I'm excited to share these Vegan Chocolate Sweet Potato Muffins, which are wholesome and delicious! These muffins are loaded with flavor and fiber, making them a tasty breakfast or snack, thanks to gluten-free nutty teff flour, coconut sugar, maple syrup, cocoa powder, and black tahini.
I created this recipe when I had an abundance of sweet potatoes! I decided to make some healthy sweet potato muffins with chocolate. Because who doesn't like chocolate?
Jump to:
Why you'll love this recipe
Now, why should you give these muffins a try? Oh, let me count the ways!
First, they are vegan, meaning they're free from animal products. But don't let that fool you—they have a lot of flavor and moist texture, thanks to our star ingredient: sweet potatoes.
These vegan chocolate sweet potato muffins are fudgy, dense, and chocolatey. They're simple to make and are a fantastic option for anyone looking for a healthier snack without sacrificing taste.
It's easy to grab one before you run out the door to start your day or tuck a couple into a lunchbox!
What is the difference between muffins and cupcakes?
Have you ever wondered the difference between a muffin and a cupcake? It's not just the frosting! There's much more to it; the mixing method and composition play a big part in differentiating muffins from cupcakes.
It's all about texture and sweetness. Muffins are typically less sweet than cupcakes and have a denser texture than cupcakes' fluffy, sugary delight. If it doesn't have frosting on the top, it's not a cupcake.
Our vegan chocolate sweet potato muffins perfectly embody this wholesome, not-too-sweet goodness thanks to coconut sugar, maple syrup, and sweet potatoes.
For more healthy breakfast and snack options, try these Vegan Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins, Chocolate Tahini Banana Bread, and Vegan Broccoli Cheddar Egg Cups.
If you are craving cupcakes, try these Vegan Chocolate Fig Cupcakes with Irish Cream Frosting!
Ingredients
You need simple ingredients to make these delicious vegan chocolate sweet potato muffins.
- Flaxseed meal—When combined with water, flaxseed meal acts as an egg replacer. Flaxseeds are a rich source of omega-3 fatty acids, lignans, healthy fats, and fiber.
- Teff flour is a gluten-free ancient whole grain from Ethiopia and Eritrea. It is high in fiber and contains B vitamins and minerals such as calcium, potassium, zinc, and iron. Its pleasantly nutty flavor works well in this recipe. I buy Bob's Red Mill brand online or at the grocery store.
- Sweeteners: I used coconut sugar and pure maple syrup as sweeteners. These muffins are just sweet enough, not too sweet.
- Sweet potato puree - Sweet potatoes are nutrient-dense and contain plenty of fiber, minerals, and vitamins, including Vitamin A and Vitamin C. Not to mention, they are rich in antioxidants. I baked two garnet yams until they softened.
- Applesauce - this acts as an egg replacer.
- Black tahini - The nuttiness of black tahini works well to bring out the flavors in this recipe since it pairs well with chocolate.
- Organic soy milk is an excellent replacement for dairy milk due to its fat and protein profile. You can use any plant milk you like.
- Semi-sweet chocolate chips - I like the mini chocolate chips for this recipe.
- Unsweetened cocoa powder - I buy fair trade, ethically sourced organic unsweetened cocoa powder and chocolate. Unfortunately, the major brands of chocolate and cocoa powder I grew up eating that are still on supermarket shelves use cocoa harvested with child slave labor.
Substitutions and Variations
The substitutions and variations for making these double-chocolate vegan sweet potato muffins are here:
- Teff flour: To keep this recipe gluten-free, I recommend a 1:1 gluten-free baking blend like Bob's Red Mill in the blue bag. If gluten isn't an issue, use all-purpose flour, white whole wheat flour, whole wheat pastry flour, 50% whole wheat pastry flour and 50% oat flour, or spelt flour. If you want almond flour or coconut flour, substitute with no more than 25% of the flour. Using 100% whole wheat flour will make this muffin too dense.
- Applesauce - Use neutral oils, such as grapeseed oil, melted coconut oil, or vegetable oil.
- Black tahini: Use almond butter or peanut butter; it needs to be pourable. Regular tahini can also work.
- Coconut sugar: Use date sugar, maple sugar, brown sugar, or organic cane sugar.
- Maple syrup: Try agave syrup or Allulose.
- Pumpkin pie spice - Use ground cinnamon instead.
- Soy milk - Use oat milk or almond milk.
- Sweet potatoes: I love garnet yams for their natural sweetness. You can also try pumpkin or butternut squash or canned purée (not pie filling).
- Vegan semi-sweet chocolate chips: Use chopped walnuts or pecans.
How to make Vegan Chocolate Sweet Potato Muffins
It's easy to make these sweet potato chocolate muffins, even if it is your first time. I bake the sweet potatoes the day before at 400°F for 1 hour and 15 minutes. Let them cool slightly, remove the skins, mash, and refrigerate.
- Step 1: Preheat the oven to 350°F. Place 18 paper liners in two muffin pans.
- Step 2: Mix flaxseed meal with warm water in a small bowl and set aside for 5 minutes to thicken. Mix soy milk with apple cider vinegar in another bowl and set aside.
Step 3: In a large bowl, whisk together the dry ingredients.
Step 4: In a medium bowl, whisk the sweet potato puree, applesauce, maple syrup, black tahini, soy milk mixture, and vanilla extract. Add flaxseed/water mixture and whisk again to combine.
Step 5: Pour the wet ingredients into the middle of the dry ingredients. Mix with a spatula until just combined, and stir in 1 cup chocolate chips.
