Vegan Cherry Dark Chocolate Chip Muffins

VGVDF
Jump to Recipe
Colander of fresh cherries for making our chocolate cherry muffins recipe

Can we just talk for a moment about how delicious cherries are right now? They are a more expensive fruit at our markets in Kansas but once I eyed them and snagged a sample to test for ripeness/flavor, I knew it was on. To the kitchen I went, with chocolate and cherries in hand.

Bowls of Vegan Cherry Muffin batter

Chocolate-cherry muffins, that are vegan! Oh boy. I know chocolate-covered cherries are a thing – my mom LOVES them – but I’ve always thought they were kinda gross. Something about the slimy texture, weird flavor. BUT, when the cherries are fresh and the chocolate is dark and chopped in thick chunks, you know I’m all about it.

Bowl of muffin batter with fresh cherries and dark chocolate
Cooling rack with a batch of our Cherry Chocolate Chip Muffins recipe

These muffins are so simple to throw together, requiring a limited number of ingredients and just one mixing bowl. Plus, they’re considerably healthy as far as muffins go.

Whole wheat pastry flour mixed with oat flour provides a hearty, whole-grain base; a touch of brown sugar adds just the right amount of sweetness; dark chocolate delivers plenty of antioxidants; and cherries provide loads of fiber, vitamin C and cancer-fighting flavonoids. Yep and yep.

Also, did I mention they’re delicious?

Batch of vegan Cherry Dark Chocolate Chip Muffins on a cooling rack
Fresh cherries and a stack of vegan Cherry Dark Chocolate Muffins

These muffins may be vegan but they don’t lack in flavor or texture. The’re cakey and light with a sweet, nutty flavor from the brown sugar and almond extract. The cherries are abundant and bursting with flavor, and the chocolate peeks through to give just the touch of decadence you crave.

Stack of Vegan Cherry Dark Chocolate Chip Muffins with fresh cherries scattered around

Breakfast, dessert, snack time, we’ve got you covered with this one simple treat. Enjoy!

Batch of our Dark Chocolate Cherry Muffins recipe alongside fresh cherries and dark chocolate
Batch of Cherry Dark Chocolate Chip Muffins resting on a kitchen towel

Vegan Cherry Dark Chocolate Chip Muffins

Simple-to-make cherry dark chocolate chip muffins made with whole wheat and oat flour, coconut oil, fresh cherries, and rich dark chocolate.
Author Minimalist Baker
Print
Small plate of six Vegan Cherry Dark Chocolate Chip Muffins
4.79 from 28 votes
Prep Time 15 minutes
Cook Time 25 minutes
Total Time 40 minutes
Servings 9 (muffins)
Course Breakfast, Dessert, Snack
Cuisine Vegan
Freezer Friendly 1 month
Does it keep? 3-4 Days

Ingredients

  • 1/3 heaping cup oat flour (ground from rolled oats)
  • 1 cup whole wheat pastry flour or unbleached all purpose
  • 1/2 tsp baking soda
  • 1 tsp baking powder
  • 1 pinch salt
  • 1/4 cup brown sugar (or sub honey*)
  • 1/4 cup melted coconut oil (or sub olive/avocado)
  • 3/4 cup almond milk
  • 1 tsp almond extract
  • 1 heaping cup fresh cherries (pitted and lightly chopped)
  • 1/4 cup chopped dairy-free dark chocolate (divided)

Instructions

  • Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 C).
  • Combine flours, baking soda, baking powder, salt, and brown sugar in a mixing bowl.
  • Measure out almond milk in a liquid measuring cup. Then add melted coconut oil and almond extract and stir. If coconut oil clots up, simply microwave the liquid ingredients for 20-30 seconds until melted again.
  • Add wet to dry ingredients and whisk until just combined. Fold in cherries and 3/4 of the dark chocolate until just combined.
  • Spoon into 9 greased or paper-lined muffin tins and top with remaining chocolate (amount as original recipe is written // adjust if altering batch size). They will be full; just the way I like them.
  • Bake for 23-25 minutes or until golden brown and a toothpick inserted comes out clean. Let rest in pan for 5 minutes, then transfer to a cooling rack to cool completely.
  • Serve warm with a little non-dairy butter or plain. Store in an airtight container to keep fresh – transfer to freezer after a couple days.

