Healthy Chocolate Muffins
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My healthy chocolate muffins are moist, fluffy, and loaded with chocolate flavor. They don’t need any oil or butter, and I love how fudgy they are!
Out of all the healthy muffin recipes out there, these chocolate muffins are my #1 favorite. They legit taste like brownies but are made with wholesome, good-for-you ingredients.
It did take a fair bit of recipe testing to get it right. I initially experimented using whole-wheat flour, but didn’t love the slightly dense center. So, I took inspiration from my healthy oatmeal muffins and tweaked the batter to be less oat-y, more fluffy, and, of course, packed with chocolate flavor.
The result? Bakery-style chocolate muffins that look and taste indulgent, but skip the refined sugar, oil, and butter altogether. My sister and niece both LOVED them, which is huge- my niece seems to be allergic to the word “healthy”.
Table of Contents
Why make my healthy chocolate muffins
- Perfect texture and flavor. They’re moist and fudgy in the center, with a subtle bite and the tender crumb, like all good muffins should be.
- Versatile. They make a healthy breakfast, snack, or late-night treat!
- Quick and easy. Just add all the ingredients to a blender, blend until smooth, then portion and bake. It’ll take you longer to wash the blender than it will to make the muffins.
- Works with tons of diets. Without even trying, these muffins are gluten-free, dairy-free, refined sugar-free, and loaded with fiber from the oats and flax seeds.
Key Ingredients
I’m including some notes on the main ones (not every ingredient), along with substitutions. For the complete list, jump to the printable recipe below.
- Old-fashioned Oats (rolled oats). Oats replace the need for any flour, as we’ll be blending them to make oat flour. If you already have oat flour, that is great! I regularly make these with gluten-free oats (Bob’s Red Mill is my go-to) as my nephew is celiac. None of us can taste the difference!
- Flax egg OR egg. My original recipe calls for a flax egg, as I wanted these muffins to be egg-free. I’ve since re-tested them using whole eggs, so if you don’t have an allergy or aren’t vegan, you can use that.
- Unsweetened cocoa powder. Be sure your cocoa powder is 100% unsweetened and Dutch-processed. For richer muffins, I sometimes swap this out for dark cocoa powder (shoutout to Hershey’s special dark).
- Baking soda. To leaven the muffins and give them some rise!
- Maple syrup. To sweeten the muffins. Don’t worry; you won’t be able to taste the maple flavor. I also had success with honey and agave.
- Chocolate chips. I like semi-sweet chocolate chips, but dark, milk, or even white chocolate chips work.
How to make healthy chocolate muffins
Step 1- Make the flax egg. In a small bowl, combine the ground flaxseed with three tablespoons of water. Let it sit for 10 minutes for a gel to form.
Step 2- Make the batter. In a high-speed blender or food processor, combine all ingredients, including the flax egg, but minus the chocolate chips. Blend to combine, then gently stir in the chocolate chips.
Step 3- Bake. Pour the batter into the muffin liners. Top with extra chocolate chips and bake for 18-20 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.
Step 4- Cool. Let the muffins cool for 5 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.
Recipe variations
- Skip the blender. You only need the blender if you don’t have oat flour. If you do, you can skip this and just mix all the ingredients in a mixing bowl.
- Use regular flour instead. As mentioned earlier, I initially tested this recipe with whole wheat flour. Although the texture was a little different from that kind of flour, the muffins still turned out super moist in the middle when using all-purpose flour. So, feel free to use equal portions of flour instead.
- Make mini muffins. Pour the batter into a 32-count mini muffin pan and reduce the cooking time to 12 minutes.
Storage instructions
To store: I usually make a double batch of these for our snacks during the week. Because we eat them within that time frame, they keep well at room temperature, covered. You can also keep them in the fridge, too.
To freeze: Place muffins in a freezer-safe container and freeze for up to 6 months. Let them thaw overnight in the fridge.
To reheat: If your muffins are frozen or have been chilled in the fridge, I suggest microwaving the muffins for 20-30 seconds or until warm. The chocolate chips melt beautifully.
✅ Nutrition reviewed
Nutrition information has been reviewed by registered dietitian Felicia Newell, MScAHN, RD, CPT.