Step 6: Pour the muffin batter into the paper liners, evenly distributing it with an ice cream scoop among the 18 muffin liners. Top with the remaining chocolate chips. Bake for 25-30 minutes. Cool on a wire rack for 10 minutes, then remove the muffins from the pan to continue cooling on the wire rack.
Expert Tip
Take care not to overmix the batter, or this will affect the texture of the muffins.
Hint: When the muffins are ready, they should spring back when touched or when a toothpick inserted into the center comes out with a few crumbs without raw batter. If liquid batter is present on the toothpick, bake for another 5 minutes and check again.
Let the muffins cool completely on a wire rack. If you try to eat one while it's still cooling, you'll lose some of the muffin to the paper liner because it will stick.
Storage
- These freshly baked muffins will last for about 3 to 5 days at average room temperature. To prevent them from drying out, cover them with foil or plastic wrap or place them in a plastic bag, or place them in an airtight container.
- Refrigerate the muffins for up to 7 days in an airtight container.
- Freeze the muffins for up to one month. To freeze them, let them cool and wrap them tightly with aluminum foil or plastic freezer wrap, or place them in a heavy-duty freezer bag.
Related
Looking for more vegan baking recipes like this? Try these:
Recipe
Vegan Chocolate Sweet Potato Muffins (gluten free)
Equipment
- ice cream scoop
Ingredients
- 2 tablespoons flaxseed meal
- 6 tablespoons warm water
- 1 ½ cups teff flour or 1:1 gluten-free baking mix
- ½ cup unsweetened cocoa powder
- ½ cup coconut sugar or date sugar or organic cane sugar
- 2 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice
- 1 ½ teaspoons baking powder
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- ½ teaspoon fine sea salt
- 1 cup unsweetened sweet potato puree or pumpkin or butternut squash
- ¼ cup applesauce
- ½ cup maple syrup
- ½ cup black tahini or regular tahini
- ½ cup organic soy milk or oat milk
- 1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 ¼ cup vegan semi-sweet mini chocolate chips divided
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350℉. Prepare 2 muffin tins by placing paper liners in them.
- Mix flaxseed meal with warm water in a small bowl and set aside for 5 minutes to thicken. Mix soy milk with apple cider vinegar and set aside.2 tablespoons flaxseed meal, 6 tablespoons warm water, 1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar, ½ cup organic soy milk
- In a large mixing bowl, whisk together teff flour, cocoa powder, coconut sugar, pumpkin pie spice, baking powder, baking soda, and sea salt.1 ½ cups teff flour, ½ cup unsweetened cocoa powder, ½ cup coconut sugar, 2 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice, ½ teaspoon baking soda, ½ teaspoon fine sea salt, 1 ½ teaspoons baking powder
- In a medium mixing bowl, combine sweet potato puree, applesauce, maple syrup, black tahini, soy milk mixture, and vanilla extract. Add flaxseed/water mixture and whisk to combine.1 cup unsweetened sweet potato puree, ¼ cup applesauce, ½ cup maple syrup, ½ cup black tahini or regular tahini, 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- Pour the liquid ingredients into the middle of the dry ingredients. Mix with a spatula until just combined, and stir in 1 cup chocolate chips.1 ¼ cup vegan semi-sweet mini chocolate chips
- Pour the batter into the paper liners, evenly distributing it with an ice cream scoop among the 18 muffin liners. Top with ¼ cup remaining chocolate chips.
- Bake at 350℉ for 30 minutes. When the muffins are ready, they should spring back when touched, or when a toothpick inserted into the center comes out with a few crumbs, without raw batter on it.
Notes
- Bake the sweet potatoes the day before at 400°F for 1 hour and 15 minutes. Let them cool slightly, remove the skins, mash, and refrigerate.
- These freshly baked muffins will last for about 3 to 5 days at normal room temperature. To prevent them from drying out, cover them with foil or plastic wrap or place them in a plastic bag.
- Refigerate for up to 7 days.
- Freeze up to one month. To freeze the muffins, let them cool and wrap them tightly with aluminum foil or plastic freezer wrap, or place them in a heavy-duty freezer bag.
Nutrition
Resplendent Kitchen offers nutritional information for recipes contained on this site as a courtesy. Although resplendentkitchen.com attempts to provide accurate nutritional information from online calculators, these figures are estimates.
Kayla
I just made a batch this morning for the first time and they are AMAZING! not too sweet, moist, great flavor! Thank you!
Are the nutrition facts per muffin? For example, each muffin has 6.4g of protein?
Emily
Thank you for your review, Kayla! I'm so happy to hear that the muffins turned out well and they were AMAZING! Yes, the nutrition facts are per serving, which is one muffin. I just updated the data with the nutrition calculator I use.
Anaiah
Yum! These chocolate sweet potato muffins are a perfect combination and so delicious! They turned out so moist.
Emily
Thank you for your review, Anaiah! I am glad they turned out so well for you!
Alaina
These look really good! Could I use whole wheat, oat, or almond flour instead teff flour?
Emily
Thank you so much! I haven't tried it with these flours, but I encourage you to experiment. You could try whole wheat, although the result might be a bit dense. If you have whole wheat pastry flour, that is a fine substitution. I suggest trying 50% whole wheat and 50% oat flour. For the almond flour, I suggest substituting with no more than 25% of the total amount of flour. I'd love to hear how the substitutions turn out!
Teri
I've been dreaming of making these for a while now. Tomorrow is the day. 🙂 Gorgeous looking muffins, Emily.
Emily
Thank you so much, Teri. I hope you love them as much as we do!
Nikole
Can't wait to give these a try! They look so good. Your photography is great!
Emily
Thank you so much, Nikole! I really appreciate it!
Brian
Having tried these, they really are that good! Great job, Emily!
Emily
Thanks so much, Brian!