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These incredibly delicious chocolate chip muffins bake up soft and fluffy – and with no butter, sugar, or gluten in the recipe – they’re healthy enough as an everyday snack. They taste even better than the muffins you’d grab at the bakery!
Healthy Homemade Muffins Recipe
Let me begin by telling you healthy or not – these are some of the best chocolate chip muffins to ever come out of my oven! The entire time I was making them I was felt like there was no way they would bake up into anything even semi-delicious, and when I saw how thin the batter was… the dread only doubled! Typically muffin batter is very thick, so as I poured the liquid batter into the prepared muffin tins, I was basically just gripping myself for muffin failure.
20 minutes later my low expectations were met with a wonderful surprise! Our house smelled amazing, the muffins looked perfect (light brown in color with a crunchy lid and plenty of melted dark chocolate chips), and as I polished off two in just a matter of minutes (no really, I couldn’t stop myself!), I knew I had to photograph the rest asap so I could share them with you before the weekend! So here we are 🙂
Low Calorie Applesauce Muffins
So, let’s talk about how these seriously amazing muffins are healthy. To do that we’ll dive into the ingredient list head first!
These muffins are made with oat flour which is low in calories and gluten free (at least most oat flours are, be sure to check if you’re gluten intolerant). If you can’t find oat flour at your local grocery store, or you’d rather not buy a whole bag before trying it – I’ve got you covered! Simply pulse oats in your blender or food processor until they’re ground like flour. That’s how I do it every time. The other dry ingredients in this recipe are the baking basics: cinnamon, a pinch of ginger (optional but I love the subtle kick it adds to these muffins), baking soda, baking powder, and salt.
They’re also made with NO sugar – at all. Instead of using granulated sugar or brown sugar I use a hearty dose of pure maple syrup. I like to use grade B maple syrup here (the real good stuff!) but grade A will work, too. Just be sure you use real maple syrup, and not pancake syrup (which is usually loaded with tons of junk).
The other wet ingredients in this recipe include eggs, milk (I used unsweetened vanilla almond milk here, but if you have a nut allergy feel free to sub in cow’s milk or soy milk), unsweetened applesauce (you won’t taste it), and oil.
For the oil you have some options! My personal favorite to use here is melted coconut oil, but you may use olive oil, or even melted butter if that’s all you have on hand. I think canola oil and vegetable would work too… but since I haven’t tried it myself, I can’t say for sure. Also, I personally think those oils would make these a little less healthy. But that’s just me.
For the chocolate I chose to use mini dark chocolate chips that I’ve been saving for a rainy day! You could definitely use regular chocolate chips here, too. If you’re not a fan of dark chocolate, give semi-sweet or milk chocolate a try instead. I only call for a half cup in the recipe below, but feel free to have a heavier hand here if you’d like to be a little more indulgent 😉
These muffins bake for 20 minutes, but you’ll need to adjust the temperature half way through. You’ll start them at 450 degrees, then reduce the temperature to 400 degrees. This method gives the muffins their crunchy lids and soft, fluffy interiors – so be sure to set your timer. The muffins will be quite soft when they come out of the oven. Please let them cool in the muffin tin completely before gobbling! This final step is a hard one (they smell so good!) but important for their texture.
And that’s that! These muffins are perfect for breakfast, brunch, dessert, and anywhere in between. I’ve already made another dozen and popped them in the freezer so I can pack them in lunch boxes or grab one for a quick breakfast on-the-go. If you a have a large family, you might want to double it up, too 😉
So, what are you doing this weekend? We’re having dinner at home tonight (I’m cooking steak and tons of vegetables and am hungry just thinking about it) then we’re going to hear some live music. Should be pretty fun! I hope whatever you do it’s safe and relaxing 🙂 See you tomorrow with something sweet. xoxo
More Healthy Muffin Recipes:
Healthy Bakery Style Chocolate Chip Muffins
Ingredients
- 2 cups oat flour (you can make this by simply grinding up oats in the blender until they’re powder)
- 1/2 cup mini chocolate chips
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1 1/4 teaspoons cinnamon
- Pinch ground ginger (optional)
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 2/3 cup maple syrup
- 2 large eggs, room temperature
- 1/3 cup coconut oil, olive oil, OR unsalted butter, melted
- 1 cup unsweetened applesauce
- 1/2 cup unsweetened almond milk
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 450 degrees (F). Line a muffin tin with paper or foil liners; set aside.
- In a large bowl combine the oat flour, mini chocolate chips, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon, ginger (if using), and salt; whisk well to combine. In a separate bowl whisk together the maple syrup, eggs, oil (or butter), applesauce, and milk; mix well until thoroughly combined. Gradually add the wet mixture into the dry mixture, stirring until combined. The batter will be quite thin - not to worry!
- Divide the mixture among the prepared muffins. Bake for 10 minutes, then reduce the heat to 400 degrees (F) and continue baking for another 10 minutes. Remove pan from oven and allow the muffins to cool completely in the muffin tin. Serve at once or store in an airtight container for up to 3 days. We love to freeze these, too. They'll last in a freezer bag stored in your freezer for 1 month.