Healthy Chocolate Muffins
Video
Ingredients
- 1 tablespoon ground flaxseed
- 3 tablespoons water
- 2 1/4 cups rolled oats
- 1/2 cup cocoa powder
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 3/4 cup maple syrup
- 1 cup milk I used almond milk
- 1/2 cup chocolate chips
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350°F (180°C). Line a 12-count muffin tin with muffin liners and said aside.
- In a small bowl, combine the ground flaxseed with 3 tablespoons of water and let sit for 10 minutes, for a gel to form.
- In a high-speed blender or food processor, add the oats, cocoa powder, salt, baking soda, vanilla, maple syrup, milk, and prepared flax egg, and blend until the batter is completely smooth. Using a rubber spatula, fold in the chocolate chips.
- Distribute the batter amongst the muffin liners. Top with extra chocolate chips and bake for 18-22 minutes, or until a skewer comes out clean. Let cool in the muffin for 5 minutes, before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.
Notes
- Using eggs: This recipe works using an egg instead of a flax egg. Add the egg when all the other ingredients are added to the food processor/blender.
- Baking time: I’m including a range (18-22 minutes) because oven models differ. My oven took precisely 18 minutes, but readers have said theirs can take up to 22 minutes (20 minutes was a standard time frame).
Nutrition
More healthy muffins
- Healthy pumpkin muffins
- Almond flour muffins
- Flourless muffins
- Healthy oatmeal muffins
- Healthy blueberry muffins
- Healthy zucchini muffins
Originally published April 2020
Too high carbs!
Hi Patricia- I didn’t develop these muffins to be a low carb muffin recipe. If that is what you are looking for, I’d suggest making my keto muffins instead.
Hi, just put the muffins in the oven. The mix was VERY soupy, not at all like the video. Could I check – is it really a full cup of maple syrup? And 1.5 cups of milk? It’s a lot of liquid – in the video, it doesn’t look nearly as “liquidy”
I ended up adding another 2 cups of oats to bring it to a thick enough batter.
Perhaps next time I could swap some of the maple syrup for brown sugar?
Any advice here?
Many thanks!
Mia
Hi Mia, thanks so much for pointing this out. We scaled the recipe up and just did a little testing and as you say, they were a little moisture heavy. We’ve adjusted the quantities of milk and syrup now. This should alleviate any need for extra oats. Letting the mix rest for a little will also help the oats absorb the liquid too. Perfect trouble shooting though! I hope they turned out delicious 🙂
Can i use stevia or monk fruit instead of the maple syrup to bring down the calories
Hi Neha- I would stick with a liquid sweetener to keep the muffins moist and fluffy. You could try my keto maple syrup, which I’ve used in other baking recipes. Saying that, another reader had success using monk fruit and white sugar, so you could try that mix.
If I use an egg instead of the chia seeds, do I leave out the 3 Tbsp of water?
Yep! The water is used to make the flax egg but if you’re using a real one, there’s no need for this 🙂
had to use probably 1\2cup more oats as they were very soupy, but other then that the taste was divine!
Hi Samantha- thanks for the feedback and review. Did you overblend the batter? It should be a batter, not soupy- but good thinking on adding oats 🙂
Boy, am I ever glad I landed on this recipe the other day! Just came out of the oven and OMG…. PERFECT!! I had no problem with the batter and actually poured it into donut pans. They came out so good! I opted to use 2 mashed bananas instead of the maple syrup. Thank you for sharing this recipe!
What a lovely idea to bake them in donut pans, Chari. Thanks for sharing that you used bananas instead of maple syrup- this is super helpful for others thinking of doing the same thing 🙂
I appreciate you leaving a lovely review and rating.
