Bakery-Style Moist Vegan Chocolate Chip Muffins Recipe
These super soft and tender vegan chocolate chip muffins are extra tall like a bakery muffin with a crunchy sugar top, loaded with melty warm chocolate chips, and are extra moist with a rich “buttery” flavor. You’ll never use another muffin recipe again- vegan or not!
These vegan chocolate chip muffins are about to be your new favorite vegan muffin recipe.
Like going to a bakery, but minus the trip (and not to mention, the butter and eggs- but trust me, you won’t miss it!).
Not to mention, that sky high muffin top that’s quite literally up to Elaine Benes’ muffin top only standards (my Seinfeld nerds, you’ll appreciate that one).
These chocolate chip muffins are anything but boring- soft, moist, and with a beautiful “buttery” tender crumb, this will be the only muffin recipe you’ll need.
Well, aside from the seasonal favorites, like my vegan pumpkin muffins, or vegan blueberry muffins or vegan zucchini muffins, of course.
And if you’re really a chocolate fanatic, try my vegan double chocolate chip muffins!
Ingredients & Equipments
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. I use King Arthur measure for measure gluten free flour when making these gluten free. Amazing texture and nearly identical to when I make them with all purpose flour.
- Granulated organic sugar: you can use granulated sugar or coconut sugar- whichever you prefer! Make sure that it’s organic to ensure that your chocolate chip muffins are entirely vegan.
- Vegan buttermilk: we go over vegan buttermilk a lot in the next sections. This is homemade and not store bought- you’ll combine a dairy free milk, like soy milk or almond milk, with an acid, like apple cider vinegar, white vinegar, or lemon juice.
- Dairy free yogurt: I recommend using coconut milk yogurt or oat milk yogurt. A high fat dairy free yogurt will yield the best texture.
- Vegan butter: You can also use a neutral oil instead, like avocado oil or vegetable oil.
- Chocolate chips: I recommend enjoy life mini chocolate chips, Pascha Chocolate, Guittard, or Hu Kitchen. They have amazing options, including sugar free, 100%, and vegan milk chocolate!
- Vanilla & leavening agents: these muffins call for more vanilla than you would expect, and it’s so worth it!
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. We’ll also go over why we need to rest the batter and bake the muffins from a high to low temperature. This helps ensure that you get that classic muffin top look! Sprinkle a bit of granulated sugar on top as well for extra sweetness.
Overview: How to make easy vegan chocolate chip muffins
For the full written instructions and ingredient measurements, see the bottom of this post in the recipe card. You can also hit the “jump to recipe” button at the top of this post! Here, we’ll go over a brief overview of the steps, along with providing visuals for a better understanding of the recipe.
Here’s how to make the best vegan chocolate chip muffins:
- 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.
- Make the batter:The batter of these vegan muffins is so simple. Plus, you can easily just use one bowl. First, you’ll whisk together the dry ingredients (don’t forget the nutmeg!). Then we’ll mix the wet ingredients in a large mixing bowl. 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!
- Rest the batter.This step is so crucial if you want those high muffin tops, especially for a vegan muffin. More on that in the next section! While the muffin batter is resting, you can line a muffin pan with muffin liners.
- Bake your vegan chocolate chip 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.” Use an ice cream scoop for even and quick scoops. And then I also add additional chocolate chips and a sprinkle of extra sugar on top. Place the muffin pan into the oven to bake!
Britt’s Tips: the two keys to making bakery-style muffins:
Rest the batter:
This sounds counterintuitive, but it REALLY works. The science is actually quite interesting behind it. We have baking powder in there, which will act with heat, not wet, so we don’t need to worry about losing any height on our muffins.
When we rest our batter, the flour is able to absorb the liquid from the wet ingredients, and further develop its gluten. This means that the batter will be more sturdier in holding the rise from the baking soda and baking powder, rather than collapsing or sinking after they’ve risen a bit in the oven. So this is really worth the wait! We want those tall muffin tops!
Start with a high temperature, then lower it
I used to think that you needed to keep the temperature the same throughout the entire baking process. However, with muffins in particular, the best muffin tops occur when you go from a high temperature to a low temperature.
Why is that?
Well, now that we’ve really allowed the baking soda to work with the acidity in order to produce high muffin tops, we now need to help the baking powder (which is a heat activated leavening agent) get to work. A lower temperature (yes, even at 350F) means that the baking powder is slower to rise. While a consistent temperature is great for cakes, as we don’t want to dome our cakes, we DO, however, want to dome our muffins.
Therefore, starting off at a high temperature will quickly activate the baking powder, allowing the muffins to really puff up, but lowering the temperature after they’ve risen quite a bit will ensure the muffins don’t over-bake/not bake evenly throughout.
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.
You are just going to absolutely love these easy vegan chocolate chip muffins!
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!
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If you make this recipe, please be sure to leave a comment and a rating ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ below. This helps others to find the recipes! As always, I absolutely love to see your beautiful creations on Instagram and Pinterest, so be sure to tag me there as well!
Print
Bakery-Style Moist Vegan Chocolate Chip Muffins Recipe
- Prep Time: 5
- Cook Time: 25
- Total Time: 30 minutes
- Yield: 6 1x
- Category: Breakfast
- Method: Baking
- Cuisine: American
- Diet: Vegan
Description
These super soft and tender vegan chocolate chip muffins are extra tall like a bakery muffin with a crunchy sugar top, loaded with melty warm chocolate chips, and are extra moist with a rich “buttery” flavor. You’ll never use another muffin recipe again- vegan or not!