Notes

*If using honey in place of brown sugar, it will inevitably make the batter thinner. Compensate with less almond milk and/or more flour of your choice.
*Nutrition information is a rough estimate.

Nutrition (1 of 9 servings)

Serving: 1 muffins Calories: 192 Carbohydrates: 26 g Protein: 2.5 g Fat: 9 g Saturated Fat: 6 g Trans Fat: 0 g Cholesterol: 0 mg Sodium: 100 mg Fiber: 1 g Sugar: 7 g

Did You Make This Recipe?

Tag @minimalistbaker on Instagram and hashtag it #minimalistbaker so we can see all the deliciousness!

If you love this recipe...

Get Our Fan Favorites eBook Here!

Reader Interactions

Leave a Comment & Rating!

Have a question? Use ctrl+f or ⌘+f on your computer or the "find on page" function on your phone browser to search existing comments! Need help? Check out this tutorial!

My Rating:




  1. Lura says

    I was looking for a recipe using fresh cherries and chocolate and this recipe is perfect. Because I was looking to make chocolate muffins, I added 2 heaping tablespoons of cacoa powder, two flax eggs and substituted applesauce for the oil. They are decadent. Thanks for a great recipe.

  2. Olivia says

    I have made these three times now, But with some improvements below because the recipe above came out very dense. I make them gluten-free (1/3 cup oat flour, 2/3 cups Bob’s GF flour, 1/3 cup almond flour) and add a flax egg in replace of 2 tablespoons of the milk. I also add some cinnamon and black pepper for flavor. They are fluffy delicious perfection and a great way to get through cherries! Declared ‘best muffins’ by my partner.

  3. Jordan Garcia says

    YUM! My coworker has a cherry tree in her backyard and I have been trying to make ALL the cherry recipes. These. Are. Amazing. Not too sweet, packed with flavor. Highly recommended!!

  4. Ingrid says

    I replaced the whole wheat pastry flour with gluten-free flour, had to use tinned cherries (drained well) instead of fresh, and sadly had no chocolate at hand. And they came out beautifully! Moist, fluffy and ever so slightly crispy at the edges… Just had my third in a row and will be baking these again soon – can’t wait to taste them with the dark choc added!

  5. Chris says

    Both baking powder and soda are listed in the ingredients; only the powder is mentioned in the directions. I added both to dry mix. Is that correct?

  6. Von says

    I made these yesterday but I used blueberries instead of cherries. And vanilla extract instead of almond… they came out really good! We are them. Lol but now i wanna try it wouldn’t fruit and maybe do a mint chip with nuts muffin.

  7. J Guynn says

    These. Are. Delicious.

    I used almond flour instead of oat flower and coconut sugar instead of brown sugar and they still turned out AMAZING. These will stay in my rotation!

  8. Liz says

    Such a beautiful recipe! Holds together amazing and taste divine. I doubled it and used a jar of drained cherries, and used all white flour instead of oat and whole grain. Thank you! Our new favourite muffin ?

    • Avatar for Dana @ Minimalist BakerSupport @ Minimalist Baker says

      We haven’t tried that and aren’t sure if it would work, but it might! If you give it a try, we would love to hear how it goes!

  9. Laura Sullivan-King says

    Love this recipe. I made the plain flour version and used frozen raspberries instead of cherries. They were delicious – moist, flavoursome and held together really well for a vegan muffin. Also they are not too sweet. I just wish the recipe made 12!

  10. Millie says

    I made these and made a few subs:
    Stoneground whole grain spelt flour instead of all purpose/bakers,
    Blitzed rolled oats down into a fine-ish meal,
    Coconut sugar instead of brown sugar,
    Vanilla essence instead of almond,
    I also added 2x chia eggs (just in case).

