Chocolate Muffins with Coconut Flour
By Hannah Healy
Updated May 21, 2021
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These keto chocolate muffins are made with coconut flour and are rich and moist with a sweet chocolate coconut flavor.
When you start to clean up your diet, food like muffins, cookies and other baked goods are one of the first things to go. They are usually loaded with sugar and processed flour which spikes your blood sugar and keeps you craving more. Luckily, I have a whole arsenal of delicious sugar-free recipes and these muffins are a favorite of mine!
That’s why I love this coconut flour chocolate muffin recipe. It’s sugar-free and uses healthier ingredients. This is a great food to have on hand for snacks or along with breakfast. They even travel well! I’ve brought them on trips before and they do quite well! Enjoy!
Why I love this recipe
- These keto chocolate muffins are some of the moistest ones I’ve ever had! Coconut flour soaks up a lot of moisture and can be very drying, but not this recipe! I made sure to include the right kind of ingredients for a moist muffin!
- I like using coconut flour because it’s a healthy keto/low carb flour that is full of fiber!
- These muffins taste sweet and chocolatey. The coconut flour and coconut oil create a hint of coconut flavor but it’s not overpowering.
- Not only are these muffins keto, but they’re also gluten-free, dairy-free, paleo and sugar-free!
- This is a simple recipe to make, no special equipment is needed. You basically just mix all of the ingredients together and bake it!
Keto chocolate muffin recipe tips
- Working with coconut flour can sometimes be challenging because it requires a lot of moisture and binders. That’s why it is super important NOT to substitute the eggs (they are required for a successful recipe!). That’s also why there’s a good amount of liquid ingredients like almond milk and coconut oil. These all help to make sure that the muffins don’t turn out dry and powdery.
- I use almond milk for this recipe but you can also use coconut milk, another non-dairy-milk or regular milk in its place.
- I used sugar-free erythritol as the sweetener but any other granulated sweetener can be used like coconut sugar or cane sugar.
- Make sure the coconut oil is softened or melted when blending it with the batter. To melt it, just heat it in the microwave for about 15 seconds because you don’t want it to be too hot.
- After you mix all of the ingredients together, the batter may look a little thin, but give it about 5 minutes for the coconut flour to soak up the moisture and the batter will thicken up.
- The muffins will rise a little bit in the oven but not much. You can fill the batter almost up to the top of the muffin liner, leaving maybe 1/2 inch for it to rise.
- These keto chocolate muffins keep great for leftover snacks. They will stay good out on the counter for 2 days. If refrigerated they will last about 1-2 weeks, just make sure to take them out about an hour before eating or heating them up in the toaster oven at 350°F for about 5-10 minutes. They tend to stiffen in the refrigerator. They also freeze well and will last at least a month or more, be sure to defrost overnight before eating.
How to make this recipe
Start by pre-heating the oven to 350°F. Add all of the dry ingredients to a bowl including the coconut flour, cocoa powder, sweetener, salt and baking powder. Mix together.
Add all of the wet ingredients except the coconut oil to the bowl including the eggs, almond milk and vanilla extract and blend together using an immersion blender or an electric beater to work out any lumps. The batter may look thin at this point, but it needs a few minutes for the coconut flour to soak up the moisture and thicken. Next, you’ll add the melted coconut oil. To melt it, only heat it in the microwave for about 15 seconds because you don’t want it to be too hot. Then slowly add the melted coconut oil to the batter while blending.
Wait a couple minutes until the batter has thickened to be like brownie batter consistency. Then evenly pour the batter into a muffin tin lined with muffin liners. The muffins will rise a little bit in the oven, but not much, so you can fill the muffin liners almost to the top leaving about 1/2 inch at the top. It should make about 12 muffins.
Place the muffins into the oven and bake at 350°F for about 20-25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean.
Allow to cool before eating.
Chocolate Muffins with Coconut Flour
Ingredients
- 2/3 cup coconut flourÂ
- 3 tbsp cocoa powder
- 1/2 cup erythritol or other granulated sweetener
- 1/2 tsp baking powder
- dash salt
- 3/4 cup almond milk or other milk
- 5 eggs
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1/4 cup + 1 tbsp coconut oilÂ
Instructions
- Start by pre-heating the oven to 350°F. Add all of the dry ingredients to a bowl including the coconut flour, cocoa powder, sweetener, salt and baking powder. Mix together.
