These one bowl vegan chocolate chip muffins taste like they came out of a bakery, yet are secretly vegan, gluten free, oil free, and lower in sugar than the classic! A chocolate chip muffin that everyone will love!
Why you’ll love these bakery-style vegan chocolate chip muffins
If you’ve been searching for a secretly healthy and vegan chocolate chip muffin recipe, then look no further. These babies are IT.
Introducing my latest favorite breakfast muffin, undetectably vegan chocolate chip muffins that taste like they came out of a bakery.
I’m not even exaggerating in the slightest. These eggless chocolate chip muffins are full of melty dairy free chocolate chips and the lightest and fluffiest muffin texture. It’s lightly sweet and really packs in the vanilla.
Plus, these bakery style chocolate chip muffins are entirely eggless, vegan, dairy free, gluten free, oil free, and low in sugar! But how can healthy chocolate chip muffins taste good?
Well, let’s go over the ingredients!
Muffin Ingredients & Equipment
For these vegan chocolate chip muffins, you’ll only need a few ingredients:
- Flour: we have options for both gluten free and regular chocolate chip muffins, so keep reading below!
- Coconut sugar: you can use granulated sugar or coconut sugar- whichever you prefer! I used coconut sugar here to keep everything refined sugar free.
- Vegan buttermilk: we go over vegan buttermilk a lot in the next sections!
- Applesauce: I use unsweetened applesauce, and it tastes just fine. The applesauce replaces eggs in regular muffins here.
- Dairy free yogurt: I recommend using coconut milk yogurt or oat milk yogurt. A high fat dairy free yogurt will yield the best texture.
- Chocolate chips: I discuss what my favorite vegan chocolate chip brands are below!
- Vanilla & leavening agents: I use a lot of vanilla in these muffins, which I think is why they taste just like childhood! Vanilla adds a lot of “sweetness” without adding sugar (because our brains register vanilla as sweet!). You’ll also use some baking powder and baking soda (to take the edge off of the baking powder taste).
How are these bakery-style muffins?
The tricks to making these chocolate chip muffins go from a home-baked taste to a bakery style taste are nutmeg, vegan buttermilk, and the muffin top (with sugar of course!).
Nutmeg. You might be wondering why use nutmeg in baked goods, such as muffins and donuts. Isn’t that a holiday spice? It is most often associated with holiday treats, but nutmeg is also a crucial ingredient in bakery baking. It’s what makes you associate a muffin with a bakery rather than a home oven. Just a 1/4 teaspoon is all you need to make you think these are bakery chocolate chip muffins!
Vegan buttermilk. This wonderful mixture not only adds moisture to these fluffy and light chocolate chip muffins, but also adds volume and lift, making these extra tall and tender muffins. Trust me, you’ll want to use this!
The classic muffin top. I know many will tell you to only fill your muffin tins 3/4 of the way full, but I always fill mine to the top, especially when using gluten-free flours. This helps ensure that you get that classic muffin top look! Sprinkle a bit of granulated sugar on top as well for extra sweetness.
How to make vegan chocolate chip muffins
Now, the full recipe and ingredient measurements to these vegan chocolate chip muffins are found down below in the recipe card. However, let’s go over the brief overview here!
1. Make the vegan buttermilk
Use vegan buttermilk in this muffin batter is such a crucial step to creating light and fluffy vegan chocolate chip muffins. It’s the difference between a good muffin and a great muffin.
Simply mix the dairy free milk of your choice with a bit of apple cider vinegar or lemon juice to create the curdle.
2. Make the batter
The batter of these vegan muffins is so simple. Plus, you really just need one bowl. First, you’ll whisk together the dry ingredients (don’t forget the nutmeg!).
Then add in the wet, and fold together. Fold in the chocolate chips as well. The whole batter process should take no longer than 7 minutes, as long as you have the buttermilk prepared and your ingredients ready!
3. Bake the muffins
Next we just bake the muffins! I fill each cup up to the top, because I love when bakery muffins spill over the edges and have that classic “muffin top.”
Then I bake the muffins for about 25 minutes. Some ovens need more (I’ve tested this recipe in my mom’s oven, and hers took about 27 minutes), so just keep an eye on them after about 23 minutes!
Then remove the muffins from the oven, allow them to cool for a few minutes, and serve with a smear of vegan butter!
Can I make these gluten free chocolate chip muffins?
You can definitely make these into vegan gluten free chocolate chip muffins! This recipe works great with both all purpose flour, gluten free 1:1 baking flour (such as King Arthur’s), or oat flour with arrowroot.
See the below FAQ’s section for more!
Final Recipe Tips & FAQ’s
The vegan buttermilk. This is so important in making these vegan chocolate chip muffins taste like the came from a bakery! You can use any dairy free milk here. I always use coconut milk or oat milk. To make the vegan buttermilk, simply combine the dairy free milk with the apple cider vinegar. Leave the the mixture for 5 minutes to curdle.
