Chocolate chip ricotta muffins are the perfect excuse to eat chocolate for breakfast. Soft and tender, packed with chocolate flavour, so easy to make. Perfect for snacking, lunch boxes, picnics and potlucks too.
(Looking for a lemony ricotta treat? Try these lemon ricotta muffins. Crunchy outside, soft and tender inside, and a breeze to make.)
Ricotta cheese is a creamy, fresh cheese that has a delicate, mild, milky flavour.
It’s commonly used in savoury dishes like lasagna, but works really well in sweets and baked goods as well. Ricotta cheese makes them soft, light and tender.
I love baking with ricotta cheese. Some of my favourite desserts with ricotta cheese include:
These chocolate chip ricotta muffins are pretty awesome too.
Why you’ll love these chocolate muffins
If you haven’t tried baking with ricotta cheese, these chocolate muffins are the best treats to get you started.
- They’re soft and tender, rich and decadent
- They have double the chocolate from the cocoa powder and the chocolate chips
- There are walnuts in there too for added texture and crunch
- The recipe is very easy to follow and make
- And the ricotta muffins keep well so you can make them ahead for brunch, picnics or potlucks, and easily store leftovers for another day
What you’ll need
Ingredients
It’s easy and straightforward to make chocolate chip ricotta muffins. You’ll need:
- Ricotta cheese — use whole milk ricotta cheese as much as possible
- Eggs
- Milk — I usually use 2% skim
- Vanilla extract
- Unsalted butter
- All purpose flour
- Granulated sugar
- Baking powder
- Salt
- Dutch processed cocoa powder
- Chocolate chips — semi sweet or bittersweet
- Walnuts
Tools
I whisk and stir the muffin batter by hand so an electric mixer is not needed. Just the following:
- Muffin or cupcake pans — this ricotta chocolate chip muffins recipe yields 20-22 muffins so you will need 2 standard 12-cavity muffin pans
- Muffin or cupcake liners — I suggest using grease-proof liners like this
- Mixing bowls
- Measuring spoons and cups
- Cookie scoop to transfer the muffin batter to the pan — optional but highly recommended
How to make (with photos)
1 PREHEAT. Preheat your oven to 350F. Prep 2 muffin pans by lining each cavity with paper liners.
2 DRY INGREDIENTS. In a large bowl, whisk flour, sugar, baking powder, salt and cocoa powder. Set aside.
3 WET INGREDIENTS. In another bowl, whisk ricotta cheese and eggs (added 1 at a time) until well combined.
4 MILK. Stir in milk, vanilla extract and melted butter until fully incorporated.
5 COMBINE. Add your ricotta mixture to your flour mixture and stir until just blended.
6 FOLD. Fold in chocolate chips and walnuts until evenly distributed. Be careful not to over mix the batter.
7 TRANSFER. Transfer and evenly divide your batter into your muffin cups, filling each cup about ⅔ full.
8 BAKE. Bake for 20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the centre comes out with minimal dry crumbs. Cool in the pan for 5 minutes then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.
Baking tips and recipe FAQs
Ever had your muffins sink in the centre? I’ve had that happen to me a few times so here are a few tips I’ve learned along the way to make sure muffins always have that lovely domed top:
– Do not over mix the batter. If you’ve been mixing it for 30 seconds, that’s already too long. As long as you don’t have massive patches of flour in your bowl, you’re good.
– Also, stir gently. Avoid doing any vigorous stirring because this will make your muffins tough.
– Stir by hand as much as possible. There’s less chance of overworking the batter vs when using an electric mixer.
– Do not over bake. Over baking results to hard muffins so you’ll want to watch your baking time. Minimal dry crumbs on your tester is perfect.
Remember that you’re not looking for a smooth batter but a lumpy one so that when you scoop it onto your muffin liners they plop onto the liners like a blob and don’t flow like cupcake batters usually do.
I don’t usually drain ricotta cheese before using it in my recipes. The ricotta cheese that I get is moist but not excessively so.
However, if you notice a ridiculous amount of liquid in the tub of your cheese, best to strain it before using.
You can make these muffins up to 2 days ahead of when you’re planning to serve them. You can leave them on your counter in an airtight container.
