The summer before my senior year of high school, my dad and I planned a big baseball trip for early August. I arranged our travel schedule to see five stadiums in seven days: we started with the Chicago Cubs, drove to Milwaukee the next afternoon to catch a Brewers game, headed back to Chicago for the White Sox, went east to Detroit for a Tigers game, and finished in Cleveland with the Indians.
Despite that many baseball games, we still squeezed in lots of other activities during our trip. We walked around the Field Museum and took a boat tour on the river in Chicago, stopped by the Henry Ford Museum en route to Detroit, and wandered around the Rock ’n Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland for a few hours, too.
To maximize our “tourist time,” we planned on eating quick breakfasts in our hotel room instead of dining at a restaurant each morning. As soon as we checked into our hotel in Chicago the first evening and dropped off our bags in our room, we walked to a grocery store a few blocks away to grab something for the following morning.
While Dad opted for croissants, I found a package of low-fat, healthier muffins in the bakery section. When I bit into one the following morning, it tasted fairly bland and a bit cardboard-ish, but the bright pops of flavor from the raspberries really helped!
And since I knew what kinds of food we’d eat at the ballparks in the afternoons and evenings, I really wanted something on the healthy side for breakfast!
Yet these homemade Healthy Raspberry Chocolate Chip Mini Muffins taste so much better than those grocery store ones I ate on our baseball trip way back then. They’re supremely tender, nicely sweetened, have zero cardboard-ish flavor…
And they’re even healthier! These raspberry chocolate chip mini muffins contain no refined flour or sugar, and they’re just 37 calories!
Let’s go over how to make these healthy raspberry chocolate chip mini muffins!
You’ll start with white whole wheat flour (like this!). White whole wheat flour isn’t actually a combination of white (aka all-purpose) flour and regular whole wheat flour… It’s made by finely grinding a special type of white wheat (hence the name!), whereas regular whole wheat flour comes from a heartier variety of red wheat. They both have the same health benefits, but white whole wheat flour has a lighter taste and texture… Which lets the tender texture of these healthy raspberry muffins truly shine!
With a mere ½ tablespoon of butter, unlike traditional recipes with ½ cup (or more!) of butter or oil, the majority of these healthy raspberry chocolate chip mini muffins’ tender texture comes from Greek yogurt. If you’ve been around my blog before, you know how much I love using Greek yogurt in healthy baking recipes! It adds the same moisture to your batter as extra butter or oil but for a fraction of the calories, and it gives your muffins a protein boost, too!
You’ll skip the refined granulated sugar and sweeten your healthy raspberry muffins with another one of my favorite ingredients: vanilla stevia. Stevia is a plant-based, no-calorie sweetener that contains nothing refined or artificial (aka it’s clean eating friendly!), and it’s highly concentrated. You just need 2 teaspoons to sweeten this entire recipe!
This is the kind I use because I love its warm flavor and don’t notice any strange aftertaste like with some other stevia products. Although you can find it at many health-oriented grocery stores, I buy mine online here because that’s the best price I’ve found. (And you’ll use it in all of these recipes of mine, too!)
Of course, the two best parts are the fresh raspberries and mini chocolate chips! These are the chocolate chips I use because I love their rich flavor and they turn a little melty in the oven. To make sure your muffins bake evenly, cut the raspberries to be about the same size as the mini chocolate chips. I know it takes a little extra effort, but I promise it’s worth it!
Nerd Alert!
Have you ever noticed that some of your homemade raspberry muffins ended up with a blue-ish colored batter? That happened to me the first time I baked these healthy raspberry chocolate chip mini muffins, so I set out to find out why. I didn’t want my muffins looking like Smurfs!
Although some people state the aluminum in baking powder causes that color change, I tried baking a batch with solely baking soda… And the muffins (and my mood!) still turned blue.
It turns out that the biggest factor in blue-stained raspberry muffin batter is… The pH of the batter. Learning that made my ex-chemist side so happy—the pH (or how acidic vs. basic the batter is) is actually really easy to fix!
