Air Fryer Chocolate Muffins are sweet, chocolaty and utterly delicious! They're made with a double layer of chocolate- chocolate chips and cocoa! Double chocolate muffins are air fried in less than 15 minutes and are made in 1 bowl for easy cleanup.
These double chocolate bakery-style air fryer muffins are simply the best! They are the closest thing to the fluffy chocolate muffins from my favorite childhood diner.
I now make all of my muffins in the air fryer and it's so easy! While the instructions are almost the same as when making muffins in an oven, they take less time, especially since air fryers take way less time to preheat than a big oven!
To achieve this I use buttermilk to make a slightly acidic muffin batter. This keeps the muffins moist and tender. Buttermilk is super easy to make. To every 1 cup of milk, add 1 teaspoon of vinegar and let it sit for a few minutes until you notice little curdles at the top. Buttermilk can also be bought from the grocery store.
Another key to making the best chocolate muffins is to use a variety of chocolate types. I use equal parts dark chocolate, semi-sweet and milk chocolate chips to give them the ultimate chocolate flavor. Of course you don't absolutely need to do this, but you should if you can!
Air fried chocolate muffins also come out with a slight crispy top thanks to the constant and even air flow. My trick to giving them the perfect bakery style crispy top is to use a higher temperature in the first few minutes and then a lower temperature to finish up cooking.
Then end result is mouth-watering chocolate perfection- fluffy and tender muffins full of sweet and savory flavor with a double dose of chocolate!
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Ingredients and Tools Needed
Air fryer chocolate muffins are made with:
- Buttermilk: we're combining milk with white vinegar to make a buttermilk but you can opt for a store bought buttermilk.
- All-purpose flour: it's best not to substitute with other types of flours. If you do, you'll likely need to adjust other ingredients.
- Cocoa powder: use unsweetened cocoa powder.
- Chocolate chip: I use a combination of milk, dark and semi-sweet chocolate chips but you can use just 1 of these or another combination.
- Sugar: white sugar or unrefined coconut sugar.
- Eggs: or for egg-free muffins use flax eggs.
- Melted butter: we're using melted butter to give the center a bit of a fudgy texture.
- Olive oil: to make these muffins a little healthier but still fantastic, I use extra virgin olive oil. But any cooking oil works here.
- Vanilla extract: steer clear of imitation extracts and use pure extract for the best flavor.
- Baking powder
You'll need your air fryer, a large mixing bowl and silicone muffin cups. Most oven air fryers can fit a 6 or 12 hole aluminum muffin tray but air fryers with baskets will need strong silicone muffin cups. You can make these double chocolate muffins in mini size, standard size, or jumbo size.
Yield
Standard muffins: 12
Mini muffins: 18
Jumbo muffins: 6
Instructions
STEP 1: In a pourable measuring cup, combine the milk and vinegar to make buttermilk. Let the mixture sit for a few minutes while preparing the muffin batter.
STEP 2: Combine all-purpose flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, salt, and sugar in a large mixing bowl. Make a well in the center and add the melted butter, extra virgin olive oil, room temperature eggs, vanilla extract and buttermilk. Whisk until just combined. Fold in the chocolate chips or chunks.
STEP 3: Fill silicone muffin cups to the top. Add a few extra chocolate chips to the tops if desired. Air fry at 400° Fahrenheit for 3 minutes. Lower the temperature to 350° Fahrenheit and bake another 10 minutes. Insert a toothpick into the center to check for doneness, adding 1 minute at a time until cooked through if necessary. Mini chocolate muffins will air fry in 6-9 minutes and jumbo chocolate muffins may need up to 25 minutes.
Variations
- Dairy-free: use a plant-based milk like almond or oat milk instead of buttermilk. Replace the melted butter with more extra virgin olive oil. Use these dairy-free chocolate chips.
- Vegan: in addition to the changes mentioned above to make it dairy-free, use flax eggs instead of chicken eggs and unrefined coconut sugar instead of white sugar.
- White chocolate: instead of using chocolate chips, use white chocolate chips.
