This easy vegan chocolate chip muffins recipe creates soft, fluffy and perfectly sweet muffins that are egg and dairy free.
It uses basic ingredients and requires minimal effort, but makes the perfect snack or dessert in as little as 30 minutes!
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Dairy Free Chocolate Chip Muffin Ingredients
All the ingredients for this recipe are easy to find and things I keep stocked in my pantry or fridge. This includes:
- Plant-based milk: I use unsweetened soy milk as it’s the creamiest plant-based milk option. Any plant-based milk should work for this recipe, although I haven’t tested other kinds.
- Apple cider vinegar: To thicken your milk and create a quick “buttermilk” alternative, use some apple cider vinegar. Any type of vinegar can work if you don’t have apple cider vinegar.
- Granulated sugar: For a sweet muffin, I add granulated sugar as it works well in baking recipes. I haven’t tested any other type of sugar or sugar substitute.
- Vegetable oil: Select a neutral-tasting liquid oil for this recipe (not olive or coconut oil). A basic vegetable oil can work, or you can use avocado oil if you have that available.
- Vanilla extract: Chocolate flavor is always enhanced by vanilla. I use cheap, artificial vanilla extract, but if you have a higher-quality extract, you can use less than what the recipe calls for.
- All-purpose flour: Again, to keep this recipe simple, use basic all-purpose flour. This makes for soft and tender muffins.
- Baking powder and soda: Get ultra-fluffy muffins with some baking powder and baking soda.
- Salt: A pinch of salt truly enhances other flavors, even in sweet recipes.
- Mini chocolate chips: I strongly prefer to use mini chocolate chips to get plenty of chocolate in each bite! Use larger chocolate chips if needed, but I recommend chopping them so they’re in smaller pieces.
- Coarse sugar: Completely optional, but delicious, top the muffins with a pinch of coarse sugar before baking. The chocolate chip muffins I grew up eating always had crunchy sugar on top and it truly adds a delicious texture. This sugar is sometimes called sanding sugar or decorating sugar.
How to Make Easy Vegan Chocolate Chip Muffins
This recipe is very easy to make and uses just one bowl. It follows the basic steps of baking used in most muffin recipes.
Step 1: Mix Liquid Ingredients
Start by whisking plant-based milk with apple cider vinegar. Let this sit for a couple minutes to thicken. This is the quick vegan way to prepare “buttermilk” for richer-tasting muffins.
Then add the remaining liquid ingredients, including sugar, oil and vanilla. Whisk until combined.
Step 2: Stir in Dry Ingredients
Add flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt to the bowl and begin stirring the batter together.
Once it’s mostly mixed, add chocolate chips and fold those through. Don’t overmix the batter; stop stirring as soon as there’s no visible clumps of dry flour anywhere in your bowl.
Step 3: Scoop Muffins
Prep a 12-slot muffin tray with muffin liners (paper or silicone), then evenly divide the batter into all 12 slots. Fill your muffin liners about ¾ of the way.
This recipe makes fairly small muffins rather than larger bakery-style muffins.
It’s optional to top the muffins with a sprinkle of coarse sugar. Add however much coarse sugar as you like for a delicious crunch on the top of the muffin.
Step 4: Bake and Serve
Place the muffins into an oven preheated to 350 °F. The muffins take 20-22 minutes to bake.
It’s slightly challenging to tell when the muffins are baked as they don’t brown on top, and a toothpick test doesn’t work (it comes out coated in chocolate).
To tell when they’re done baking, lightly press the top of one muffin to create a slight dent. If the dent slowly bounces back into place, your muffins are cooked.
Once out of your oven, let the muffins cool for a couple minutes. Carefully remove them from your muffin tin and place onto a wire cooling rack to finish cooling.
How to Store Leftover Muffins
Let your muffins cool completely before storing in an airtight container. They’re fine on your kitchen counter for a few days, or up to a week in the fridge.
You can freeze these muffins in any freezer-safe container or bag for a few months. When ready to eat, remove from your freezer and let the muffins thaw in your fridge or on the counter.
If you’ve refrigerated or frozen the muffins, it’s nice to reheat them for a few seconds in the microwave before serving.
Other Tasty Vegan Muffin Recipes
There are endless ways to make delicious vegan muffins! Check out my other tasty vegan muffin recipes:
- Cranberry orange muffins
- Classic blueberry muffins
- Lemon poppy seed muffins
- Blueberry lemon muffins
- Double chocolate zucchini muffins
If you make this recipe, please rate and comment below to help others benefit from your experience!
Vegan Chocolate Chip Muffins
Equipment
- 12-slot muffin pan
Ingredients
- 1 cup plant-based milk , I use soy milk (250 milliliters)
- 2 teaspoons apple cider vinegar (10 milliliters) *
- ¾ cup granulated sugar (145 grams)
- ⅓ cup vegetable oil (80 milliliters)
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract (10 milliliters) **
- 2 cups all-purpose flour (260 grams)
- 2 ½ teaspoons baking powder
- ¼ teaspoon baking soda
- pinch of salt
- 1 cup vegan mini chocolate chips (165 grams) ***
- coarse sugar (optional)
Instructions
Step 1: Mix Liquid Ingredients
- Add plant-based milk to a large mixing bowl. Whisk in apple cider vinegar and let this sit for 2-3 minutes.1 cup plant-based milk, 2 teaspoons apple cider vinegar
- Then whisk in granulated sugar, vegetable oil and vanilla extract.¾ cup granulated sugar, ⅓ cup vegetable oil, 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
Step 2: Stir in Dry Ingredients
- Add all-purpose flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt to your mixing bowl. Stir until almost combined.2 cups all-purpose flour, 2 ½ teaspoons baking powder, ¼ teaspoon baking soda, pinch of salt
- Next, add chocolate chips and fold through the batter.1 cup vegan mini chocolate chips
- The batter will be thick, so avoid overmixing! Stop stirring as soon as there are no dry clumps of flour present.
Step 3: Scoop Muffins
- Prepare a muffin tray by lining it with paper or silicone muffin liners.
- Evenly scoop the batter into all 12 muffin slots. This recipe makes smaller muffins and the slots should be about ¾ full.
- It’s optional to top each muffin with a sprinkle of coarse sugar.coarse sugar
Step 4: Bake and Serve
- Bake in an oven preheated to 350 °F for 20-22 minutes.
- The muffins are done when they hold their shape after a light press on the top (if they remain dented, they aren’t done yet). The muffins don’t brown much, and a toothpick test won’t work as the toothpick becomes covered in chocolate.
- Once baked, let the muffins sit for a minute or two before carefully removing from the muffin pan, placing the muffins onto a wire cooling rack.
- Store in an airtight container after the muffins have fully cooled.
Video
Notes
**If you use a high-quality vanilla extract, 1 teaspoon may be enough.
***Semi-sweet or dark chocolate chips work well. Accuracy of nutrition information cannot be guaranteed (certain ingredients may not have all nutrients listed in the database); amounts may vary (and will vary depending on brands of ingredients used); all nutrition fact values rounded to the nearest whole number.
Nutrition
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About Nicole Stevens
Nicole is a vegan Registered Dietitian (RD) and founder of Lettuce Veg Out.
She helps people thrive on a vegan diet with balanced recipes and easy-to-understand nutrition science.
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