Soft and fluffy chocolate orange muffins, loaded with Terry's chocolate orange pieces and extra orange zest! A quick and easy bake for the festive season and beyond!
These muffins are perfect for snacks, festive bake sales, and even Christmas Day breakfast (you're allowed chocolate for breakfast on Christmas Day, right?).
We do love a good muffin in this house, which you can probably tell by the number of easy muffin recipes I have on the blog! Current favourites include biscoff muffins and blueberry white chocolate muffins, but these Terry's chocolate orange muffins might just have become my new favourite.
Intensely chocolaty with chunky pieces of Terry's chocolate orange segments hidden inside...what's not to LOVE?
👩🍳 Love chocolate orange? You'll want to try my Terry's Chocolate Orange Tiffin and Chocolate Orange Cookie Bars too!
Jump to:
✔️ Why should you try it?
- Quick and easy muffin recipe.
- Soft and fluffy in texture.
- Festive chocolate orange flavour combination.
- Freezer-friendly.
🥘 Ingredients
- Chocolate Orange - 1 standard Terry's milk chocolate orange plus 12 chocolate orange minis segments for the topping.
- Plain Flour - white plain flour, or use wholemeal for extra fiber.
- Bicarbonate of Soda - the raising agent which makes the muffins light and fluffy.
- Caster Sugar - or substitute with granulated sugar or light brown sugar if you prefer.
- Cocoa Powder - for a chocolaty flavour.
- Orange - you'll need the zest of 1 large orange or 2 clementines.
- Eggs - 2 large free-range eggs at room temperature.
- Butter - unsalted butter that has been melted and cooled.
- Yogurt - use a plain natural yogurt or Greek yogurt.
- Chocolate - 50g of melted dark chocolate is needed to stick the chocolate orange minis onto the tops of the muffins.
🔪 Instructions
The recipe card with ingredient quantities and detailed instructions can be found at the bottom of the post
One: Place the flour, bicarbonate of soda, cocoa powder, and sugar in a large mixing bowl.
Two: Whisk together the melted butter, eggs, and natural yogurt and gently mix into the dry ingredients with a wooden spoon.
Three: Add the orange zest.
Four: Fold in the chopped Terry's chocolate orange pieces.
Five: Divide the muffin batter between 12 muffin cases.
Six: Bake in a preheated oven for 16-18 minutes. Once cool, melt the chocolate for the topping and use it to stick the 12 chocolate orange minis onto the top of each muffin.
💭 Top tips
- Don't overmix the muffins. Overmixing will result in tough chewy muffins! Gently fold in the ingredients and don't worry if there are a few lumps remaining.
- If you can't get hold of Terry's chocolate orange just use the equivalent amount (157g) of dark chocolate and use the zest of 2 oranges rather than just 1.
- Make mini chocolate orange muffins instead by using a mini muffin tin and mini muffin cases. Perfect bitesize muffins and great for kids! You could also make chocolate orange cupcakes!
🍴 Serving suggestions
The chocolate orange muffins are delicious as a snack with a glass of milk or a cup of tea. They also make a quick and easy pudding served with no-churn honeycomb ice cream!
I've also served them for Christmas morning breakfast, along with mince pie blondies and chocolate orange brownies! My house is sugar rush central!
📖 Variations
- Make double chocolate orange muffins by adding 100g of chopped white chocolate orange pieces to the muffin batter.
- Decorate the muffins with a simple chocolate butter icing and dust with icing sugar.
- Add a handful of dried cranberries to the muffins for extra flavour.
- Use orange-flavoured yogurt rather than natural yogurt.
🥡 Storage
Store: Muffins are best eaten fresh on the day they are made, but they can be stored in an airtight container or cake tin for up to 3 days.
Freeze: The muffins can also be frozen for up to 3 months. Cool the muffins completely before placing them in a freezer-safe container or into freezer bags. Defrost the muffins at room temperature before serving.
❓ FAQs
The main cause of dry, tough muffins is over-mixing the batter and overcooking the muffins. Be gentle when mixing the batter (a few lumps won't matter!) and make sure your oven is at the correct temperature.
Firstly, check that your raising agent is in date or that you haven't forgotten to use it. Secondly, don't let the muffin batter sit for too long before putting it in the oven.
Make sure all of the ingredients are at room temperature before using them, particularly the eggs. Then make sure your raising agent is evenly distributed through the dry ingredients before adding the wet ingredients to it. It's also worth noting that it's important to allow the melted butter to cool slightly before adding it to the other wet ingredients.
😋Related recipes
More delicious muffin recipes to try!
- White Chocolate & Cherry Muffins
- Nutella Muffins
- Chocolate and Banana Muffins
- Blackberry & Lemon Muffins
- Fresh Cranberry Muffins
- Chocolate Courgette Muffins
- Raspberry & White Chocolate Muffins
- Christmas Cake Muffins
More baking recipes
Recipe
Chocolate Orange Muffins
Equipment
Ingredients
- 140 g Caster Sugar
- 180 g Plain Flour
- 20 g Cocoa Powder
- 1 teaspoon Bicarbonate of Soda
- 100 ml Natural Yogurt
- 2 Eggs
- 140 g Butter melted
- 157 g Terry's Chocolate Orange milk or dark, chopped into small pieces
- 1 Orange zest only
Topping (optional)
- 50 g Dark Chocolate melted
- 12 Chocolate Orange Minis segments
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 190°c (170fan/ Gas 5/ 375F).
- Put the caster sugar, plain flour, cocoa powder and bicarbonate of soda in a large mixing bowl.
- Whisk together the (cooled) melted butter, yogurt and eggs and then pour the mixture into the dry ingredients. Gently mix with a spoon. Be careful not to overmix.
- Fold through the chocolate orange pieces and orange zest.
- Divide the mixture between 12 muffin cases and bake in the oven for 18 minutes (start checking after 16 minutes as ovens do vary).
- Allow the muffins to cool completely.
- For the topping, melt the dark chocolate in the microwave and smear a small amount of the melted chocolate on the back of each chocolate orange minis segment before placing on top of each muffin.
Video
Notes
- Don't overmix the muffins. Overmixing will result in tough chewy muffins! Gently fold in the ingredients and don't worry if there are a few lumps remaining.
- If you can't get hold of Terry's chocolate orange just use the equivalent amount (157g) of dark chocolate and use the zest of 2 oranges rather than just 1.
- Make mini chocolate orange muffins instead by using a mini muffin tin and mini muffin cases. Perfect bitesize muffins and great for kids!
- Make double chocolate orange muffins by adding 100g of chopped white chocolate orange pieces to the muffin batter.
- Decorate the muffins with a simple chocolate butter icing and dust with icing sugar.
- Add a handful of dried cranberries to the muffins for a fruity hit.
- Use orange flavoured yogurt rather than natural yogurt for an extra orangy flavour!
Don't forget to subscribe to the newsletter to stay up to date with what's cooking in the Effortless Foodie kitchen! You can also follow me on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram too!
Kechi
These chocolate muffins are perfection! I would love a muffin with my cup of tea right now! Thanks for sharing!
Alejandra
I also looove muffins! This one looks so chocolatey delicious, and adding some orange flavor is such a great idea!
Emily Flint
I couldn't find Terry's chocolate orange here in OR so I used dark chocolate and orange zest instead and these muffins were a hit! Chocolate and orange are the best combo. Next time, I'm adding some white chocolate as well!
Pam Greer
Chocolate and orange is one of my favorite flavor combinations! I can't wait to try these muffins!
Beth
These muffins look so yummy and very delicious! Such a great combination too! The family is going to be all over this recipe. Very excited to make these!