These vegan Double Chocolate Cherry Muffins are so quick and easy to make. And, bursting with chocolate and cherry in every bite, they are 100% delicious. Make them in under 30 minutes for a sweet morning pastry or chocolate afternoon snack.
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Some exciting things are happening in the next couple of weeks, my friends!
First, it officially becomes spring. Ah, this long and dreary winter is almost behind us and I, for one, could not be more excited. Two days later, I'm celebrating another trip around the sun and, if you know me at all, I'm quite fond of my birthday. THEN, if life couldn't get more exciting, on March 28th the 2019 Baseball season begins.
We take this holiday incredibly seriously at my house. There is sugar cookie decorating, vegan Chicago-style hot dog eating, and then finally, the sweet sounds of baseball coming from the radio. Yes, I listen to baseball on the radio, the way the sport was meant to be followed.
To celebrate all these wonderful occasions, I made something special. Well, I remade something special. These vegan chocolate muffins are a remake from one of my earliest posts for the blog. Dating all the way back to the summer of 2013, I decided it was time to take another look at these delicious, chocolatey, cherry-filled vegan muffins.
Recommended Ingredients & Equipment
I love these muffins and I think you will too! They are nearly fail-proof. Like my blueberry muffins, even the most novice baker can master this recipe in no time! Better yet, they are both super versatile and incredibly delicious. These vegan muffins are moist, rich, and filled with chocolate and cherries in every bite.
Here is everything you need.
Ingredients & Substitutions
- Non-Dairy Milk – Use a thick, neutral flavored milk like soy milk or cashew milk.
- Vegan Sour Cream - There are a lot of vegan cream cheeses and sour creams on the market. I suggest looking for Daiya or Tofutti brands. You can also make homemade sour cream.
- All-Purpose Flour – For healthier flour options, you can use 1:1 gluten-free flour blends, buckwheat, or spelt flour.
- Baking Powder & Soda
- Cocoa Powder
- Salt
- Granulated Sugar – Check out my guide to vegan sugars and alternative sugar replacements. For a healthier sugar alternative, I recommend coconut sugar.
- Oil – This recipe calls for melted coconut oil. You could also use avocado or olive oil. If you want to eliminate the oil altogether, swap it out for the same amount of applesauce.
- Vanilla Extract
- Chocolate Chips
- Cherries - I recommend fresh cherries but if they aren't in season you may need to use frozen. Read all about how to substitute frozen cherries below.
Recommended Equipment
For all my muffin recipes, you’ll need basic kitchen equipment such as a mixing bowl, utensils, a wire cooling rack, and a muffin baking pan. I also recommend using an ice cream scoop to evenly and cleanly scoop your batter. (<<affiliate links)
Check out the full list of my recommended kitchen tools and gadgets.
How to Make Vegan Chocolate Muffins
Like most of the vegan muffin recipes on this blog, these chocolate muffins are super simple to make! They just require a little bit of whisking, folding, and baking. If you think you can do that, then let's make some vegan muffins!
Step One - Combine the Ingredients
In a small bowl whisk together the dry ingredients. That's the flour, sugar, cocoa powder, baking powder and soda, and salt. Whisk until it's well combined and set aside.
In a separate bowl or liquid measuring cup, whisk together all the wet ingredients. That's the vegan sour cream, nondairy milk, oil, and vanilla extract.
Add the wet ingredients to the dry and mix until all the flour is evenly hydrated.
Step Two - Fold in the Cherries and Chocolate
Once the batter is made, we want to gently fold in the cherries and chocolate. The goal with folding is to get the add-ins fully incorporated into the batter without overmixing the batter.
To do this, use a wooden spoon or plastic spatula and fold the batter from bottom to top in a "C" shape.
Step Three - Bake the Chocolate Muffins
Scoop your batter into a greased muffin tin. I find that using an ice cream scoop is the cleanest and easiest way to get the batter into the muffin molds. With an ice cream scoop, you can ensure the muffins are equally sized as well. Fill each muffin mold about ¾ of the way full and bake for 18-20 minutes until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean.
