Olympic Village Chocolate Muffins
Not only did the Olympics bring us endless athletic entertainment, but it also brought us a social media storm of viral Olympic Chocolate Muffins! These moist, chocolaty homemade muffins are loaded and topped with chocolate chunks, complete with a hot fudge center. No wonder the internet’s going crazy for a bite of them!
This Viral Olympic Chocolate Muffin Recipe Deserves A Gold Medal!
While many athletes at the Olympics were busy competing for medals, there was one athlete who had another thing on his mind: Chocolate Muffins. Norwegian swimmer Henrik Christiansen is the self-proclaimed Olympic Muffin Man who has caused a frenzy on social media about the Chocolate Muffins found in the Paris 2024 Olympic Village restaurant.
The muffin man rates these Chocolate Muffins an 11/10 and has shared countless videos on his TikTok describing his burning love for them. Social media took hold of Christiansen’s muffin love and instantly EVERYONE wanted a bite to see just how good they are, resulting in these viral Olympic Chocolate Muffins.
Recipe Testing Notes
After lots of recipe research and four rounds of kitchen testing, we’ve arrived at what we think is the BEST Olympic Chocolate Muffin Recipe. We adapted this recipe from the viral Jordan the Stallion TikTok recipe and Kassie Mendieta’s because after trying both, we felt the sweet spot was somewhere in the middle.
Jordan claims to have gotten his hands on the official recipe from Coup De Pates in France, but Kassie did an incredible deep dive into the ingredients and research – check out her SubStack for the whole rundown!
One recipe turned out to be a bit too dense while the other had a great rise and texture yet lacked the flavor of the original. Therefore, we swapped butter for some of the oil and used buttermilk while also adapting measurements to be more American-baker-friendly.
- The top right is the Final Recipe!
- The bottom right is Jordan The Stallion’s recipe, but with a mix of Dutch and Black cocoa; it was a bit dry but had good flavor.
- The bottom left is Kassie’s recipe. The texture was great, but we felt it lacked flavor compared to Jordan’s.
- The top left was primarily adapted from Kassie’s but swapped oil for melted butter, used more buttermilk, and cut the sour cream volume – this was tasty but too cake-like in texture.
We then knew the final touch had to be homemade hot fudge in the center of the muffins! This all lead us to the best Olympic Chocolate Muffin Recipe that certainly deserves a gold medal for taste and texture!
Rebecca’s Recipe Review
Taste: Deep, rich, slightly bitter chocolate flavor with a sweet chocolate center.
Texture: Dense but tender with a gooey center.
Ease: 4/10 – Not difficult, but slightly more involved than a typical muffin.
Pros: Bakery style flavor and appearance. You didn’t have to go to the Olympics of a French University to get one.
Cons: Black cocoa might be hard to find locally, but you can use all Dutch-process if desired.
Would I Make This Again? Yes, these are definitely one of those “make to impress” brunch recipes!
Chocolate Muffin Recipe Ingredients
Lucky for us not only do we not have to travel to France for these muffins, but we also don’t have to find a specialty grocery store for the ingredients. Most of the ingredients needed for this Olympic treat will be found right inside your pantry or at your local grocery store or Walmart.
The base of this muffin recipe starts with pantry staples such as all-purpose flour, salt, baking soda, baking powder, light brown sugar, canola oil, vanilla extract, salted butter, and eggs. From there, the chocolate flavor is created using a mixture of Dutch process cocoa powder and black cocoa powder.
This combination gets us as close to the color and flavor of a true Olympic Village muffin as possible. We then use a touch of espresso powder to intensify the chocolaty flavor without adding a strong coffee flavor to the muffin.
To perfect the flavor profile of the muffin we incorporate milk powder into the batter while skyr yogurt and buttermilk are used to create and lock in moisture. This ensures that they turn out to be the tender little treats they’re made to be!
Lastly, chopped dark chocolate and milk chocolate chunks are mixed into the batter as well as used for a final topping before heading to the oven to bake. To bring these Olympic Chocolate Muffins to the finish line they each get a hole poked in the top after baking that gets filled with hot fudge!
How To Make Bakery-Style Chocolate Muffins
- Prepare Homemade Hot Fudge Sauce in advance if you’re opting for homemade over storebought.
- Whisk all-purpose flour, Dutch Process cocoa powder, black cocoa powder, milk powder, salt, baking soda, espresso powder, and baking powder together in a large bowl. Then set this bowl of dry ingredients to the side.
- Melt salted butter in a medium microwave-safe bowl.
- Whisk buttermilk, canola oil, vanilla extract, and large eggs into the melted butter.
- Stir in vanilla skyr yogurt until the mixture becomes smooth and then whisk in the light brown sugar.
- Pour the wet ingredients into the bowl of dry ingredients. Then whisk the two mixtures together only until no dry streaks remain.
- Fold in the chopped dark and milk chocolate chunks.
- Cover the bowl of muffin batter with a dishcloth and then allow it to rest.
- Preheat the oven and then line a regular muffin tin with tulip parchment liners.
- Scoop the rested muffin batter into the prepared muffin tin up to the rim of the pan.
- Top the muffins with additional chopped chocolate chunks, feel free to get a little heavy-handed here!
- Bake the muffins at 425 degrees F for 7 minutes and then REDUCE the temperature of the oven to 350 degrees F to finish baking. Once a toothpick inserted into the center of a muffin comes out clean the muffins are finished baking.
- Cool the muffins in the pan before transferring to the counter or a wired cooling rack. Then finish baking the remained of the muffin batter.
- Poke a hole in the top of each muffin using the end of a silicone spatula.
- Pipe the hot fudge into the hole on top of the muffins. Enjoy!
