When I’m craving chocolate and want something warm & homemade stat, these Double Chocolate Muffins are my go-to recipe.
They take less than 30 minutes and if you like to bake you probably already have everything you need on hand.

The brown sugar, sour cream, and butter in this recipe help to create beautifully flavorful, moist, and tender muffins that everyone will love.
(Any 30 Rock fans out there? I can never think of the ‘muffin top’ without thinking of Jenna Maroney’s song.)
Lots of tips for baking these best ever chocolate muffins below. Enjoy!

How to Make Double Chocolate Muffins
How to make muffins from scratch:
- In a large bowl, 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 fine.
- Add any toppings.
- 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 many muffins does this recipe make?
The amount of muffins this recipe makes will depend on how big and deep the cavities are in your muffin tin and how high you fill them with batter. The higher you fill them, the taller and bigger your muffin tops will be. This if my favorite super affordable muffin tin.
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. I love to serve these muffins warm so the chocolate chunks are still ooey and gooey. 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
-
2
cups
(254 grams) all-purpose flour
-
1/2
cup
(100 grams) packed brown sugar
-
1/2
cup
(100 grams) granulated sugar
-
1/2
cup
(43 grams) unsweetened cocoa powder
-
2
teaspoons
baking powder
-
1/2
teaspoon
baking soda
-
1/2
teaspoon
fine sea salt
-
6
tablespoons
(85 grams) unsalted butter,
melted
-
1
cup
sour cream or plain yogurt
-
1/2
cup
whole milk
-
2
large eggs
-
1
teaspoon
vanilla extract
-
1
cup
(170 grams) semisweet chocolate chunks
-
Preheat the oven to 375°F. Line a muffin tin with paper muffin cups.
-
In a large bowl whisk together the flour, sugars, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.
-
In a small bowl combine the melted butter, sour cream, milk, eggs, and vanilla. Pour the butter mixture into the flour mixture and stir until a thick batter forms. Stir in the chocolate chunks. Do not overmix.
-
Divide the batter evenly among the muffin cups. 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.
Photos by Ashley McLaughlin.
I’m new to baking and am trying to find recipes that are safe for me – so I was wondering if I could use this recipe but without the sour cream/yogurt and still make the recipe work? Or is there something I can replace it with if I absolutely can’t go without this element? I’m intolerant to those ingredients, so if it just means that by leaving it out the muffins get more dense or less perfect but still tasty and edible, that for example would be fine for just me.
Also, I was wondering how important is the vanilla extract? Would it still be tasty without this considering the chocolate inside it? I’ve always wondered about this when seeing it mentioned in recipes!
Thanks in advance!
Hi Hayley! Feel free to experiment with something like buttermilk or a lactose-free yogurt, but these muffins will be dry if you leave it out entirely. The sour cream/yogurt, along with the brown sugar and butter in this recipe help to create beautifully flavorful, moist, and tender muffins. Please note that we haven’t tried this recipe with anything other than sour cream or yogurt, so this would be entirely experimental for you. Vanilla extract helps to round out the flavor in most baked goods, but in something like this, even imitation vanilla should work just fine. The good, real extract is most important in vanilla-based desserts (think yellow/white cakes, vanilla ice cream, etc) and also in bakes like Chocolate Chip Cookies, where you need the depth of flavor vanilla brings to really round out the delicious butterscotch flavors. I hope this helps! Happy baking 🙂
What type of cocoa powder should I use? I used normal chocolate cocoa powder for a brownie recipe and I didnt love them. Should I use Dutch process cocoa? Or a mixture of the cocoa powder and Dutch process? Thanks!
Hi Kerry! Check out this article here for more help in answering this, and also this article here for some info and key differences between unsweetened/natural cocoa and Dutched cocoa 🙂
Thanks for this amazing recipe!!! Whenever I want some chocolate comfort…lol!! I just go a bake a batch!
Bouchara, from France
So glad you love this recipe! Thanks so much for taking the time to let us know, we appreciate it! 🙂
I made this recipe and the muffins came out beautifully moist however I didn’t have any brown sugar so I use 1/2 a cup raw sugar instead and added tablespoon of maple syrup. The tops of the muffins didn’t have that crackle, they were smooth (and risen very nicely) but no cracked crust texture like in the photo on this recipe page. Is this due to swapping the sugar or more likely my oven temperature is off? I did 425 temp for 5 minutes and then 350 for 15 minutes…
Hi Jessica! Yes, substituting sugar in recipes can definitely alter the outcome. The additional liquid could also have affected the top as well as the change in temperature. I’d recommend making this recipe again as written so you can see how they should turn out, and then make adjustments from there 🙂 I’m glad the texture was still delicious!
