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These chocolate brownie muffins are ridiculously good! They have deep chocolate flavor, soft fudgy centers, and sky high bakery-style tops with pools of melty chocolate in every bite. This is the kind of chocolate muffin recipe you make when you want a sweet treat that’s delicious any time of the day.
Have you ever baked chocolate muffins and as soon as they cool off, they’re all hard and dry? Well, you’re in the right place because these brownie muffins are chocolatey, slightly fudgy, and SO moist, you’ll think that you’re eating the most delicious fudgy brownies… but in muffin form. And I love that for us.
With a few simple tips and tricks, I’ll have you dancing in the kitchen, in literal chocolate heaven!
Quick Overview: Fudgy Chocolate Muffins
- 🥣 Prep Time: 40 mins
- 🍰 Bake Time: 20-24 mins
- 👥Makes: 13 muffins
- 🔥Method: Melt chocolate, whisk into the batter, then bake!
- 🥣Flavor Profile: Deeply chocolatey!
- ⭐Difficulty: Easy
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For more muffin recipes, bake my moist chocolate muffins and bakery style chocolate chip muffins next!
Table of contents
Why You’ll Love this Recipe
- This recipe uses actual chocolate in muffin batter, giving you that fudgy texture while still being nice and fluffy. It’s the perfect balance of the two!
- Easy to make! This is a super easy recipe that comes together without a stand mixer or handheld mixer.
- The perfect snack AND the ultimate chocolate treat! I love the versatility of these muffins. They make a great back to school treat for both breakfast muffins or after school. They also double as a great dessert with a scoop of ice cream.
- Satisfies your chocolate craving! If chocolate is your guilty pleasure, grab one of these and you’ll get your chocolate fix immediately.
Key Ingredients
(full list of ingredients and measurements can be found in the recipe card)
- Quality semi-sweet chocolate adds rich, real chocolate flavor and creates melty pockets throughout the muffins for a true bakery-style result.
- Dutch-process cocoa powder provides deep chocolate flavor and dark color with a smooth, less acidic taste that gives these muffins a brownie-like richness.
- Espresso powder enhances the chocolate flavor without adding coffee taste, making the muffins taste more intense and balanced.
- Brown sugar adds moisture and subtle caramel notes while helping create a soft, fudgy texture.
- Vegetable oil keeps the muffins moist and tender, producing a softer crumb than butter and helping them stay fresh longer.
- Sour cream adds richness and moisture while improving texture and helping the muffins rise properly.
- All-purpose flour + cake flour this blend balances structure and tenderness, allowing the muffins to rise tall while keeping the crumb soft.
Pro Baking Tips For The Best Chocolate Muffins
- Use high quality chocolate – I love chocolate chips but for this recipe, you’ll need a quality baking chocolate. I recommend 64% guittard semi-sweet baking chocolate, it has a balanced chocolatey and sweet flavor, perfect for brownie muffins. Don’t skip this!
- Measure your ingredients! The correct amount of dry ingredients and wet ingredients is critical to the success of the recipe. Use a kitchen scale to measure your ingredients for the best results. Grams measurements are provided in the recipe card.
- Don’t skip the resting time! Allowing the brownie batter to rest, this gives the flour time to hydrate as well as allowing the baking powder to work its magic – making for those sky high domes and a super moist muffin!
- Add water to the muffin tin in the empty muffin cups. About half way up is sufficient. This prevents the pan from warping in the oven and also creates extra moisture, keeping those muffins perfect soft.
- Cover the muffins with plastic wrap while cooling. I do this with my black velvet cake – it traps moisture from escaping, basically steaming the muffins, keeping them SUPER soft and tender.
Step by Step Instructions
Step 1: Bloom the chocolate base:
Warm milk, cocoa powder, and espresso over low heat, then add chopped chocolate and melt until smooth.
Step 2: Whisk in sugars and oil, let cool slightly, then mix in eggs, egg yolk, sour cream, vanilla, and vinegar. Whisk dry ingredients in a bowl, then add chocolate mixture.
Step 3: Fold in chocolate, then rest the batter for 30 minutes. Scoop batter into lined muffin cups, top with additional chocolate, and bake at 350°F until puffed and just set. Cool briefly, then transfer to a rack and cover with plastic wrap.
Recipe FAQs
Technically yes, you can bake brownie mix in a muffin pan, but the results will be more akin to brownie bites as opposed to brownie muffins.
Brownies contain more sugar and eggs and don’t tend to be as fluffy as muffins. Muffins also have a different presentation in that they are baked in a muffin pan and tend to have more height and an airier texture.
Although both chocolate muffins and cupcakes may look alike and both have chocolate flavor, muffins are bigger and tend to have less sugar and fat than cupcakes.
More Muffin Recipes
Breakfast
Bakery Style Chocolate Chip Muffins
Breakfast
Banana and Nutella Muffins
Breakfast
Triple Chocolate Muffins
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If you make this recipe, please leave a star rating on the recipe card and comment below! You can also tag @BritneyBreaksBread on Instagram and hashtag #britneybreaksbread so I can celebrate your beautiful creations!