    As another user pointed out, baking soda was left out of the method accidentally by the author and was meant to be included with the other dry ingredients. I didn’t realise until I’d completed the mixture that it hadn’t been added yet so I added it last, potentially a reason why mine didn’t rise a lot!

    I also opted for 12 muffins instead of the original 9, however, my mixture only yielded enough for 6 muffins? Unsure if the muffin tray sizes/ diameter that the author used were very different to mine?

    Regardless! Enjoyable recipe :)

  11. Jacqueline Oscvirk says

    These turned out great! My boys said they tasted “healthy” … so I probably could have added some more sweetener to it to make them “love” them … but I loved them!!

  12. SBaker says

    I loved this recipe–it was the perfect use for some overly ripe cherries I needed to use up. Muffins were fluffy, not too sweet, totally delicious.

  13. Edith-Nicole says

    These are great! I used frozen cherries, unchopped, tossed with some extra oat flour, and it worked beautifully – the cherries ended up jammy, I suspect less firm than fresh ones but no less tasty. (I also added 2 tablespoons flaxmeal because I’ve been burned too many times making vegan muffins without a binder.)

    • Avatar for Dana @ Minimalist BakerSupport @ Minimalist Baker says

      Thank you for sharing your recipe changes! We are glad you enjoyed these muffins!

  14. Susan Visser says

    These are delicious! I made them with dried cherries and they taste so good. Also have a nut allergy, so I used imitation almond flavoring and coconut milk.

  15. Jojo says

    These are absolutely amazing!!! I didn’t have any fresh cherries on hand so I drained and rinsed some maraschino cherries. And I actually added about 2 tbsp of the syrup to the batter. They’re lightly sweet and freaking rad with and without butter. 10/10 would make again.

  16. Ja-Shin says

    Hi! Excited to make these! I’m assuming that in Step 2, the baking soda is also supposed to be mixed in? Thx!

  17. Caroline Siegrist says

    These were yummy, but I couldn’t get much of the cherry flavor! Any idea where I went wrong? The ones I used were fairly ripe–so mild and sweet versus tart–and I’m wondering if that was the problem. Or maybe I should have used tarter cherries; I used Washington Sweet Cherries.

  18. Donat Plotkin says

    I made a very slightly modified version of this recipe and it was just what I wanted, absolutely delicious. Thanks!!!

  19. Carly says

    These look delicious! I only have dried cherries in the pantry. Do you think if I rehydrate them it will turn out close enough, or should I add a little more liquid to the batter, as well?

    • Avatar for Dana @ Minimalist BakerSupport @ Minimalist Baker says

      Hi! I am not sure! You could definitely try rehydrating the cherries and if you do, let me know how it goes! Good luck!

  20. michelle says

    OMG, this looks fabulous!
    can i use frozen cherries instead of fresh one because sometime it’s difficult to get the fresh one from local market?

  21. michelle says

    hello, can i use frozen cherries instead of fresh one because its kind of hard to find fresh one from the local market that i staying.

  22. Lauren says

    Love these! Made them twice now and my husband loves them too! I think I will try with another fruit when cherries are out of season. Also we are using ghiradelli semi sweet choc chips instead of dark chocolate but it is super tasty! I wonder if I could sib all oat flour or sub coconut flour foe the regular wheat flour to make them gluten free…

  23. Joan Chan says

    I had a batch of sour cherries and came upon this recipe. Was a bit wary on how it’ll taste…but once the muffins were cooled and I popped one in my mouth, OMG…sooo GOOD!!! Such a dark festive flavour and the texture was incredibly moist – total winner!

  24. Mindy says

    Absolutely love these! I made a batch two days ago and am already planning to make a double batch tomorrow. Awesome for breakfast or dessert

  25. Crystal says

    These look amazing! Do you think it will do well as cupcakes with a cherry chocolate chip buttercream? Love your site!