Remove the chocolate muffins from the oven and let them cool in the muffin tin for 10 minutes before flipping out to a wire cooling rack to cool completely.
Serving And Storing
Serving
Serve these muffins immediately. They come out of the oven warm, buttery, and hard to resist!
Storing
Store leftover muffins in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 5 days. You can also freeze these muffins for up to 2 months. To thaw, pull the muffins from the freezer and let them thaw at room temperature for several hours.
Make in Advance
If you want to make this muffin batter in advance, store the batter in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 48 hours. To bake the muffins, preheat the oven and bake according to the instructions. However, these muffins may take a few minutes longer to bake since the batter will be chilled. The muffins will also be slightly denser as the baking soda begins to activate once it's mixed into the batter, causing it to be slightly less potent.
But don't worry; the difference will be hardly noticeable.
Tips and Tricks
- Do not overmix your batter. Overmixing allows the gluten to develop and too much gluten will give you gummy and dense muffins.
- If you are using frozen berries, thaw the berries in a colander by running them under room temperature water. Let the berries sit for 30 minutes for any excess water and juice to run off them. Pat them dry with a paper towel before adding them to your batter.
- Fill muffin tins about ¾" of the way full. Any fuller than that and they will overflow.
- Make sure to let the chocolate cherry muffins sit in the muffin tin for 10 minutes before flipping them out to a wire cooling rack. Otherwise, the muffins may fall apart.
- For variations, swap out the cherries for other berries, nuts, or extra chocolate.
Frequently Asked Questions
What type of cherries should I use?
When making muffins with fruit, you can use fresh, frozen, or dried berries. I always prefer fresh berries. Unlike frozen berries, they don't contain extra liquid nor do they don't bleed into the batter as they bake. And they have a preferred flavor and texture in baked goods to dried berries.
However, since fresh cherries are seasonal, it isn't always possible to get them fresh. If you have to use frozen, here are a few tips for preparing frozen berries in pastries.
- Place the berries in a colander and run them under room temperature water, breaking the cherries up with your fingers. This will allow the excess juices to run out of the berries so they don't bleed into your batter.
- Let the cherries sit in the colander for at least 30 minutes so all the water has drained from them. If they are still wet, they will add liquid to your batter, altering the texture of these muffins.
- Gently pat the cherries dry with a paper towel before adding them to your batter.
Following these steps, you'll get a result as similar to fresh berries as possible.
Sure. If you would like to make this recipe oil-free, simply swap out the oil for additional applesauce at a 1:1 ratio.
More Vegan Muffin Recipes
- Blueberry Muffins
- Lemon Poppy Seed Muffins
- Banana Nut Muffins
- Pumpkin Muffins
- Chocolate Zucchini Muffins
- Chocolate Chip Muffins
Vegan Double Chocolate Cherry Muffins
Ingredients
- 1 ½ cup all-purpose flour
- ¾ cup granulated sugar
- ⅓ cup cocoa powder
- 1 tsp. baking powder
- ½ tsp. baking soda
- ½ tsp. salt
- 1 cup vegan sour cream*
- ¼ cup + 2 tbsp. nondairy milk
- ¼ cup + 2 tbsp. coconut oil, melted
- 2 tsp. vanilla extract
- ½ cup chocolate chips
- ¾ cup fresh cherries, pitted and sliced
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit. Grease a muffin tin and set aside.
- In a medium-sized mixing bowl combine flour, sugar, cocoa powder, baking powder, soda, and salt. In another small bowl or liquid measuring cup, whisk together vegan sour cream, nondairy milk, melted coconut oil, and vanilla extract until smooth.
- Add wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and mix until just combined. With a wooden spoon, fold in chocolate chips and cherries.
