to muffins!
Ease: Super easy.
Appearance: I love the contrast of the dark chocolate muffins with the light tan toffee topping.
Pros: Fun way to say and eat muffins.
Cons: None, though I may try to use a 50/50 ratio of whole wheat flour to white flour next time and see if it tastes good.
Would I make this again? Yes!
This post may contain affiliate links. Read our disclosure policy.
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.
More Muffin Recipes You’ll Love:
- Pumpkin Muffins
- Banana Espresso Chocolate Chip Muffins
- Chocolate Peanut Butter Banana Muffins
- Lemon Poppy Seed Muffins
- Ultimate Muffins (make any flavor you want!)
Become a Baking Genius!
Sign up for our free email newsletter for NEW recipes & baking science secrets.
Chocolate Coffee Toffee Crunch Muffins
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 brand or homemade, recipe linked in directions)
- 1 tablespoon butter, at room temperature
Instructions
- 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.
Recipe Notes
This post was originally published in 2013 and recently updated with weight measurements and new photos by Ashley McLaughlin Photography.
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!