  26. Emma says

    I need to dive back into vegan baking and tackle the difficulties I had, I just need to buy the right ingredients to start off with!! Very inspiring blog!! I’m glad I found you :)

  27. Valentina says

    Hi Dana! Your recipe sounds great but cherries are not in season now… Can I use unsweetened dried cherries?

  28. Mura Wehi says

    Very niice. I’m no vegan, but these look awesome. I’m just a dude looking for a recipe that DOESN’T use maraschino cherries.

    Hey, can I use frozen cherries that have been thawed, pitted and drained?

  29. kelly says

    I made these earlier and they went down so well!! Instead of mixing in the dark chocolate tho, I just put a square in the middle of each muffin and topped it with a bit of mixture before baking, as I thought I wouldn’t have enough chocolate. Came out great !

  30. Nisha says

    Hi, these look amazing and I’m planning to try them tomorrow. Just wanted to know if the dark chocolate you used was sweetened or unsweetened? I don’t want to end up with too-sweet muffins! Thanks!

  31. Melissa says

    I accidentally splashed in too much extract, but wow! If I didn’t need the batter, I would have licked the whole bowl clean! I didn’t have cherries, so I subbed some other fruits. Thanks for sharing!

  32. Saxby says

    DELICIOUS! You could really use any fruit and it would definitely work. I love that its vegan, and it was a hit with everyone in a family :)

  33. maureen says

    I am gluten free and what would be a sub for whole wheat pastry ?
    I have printed out a few recipes to try, they all look so delicious.
    Look forward to hearing from you .
    Kindest regards

  34. katie says

    I’ve made these twice thus far. We love them! I’ve made more vegan muffin recipes then I care to admit and I must say I love the texture of these the best! Yes they were crumbly but we were OK with that! I didn’t have cherries or dark chocolate on hand so I used strawberries and ghiridelli semisweet chips first time and I used blueberries and chocolate chips the second. Both were awesome. I preferred the blueberry. Also I had to double recipe to get 12 full cups. If I can locate organic cherries I will eventually try it as intended!

  35. hannah says

    I saw these while I was on vacation and when I came home and found that I had all of the ingredients I was so happy. They turned out sooo tasty. Although I noticed that there is no eggs (or rather, flax eggs since its a vegan recipe)., and they were a bit less structural than other muffins I’ve made.

    • Avatar for Dana @ Minimalist BakerDana @ Minimalist Baker says

      Hannah! I tried these without a flax egg or chicken egg to see how they’d turn out. I agree they weren’t as “firm” as other muffins I made but that was OK with me. If you try them with an egg (flax or chicken) at some point, let me know how they turn out!

  36. Florence says

    Made these muffins this weekend and they are delicious! I love that they’re not too sweet so you don’t feel guilty eating one (or three) with your morning coffee.

  37. Jess says

    Oh how I miss cherries, Dana. That photo at the top makes me want to grab a handfull! I can’t believe these are vegan – the inside looks tender – I may have to give these a shot with some sort of cherry substitute….mango, rambutan, papaya perhaps? ;) Or maybe I’ll just double the chocolate.

  38. Kiran @ KiranTarun.com says

    There’s something so magical with the combo of chocolate and cherries. This is a great recipe to showcase the deliciousness of that combo :)

  39. dixya| food, pleasure, and health says

    i made something very similar and its the best thing I have ever made :) Im loving your oat flour version :)

  40. Bridgitte Raven says

    i am DEFINITELY MAKING THESE CAN HARDLY WAIT!!!!! Thanks for the recpe and gorgeous pics i think i gained weight just looking at them, but theyre healthy ok gotta go get my cherries!

  41. Joy // For the Love of Leaves says

    I totally agree with you about the chocolate covered cherries. I always thought cherries were disgusting until I tried a fresh one and ended up eating almost the entire bag! These muffins look fantastic! I love the dark chocolate, cherry, almond combination. Can’t wait to try it!

  42. Tieghan says

    I have just recently got into cherries. I know crazy, right? Anyway these look awesome!! I love the dark chocolate!