Chocolate Brownie Muffins
Equipment
- 12 cup Muffin Pan
- Tulip Muffin Liners (regular muffin liners work here too)
Ingredients
- 3/4 cup Whole Milk
- 1/2 cup Dutch Process Cocoa Powder
- 2 tsp Espresso Powder
- 2 oz Bittersweet Chocolate, (about 64% cocoa) – I bought a 6 oz of chocolate and used 2 oz for the muffin batter and the remaining chocolate for folding into the batter and sprinkling on top of the muffins.
- 1 cup Brown Sugar
- 1/4 cup Sugar
- 2/3 cup Vegetable Oil
- 2 large Eggs
- 1 egg Egg Yolk
- 1/2 cup Sour Cream
- 2 tsp Vanilla Extract
- 1 tbsp Vinegar, (white vinegar or apple cider vinegar are best but you can also use lemon juice if you don't have vinegar)
- 1 1/2 cups All Purpose Flour
- 3/4 cups Cake Flour
- 2 tsp Baking Powder
- 1/4 tsp Baking Soda
- 1 tsp Kosher Salt
- 4 oz Bittersweet Chocolate, (from above)
Instructions
- Add whole milk, dutch process cocoa powder (sift the cocoa powder if lumpy), and espresso powder to a small saucepan. Whisk together then place on the stove over low heat and heat until just warm, about 3-4 minutes. Then add 2 oz of chopped bittersweet chocolate. Stir constantly until fully melted, about 3-5 minutes. 3/4 cup Whole Milk 1/2 cup Dutch Process Cocoa Powder 2 tsp Espresso Powder 2 oz Bittersweet Chocolate
- Once the chocolate is fully melted, remove the pan from the heat and whisk in brown sugar, sugar, and vegetable oil. Whisk until combined. Set aside to cool off for about 10 minutes, then whisk in eggs, egg yolk, sour cream, vanilla extract, and vinegar. 1 cup Brown Sugar 1/4 cup Sugar 2/3 cup Vegetable Oil 2 large Eggs 1 egg Egg Yolk 1/2 cup Sour Cream 2 tsp Vanilla Extract 1 tbsp Vinegar
- In a large mixing bowl, add the dry ingredients – all purpose flour, cake flour, baking powder, baking soda, and kosher salt. Pour the chocolate mixture into the dry ingredients and whisk until just smooth, about 20-30 seconds. Then fold in half of the remaining chocolate. 1 1/2 cups All Purpose Flour 3/4 cups Cake Flour 2 tsp Baking Powder 1/4 tsp Baking Soda 1 tsp Kosher Salt
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Let the batter sit for 30 minutes.
- Line the muffin pan with tulip liners (or regular muffin liners) in every other cup. So 6 muffin cups should be full and 6 should be empty. In the empty muffin cups, fill with water (about half way is fine – this creates steam as well as prevents your pan from warping in the oven). Scoop a heaping 1/4 cup of the batter into each of the muffin cups and sprinkle with remaining chopped chocolate. 4 oz Bittersweet Chocolate
- Bake for 20-24 minutes, until the centers of the muffins are puffed and a toothpick inserted comes out with just a few moist crumbs. Let the muffins cool in the pan for 5 minutes, then remove and place onto a wire rack. Cover lightly with plastic wrap and allow the muffins to cool completely.
Notes
- Use room temperature ingredients! This applies to the eggs, buttermilk, and sour cream. Let these ingredients sit at room temperature for about 30 minutes to an hour prior to baking for the best chocolate muffins.
- Measure your ingredients! The amount of dry ingredients and wet ingredients is critical to the success of the recipe. Use a kitchen scale to measure your ingredients for the best results.
- Don’t skip the resting time! Allowing the brownie batter to rest, this gives the flour time to hydrate as well as allowing the baking soda to work its magic – making for those sky high domes and a super moist muffin!
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Just a question: This recipe says makes 13, but the instructions say to put batter into 6 muffin cups & fill other 6 with water.
Can you just divide the batter between the 12 muffin cups?
Thank you!
you can, but they won’t bake up as moist and tall. I bake them in 3 rounds – 6 muffins at a time, baking the last (the 13th one) last.
good recipe! I do wish I took them out of the oven sooner because I feel they would’ve been better if they were fudgier because they turned out a bit dry, but the flavor was really yummy.
OMG, OMG, OMG!!!! What a crowd pleaser.
These are the best brownies that I have ever tasted/made. Third time making these babies. I had to literally double the recipe. One for now and a batch for the freezer to have at will.
Made these tonight and they are delicious. Unfortunately the tops sunk into the middle ruining the look. Any tips?
Glad that they were delicious! It sounds like they weren’t baked long enough. Did you make sure that a toothpick came out clean or with just a few crumbs prior to removing from the oven?