- Add all of the wet ingredients except the coconut oil to the bowl including the eggs, almond milk and vanilla extract and blend together using an immersion blender or an electric beater to work out any lumps. The batter may look thin at this point, but it needs a few minutes for the coconut flour to soak up the moisture and thicken. Next, you'll add the melted coconut oil. To melt it, only heat it in the microwave for about 15 seconds because you don't want it to be too hot. Then slowly add the melted coconut oil to the batter while blending.Â
- Wait a couple minutes until the batter has thickened to be like brownie batter consistency. Then evenly pour the batter into a muffin tin lined with muffin liners. The muffins will rise a little bit in the oven, but not much, so you can fill the muffin liners almost to the top leaving about 1/2 inch at the top. It should make about 12 muffins.Â
- Place the muffins into the oven and bake at 350°F for about 20-25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean. Allow to cool before eating.Â
Video
Notes
- Working with coconut flour can sometimes be challenging because it requires a lot of moisture and binders. That's why it is super important NOT to substitute the eggs (they are required for a successful recipe!). That's also why there's a good amount of liquid ingredients like almond milk and coconut oil. These all help to make sure that the muffins don't turn out dry and powdery.Â
- I use almond milk for this recipe but you can also use coconut milk, another non-dairy-milk or regular milk in its place.
- I used sugar-free erythritol as the sweetener but any other granulated sweetener can be used like coconut sugar or cane sugar.
- Make sure the coconut oil is softened or melted when blending it with the batter. To melt it, just heat it in the microwave for about 15 seconds because you don't want it to be too hot.Â
- After you mix all of the ingredients together, the batter may look a little thin, but give it about 5 minutes for the coconut flour to soak up the moisture and the batter will thicken up.Â
- The muffins will rise a little bit in the oven but not much. You can fill the batter almost up to the top of the muffin liner, leaving maybe 1/2 inch for it to rise.
- These keto chocolate muffins keep great for leftover snacks. They will stay good out on the counter for 2 days. If refrigerated they will last about 1-2 weeks, just make sure to take them out about an hour before eating or heating them up in the toaster oven at 350°F for about 5-10 minutes. They tend to stiffen in the refrigerator. They also freeze well and will last at least a month or more, be sure to defrost overnight before eating.Â
- Nutrition facts below are for 1 muffin (out of 12) made with unsweetened almond milk and erythritol. Each muffin has about 2 net carbs.Â
Nutrition
This recipe was originally posted in January of 2014, but has been republished in May of 2021 to include improved recipe tips, photos and video.
I just made these for my dad and he loved them! They’re super moist!
My Dad loves them too 🙂
I just made these and they were so good! One of the better coconut flour recipes I’ve tried!
SO glad you liked it Jen!
This was a hit with my 4 and 8 year old boys! I made a few substitutions based on what I had on hand. I used avocado oil instead of coconut oil, water instead of coconut milk and monk fruit/erythritol blend instead of coconut sugar. I added chocolate chips on top. Thanks for a great recipe for my picky eaters!
Thanks for sharing your substitutions! So glad it was a hit! 🙂
I have baked your Muffins about 6 times and they turn out great each time!! Thank you! I do add pecans just because I like pecans!!!!!! Freezes well too!!
Thanks for sharing! So glad you like them!
What did I do wrong? I followed the recipe exactly, except that I doubled the batch. I used homemade coconut milk, homemade coconut flour and flaxseed eggs. At 20 minutes, the muffins looked beautiful but still very wet in the middle. At 32 minutes, they all had a sunken well and a puddle of mixture at the bottom, to the point that the muffin line was blended in to the mix. The outside tasted quite good but I’m hesitant to try agan unless I can figure out where I went wrong.
I don’t think it will work with homemade coconut flour and milk. Those are actually different than store bought. Homemade coconut milk usually has a lot less fat and isn’t as thick as canned coconut milk. And homemade coconut flour is not as dry and fine as store bought.
Turned out great!! Love these muffins!
Do you have storage suggestions? How long either refrigerated or not?
Yes, I would recommend refrigerating it. I’ve had it last for at least a week in the fridge. 🙂
HI Healy,
I bought your cookbook and found this recipe and the coconut cupcakes with chocolate frosting; both of which I was excited to try. After trying the coconut cupcakes and having them taste very strongly of baking soda (so much so that no one in my family would eat them despite the fact that my toddler will eat ANYTHING in the shape of a muffin) I decided to visit your blog to see if I could find any info about what had happened. Turns out the cookbook says that I should add 1 1/2 tsp of baking soda to each of the recipes (this one included), whereas the recipe above says 1/2 tsp, so perhaps there was an issue in the editing of the book recipes.
I wanted to leave this comment in hopes that others will adjust and won’t have to toss a batch.
Thanks for the usually great recipes though. We love your pumpkin chocolate chip mini muffins!
