Double Chocolate Raspberry Muffins

Made with fresh or frozen raspberries, these whole grain chocolate raspberry muffins are a good not-too-sweet snack. As written this is a double chocolate muffin, with both chopped chocolate and cocoa powder in the batter, but you can leave the chocolate out if you want something a little lighter.

Mixed in one bowl, these are well worth making for an afternoon snack and make an entirely appropriate chocolate breakfast, with olive oil, less sugar, and whole grain spelt flour. So while you might want to wait for fresh summer raspberries, the muffins are just as good with frozen and can be made year round. You don’t need eggs for this recipe.

These are adapted from my chocolate beet muffins, and while similar in texture they are less earthy and a little more sweet thanks to the raspberries.

I first shared this recipe in 2020. It’s been updated with improvements to the recipe instructions and a retested and improved recipe, new photos, including step-by-step photos, and more helpful information.

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Ingredients You’ll Need and Why

With no eggs or dairy, it’s a good pantry staple vegan muffin recipe, especially if you use frozen berries. These are my notes from recipe testing. Find the full recipe card below with complete measurements and instructions.

• Spelt flour: as usual, another wheat flour can replace spelt. Since it’s whole grain, you can use whole wheat flour for a very similar result, or all-purpose flour for a lighter muffin. If you want to stick with spelt, light spelt can be used in place of the whole grain flour. I haven’t tested with a gluten-free flour blend.
• Cocoa powder: I use natural cocoa powder which is a bit lighter in colour and tastes quite strong and slightly bitter. If you want a milder chocolate flavour, use Dutch process. Since the recipe uses both baking soda and powder, you’re fine with either type of cocoa.
• Sugar: just about any type of granulated sugar can be used for this recipe. I’ve tested with cane, coconut, muscovado, and demerara sugar all with good results. I haven’t tried sugar substitutes like xylotol.
• Non-dairy milk: I usually use oat milk, but almost any unsweetened milk option will work (not canned coconut milk), and you can also use dairy milk.
• Olive oil: use any oil that’s liquid at room temperature in place of olive oil if preferred. Coconut oil makes the muffins too dense once baked.
• Raspberries: fresh or frozen. Note that frozen raspberries will make the batter slightly stiff when folded in, but it doesn’t make a difference once baked.
• Add-ins: fold in some chopped dark chocolate or chocolate chips along with the raspberries as outlined in the recipe, or add something like cocoa nibs instead.

How to Make Chocolate Raspberry Muffins

It’s a very easy one-bowl recipe, so less mess and you’ll have the muffins baked sooner. I do recommend sifting the cocoa powder if it’s quite lumpy, which it usually is.

Step 1: sift the dry ingredients into a large bowl to remove lumps, then whisk to combine. Don’t worry if you don’t have a fine mesh sieve appropriate for this – you can just add everything to the bowl and whisk, too. In my experience cocoa and store-bought spelt flour both tend to have significant lumps and it makes a better batter when they’re sifted, but the muffins will still turn out well if not.

Step 2: add the milk, oil, and vanilla and stir to combine. The batter will be on the thinner side. Fold in the raspberries, being careful not to over-mix.

Step 3: transfer the batter to a lined or well-greased 12-cup muffin tin and optionally top with more raspberries or chocolate chips. I don’t recommend topping with chopped chocolate, which tends to burn when baked.

Step 4: bake until the muffins pass a toothpick or skewer test, about 20 minutes. The top of the muffin should spring back when lightly pressed with a fingertip.