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.
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:
- Pumpkin Muffins
- Banana Espresso Chocolate Chip Muffins
- Chocolate Peanut Butter Banana Muffins
- Lemon Poppy Seed Muffins
- Ultimate Muffins (make any flavor you want!)
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.
Hi! These look incredible 🙂 I was wondering if it would help to brown the butter before adding it to the recipe?
Hi Sahira! This is actually a complicated question to answer! American butter is about 80% butterfat and 20% water (typically, depending slightly on the brand of butter), so when you brown butter, you lose that extra moisture/water as it evaporates through the browning process. It takes some experimentation to alter a regular non-browned-butter recipe to work with browned butter for that reason. You can simply try adding a little water back into the recipe, or start with more butter than the recipe requests, in order to compensate for the moisture you’ll lose as it browns. It’s something you’ll have to experiment with a little in order to perfect, but it can be done, and it’s a fun experiment in the meantime 🙂
This is a great muffin. It easy to make always turns out great. These are the most requested muffin out of everything I make.
How do I subscribe to your site?
Hi Louise! You can sign up for our weekly newsletter HERE (we’ll also send you our Cookie Customization sheet as a thank you!). Receiving our newsletter ensures you’ll be the first to know about new recipes, baking challenges, and all other exciting HTH happenings! 🙂
I like to make jumbo muffins. Would these work as jumbo? Any ideas about baking time for this change?
Thanks!
I don’t see why not! You’ll need to add just a couple minutes to the baking time. I’d suggest still checking them around the 20 minute mark and then bake until a cake tester inserted into the center comes out clean. Let us know how it goes!
Will the topping on these get soft if I refrigerate or freeze these?
Hi Pam! It may soften slightly, yes, but you should be able to re-crisp by popping back in the oven for a few minutes 🙂 Let us know what you think once you’ve given these muffins a try!! 🙂
can’t wait to try them.
Would these be as good as mini muffins? Or do they need to be regular-sized muffins?
Hi Judith! We haven’t tried that, but I don’t see why it wouldn’t work! I can’t tell you how long to bake for, since we haven’t tested that, but just watch very closely and remove from the oven as soon as a cake tester inserted into the center comes out clean! I would also recommend swapping out the chocolate chips for mini chocolate chips, just so there’s a better distribution of chocolate in your mini muffins. Let us know how it goes! 🙂
Love these delicious Chocolate Coffee Toffee Crunch Muffins, amazing ones. Super excited to try this one with us .
Can’t wait to hear what you think of these, Rose!
Per your hint to chill the muffin batter overnight, do you have a recommendation as to whether I should chill the batter just in the bowl I mixed them in overnight, or scoop the batter into the muffin tins and then chill overnight? Thank you!
Hi Fanya! Tessa prefers to rest the batter in one bowl instead of portioning out the batter into the muffin tin, then chilling, as the latter is more likely to dry out the batter. Allowing it to rest in one bowl also allows the flavors to meld together nicely! The next morning, you can portion the batter and bake right away – no need to bring it to room temperature! I hope that helps! Happy baking 🙂
Hi Tessa! I love all your muffin recipes and my favorite so far is the brown butter blueberry muffins. They are heavenly! I would love to give this a try, too. However, I’ve been using powdered buttermilk diluted in water instead of the liquid buttermilk because from where I am now access to the latter is difficult. Does it make a difference at all in terms of taste and texture? Will it also work for this Chocolate Coffee Toffee Crunch Muffins? Thank you!
Hi Lara! We haven’t tried substituting for real buttermilk in this recipe, but you can absolutely try! Sometimes, the powdered version or homemade substitutions don’t work as well as the real thing (as Tessa found in experimentations – read about that here!), but if real buttermilk is hard to come by where you are, then the powdered version would likely be your best bet! Experiment a little, and see what works for you 🙂
Hi, your lemon and poppy seed muffins are great thankyou, I’d like to make some more of your recipes. Would you please send me the link to your toffee so I can make the Chocolate, Coffee, Toffee Crunch. With thanks!
Hi Suzie! So glad to hear that you enjoyed those muffins! The recipe for the toffee bits is linked in the recipe for the Chocolate Coffee Toffee Crunch Muffins, but here is the link to the recipe again just in case. Let us know what you think of these muffins once you have given them a try 🙂
Love these Chocolate Coffee Toffee Crunch Muffins, these muffins seems super delicious and unique. Will love to try this Chocolate Coffee Toffee Crunch Muffin, seem super amazing . My kids gonna love this one.
hello, I have a question.
I am new to baking and in this recipe it doesn’t say if the buttermilk should be room temperature? is it supposed to be or does it not matter in this recipe? In your amazing chocolate cupcake recipe that I recently made and loved it does specify.
Hi Kayla! We don’t specify because it’s not a big deal with this particular recipe, but I’d still advise that you measure it out and let it come to room temperature for at least a little bit, before mixing with the other ingredients 🙂 Let us know what you think once you’ve made these muffins!
I love your recipes and most of the time forget to tell you. This one is a major winner! Thank you for a keeper!