Notes
Turned out great. A little more brown than I would like. I will do 8 minutes next time. My 8 year old ate 2 back to back. Definitely a repeat. Thank you
Mine burned after 10 minutes at 450!! They were fully cooked on the inside and black on the outside after just 10 minutes! I had no applesauce so I used Greek yogurt with added milk for consistency. I had no maple syrup so I used honey. I added 3 Tbs of cocoa powder to make them “double chocolate”, and wish with that addition that I would have left out the cinnamon. I used oat flour, not ground oats and regular chocolate chips. I have used oat flour in baking and sometimes it it is okay…and sometimes not. The texture of these muffins was great! I do not think any of my alterations would cause them to burn. Maybe the oven I used runs hot. I will probably make them again, but I will have to turn the temp down!
Hi Annie. It sounds like your oven may run hot, but with all of the changes you made to the recipe it’s hard to say. If you try the recipe again as it’s written, I’d love to hear how they turn out.
I would try as written, but I don’t keep maple syrup around or apple sauce. Honey and yogurt are typically considered acceptable substitutes and I have lots of muffin recipes that use both those ingredients. ln all my healthy blog muffin trials, this is the first with a bake temp of 450.
Have you tried with a single set temp or is there a specific reason for two different temps? Is that the secret to making oat flour muffins have great texture??
These muffins are yummy. I added a pinch of nutmeg and some vanilla. I used avocado oil for the fat. For those who had sinking chocolate chips. Did you use regular size or mini? Regular size are heavy and will sink because the batter is so thin. Even flour won’t help prevent them from sinking.
Hi There, these were terrific muffins, but I would love to know the rough nutritional content if you had it.
Wow, I just made these and they are SO GOOD! A five star winner for sure. I one and a halved the recipe (which ended up making 24 standard muffins for me, not 18), and instead of using just 3 cups of oat flour, I used 1 and 1/2 cups oat flour, 1/3 cup whole wheat flour, 1/2 cup flaxseed meal, and 2/3 cups of rolled oats (which I soaked in milk to soften them up before adding them). I found that this made the batter a little less watery. Oh and I replaced the maple syrup with honey (and reduced the baking temps by 25 degrees) because it’s all I had on hand.
My entire family loved them. These are absolutely going into my muffin recipe rotation!!
Loved the recipe and mine turned out sooooo yum even though I changed a few things – replaced applesauce with Greek yoghurt and eggs with chia/flax alternative and I added cacao for extra choccy goodness When I ground my oats I also added some nuts and seeds. One thing though…..when you say bake for 10 mins on high and then lower temp for another 10 mins…..after the first 10 minutes they looked pretty brown and I was scared they would burn so took them out to check them but yeah they needed more cooking on the inside. Iam afraid this may have interferred with them rising as they were quite flat. If you have a fan oven like I do do you recommend putting the heat up that high too?
Thanks for this great recipe. I just baked this with my kids and they were a complete success. Everyone loved them, they are sweet enough plus extremely moist. I did make some changes to the recipe because my baking today was all over the place: No applesauce; so I used regular yogurt instead (not crazy about this change, but it worked perfect); used 1 cup of the oats flour and 1 of regular flour; and due to insufficient cinnamon, I replaced the remaining amount with vanilla. Thanks! Look forward to baking this again with ALL the right ingredients and trying some of your other recipes. All the best!
So happy they were a hit, Helen 🙂
Hi! I tried these muffins last week and everyone LOVED them! However, mine came out absolutely nothing like your pictures. My batter is much darker in color, the chocolate chips sink to the bottom since it’s so thin, and the I am never sure if the insides are completely done because they are always pretty gooey. Regardless, they taste great. I’m just wondering if there is anything I can do to make them come out lighter in color and fluffier on the inside. I used grade A maple syrup, ground up old-fashioned oats for the flour, coconut oil, and no ginger, and I used all the other ingredients at the amounts you listed. What can I do?? Everyone loved them and I would love to improve my recipe even more!! Thanks again!!
What can you use besides applesauce or mashed bananas?
Hi Sarah. I’m honestly not sure, so I don’t want to mislead you with blind advice.
Canned pumpkin!
I tried these muffins! I was worried because some people wrote harsh reviews, so I halved the recipe. Also I didn’t ahve applesauce so I took someone elses advice and used mashed banana. I ended up putting all of the wet ingredient (minus melted coconut) in the blender. Then added the blender ingredients, melted coconut oil and dry ingredients together. It was really wet, so I baked two to start with to try, I did the 450 for ten minus and then turned it down, and they seemed so dark. So for the last 4 muffins I baked them at 400 for 18 minutes and they were perfect! I have an electric oven.
Really excited to try baking these with apple sauce. Also I blended the oats in the blender as mentioned. I measured 1 cup of oats, then blended them.
If you do everything as directed, it should turn out perfect.
So happy they were a hit, Emma 🙂