You can also freeze chocolate chip ricotta muffins. Allow them to cool completely then place them in a freezer-safe container or Ziploc bag.
When ready to serve, we like to warm them in the microwave for 15-20s wrapped loosely with a damp paper towel.
Frozen muffins will keep for at least a month.
You can store these muffins in an airtight container on your counter. They should keep for 2-3 days. If you store them in the fridge, they should keep for up to a week.
Note that the longer these muffins sit, the fudgier they get…which isn’t a bad thing at all.
Other cupcake and muffin recipes
Love baking cupcakes and muffins? Me too! Check out these easy and delicious cupcake and muffin recipes.
- Hokkaido chiffon cupcakes are soft, fluffy and filled with delicate whipped cream. They are light as air and so delicious!
- Mini black bottom cupcakes are rich dark chocolate cupcakes with cream cheese filling and chocolate chips in the centre. So if you ever can’t decide between a chocolate cupcake and a cheesecake, black bottoms are the delicious answer.
- Ube muffins are soft but dense, like a proper muffin should be. Topped with a sweet coconut crumble and filled with a generous helping of ube halaya or ube jam, it’s a delicious treat for breakfast, snack, picnics, work and school.
- Pumpkin pecan muffins are a delicious way to start the day! With bits of crunchy pecans mixed in with the batter and a delightful pecan streusel topping, it’s a pumpkin muffin especially made for a lovely fall morning.
Chocolate Chip Ricotta Muffins
Ingredients
- 2 cups all purpose flour
- 1 ¼ cups granulated sugar
- 2 tsp baking powder
- ½ tsp salt
- ⅔ cup cocoa powder I used Dutch processed, sifted
- 1 cup ricotta cheese
- 2 pcs large eggs room temperature
- 1 ⅓ cups milk room temperature
- 1 tbsp vanilla extract
- ½ cup unsalted butter melted and cooled
- 1 cup chocolate chips semi-sweet or bittersweet
- 1 cup walnuts roughly chopped
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350F. Prep 2 muffin pans by lining each cavity with paper liners (this recipe yields 20-22 muffins so you would need 2 standard muffin pans).
- In a large bowl, whisk 2 cups flour, 1 ¼ cups sugar, 2 teaspoons baking powder, ½ teaspoon salt and ⅔ cup cocoa powder. Set aside.
- In another bowl, whisk 1 cup ricotta cheese and eggs (added 1 at a time) until well combined.
- Stir in 1 ⅓ cups milk, 1 tablespoon vanilla extract and ½ cup melted butter until fully incorporated.
- Add your ricotta mixture to your flour mixture and stir until just blended.
- Fold in 1 cup chocolate chips and 1 cup walnuts. Be careful not to over mix the batter.
- Transfer and evenly divide your batter into your muffin cups, filling each cup about ⅔ full.
- Bake for 20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the centre of a few muffins comes out with minimal dry crumbs.
- Cool in the pan for 5 minutes then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.
Video
Notes
- The total number of muffins this recipe yields depends on how much batter you put in each muffin cup. I usually get 21 muffins.
- See the post for lots of baking tips and FAQs.
Nutrition
Nutritional information are estimates only.
Happy baking!
Did you make these chocolate muffins with ricotta? I’d love to hear from you in the comments section below.
Mary
You can add chocolate to ricotta?! This just blew my mind. Growing up in an Italian home, it was only used for pasta, to eat right off of a spoon or in Italian cheesecake.
Jolina
Hi Mary! Absolutely. You know what’s weird, I haven’t tried eating ricotta plain…just always baked with it. Now using it in a cheesecake sounds divine! Have a lovely weekend!
Gabby
Oh, my word! These look delicious! I never thought of working with chocolate and ricotta together, but this sounds great!
Elizabeth O
This sounds so good, I can almost taste it. I love the combo of ricotta cheese and chocolate as it reminds me of chocolate cheese cake.
janella panchamsingh
Those muffins must be so smooth tasting with the Ricotta. I definitely must try this at home
Kusum
I make chocolate muffins all the time but never thought of putting ricotta in them. These look so delicious, will have to give it a try.
Sofia
These look so good! I’m definitely down for chocolate for breakfast 🙂
Kim
These sound yummy and the ricotta cheese must make them so moist.