Moist Beetroot Chocolate Muffins
These Beetroot Chocolate Muffins are perfectly sweet, easy to make and full of good-for-you ingredients. Made from pureed beets, Greek yogurt, white whole wheat flour, cocoa powder and naturally sweetened with maple syrup. These nutrient-dense muffins are kid-friendly and are perfect for breakfast, dessert or a snack.
Vegetable muffin recipes are kinda what put me on the map and is how so many of you have found me and my veggie-loading ways. And, luckily, you love how muffins are a magical (though unexpected) vehicle for getting more veggies in as much as I do!
You all have been loving my beet pancakes and beet brownies for years, so it was time to add a beet muffin recipe to the mix. It took some time to perfect the recipe and balance out the earthy flavor that some may feel iffy about when it comes to beets, but I think I have made another recipe that is sure to become a regular in many of your houses.
These chocolate muffins are super easy to whip up, super tasty, kid-approved and nope, you can’t tasty the earthiness of the blended beets! Naturally sweetened, made with white whole wheat flour, these beetroot muffins also have a boost of protein from Greek yogurt and eggs! They are so chocolaty, delicious, fluffy, and perfectly moist. Making a batch of 12 muffins, this recipe is perfect to make as part of meal prep or for stocking up your freezer. Bonus: they are done, start to finish, in 30 minutes!
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How to cook beets for these muffins
Cooking your beetroot for this muffin recipe is going to help cut the earthy flavor that many people find off putting about beets. Plus, it will enhance and bring out this beautiful root veggie’s natural sweetness and, thus, adding more sweetness to these muffins.
Time saving hack! Lots of grocery stores have pre-cooked beets in their fridge or freezer section. You can grab some of those to use in this Chocolate Beetroot Muffin recipe to make life and this recipe a little easier.
Can I make these beet muffins without cocoa powder?
You will need to replace the cocoa powder in this recipe with extra flour so that the dry and wet ingredients balance out. If you are hoping to achieve a pink muffin, beets are tricky when baking. They often turn brown in baked goods instead of holding onto their vibrant pink color.
Can these Chocolate Beet Muffins be made vegan?
You can replace the chicken eggs with 2 flax eggs in these beet muffins.
To replace the Greek yogurt, use a dairy-free yogurt like a coconut yogurt or cashew yogurt.
Also, make sure whatever chocolate chips you are using are also dairy-free.
Can I make these beet muffins gluten free?
If you need these beetroot muffins to be gluten free, I suggest using a cup-for-cup gluten free flour blend like Bob’s Red Mill. I have found it to be wildly successful in similar recipes.
Tips and tricks for the best muffins
Let them cool for a bit before enjoying.
While these Beetroot Chocolate Muffins are so tasty when warm and fresh from the oven, resist the urge to eat these muffins right away. Let them cool for 10-15 minutes.
Why? Because baked goods are still cooking when they are removed from the oven. As they cool, these muffins will firm up and finish setting. Biting into one of these muffins might make you think they are soggy in the middle and need longer to bake, when they actually don’t.
Don’t over mix the batter.
One of my favorite things about these beet muffins is how fluffy they are. The key to that fluff is to mix the wet and dry ingredients together until JUST combined. Over mixing can lead to dense, flat muffins. Boooooo! No one wants that, so don’t over mix!
Suggested Adaptations
- Make them gluten free. Use a cup-for-cup gluten free flour mix in place of the flour in this recipe.
- Need egg-free? Make a flax “egg” by mixing 2 tablespoons of ground flax with 5 tablespoons of water. Set aside for 5 minutes then use in recipe in place of the eggs.
- Make these beet muffins dairy-free. You can use a dairy-free yogurt like a coconut yogurt or cashew yogurt.
How to store these muffins
These Beetroot Chocolate Muffins can hang out on your counter for a day, but if you plan to enjoy them over several days, pop them in the fridge! Keeping them in an airtight container in your refrigerator will help to keep these moist muffins fresh longer and prevent molding.
Alternatively, you can freeze these muffins in an air-tight, freezer-safe container for up to a month.
More beet-loaded recipes
- Fudgy Beet Gluten Free Brownies
- Pink Beet Pancakes
- 5-Minute Beet & Red Fruit Smoothie
- Creamy 10-Minute Beetroot Hummus
- Chocolate Beetroot Cake
- 10+ Delicious Beet Recipes
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Moist Beetroot Chocolate Muffins
Ingredients
- 2 large eggs
- 4 ounces beets, cooked and peeled. About ½ cup pureed
- ¼ cup avocado oil or melted coconut oil
- ½ cup maple syrup
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- ½ cup plain Greek yogurt
- 1¼ cups white whole wheat flour
- ¼ cup unsweetened cocoa powder
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ¼ cup chocolate chips, plus extra for topping
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 375℉ and line a 12-hole muffin tin. Set aside.
- In your blender, combine cooked and peeled beets, eggs, oil, maple syrup, yogurt, and vanilla. Blend until beets are totally pureed. Set aside.
- In a large bowl, mix together flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder, and salt until combined.
- Pour contents of blender into the bowl with dry ingredients. Stir together with a spoon or spatula until just combined, being careful not to over mix. Over mixing can lead to dense muffins, so mixing until just combined is important for achieving fluffy muffins. Fold in chocolate chips.
- Divide batter evenly between the prepared muffin tin compartments and top with additional chocolate chips, if desired.