I would love to leave my feedback here in case anyone else had some challenges. It all ends well:)….I followed this recipe with adding an egg instead of flax and half a cup of frozen super sweet bananas to cut down on all the maple syrup, which I always have in freezer. I also used 90% broken up pieces of a chocolate bar from Walmart, the better goods brand which is only $2 and something but the best smooth melt on your tongue 90% dark chocolate I have tried. Who knew. So everything but the chocolate pieces went into my blendtec blender and out came a very soupy batter which I knew no way would it work for a muffin. I added in more rolled oats, not the quick cooking ones to no avail . I then added a few TBL of arrowroot flour, but didn’t thicken much but THEN, I added probably at least a 1/4+ cup almond butter and my joy returned as the batter thicken up perfectly for muffins. I stirred in the dark chocolate and filled up 24 mini muffins and 12 other muffins in another large muffin tin but only half way. Baked till toothpick came out clean, the mini muffin tin cooked faster than larger one. They looked perfect, all cute rounded shape! Tasted them and would say if you like them sweeter you need to use maybe no more than a 72% chocolate. Anyway I have little glass jars like at the restaurant Seasons 52 that they put their little desserts in and had so much fun. I made up a variety. I put layers of muffin, FAGE greek yogurt and strawberry sauce(frozen strawberries with a little maple syrup heated up) in the small jars for some of them, for others I switched it to raspberries from the freezer, for others used whipped coconut cream(put can of Whole Foods coconut milk in fridge overnight, drained out liquid and whipped it with a little maple syrup or date syrup(date lady at Walmarts) and vanilla, some others I heated some nut milk with a little sweetener and made some like a baked muffin like pudding… options are endless. So just sharing my good ending with you all. Happy New Year.
I just made these muffins! And I have to say that they are some of the best muffins I have ever had or made!! Unbelieveable! Thank you!!
I appreciate your lovely review and rating, Susan. I’m glad you enjoyed my healthy chocolate muffins 🙂
I just made these and they were delicious! Question though – my batter was QUITE soupy. I ended up adding a 1/2 cup more oat flour to the mix. Did I need to? Is your batter usually soupy and it comes together and that’s what makes them moist?
Appreciate the ease of this recipe! It’s like a one-pot situation. Clean up was a breeze. Thanks a mil!
Hi Katie! Yes, it could be- I think you did the right thing by adding more though 🙂
Followed the recipe and had very wet batter, which sent all the chocolate chips to the bottom of the cup. There’s no mention of the consistency to expect, so I went with it. Had to bake closer to 25 mins. After cooling 5-10 mins and removing from the pan, the bottom of the muffin–the cluster of chocolate chips–broke off. They look and smell good, the small taste I had was delicious. Not sure of the solution except that maybe since it’s so wet it would have been better to drop the chips onto the top of each muffin instead of mixing them in so they could slowly sink, and maybe that would work?
My notes:
-I used a real egg instead of the flax+water ‘egg’;
-I was 1/4c short of rolled oats, so added 1/4c almond flour;
-I used previous commenter’s suggestion of 1/2c maple syrup + 3Tbsp sugar;
-my ‘milk’ was almond milk.
Hi Susanna- thanks for your detailed comment- I really appreciate it.
I think the wet batter is due mostly to the almond flour addition. 1/4 cup of oats adds much more thickness compared to almond flour, so it naturally thins out the batter. In turn, the chocolate chips would have sunk 🙂 If you do follow the same changes next time, I’d toss the chocolate chips in a tablespoon of almond flour to prevent them from sinking.
Let me know how you go 🙂
Hmm I don’t know what I did wrong here… I followed the recipe to the letter but they didnt turn out well. Weird, gluey, lumpy texture, despite the skewer coming out clean and cooking for an extra 10 minutes?
Hi Beth- thanks for the feedback, I appreciate you taking the time to let me know. Did you blend everything properly? I’m wondering if that affected the texture. The baking time is accurate, and unless your own typically cooks a little lighter than usual? Let me know and I can troubleshoot for you 🙂
Hello, are you supposed to grind the oats into flour? It’s not mentioned in the recipe. My daughter made these and followed the recipe but they didn’t rise at all. Either she missed something else or this was the missing step. Thanks!
Hi Nicki- yes, it is. Step 3 of the instructions say to add the oats to a blender, which blends it down to a flour-like consistency.
My blender will not blend oats nor do I have a food processor, but what does grind is a coffee grinder I have not used in many years. For sweetener I used 1/2C monk fruit and 1/2 Cup sugar. You could use all Splenda for sweetener. They are tasty!