Ingredients
- 1 cup (240 mL) vegan buttermilk, room temperature see note for how to make vegan buttermilk
- 3 1/2 cups (430 g) all-purpose flour, see note for gluten-free options*
- 4 tsp baking powder
- 1 tsp sea salt
- 1/4 tsp nutmeg
- 3/4 cup (180 g) unsweetened dairy free yogurt, room temperature
- 1 1/2 cup (300 g) granulated sugar
- 1/4 cup (57 g) vegan butter, melted and cooled to room temperature
- 1/4 cup (57 g) neutral oil
- 1 tbsp vanilla extract
- 2 cups (340 g) vegan chocolate chips, divided
Instructions
- Prep: Line 12-muffin tin with cupcake liners. Measure out all ingredients. Read through all instructions before beginning.
- Whisk the dry ingredients: In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, sea salt, and nutmeg.
- Make the batter: In a separate bowl, whisk together the vegan butter, neutral oil, sugar, dairy free yogurt, and vanilla. Then add in the dry ingredients and buttermilk mixture, and whisk together until there are no more dry streaks, being careful not to over mix.
- Rest the batter: Fold in the chocolate chips with a silicone spatula, then cover the bowl with tinfoil or plastic wrap and set aside to rest for 30 minutes. While the batter is resting, preheat the oven to 425F.
- Bake: Use a large cookie scoop or a large spoon to fill each muffin tin all the way full. Sprinkle each muffin with more chocolate chips if desired, and an additional tbsp of sugar distributed throughout the muffins on top if you’d like the sugar coating. Place the muffin tin into the oven to bake for 7 minutes at 425F, then reduce the temperature to 350F, and finish baking the muffins for 15-18 minutes, or until the toothpick comes out clean.
- Cool & enjoy: 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!
- Storage: 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. I like King Arthur’s Measure for Measure. Be sure to add in 1 tbsp of cornstarch or arrowroot starch to the flour blend. 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: you can use either dairy free yogurt or vegan sour cream (I personally recommend Forager Project!). You can also use coconut cream fat that’s been separated from the water.
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1 medium muffin
- Calories: 279
- Sugar: 21 g
- Sodium: 117 mg
- Fat: 9.8 g
- Saturated Fat: 5.6 g
- Carbohydrates: 44 g
- Fiber: 1.9 g
- Protein: 4.9 g
- Cholesterol: 10.9 mg
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 🙂
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!
Absolutely delicious! They were eaten in the first 30 minutes after baking, we didn’t even wait for them to cool 😀 5/5!!!
Omgsh!! I just adore this!! So happy to hear it 🙂 Thank you!! Enjoy!!
These are amazing! I have no other words. Can’t wait to make them again. And they were so so easy and quick!
Aw my goodness!! So happy to hear this!! Enjoy 🙂 and thank you!
Hi! These muffins are very delicious and my family loves them! I’m wondering if I can bake it in a loaf pan (like banana bread). Does it work as long as I bake longer in the oven?
Oh I’m so happy to hear it!! That’s wonderful 🙂 And yes, you can! The loaf would bake longer, closer to 50-55 minutes since it’s all in one thick loaf (start checking how your loaf is doing at 40 minutes- and keep the temp at 350F the entire time)! I hope that helps!
No salt?
I use salted vegan butter!
This is an amazing recipe!!! It deserves to go viral.
My 2 year old son is anaphylactic to 12 allergen. gluten, dairy, egg, tree nuts and peanuts, shellfish, green peas and so on. We cooked him birthday cake from your web too. And I can’t stop trying all the awesome recipes!
To some this is a good recipe, to us it is life changing!
This is going to my family recipe book! And Your website literally helped me to cook a wonderful thanksgiving! Can’t wait to cook from your book which I just received.
I’m going to write a good review for every recipe that worked for us! Please continue to do what you do, because you’re so good at it and because it changes our lives who suffer from deadly food allergies!
Oh my goodness!! This literally just made me tear up- made my entire month. Thank YOU for entrusting me with your ingredients, time, and loved ones! I’m so so grateful to hear how much you’re all loving these recipes! I so appreciate you being here 💗Will always work to put out these recipes!! Thank you for being here 🙂 And enjoy!!
What do you recommend for the oil?
You can use avocado oil or even olive oil- I use either!
The recipe calls for 3 1/2 C flour but the gluten free note says 2 1/2C. Could you tell me which one is correct? Thanks!
Hi Elizabeth! If you are making the original recipe, you’ll use 3 1/2 cups of all-purpose flour, but if you’re making these gluten-free, then use 2 1/2 cups gluten-free 1:1 baking flour. 🙂 Hope this helps!
Thank you for this recipe! For the first time I was able to make vegan muffins with the perfect muffin top. My whole family loved it, even my carnivore parents!
This is so wonderful!! Wow I’m so happy to hear it!! Enjoy and thank you for the review 🙂
I want to make these soon but before I do, I need some clarification. You mentioned baking soda through the post more than once. In the recipe, however I only see baking powder. Is the recipe supposed to include both leaveners, or? Thank you.
Oh I’m so sorry for the confusion! So I recently updated the recipe and left that out- I thought that part was edited out in the post but it looks like it wasn’t. I’m so sorry! The recipe card is correct, in that it’s just baking powder now!
These are so good! they definitely live up to the “bakery style” title. They came out of the oven huge and domed with just a touch of crispness to the tops. I added slightly fewer chocolate chips based on preference but otherwise made as listed in the recipe. Now my only problem is finding a way to store the rest of these outrageously large muffins lol!
Oh this is WONDERFUL!