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The Best Vegan Chocolate Chip Muffins

August 27, 2022

29 5 minutes read

These vegan chocolate chip muffins are moist, tender, bursting with dark chocolate chips, and topped with a brown sugar crust! Easy to make and perfect for satisfying your sweet tooth.

Vegan Chocolate Chip Muffin with additional muffins and strawberries in the background.

Muffins are my go-to baked good when my sweet tooth starts nagging me. They’re so easy and quick and pretty much always turn out delicious. Plus, they’re basically a dessert that’s acceptable to eat for breakfast, and I just love that.

While I love classics like blueberry muffins and carrot muffins, these vegan chocolate chip muffins have one major advantage that those other varieties do not: they’re made from all pantry staples.

I always have all of the ingredients for these muffins on hand, which is great, because how can a snack possibly satisfy those urgent sweet cravings if you don’t even have what you need to make it?

Oh, and also: chocolate. I’m always a sucker for chocolate.

These vegan chocolate chip muffins taste like they came from a bakery, and they can be ready super quickly using what you have in your pantry. Basically they’re perfect.

Jump to:

Ingredients You’ll Need

Flour. I’ve only tested this recipe with all-purpose wheat flour, so I can’t promise good results with any other varieties.
Sugar. Make sure you use organic sugar in order to keep the recipe vegan.
Baking powder.
Baking soda.
Cinnamon. You can leave this out if you prefer, but it will really enhance the flavor of your muffins!
Salt.
Non-dairy milk. Almost any variety of unsweetened and unflavored non-dairy milk will work. Soy milk, almond milk, oat milk, and cashew milk are all great choices. The only type I’d avoid is canned coconut milk. For more guidance, check out my guide to dairy milk.
Canola oil. Feel free to substitute your favorite baking oil, such as coconut, corn, or vegetable oil.
Vanilla extract.
Apple cider vinegar. Need a substitute? I’ve got a complete guide to apple cider vinegar substitutes.
Chocolate chips. Make sure your chocolate chips are vegan. I used Enjoy Life brand mega chunks, which are available at many supermarkets.
Brown sugar. This also needs to be organic. We’ll just be using it as a topping, so you can skip if if needed, but it adds a lovely crust to the tops of the muffins.

How They’re Made

The following is a detailed photo tutorial on how to make this dish. Scroll all the way down if you’d like to skip right to the recipe!

Whisk your dry ingredients together in a large mixing bowl: flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon and salt.

Bowl filled with flour mixture with a whisk in it.

Stir your liquid ingredients together in a separate container. A liquid measuring cup works great for this! We’ll be including your milk, oil, vanilla, and apple cider vinegar.

Tip: Make sure your non-dairy milk is at room temperature before beginning. If it’s been in the fridge this can be achieved my simply microwaving it for 20 or 30 seconds.

Hand stirring oil into a measuring cup filled with non-dairy milk.

Pour the wet ingredients into the bowl with the dry ingredients and stir everything together just until blended.

Tip: Don’t overmix the batter. Stop stirring as soon as the ingredients are combined, even if there are a few lumps. This is the key to perfect texture with muffins and quick breads.

Spoon stirring muffin batter together in a mixing bowl.

Fold your chocolate chips into the batter, being careful not to overwork it.

Hand folding chocolate chunks into a bowl of muffin batter.

Transfer the batter into a paper-lined 12 cup muffin tin, then sprinkle the tops of the muffins with a bit of brown sugar.

Vegan Chocolate Chip Muffin batter in a muffin tin.

Bake the muffins until the tops are golden brown and the muffins are set. You can test for this by lightly touching the top of a muffin with a finger, then removing it. If the muffin springs back (as opposed to squishing in), it’s done!

Vegan Chocolate Chip Muffins in a muffin tin.

Place the muffin pan on a wire rack and let your muffins cool before removing them from the tin.

Vegan Chocolate Chip Muffins on a cooling rack.

Shelf-Life & Storage

Vegan chocolate chip muffins will keep in an airtight container at room temperature for about 4 days, in the fridge for about a week, or in the freezer for about 3 months.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can these muffins be made gluten-free?

I haven’t tried a gluten-free version, but I think your best bet would be to substitute an all-purpose gluten-free flour blend if you’d like to give it a shot!

Can these muffins be made with whole wheat flour?

I’m sure they can, but the texture will be a bit different. If you’d like to try a whole wheat version I’d recommend using either whole wheat pastry flour, or a mix of regular whole wheat flour and all-purpose flour.

Variations

Spiced vegan chocolate chip muffins. In addition to cinnamon, add ½ teaspoon of ground ginger and ¼ teaspoon each of cloves and nutmeg to the batter.
Vegan white chocolate chip muffins. Use vegan white chocolate chips instead of dark. Try King David brand.
Chocolate chip nut muffins. Replace up to half of the chocolate chips with chopped nuts, such as pecans or walnuts.

More Vegan Muffin Recipes

Like this recipe? If so, please stop back and leave me a review and rating below if you try it! Also be sure to follow me on Facebook, Pinterest or Instagram, or subscribe to my newsletter for more recipes like this one!