Hi Jen, so sorry about your cupcakes! It is supposed to be 1/2 tsp. I’ll let the publisher know! Thanks for getting the cookbook! 🙂
Thanks for your reply, Healy! I just tried a batch again today with the 1/2 tsp baking soda and they came out great with a lovely consistency. 🙂 I think I want a little more sweetness in them for my little one’s birthday cupcakes. If you were to make these sweeter do you think you could add more coconut sugar without any other substitutions (needing more liquid for instance)?
Thanks again. I really appreciate the great coconut flour recipes!
I think if you add 2 extra tbsp of sweetener it should be ok. Any more than that and you may have to add more liquid. Enjoy!
These turned out great! I subbed ground flax in place of the eggs to make the recipe vegan, other than that I followed the recipe exactly. I also let the batter sit for a few minutes before baking as I have seen that tip with coconut flour recipes in the past. I had to cook them for a total of 40 minutes before the toothpick came out clean but that could be due to the substitution. You can definitely taste the coconut, which I think is a good thing. I will save this recipe to make again!
Glad you enjoyed it Kathleen! Thanks for posting your subs in case other people want to try that 🙂
Does this recipe work with all different types of coconut flour? Mine were a little grainy. My flour was from Fresh Market, their store brand. Thanks!!
Yummy, yummy, yummy! Thank you!
When using coconut milk, do you mean the kind in the can? Do I use only the thick part on top? Some coconut milks are in cartons and I know that’s not the same as in a can……thanks
These were fantastic… Except the baking soda was a bit too much… Did you mean baking powder? I’m making them again with baking powder instead. My kids ate them and thought they were great, even without being very sweet.
Thank you so much for some paleo recipes that don’t use almond flour! I am allergic and it’s so tough to find recipes without it!! I cannot wait to try!
You’re welcome Alicyn! I hear from a lot of people who are allergic to nuts, so I try to make some nut-free paleo recipes that they can enjoy too. 🙂
Made these this morning after cruising the internet for recipes with coconut flour. I recently began avoiding wheat in my diet, not gluten, but these muffins are really tasty and hold together well. I added 2 T more sugar to increase the sweetness a tad and used two large eggs instead of the four which I thought was too much for the amount of batter. I’m going to make them again with egg replacer so my oldest daughter will eat them.
Hi Jane, what do you use to replace egg? I’ve heard of the ground flax seed with water egg replacement but havent tried it. Have you tried to make these muffins without eggs, how did they turn out?
Do you have to put in the apple cider vinegar?
You probably do, for a chemical reaction between the vinegar and baking soda. That reaction will give you a better texture in the muffin. The vinegar taste will not come through in the muffin, though.
Made these yesterday and came out great..any idea on calories/carbs per muffin for those counting?
Is the coconut milk measurement 2/3 Cup? Going to try these with honey instead of coconut sugar (what I have on hand), wondering if I should reduce the liquids or add a little bit more coconut flour to make up for the moisture?
Just finished these and they are really yummy, perfect moistness like a regular flour cake! I don’t have a food processor, so this is what I did:
I used 1/2 cup of coconut milk and 2-3 Tb of honey (instead of coconut sugar). Mixed all my wet ingredients (except eggs) in measuring cup with the coconut milk. Sifted dry ingredients in separate small bowl.
Fluffed eggs in big mixing bowl (like a genoise cake), then added the wet, mixed well, then gradually added the dry until incorporated.
Baked 350* for 20 minutes in the convection oven and cooled for about 5 minutes before my toddler could no longer wait!
Delicious, thank you for sharing the recipe!
These look AMAZING! I can’t wait until I have an excuse to try them!
I found the texture just right, not too moist, not too dense, almost like a muffin made with white flour! But they definitely needed more sweetness. I followed your recipe otherwise, but used butter and water since I didn’t have coconut oil or coconut milk at hand. I will make these again but next time I will double the sugar or use extra 1/4 C honey.
Thanks for letting me know. I’ll add a note to add more sweetener for folks who like sweeter muffins 🙂
Hannah,
On you bio, it doesn’t say where you live. I live in Colorado and need to know if I’ll need to make recipe adjustments for altitude. These look delicious and I’m excited to make them.
I’m in San Francisco, CA, so you will most likely need to make altitude adjustments. Enjoy the muffins! 🙂
the texture and moistness was perfect. i did add about 3 or 4 tbl of milk. i did not use the coconut milk has too much fat in it but did use evapoarted. There is not enough sugar and the taste was way too coconutty. i absolutely hated the taste and had to throw them away.
When you follow the recipe, the results are as pictured. When you alter the recipe, results may vary.