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
Nurjahan Begum says
Hi!! These look so good and I want to try them out but unfortunately I don’t have applesauce 🙁 is there another alternative I can use? Thanks 🙂
Angie D Meade says
These are great and I will be Mking them often. Moat of the chocolate chips snake to the bottom and towards they bottom the muffin was a bit wet. However, still tasty and moist through and through. An awesome refined sugar-free, gluten-free recipe. Can I add an extra 1/2 cup of oat flour and chocolate chips to avoid wet texture on the inside. Please advise.
Angie D Meade says
I added an additional 1/2 cup of oats (I didn’t grind these at all) and had a much better result. Perfect actually! And just as yummy the next day..m
Michele says
These tasted delicious but mine did not look anything like yours. They had a very brown color to them like I had made them with whole wheat flour. I did use coconut oil but I didn’t expect them to turn out this color. Second, it would have been helpful in the recipe to say that you can fill the muffin cups to the top because they really don’t expand. I filled mine 2/3 of the way through and they are kind of small. Thanks for a great recipe.
Meghan says
Made the muffins today with my 3 yo, they were easy and pretty tasty. The recipe yielded 24 muffins and the chocolate chips sank to the bottom.
Ed Youmans says
I’m newly retired and also new to baking. I’ve made healthy blueberry muffins, morning glory muffins and banana coconut muffins. This all started when I was looking for a recipe for raisin bran muffins to replace the less healthy store bought version. So I have to ask, do you happen to have a recipe for healthy raisin bran muffins? Also, cinnamon muffins or cinnamon buns? How about chocolate croissants? Thanks a bunch, looking forward to my new “out to pasture” career in the kitchen.
Karyn says
My 9-year-old daughter and I made these yesterday. Today they are already almost gone! They are delicious. We followed the recipe exactly except we didn’t have any applesauce so I substituted sour cream for that and we did go a bit heavy on the chocolate chips. I think this is our new go-to recipe for chocolate chip muffins. They came out looking just like the pictures. No issues with chocolate chips sinking to the bottom. We used 3/4 cup of mini chocolate chips. Thanks for the yummy recipe!
Rachel says
Is there nutritional info for this recipe?
JER says
if you follow it to a t , i used my fitness pal and i got close to 190 calories per muffin
Annie says
We make these all the time! The kids (3, 5 yrs) adore them. Sometimes I grind up and dry out cucumber to add more veg (I have to add more flour and syrup and bake longer), sometimes I add a drop of honey to the top of each, sometimes I add mashed banana.
Melissa Scallion says
I doubted this recipe after reading the comments and being skeptical about the ingredients, but damn, the muffins were amazing! Sure the chocolate chips sank to the bottom but that didn’t change they way they tasted! I would highly recommend!
mindy sherman says
can i use wholewheat flour instead of oat flour?