These Healthy Chocolate Muffins help you eat well and have your chocolate too! They are richly chocolate, so my kids love them. And healthy enough that I can actually serve them for breakfast with no guilt!
Healthy Chocolate Muffins
How do you make chocolate muffins healthy?
First, you switch out the traditional white flour for a healthier option. We like to use whole white wheat flour because it tastes milder than traditional wheat flour but is more nutritionally dense than regular white flour. (I have nothing against having a treat –> these chocolate mint cupcakes are amazing!)
We also lighten up the sugar content and switch out white sugar for maple syrup. These muffins are lightly sweetened, they definitely don’t taste sweet like store-bought muffins but they are delicious and super chocolate tasting.
We also make these healthier by increasing the moisture and protein content in these muffins with a dose of Greek Yogurt!
All these changes give these healthy muffins a really tender crumb – sometimes a challenge to overcome when baking with whole wheat.
How to Freeze Muffins
Luckily these freeze great so I make a big batch and pull them out of the freezer to pack in lunches or as a special treat anytime.
Some advice: If you actually want them to make it to the freezer, you should put them there before you tell your kids you made them.
To freeze chocolate muffins, make sure they are completely cooled. If they are the slightest bit warm, they will sweat inside the freezer bag and make the tops of the muffins sticky when they thaw. So make sure they are completely room temperature.
Freezer Tip: Six of these muffins fit perfectly in a gallon size freezer bag. When thawing, move them from the freezer to the refrigerator to thaw overnight. You can pull them from the fridge for lunchboxes or heat them for breakfast.
Chocolate Muffins Can Be Healthy and Delicious!
This muffin recipe has been around our house awhile and it is always the one I come back to. My little kids especially love them as mini muffins. I think because they can fit a muffin in each hand. 🙂 I absolutely love this brand of pans. They are heavy enough that they don’t warp and pop in the oven. But are still really affordable. This is the mini muffin pan that I have.
I feel like I get extra mom points when I bake these. If you don’t believe me, check out the picture below.
I’ve created recipes at home during my kids’ whole lives. The tiny baby hands below are my then 2-year-old. That has been a few years now. But before she was tall enough to see over the table, she would feel around up there hoping to snag something good while I was taking pictures.
She got especially excited to steal chocolate muffins – but was pretty darn happy to make off with silverware, napkins too. I have about a dozen other pictures just like this one. It was a challenging day as an at-home photographer but a pretty awesome day as a mom.
More Healthy Muffin Recipes
- These carrot cake chocolate chip muffins are amazing!
- If you’ve never tried these sweet potato muffins, you’re missing out. They are kind of like pumpkin muffins (and a great way to use up a leftover sweet potato!)
- One of the most popular healthy muffin recipes on this site —> Blueberry Lemon Muffins!
- Of course, healthy banana muffins are a staple!
Healthy Chocolate Muffins
Ingredients
- 3 cups white whole wheat flour
- 1 tbsp baking powder
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
- 1 cup maple syrup
- 3/4 cup coconut oil, warmed to liquid
- 1/2 cup Greek Yogurt, Plain I have used sour cream in a pinch and it works well too!
- 1 tbsp vanilla extract
- 2 eggs
- 3/4 cup milk
- 3 tbsp strongly brewed coffee
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Lightly oil muffin pans or line with paper liners.
- Use a whisk to combine all dry ingredients in a large mixing bowl.
- Use whisk to combine all wet ingredients in a separate mixing bowl and whisk until ingredients emulsify and become uniform. Add wet ingredients to dry ingredients and mix well.
- Spoon batter into muffin pan until cups are 2/3 of the way full. If using chocolate chips, drop a couple on top of the muffin batter.
- Cook muffins for 18 minutes or until a toothpick comes out of the center cleanly. Enjoy being mom of the year!
Can I use Avacado oil indtead?
Hi Nita. Yes, I believe that would work. I’m not 100% sure if their would be a flavor change. You could consider other neutral oils as well like grapeseed or safflower.
I didn’t have white whole flour, so I used 1 cup of white and 2cups of whole wheat, and sour cream since I didn’t have plain yogurt. They are delicious
I am so glad you liked them and your substitutions worked out!
I just made them in a hurry since my kids wanted chocolate muffins for tomorrow ‘s breakfast and I decided to make them in half an hr.
I didn’t have maple syrup as my family doesn’t like it .
So I used honey instead of maple syrup and 100%whole wheat flour . It worked and muffins turned out to be very moist, Mildly sweet and delicious .Thankyou so much for a great receipe!
Can I use coconut flour instead?
I’m not sure about coconut flour. It doesn’t perform the same way as other flour. You might try oat flour??
These are delicious. Thank you for the recipe. I added 1 cup of shredded zucchini and my son still really likes them. I just had to Cook them about 7 minutes longer.
I’m glad he liked them! My girls like them too. I haven’t thought of zucchini! That’s a good idea!
Do you have the nutrition information? I’m looking for a good low calorie, healthy muffin.
These were wonderful and delicious. I only had a quarter cup of cocoa powder and no coffee (because I already drank it all), but I was determined to make them anyway. The texture was exactly what I was craving. They were sweet, which I like, but I can hardly wait to taste them with the correct amount of cocoa powder.
What if I wanted to replace the coconut oil… Any recommendations?
I will try this recipe shortly.
Any mild oil will work. If you have vegetable oil on hand, it works too!
Absolutely love these! Unfortunately I didn’t have whole wheat flour so I used all purpose, and instead of plain Greek yogurt I used just plain yogurt. I was a little worried they weren’t going to turn out because my battery was extremely thick and by the time everything was mixed the coconut oil started to reharden.
Thankfully they turned out great! And will for sure share this recipe with others! Thanks for the great recipe!
Um, yeah, these were to die for! Keep these delicious recipes comin!!! Thank you!
I am so glad you liked them. Super chocolate but not too sweet. Which is what we like. 🙂
Can coconut flour be substituted? That’s all I have and this recipe looks amazing!
Thanks!