Pro Tips
- Oven-style air fryers: in my experience these tend to be a little more powerful than basket air fryers. I suggest lowering your rack to increase the distance between the tops of the muffins and the heating element. If they rise too quickly because it's too hot, the tops may be oddly shaped. Also watch them closely for about the first 5 minutes. If they seem to be cooking too quickly on the air fryer setting, use the bake setting if your air fryer has one. The bake setting usually uses a low convection setting.
- Use silicone muffin cups rather than paper muffin liners unless your air fryer can fit a standard muffin tray like mine can. Silicone muffin cups are heavy and can easily be filled on the counter and transferred into the air fryer without spilling. If you can't find silicone muffin cups, you can cut a silicone muffin tin.
- Just like ovens, air fryers vary in their power. Use the recommended cook times as a guide until you get to know how long it generally takes to cook muffins in your air fryer. You may also need to adjust the temperature depending on the strength of your air fryer.
Use the air frying setting to make these double chocolate muffins. However, use the bake setting or low convection option if your air fryer has those if you feel that a high convection air fryer mode is too powerful.
I like using milk chocolate chips, morsels or chunks. Semi-sweet and dark chocolate can also be used but will slightly alter the end flavor. But all types of chocolate chips can be used to make delicious chocolate muffins, it just depends on the end flavor you're looking for!
Yes! Silicone, ceramic, aluminum trays, etc. can be used in air fryers. It's a good idea to read through your manual before using any accessories, though, just in case. But in general, if it's safe to go in your oven, it's safe to go in your air fryer.
How To Store Muffins
Chocolate muffins will keep for about 3 days at room temperature in an airtight sealed container. They can also be stored in the fridge for up to 1 week and they are freezer-friendly for 6 months. Make sure to store in freezer safe bags for optimal quality.
Recipe
Air Fryer Chocolate Muffins
Equipment
- air fryer
- silicone muffin cups
- large mixing bowl
- whisk
Ingredients
- 1 cup milk
- 1 teaspoon white vinegar
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- ¾ cups cocoa powder
- 2 ½ teaspoon baking powder
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 cup white sugar
- 2 large eggs at room temperature
- ⅓ cup butter melted
- ¼ cup extra virgin olive oil
- 2 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 ½ cup chocolate chips or chunks
Instructions
- In a pourable measuring cup, combine the milk and vinegar to make buttermilk. Let the mixture sit for a few minutes while preparing the muffin batter.
- Combine all-purpose flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, salt, and sugar in a large mixing bowl. Make a well in the center and add the melted butter, extra virgin olive oil, eggs, vanilla extract and buttermilk. Whisk until just combined. Fold in the chocolate chips or chunks.
- Fill silicone muffin cups to the top. Add a few extra chocolate chips to the tops if desired. Air fry at 400° Fahrenheit for 3 minutes. Lower the temperature to 350° Fahrenheit and bake another 10 minutes. Insert a toothpick into the center to check for doneness, adding 1 minute at a time until cooked through if necessary.
Notes
Nutrition
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Linda Moore says
Hi Kristina,
My muffins from your recipe were SO dense, really they didn't rise at all. I know buttermilk is supposed to substitute for rising ingredients like baking soda or powder, but it didn't do much in my batch. I live at 5,000 feet --I wonder if that affects the rising action of buttermilk.
The taste and gooey chocolate-iness of the muffins was amazing, and the salt was just right! I wonder if I should add a rising agent next time.
Kristina says
Hi Linda, Sorry to hear they didn't turn out well. It could be a combination of the high altitude and the bread flour. I've made a few modifications to the recipe that should give you a much better muffin next time. First, use all purpose flour instead of the bread flour. Like you said, use baking powder as your rising agent. Then, make these changes for your high altitude...
Reduce baking powder by 1/4 tsp
Reduce sugar by 1 1/2 tbsp
Increase the liquid by 3 tbsp (either the oil, butter or milk, not the eggs)
Increase oven temperature by 25 degrees
Let me know how they turn out with these changes