Rich double chocolate muffins with swirls of cheesecake.
Mondays are for muffins. Or, maybe, muffins are for Mondays? Either way, there’s no better way to get through the start of a new week than with a nice, soft, chocolaty muffin.
One with extra chocolate chips in every bite. And a heavy swirl of cheesecake over the top. Then a few more chocolate chips. And maybe we even stir some coffee into this here velvety chocolate batter, because it is Monday, after all, and it would be borderline barbaric to suggest that we try to make it through today without caffeine.
I actually made these muffins yesterday. Riiiiight after I made it to the gym for the first time in… a long, long time (you know it’s bad when said gym starts sending you text messages telling you how long it’s been since your last visit).
I then promptly countered all of my sweat-inducing efforts by baking up a batch of these muffins, and if you think I have the willpower to resist a freshly baked chocolate cheesecake muffin then you just haven’t been reading this blog long enough.
I’ve used essentially this same muffin base before to make my peanut butter filled chocolate muffins, and just barely tweaked the recipe to include some caffeine. While the coffee gives the muffins a richer, fuller, (and even more chocolaty) flavor, it’s not strong enough to be distinct (think of it as a hidden caffeine bonus).
The cheesecake layer is heavy enough to keep these muffins from doming up nicely — I originally was going to tuck the filling away in the center of the muffin to eliminate that problem, but ultimately decided I wanted that swirl right up in your face with each bite.
Flat muffin tops aren’t always a bad thing.
Enjoy!
Double Chocolate Cheesecake Muffins
Ingredients
Cream Cheese Swirl
- 8 oz cream cheese
- 1/3 cup sugar
- 1 egg yolk
- 1/4 tsp vanilla extract
Chocolate Muffins
- 1/2 cup canola oil vegetable oil would also work
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 1/2 cup milk - warmed
- 1 tsp instant coffee
- 2 large eggs lightly beaten
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1/2 cup cocoa powder
- 1 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 2/3 cup sour cream
- 2 cups semisweet chocolate chips divided
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350F and line 18 muffin cups with cupcake liners (or lightly grease and flour).
- Prepare cream cheese swirl first by microwaving cream cheese in 10-second increments until it can be easily stirred with a spoon.
- Stir in granulated sugar, egg yolk, and vanilla. Set aside.
- In large bowl, whisk together oil and sugar.
- Dissolve the instant coffee in your warmed milk and whisk into oil/sugar mixture.
- Stir in eggs and vanilla until well-combined.
- Gently fold in sour cream until just-combined.
- In separate, medium-sized bowl, whisk together flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, and salt.
- Fold flour mixture gently into wet mixture, folding until just barely combined. Stir in 1½ cup chocolate chips.
- Scoop chocolate muffin batter into prepared muffin tin, filling 2/3 of the way full.
- Scoop heaping Tablespoon of cream cheese mixture on top of the chocolate batter and use a toothpick or knife to swirl
- Repeat until all batter has been dispersed.
- Sprinkle tops of muffins with remaining chocolate chips.
- Bake on 350F for 22-25 minutes (toothpick inserted in center should come out mostly clean, with a few crumbs.
Nutrition
You Might Also Like:
Peanut Butter Stuffed Chocolate Muffins
Cream Cheese Filled Chocolate Muffins
Libby says
Instructions are confusing…#7 says to fold the sour cream, but the mixture is liquid. How exactly do you fold a liquid into another liquid? I ended up just whisking the sour cream in.
Was I supposed to add the dry ingredients to the liquid mixture first, fold the dry ingredients in, then add sour cream?
Sam says
Hi Libby! The cream cheese mixture won’t be really runny. You should be able to gently fold the sour cream into the cream cheese mixture.
jamie says
So far, we’ve stuck to more “practical” recipes from your site. Garlic knots, cheese drop biscuits, banana bread, these are the ones we make over and over again. We’ve also read lots of other recipes and watched videos and learned a lot and done a few sweet things here and there like chocolate chip cookies, pancakes, etc, but not in frequent rotation. We don’t very often make something as over-the-top sweet and decadent as these cupcakes, but it was a certain boy’s birthday and we were having a virtual birthday party and everyone had to make a different and decadent treat. What a great excuse! I knew it had to involve chocolate and cream cheese, but was torn between a few options. Well, I am so glad we made THESE! As promised, the recipe is abundant. We only have a 12-cupcake pan, so we enjoyed quite a lot of batter (both the chocolate batter and the cream cheese mixture) before it made it into the muffin cups. Then we had some left over which we kept in the fridge and we’ve made some microwave mug cupcakes (surprisingly good, actually!) in the days since the party. On the day of, we made ourselves sick and couldn’t eat a bite of dinner. I ate THREE cupcakes after a lot of batter. Wow. This recipe will not disappoint with children who like to eat a lot of batter during cooking. These are truly decadent, and just like all your other baked treats, they are optimally moist and the flavors are perfectly balanced! We don’t have vegetable oil, though, so we used melted unsalted butter, and it worked out great, we just let it cool enough so it wouldn’t melt the sugar. This is a recipe we’ll be very excited to return to again the next time we want something really sweet and delicious. I was really surprised the cheesecake part of the recipe was so easy! I think it really rounds out the strong chocolate flavor! We just can’t go wrong with your recipes. How nice to finally have a place where when you want to make something you can go and know that you’re going to end up with something that turns out good and is delicious. This has not been our experience in the past. So your recipes have a special magic! And I think maybe also you explain things better. Not sure what you’re doing, but all of it, you’re doing right. How exciting!
Sam says
Hi Jamie!! I’m so thrilled to hear you have been enjoying the recipes and that this one was such a success for you, too! Your comment is so sweet and totally made my day, I hope you enjoy every recipe that you try just as much! (PS, love that idea of a virtual birthday party!!). <3
Margo Miller says
Made these yesterday! Absolutely delicious!
Sam says
I am so glad you enjoyed it so much, Margo! 🙂
Kristen says
This choco cheesecake recipe is so good that my husband ate 2 cupcakes in a row… super thanks Sam!
Sugar Spun Run says
I am so glad that you enjoyed it, Kristen! Thank you for trying my recipe and for commenting. 🙂
Grace Slater says
I dislike coffee and thought it wouldn’t be very strong but all I can taste is the coffee and I even added 1/2 of what the recipe calls for so I’m a little disappointed that I cant enjoy these muffins:(
Sugar Spun Run says
Grace, I am so sorry that the muffins did not turn out well and that you were disappointed. I hope that you give another one of my recipes a try.
Cathy says
what is the paper around the cupcake and where do you find them?
Sam says
Hi Cathy! It is just pieces of brown parchment paper that I cut up. 🙂
Catherine says
Great Recipe. Thank you! For posting!
kristina Jacobs says
Did anyone else find that there wasn’t sufficient cream cheese to use 1 heaping tablespoon per cupcake?
Grace Slater says
I made double the cheesecake recipe and there seems to be enough
Charlotte @ What Charlotte Baked says
I love the swirl. Definitely made the right choice in sacrificing domed tops for pretty marbled cheesecakiness 🙂
Sam says
Glad you agree! Thank you, Charlotte 🙂