Thanks for letting me know, Lola- I’d never have thought to use a coffee grinder. Thanks for letting me know that you used a granolated sweetener- another reader wanted to try that, but I suggested a liquid one for the best texture, but I’ll update her 🙂
I made a slight change to this recipe where i used one cup of vanilla flavored greek yogurt and half a cup full-fat milk. I also used 3 tablespoons of white sugar with 1/2 cup maple syrup. It turned out delicious!! Thank you for this recipe! It has already become one of my favorites 👍🏻
can i replace maple syrup to sweetener?
Hi Mashael- that should work. I’d suggest using my keto maple syrup, which I’ve tested in baking and other recipes successfully 🙂
Is it possible to dump the whole muffin batter into a cake pan to make a muffin cake?
I wld loove a cake that had bread-y muffin-like texture.
You sure can! I had a reader bake it in donut pans and loaf pans. Just be wary that it won’t have a cake texture 🙂
Can this be made as a cake? We’ve made the muffins several times and love them.
Hi Shannon- yes, several readers have. Just keep an eye on the baking time, as it can go from moist to a little chewy quite fast. It also won’t be a traditional “cake” texture (it just won’t get that fluffy and moist) but still pretty darn good! 🙂
Hi there
Can I replace the flax egg with a normal free range egg?
Sure can!
These are devine!! Just made them as I’ve been struggling with being Gluten, dairy and egg free recently. Couldnt wait for them to cool completely and my gosh they are yummy. Thankyou for restoring my hope in eating again. Just what I needed today.
I love to hear that, Kelly. Thanks for taking the time to leave a lovely review and rating 🙂 I’m glad they ticked the boxes for you.
hi, I wanna add protein powder to this recipe, how much would I need to use.
No idea, I haven’t tried this with protein powder. Feel free to experiment and see!
These were a success! They are delicious and such a healthy treat! Thank you so much for the recipe! I am always so thankful for recipes that are GF,DF, and EF that actually work out perfectly!
I’m so glad you enjoyed these muffins, Sharon. I’m glad it fit multiple dietary options, too 🙂
Hi, this recipe looks amazing, I can’t wait to try it out! Quick question, could I possibly substitute the flax-egg for an actual egg? Thank you!
Yes, absolutely Meera 🙂 I’ve made it that way many times before and it bakes up beautifully 🙂
Is it possible to use white sugar…maple syrup is pretty expensive for me..
Hi there! I made this recipe once and loved it
I want to repeat it again for my family but I can’t seem to have enough maple syrup. Can I substitute that with honey instead? Or will that ruin the consistency?
Any response is appreciated!
Hi Dalal- yes, absolutely fine. I’ve also had success making it with agave syrup too!
Wow these were really stand out amazing! I realized i was almost out of maple syrup so i used the last 1/4 c maple syrup and added 1/2 c honey. I also indulged and added an egg and a tablespoon of melted butter. Didnt have chocolate chips but oh well these were so good they didnt even need them. So yummy, thank you for the recipe!
What I mean is if I use 1/2 maple syrup what do I use to make up the other 1/2 c of liquid so the recipe stays as moist?
It’s deceptive to claim your “no flour” recipes contain no flour. They do contain flour, which is made from oats. It’s still flour. 🙁
With all due respect, it is not deceptive at all. If you go through all my ‘no flour’ recipes, or any other food blogger for that matter, rolled oats is not considered a standard flour.
Enjoy these flourless muffins!
would it be possible to sub rolled oats for steel cut? thx!
I haven’t tried, feel free to experiment and see!
I made these muffins last night and they are absolutely amazing!! You’d never guess that there’s no flour, eggs, and dairy. My friends love then too! I definitely recommend making these☺️
Thank you for the feedback, Emma!
How can I reduce the maple syrup? Like to 1/2 cup and what to make up the other 1/2 of liquid?
I haven’t tried, so feel free to experiment and see.
“healthful” is the proper adjective, meaning that the muffins contribute to one’s health. “Healthy” means well, vibrant, and alive. I’d venture the vast majority of English speakers and writers don’t know the difference. Jus’ sayin’…like, y’know what I mean? 😉 they do look yummy…more 😉
I’m okay with using the word healthy for recipes, it is just easier haha!
Thanks!