Triple Chocolate Muffins with Chocolate Ganache

Light, fluffy, and moist, these sky high Bakery Style Triple Chocolate Muffins will beat any store bought muffin by a mile! Make them even more craveworthy by stuffing them with chocolate ganache before baking for a melty chocolate surprise.

Save This Recipe! 💌

I'll email this recipe to you, so you can come back to it later, plus you'll get great new recipes from me every week!

I agree to be receive new recipes from But First We Brunch

Some days call for muffins. But some days, you know the ones, call for Triple Chocolate Muffins stuffed with chocolate ganache that oozes out when you take a bite. I can think of a lot of days that would have been better if they had started out with one of those.

One of my jobs at the bakery was to make muffins every morning. So many muffins. They were these big, oversized muffins, defying gravity with their high fluffy tops. The kind you see in a bakery case and think "I gotta get me one of these!"

Unfortunately, unless we ran out of blueberries, I usually only made blueberry muffins. Don't get me wrong, I love a good blueberry muffin, but some days call for even more indulgence. Some days call for chocolate.

(p.s. technically these are a quintuple chocolate muffin, but I didn't want to sound braggy and make all the other muffins feel bad about themselves. As long as we know, it's cool)

Olympic Village Muffins

At the time of this writing, it is the middle of the 2024 Paris Olympics and amidst all the excitement of Simone Biles killing it (again), everyone is talking about the gooey chocolate muffins in the Olympic Village. Norwegian swimmer Henrik Christiansen went viral on TikTok for his hilarious obsession with them, and I just had to update my recipe to match his freak.

For this recipe I used my Buttermilk Muffins recipe as a base and I incorporated a really good quality cocoa powder, semi-sweet chocolate chunks, milk chocolate chips, and mini chocolate chips, but then I stuffed them with balls of frozen chocolate ganache that melt as the muffins bake around them, and I gotta say, they are indeed the chocolate muffins you've been waiting for!

These muffins are jumbo sized muffins, baked in a standard size muffin pan. Lining the pan with parchment muffin liners and filling them to the top with batter guarantees those oversized muffins you've been eyeing in the bakery case. Get ready for oversized flavor too!

Ingredients for Triple Chocolate Muffins

• All-purpose flour Just standard all-purpose flour does the trick here, giving you a great base for the chips and chunks you'll be folding in.
• Cocoa powder I get the most chocolate flavor by using a good quality cocoa powder, but any dutch process cocoa (Hershey's calls their version "Dark") from the grocery store will work too. If yours doesn't say "Dutch", it's probably a natural cocoa powder. King Arthur Baking has a great article on the differences between dutch process and regular cocoas, but I usually prefer the darker color I get from dutch process. Since I use both baking powder and baking soda in my muffins, you can use either natural or dutch process cocoa with good results.
• Sugar White granulated sugar is what almost everyone has in the pantry, but light brown sugar can be used in a pinch.
• Baking powder and baking soda For various technical reasons I use both leavening agents in this recipe. Without getting too technical, the baking soda reacts with the buttermilk and the baking powder reacts with the cocoa powder. These reactions are what makes these muffins rise to great heights!
• Buttermilk The acidity of the buttermilk helps to balance the sweetness of the muffins, but it also helps to tenderize them by snipping some of the gluten strands to make the muffins softer. They'll not only be more fluffy, but they'll also have a more tender crumb.

Note on Buttermilk: When it comes to the liquid I use in baking, I sometimes make adjustments based on what I have in the fridge at the moment. I don’t recommend making your own "buttermilk" by mixing lemon juice or vinegar with milk, as the acidity won’t be the same as real buttermilk. You can use plain yogurt or sour cream in place of the buttermilk, if that’s what you have on hand. If you want to substitute with milk – whole milk, skim milk, or almond milk for instance – remove the baking soda from the recipe and increase the baking powder to 3 teaspoons.

• Vanilla Did you know that vanilla has been used as a flavor enhancer in chocolate dishes since at least the 15th century? It's true! So I am not arguing with over 700 years of culinary knowledge. I add vanilla paste, but extract is also good.
• Hot espresso Some people don't think that coffee or espresso really make chocolate taste more chocolatey, but it's true for science reasons! Cocoa beans and coffee beans actually share some of the same flavor profiles and act on our flavor receptors in a similar manner. Therefore, adding just a bit of coffee or espresso will give the chocolate a richer and deeper chocolate flavor. This is the one ingredient that isn't added at room temperature.
• Chocolate I like the way a chopped up bar of chocolate really melts into these muffins, giving you waves of really chocolatey flavor in the midst of a chocolate ocean. The mini chocolate chips start out melty, and when cool they firm up, giving you a mixture of different chocolate textures. And more chips on top just wave hello, to let you know you're in for a real chocolatey ride!
• Parchment muffin liners I'm including these as an ingredient because to be able to make these oversized muffins in a standard size muffin pan you need liners that stick up over the top of the muffin cups. If you don't have them, just make regular sized muffins and eat twice as many.

Instructions

Making these chocolate lava muffins is very easy. You start by making the ganache, which sounds fancy, but is super simple. Then it's just a standard wet-into dry muffin process, with a ball of chocolate stuffed in the center. As always, I recommend reading through the instructions, gazing at my wonderful process pictures, then gathering all you ingredients and making something delicious!

Make chocolate ganache

Step 1: In a shallow bowl, pour hot heavy cream over chopped chocolate. Cover and let sit for 5 minutes.

Step 2: Whisk until smooth. Place bowl in freezer until solid, about 30 minutes.

Step 3: Remove from freezer and use a small scoop, or one tablespoon measure, to make scoops of ganache.

Step 4: Put on a sheet pan and place back into the freezer while you prepare the muffin batter.

Make muffin batter

Preheat your oven to 425°F and line 8 muffin wells with large paper muffin liners, or if making standard size muffins, place one liner in each well. Spray lightly with nonstick spray. Melt your butter and add your oil to it to cool it down.

Step 1: In a large mixing bowl, whisk together all-purpose flour, cocoa powder, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and kosher salt.

Step 2: In a measuring cup, or medium bowl, whisk together buttermilk, eggs, vanilla, and 3 tablespoons of hot espresso.

Step 3: Pour wet ingredients into dry ingredients and mix halfway, then begin drizzling in melted butter and oil while continuing to mix.

Step 4: Mix in your choice of chocolate. I used chopped semi-sweet chocolate, milk chocolate chips, and mini chocolate chips. Reserve some for the tops of the muffins.

Step 5: Place one scoop of batter into the muffin wrappers. Press one ball of ganache into the batter.

Step 6: Top with another scoop of batter and sprinkle the tops with more chocolate.

Bake at 425°F for 5 minutes, then turn down the oven to 350°F without opening the oven door. Bake for another 15 to 18 minutes, or until muffins are set and a toothpick inserted into the top comes out clean or with just a bit of ganache.

For best results, remove from pan and let cool on a wire rack for at least 30 minutes, or your muffins may fall apart. I’ve never actually made it that long, but you should do as I say, not as I do.

Expert tips

• Don't overmix your batter! Just fold everything together until just combined. If you mix too vigorously, you'll encourage the gluten strands in the batter to join together, giving you a dense, tough muffin.
• Use a medium scoop to portion out your batter. It's a no-mess way of filling your muffin liners and all of your muffins will be the same size, and will bake more evenly. If making standard size muffins, use a small, 2 tablespoon scoop.
• Leave room between your muffins for more even baking. If possible, leave every other muffin cup empty, or use only the outer cups for your muffins. This way, the heat of the oven has a better shot at surrounding each muffin and having them all bake at the same rate.