They came out wonderful. The best muffins that I ever made thanks to you Tessa.
I’m so happy to hear that, Ruth!
This muffin is charlie-and-the chocolate factory personified. Loved it. Thanks so much ❤️ ❤️ ❤️ ❤️ I can’t wait to re-create this recipe my own way all over again by experimenting with nuts and malteser chocolates . Yayyyy. Thanks a million once again. ❤️
This is truly bakery quality! Phenomenal! For perfection weigh your flour. Don’t need a mixer. Easy and fast. This recipe made 15 muffins for me.
So happy you loved this muffin recipe!
Two possibilities: either I’m a terrible baker (a real possibility) or this is a terrible recipe. Given that I wasn’t acting on my own ideas as an individual baker but was merely following the recipe, I think the latter possibility is a lot more likely.
Andrea, considering others have stated rave reviews I believe you did something wrong. Most likely accidentally. This recipe has been a go-to for my family for years, and others seem to agree based on their own reviews. Could you be a bit more specific in what you did not like about what you made, allowing for advise and / or tips for improvement?
Delicious, moist, and rich. I will be making this again.
So tasty and easy to make. Swapped semi sweet chocolate chunks with dark chocolate and still tasted good.
Very easy and very tasty! Thank you for the recipe
I made a mistake. It should be 5 stars recipe. My favourite muffin recipe
Great recipe. A must-try if you like chocolate. Follow the recipe to bake at a lower temperature than other muffin. The muffin puffed up beautifully and tasted like heaven
I’ve cooked half of the recipe! But with ready mix of rice flour, corn starch, baking powder and cocoa powder. Also I used 75 Gr of sugar of 100. And I had heavy cream and used it instead of milk. Now that’s my favorite muffins!!)) thanks for the recipe!
Hii Tessa, can i use 56 percent dark chocolate for this recipe? Not finding semi sweet chocolate chips
Is it light or dark brown sugar in the cup cakes
This is the perfect muffin recipe!! The muffins are so fluffy and taste like little pieces of heaven!!
It’s just wonderful…today I made this for my kids on Children’s day that we celebrate here in India…
Could you substitute buttermilk for yougart and would the swap be equal????
Taste so good..
Do you have a video on this recipe? The double Chocolate Muffins.. thanks
I’ve made this about 10 times… neighbours and family love it every time and can’t believe they’re homemade. These are the best double chocolate muffins everyone whose tried them has ever had!! Thanks Tessa!
I made these this morning according to the recipe. They were great warm from the oven. Gooey chocolate, spongey, excellent flavor and texture. I let them cool on a wire rack and then placed them in a container with a few slices of white bread to keep them moist but not give or take any flavor (used wheat bread once, and ONLY ONCE lol). An after work pick me up consisting of iced coffee and one of these muffins was had later on in the day and they were *dare I say?* even better hours later. The daughter came home from camp, ate one and said they were surprisingly even better after resting for the day with bread. Anyways, great recipe. So hard to find a chocolate muffin recipe that’s got flavor and texture to rival the store-bought. You’ve succeeded!!
I’m so pleased you liked the recipe! Thanks for sharing your bread slice tip 🙂
Looks like a great recipe. I have been trying to make muffins recently and I would not really find the densed crubmly ones. It is always more of cakey texture!
I want to add metled dark chocolate and coffee for stronger flavor, so I think that would substitute the half cup of sugar?
I am a beginner and I want to know if these changes I am suggesting would make it good or affect it badly?
Turned put great, taste just like from a bakery! Thank you for the recipe!
A wonderful recipe…….everyone loved these muffins!
I really enjoyed this recepie…. it is one of the best !!!!!
This recipe was great for our schools bake sale! Thanks!!!! <3
These look amazing! Any idea on the nutritional information though?
Yummalacious……..is all i can say…..fantastic recipe…….thank you
Awesome recipe. The muffins turned out great.
Love your page
Why the texture of the muffin looks like a bread?should it be moist?
I don’t know why but everyone I make muffins they turn out breast with the muffin top looking ‘smooth’ I can bake but idk why muffins always turn out bad for me
Hello, Just clarifying: the ingredients call for granulated sugar, but it’s not listed under step 2 of the written directions. Just making sure it should be in there! Thanks!
great recipe for a cheat day splurge, double chocolate oh my, thank you