Gluten free chocolate chip muffins. You can use an equal ratio of gluten free 1:1 baking flour, such as King Arthurs. Or, if you wanted homemade, you can use 2 1/4 cups oat flour with 1/4 cup arrowroot powder.
The nutmeg. Have you noticed that bakery style muffins (and donuts) have a particular taste to them? It’s just a bit of nutmeg in the dough. How interesting, right? Keep the nutmeg in if you really want these vegan muffins to taste like a bakery style chocolate chip muffin!
Spoon & level your flour. This is so important. Make sure that you spoon and level your flour rather than scooping it into the bag. Otherwise, you’ll end up with way too much flour!
Try not to mix the batter more than 12 times. This means no more than 12 stirs, if possible (so try to get the dry ingredients really incorporated!). This will prevent your muffins from becoming chewy and dense.
Can I make this into a dozen chocolate chip muffins instead of 6 large ones? Yes, definitely. They will bake a bit quicker, though, so keep an eye on the oven. You can also make these into mini bite-sized chocolate chip muffins as well!
What brand of chocolate chips are vegan? For this vegan muffin recipe, I recommend Lily’s Sweets Dark Chocolate chips for a lower sugar option, but Enjoy Life is also amazing! Pascha also has a vegan white chocolate chip that would be wonderful in the mix.
Vegan Chocolate Chip Muffins Storage & Reheating
To store these muffins, I keep them in an airtight container and in the fridge for up to 6 days (though they never last longer than that in my household!). You can also leave them at room temperature covered for about 3-4 days.
To freeze: you can also freeze these muffins for up to 3 months. To reheat, preheat the oven to 350F and bake them for 5-6 minutes.
I hope you love these vegan chocolate chip muffins as much as I do! They seriously remind me of childhood 🙂
If you make these muffins, let me know how they go by leaving a comment below, as well as a rating ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ so that others may find them!
As always, I absolutely love to see your beautiful creations on Instagram and Pinterest, so be sure to tag me there.
Happy muffin baking!
More vegan muffins & breads you’ll love:
Easy Vegan Lemon Poppy Seed Muffins
Blender Vegan Peanut Butter Banana Muffins
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These one bowl vegan chocolate chip muffins taste like they came out of a bakery, yet are secretly vegan, gluten free, oil free, and lower in sugar than the classic! A chocolate chip muffin that everyone will love!
Ingredients
- 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour, see note for gluten-free options*
- 3/4 cup coconut sugar
- 3 tsp baking powder
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1/4 tsp nutmeg
- 1 cup vegan buttermilk, room temperature see note for how to make vegan buttermilk
- 1/2 cup unsweetened applesauce, room temperature
- 1/4 cup dairy free yogurt, room temperature, see note for substitutions
- 1 tbsp vanilla extract
- 3/4 cup vegan chocolate chips
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350F and grease 6 large muffin cups with olive or coconut oil.
- In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and nutmeg.
- Add in the applesauce, buttermilk, dairy free yogurt, and vanilla, and use a rubber spatula to fold together until there are no more dry streaks, being careful not to over mix.
- Fold in the chocolate chips.
- Use a 1/2 cup scoop to scoop about 1/2 cup of batter into each muffin tin. Sprinkle each muffin with more chocolate chips if desired.
- Place the muffin tin into the oven to bake for 25-28 minutes, or until the toothpick comes out clean.
- Remove from the oven and allow the muffins to cool for 10 minutes in the pan. Use a butter knife to help gently separate the muffin sides from the tin. Remove each muffin from the tin and enjoy!
- Store any leftovers at room temperature in an airtight container for up to 4 days, in the fridge for up to 6, and in the freezer for up to 3 months.
Notes
Gluten Free: to make these gluten free vegan chocolate chip muffins, you can swap in 2 1/2 cups gluten free 1:1 baking flour, such as Bob’s Red Mill or King Arthur. Alternatively, you can use 2 1/4 cups oat flour and 1/4 cup arrowroot starch or powder.
Vegan Buttermilk: to make a vegan buttermilk, combine 1 cup dairy free milk with 1 tsp of apple cider vinegar or lemon juice. Allow the mixture to sit for 5-6 minutes to curdle. Then use in the recipe.
Dairy Free Yogurt: if you don’t have dairy free yogurt, you can also use dairy free sour cream or coconut cream fat that’s been separated from the water.
Keywords: vegan chocolate chip muffins,
These were delicious! I didn’t have applesauce so I used 1/2 cup of banana but they turned out so light and fluffy! Definitely the closest I’ve gotten to bakery-style with a vegan recipe. Thanks for sharing!
Aw that’s wonderful to hear! Thank you!! So glad the banana worked 🙂
The texture is nice but the chocolate chips fell out and it desperately needs salt as it has virtually no flavor
★★★
Hi there, I’m so sorry to hear that! I’m not sure what the chocolate chips would fall out, other than sometimes I notice the Lily’s sweets chips don’t quite melt in a baked muffin or bread like this. Enjoy life or Pascha work great here! Again, so sorry about this flavor too!