- Scoop muffin batter evenly between 12 muffin cups, filling them each ¾ths of the way full. Bake muffins for 18-20 minutes until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean or with a few crumbs.
- Let cool in muffin pan completely before transferring to a wire cooling rack to cool completely. Uneaten muffins can be stored in an airtight container at room temperature for 5 days or frozen for up to 2 months.
Notes
- Do not overmix your batter. Overmixing allows the gluten to develop and too much gluten will give you gummy and dense muffins.
- If you are using frozen berries, thaw the berries in a colander by running them under room temperature water. Let the berries sit for 30 minutes for any excess water and juice to run off them. Pat them dry with a paper towel before adding them to your batter.
- Fill muffin tins about ¾" of the way full. Any fuller than that and they will overflow.
- Make sure to let the chocolate cherry muffins sit in the muffin tin for 10 minutes before flipping them out to a wire cooling rack. Otherwise, the muffins may fall apart.
Hi, I’m Sarah. I’m a 14-year (and counting) vegan, professionally trained photographer, former pastry chef, founder of My Darling Vegan, and author of the
Lella Lowe says
Forgot to leave a five-star rating with my earlier post!
Lella Lowe says
I have made a lot of muffins in my day, and these are my new favorite. Followed the recipe exactly as written, including making the cashew-based sour cream, and they were phenomenal. Just finished serving a double batch to the coffee hour crowd at church to rave reviews. Just wonderful.
Heather says
I don't know if I made a mistake but the batter was way too dry, I almost couldn't mix it all so I added 3 spoons of applesauce & the muffins came out perfect & delicious. Definitely will make them again & use my fix if I need to.
Dave says
I'm in the process of making this but with the ingredient proportions listed I'm going to end up with something the consistency of bread dough, maybe even thicker than that. I may have to add more soy milk.
Carol says
Hands down amazing!
Ede says
I am looking forward to making these, but my question is , in the ingredients listed it reads coconut oil but in the directions it lists mix the canola oil. Which oil do I use? Coconut or canola? Thanks!
Sarah McMinn says
Thanks for pointing that out. I corrected it. Either works, btw!
Helen says
My local co-op store didn't have any cherries (off season), so I substituted fresh raspberries instead. Came out great! Thanks 🙂
Sarah says
Glad to hear it! Thanks for sharing.
Chris says
Anything I can use instead of vegan sour cream? Too lazy to go back to the grocery store =)
Sarah says
Do you have any plain vegan yogurt? Or you could make some vegan "buttermilk" by mixing soy milk and apple cider vinegar and letting it curdle a bit.
Michelle says
Hello, can I use frozen cherries instead of fresh cherries? It's because no fresh cherries are available in the local market that I staying at.
Sarah says
Yeah, that would be no problem. Frozen berries will make the batter a bit red, but not too noticeable since muffins are chocolate.
Susan says
I made these as a birthday treat for my daughter's class and they all gobbled them up. They're delicious!!! Since we're well past cherry season, I used frozen cherries, and they still turned out wonderfully.
sachin desai says
Nice post! cooking and baking for special event is my habit. Cherry Muffin is my default recipe for all time.
Grace @ FoodFitnessFreshAir says
These sound incred! I've been loving fresh cherries lately, and eating them straight up. Would certainly enjoy a little chocolate combo though!
Emma says
Love the choc-cherry combo! I was at a veg restaurant last night and we had a fabulous chocolate ganache with port soaked cherries 🙂 Muffins suit me too as I don't have a doughnut pan 🙂
Sarah says
It's a good combo, huh. What restaurant were you at? That dessert sounds AMAZING!
Kristy says
Thanks for the mention, my dear! I wish I lived close enough so that I could just pop by with a basket of donuts for you. These gorgeous muffins look like a great sub and you can never go wrong with chocolate and cherry. Beautiful!
Sarah says
I wish you could pop by with a basket of donuts too! Oh well, virtual donuts will have to do. Until you move to Portland, of course 🙂