- Bake in preheated oven for 18 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the middle comes out clean. TIP: If you have a kitchen thermometer, bake until your muffins are 200℉ in the center. This will ensure they are cooked through but aren't over baked, which can result in a dry muffin.
- Let cool 10 minutes before transferring the muffins to a wire cooling rack and/or enjoying. Allow leftovers to cool completely before storing in an air-tight container in your fridge for 4-5 days or in your freezer for up to a month.
These were delicious! They’re very much toddler approved, too, as my three year old asked for a second! They are the perfect balance of chocolate with just the right amount of sweetness. I love being able to get beets into my diet as they’re not a go-to of mine by themselves. I will be adding these to our muffin rotation! ☺️
I feel the same way about beets, Kayla. I love them veggie-loaded IN recipes, but can’t say I love them on their own. So glad you and the family enjoyed these muffins as much as we do.
My 8yo reminded me to make sure I leave you a 5-star rating for this. We’ve made it twice and it’s gonna be one of our go-tos for beets for sure. I made some substitutions and it worked perfectly. Subbed with coconut yogurt, used 1T homemade date paste and 2T maple syrup, only 2T avocado oil, and made it gf with mix of 1/2c oat flour, 1/2c sorghum flour and 1/4c einkorn flour. I had to bake it 2mins longer but it’s moist and yummy. Thank you for another winner Taesha!
I’m so happy to hear 1) that your crew enjoyed the muffins and 2) you were able to adapt them to fit your needs! Thanks for taking the time to leave a review, JoAnn. I so appreciate it!
Can’t wait to try these as my 3 yr old loves beets and chocolate! Have you tested this with flaxseed eggs? My younger one is allergic to eggs so wondering if I can use a substitute for her.
They work with flax eggs! I find adding a touch more baking powder also helps them keep their “puff” when made egg free
My family and I loved this! We’ve made it twice. The first time with maple syrup and the second with honey (because we ran out) and they were both great. I’m still learning to love beets so I’m glad to have a recipe to use them. Thanks!!!
I’m so delighted to hear that this recipe is helping you eat beets in a way that you enjoy, Vibha! Thanks for taking the time to share and for leaving a review!
I thought it’d be fun to have a Beet Month for February/Valentines and make a bunch of your beet recipes for good exposure for my 3 year old (and self and husband). I was wondering if you thought I could cook up and refrigerate a bunch of beets at the start of the week to use throughout the week in recipes? Or cook, purée, and freeze? What would your suggestion be so I’m not having to cook beets every few days? Thanks!! Will come back and leave reviews.
I love too cook my beets a head of time! They should be totally good in the fridge (stored in an air-tight container) for several days. Or freeze them! I buy a batch of beets, cook them up, and freeze them all the time! Works like a dream and makes quickly making beet recipes so much easier.
These. Were. Delicious.
They are chocolatey but not too sweet. You can’t taste the beets in them unless you’re looking for it. Plus they’re so easy to whip up!
They are disappearing quickly in our house and were the perfect way to open my 3 year old’s mind to beets. Chocolate is good for that! And now she’s tried and liked beets in the smoothie and popsicle recipes.
I only had a vanilla greek yogurt so I subbed that and did 1 tsp vanilla instead. Still great!
What a wild success, Dalynn! I’m delighted to hear all that and am so grateful that you took the time to share it! Hearing that recipe helps anyone (but especially kids) warm up to a veg always makes my day.
These are amazing, thank you for making such great recipes! Beets and chocolate are so delicious together! Will be making these on a regular basis 🙂
So glad to hear you enjoyed them so much, Robin!
So good!!! They even have a beautiful deep pink color perfect for valentine’s day tea… Or any other time. Approved by my 1 1/2 and 4 year old! And the hubby
So glad you and the littles enjoyed them, Whitney! Thank you for taking the time to leave a review!
These are amazing. My whole family, especially my toddler, loves them! Thank you for sharing!
I’m so glad they were a hit, Katelynn!
These were delicious! My kids love them. I’m wondering if I could sub buckwheat flour for regular flour to make them GF? Have you tried this? Do you think they’d taste the same? Would the flour ratio be the same? Thanks!
So glad you enjoyed them, Nat! I haven’t tried these with buckwheat flour and feel like they may be a bit too dry. Buckwheat tends to absorb more liquid than white whole wheat flour. You can totally give it a try and report back! I feel like they’d hold together just fine, but again, might not be as moist.
Thank you that’s a good point. I actually made them with almond flour and arrowroot flour and they turned out perfectly (light and moist). I used a ratio of 1 and 3/4 cups almond flour and 1/3 arrowroot flour for those who want to give it a try.
Thanks for sharing!
This recipe looks amazing! Just wondering if canned beets can be used?
As long as they don’t have any added seasoning or salt, they should work just fine!
Accidentally forgot to add the maple syrup and didn’t realize until I was putting them in the oven. I quickly topped them with a few extra chocolate chips to try to make up for it. My 5 year old said they were the best muffins he ever tasted! They were very good, can only taste the beet if you know to look for it. Adults enjoyed them too, even without the sweetener. Love hidden beet recipes!
Delighted to hear this, Carol! Thanks for taking the time to share!
I work at a preschool and make these muffins for the kids all the time they absolutely love them! For allergies I have also substituted oat flour, and chia eggs and they still turn out delicious 😋
I so deeply love this, Jess. Before this blog became my full time job, I was a preschool teacher for many years and would bake veggie-loaded recipes with and for my students, too. I’m delighted to hear my recipes are still making it into the classrooms and bellies off those little humans!