Making Olympic Chocolate Muffins At Home
- Fudge – We opt for homemade hot fudge over storebought since it tastes just as good without all the preservatives. If you choose homemade as well then make sure you make the fudge in advance so that it has a chance to thicken up.
- Mix of Cocoa Powder – It’s best to use a combination of Dutch and Black cocoa since this produces the best flavor and color in the muffin. If needed you can use all Dutch-process instead of a mix, however it will slightly alter the color and flavor of the muffins.
- Resting the Batter – Don’t skip out on resting the batter! This rest time allows the starches in the batter to thoroughly soak in the liquids, resulting in muffins with better texture and overall rise.
- Filling the Liners – Most muffin recipes have taught us only to fill the muffin tins 3/4 of the way. But with this recipe, we actually want to fill them right to the brim so we can get nice TALL muffins with beautiful dome tops.
- Chocolate Chunks – Make sure to go a little heavy handed on topping the muffins with chocolate chunks before baking. Doing so really enhances the gooey factor finish!
- High Heat to Low Heat – It’s important to note that this recipe starts baking at a high temperature and is then reduced part way through baking. This is crucial to producing muffins with a nice DOME top and a moist center!
- Adding Filling – We found it best to use the end of a silicone spatula to poke holes in the muffins to create a hole for the fudge filling.
How To Store Chocolate Muffins
Once the cupcakes have been filled with chocolate fudge and cooled, transfer them into an airtight container to store at room temperature for up to 3 days.
How To Freeze Olympic Village Chocolate Muffins
Since Olympic Chocolate Muffins are mass produced then we know they’ve been made ahead of time and frozen then thawed before enjoying. The freezing and thawing process delivers a moister, fudgy chocolate muffin with more flavor which gets us closer to the exact replica of an authentic Olympic Muffin.
Therefore, it’s actually best to freeze these muffins as they turn out to be even more delicious once they’ve thawed! To freeze them, place the finished muffins on a baking sheet and then flash-freeze them.
Once they’re frozen, wrap each muffin in plastic wrap and again in aluminum foil. Then place the double-wrapped muffins in the freezer to enjoy for up to 3 months.
More Yummy Muffin Recipes
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Olympic Chocolate Muffins
Ingredients
Muffin Batter
- 1½ cups all-purpose flour 195g
- ½ cup Dutch Process cocoa powder 56g
- 2 tablespoons black cocoa powder 14g
- 2 tablespoons milk powder 10g
- 1 teaspoon salt
- ¾ teaspoon baking soda
- ½ teaspoon espresso powder
- ¼ teaspoon baking powder
- ½ cup salted butter 113g, melted
- ⅓ cup + 1 tablespoon buttermilk 92g
- ¼ cup canola oil 52g
- 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
- 2 large eggs room temperature
- 1 cup vanilla skyr yogurt 225g, or sour cream
- 1⅓ cups light brown sugar packed 300g
- 4 ounces dark chocolate 115g, chopped
- 4 ounces milk chocolate 115g, chopped
- chocolate chunks for topping
Fudge Center
- Hot Fudge Sauce homemade or storebought
Instructions
- Prepare Hot Fudge Sauce in advance if using homemade. One batch of muffins uses about a 1/2 batch of this homemade fudge sauce.
- In a large bowl, whisk together 1½ cups all-purpose flour, ½ cup Dutch Process cocoa powder, 2 tablespoons black cocoa powder, 2 tablespoons milk powder, 1 teaspoon salt, ¾ teaspoon baking soda, ½ teaspoon espresso powder, and ¼ teaspoon baking powder and set aside.
- In a medium microwave-safe bowl, melt ½ cup salted butter.
- Whisk in ⅓ cup + 1 tablespoon buttermilk, ¼ cup canola oil, and 1 tablespoon vanilla extract, then beat in the 2 large eggs one at a time.
- Whisk in 1 cup vanilla skyr yogurt until smooth, then whisk in 1⅓ cups light brown sugar until fully incorporated.
- Pour the wet ingredients into the bowl with the dry ingredients and whisk just until combined and no dry streaks remain – do not overmix.
- Fold in 4 ounces dark chocolate and 4 ounces milk chocolate (chopped) until evenly distributed throughout the batter.
- Cover the batter with a dish cloth and let rest for 30 minutes.
- Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 425°F and line a regular muffin tin with tulip parchment liners.
- After the batter has rested, use a #16 scoop to portion out slightly heaping scoops of batter into the prepared muffin tin. You should have enough batter for 16 muffins and the batter just about fills to the rim of the pan (not the rim of the liner).
- Top the muffins with additional chocolate chunks, you can go a little heavy-handed here, about 10 to 12 chunks per muffin is great!
- Bake at 425°F for 7 minutes, then REDUCE heat to 350°F and bake for an additional 13 to 15 minutes or until a toothpick comes back mostly clean from the center (keep in mind that there is chocolate in the batter that is just going to melt and will leave some residue).
- Remove from the oven and allow to cool for about 15 minutes in the pan, and bake off the remaining muffins if baking in batches.
- Use the end of a wooden or silicone spatula to poke a hole in the top of each muffin.
- Place the hot fudge in a piping bag, cut a ¼-inch hole in the tip, and pipe into the hole in the top of the muffins.
Notes
- Siggi’s brand skyr was used in the final testing of this recipe.
- Packaged chocolate chunks seem to work best for the top. We found that chopped chocolate tended to sink into the muffin batter while baking, but the coating on package chunks helped hold them up and looked more uniform.
- You can use all Dutch-process cocoa powder instead of a mix of Dutch and black, but the color and flavor of the muffin will change slightly. It will me lighter in color and less intense in flavor.
- Use salted grass-fed butter for best results!
Nutrition
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