When the batter is too basic and has a really high pH level, a naturally occurring part of the raspberries called anthocyanin (a natural color pigment!) reacts with the base (baking soda!) to create that blue color change.
To make sure there isn’t any extra baking soda that could react with the raspberries, all we need to do is mix acid into the batter before the raspberries. That’s easy—just add vinegar! So while it may feel a little strange to add 3 tablespoons of vinegar to the batter, it’s an acid and fully reacts with the baking soda… Leaving your muffins a beautiful golden (not Smurf blue!) color and perfectly sweet. You can’t taste the vinegar at all after your muffins come out of the oven—I promise!
One last tip! Before baking your healthy raspberry chocolate chip mini muffins, you must coat the muffin liners with cooking spray. Low-fat batters (like this one!) stick to liners like superglue, so misting those liners ahead of time allows them to peel away much more easily from your muffins.
How cute and tempting do these look?? And when you make your own, remember to snap a picture and share it on Instagram using #amyshealthybaking and tagging @amyshealthybaking IN the photo itself! (That guarantees I’ll see your picture! 😊) I’d love to see your healthy raspberry chocolate chip mini muffins!
| Healthy Raspberry Chocolate Chip Mini Muffins | | Print |
- 2 cups (240g) white whole wheat flour or gluten-free* flour (measured like this)
- ¾ tsp baking soda
- ¼ tsp salt
- ½ tbsp (7g) unsalted butter or coconut oil, melted and cooled slightly
- 2 large egg whites, room temperature
- 2 tsp almond extract
- 2 tsp vanilla stevia, or adjusted to taste
- ½ cup (120g) plain nonfat Greek yogurt
- 3 tbsp (45mL) white vinegar (see Notes!)
- ¾ cup (180mL) nonfat milk
- 1 cup (140g) fresh raspberries, finely diced (see Notes!)
- ¼ cup (56g) miniature chocolate chips
- Preheat the oven to 350°F. Line 36 mini muffin cups with paper liners, and lightly coat them with nonstick cooking spray.
- In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, and salt. In a separate bowl, whisk together the butter, egg whites, almond extract, and vanilla stevia. Add in the Greek yogurt, stirring until no large lumps remain. Stir in the vinegar. Alternate between adding the flour mixture and milk, beginning and ending with the flour mixture, and stirring just until incorporated. (For best results, add the flour mixture in 4 equal parts.) Fold in the diced raspberries and 3 tablespoons of miniature chocolate chips.
- Evenly divide the batter between the prepared muffin cups. Gently press the remaining miniature chocolate chips into the tops. Bake at 350°F for 11-14 minutes or until the tops feel firm to the touch and a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Cool in the pan for 5 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.
For the gluten-free flour, use as follows: 1 cup (120g) millet flour, ½ cup (60g) tapioca flour, ½ cup (60g) brown rice flour, and 1 ½ teaspoons xanthan gum. Many store-bought gluten-free flour blends (like this one!) will also work, if measured like this.
Whole wheat pastry flour, regular whole wheat flour, or all-purpose flour may be substituted for the white whole wheat flour.
If you’re not a fan of almond extract, substitute vanilla extract.
I highly recommend using the vanilla stevia! It’s one of my favorite ingredients, and you’ll use it in all of these recipes of mine, too. I buy mine online here because that’s the cheapest price I’ve found. If you prefer not to use the vanilla stevia, then substitute ½ cup + 2 tablespoons (150mL) of pure maple syrup, honey or agave. If using this substitution, reduce the milk to 2 tablespoons (30mL).
Do not omit the vinegar! You can’t taste it in the finished muffins—I promise! The vinegar reacts with the baking soda to do three things: (a) make the muffins rise, (b) give them a more tender texture, and (c) prevent the raspberries from staining the batter blue. See the Nerd Alert in my blog post above for more information!
Any milk may be substituted for the nonfat milk.
When dicing the raspberries, cut them to be no larger than the size of chocolate chips. Larger pieces prevent the muffins from baking evenly, and the muffins will collapse and turn dense while cooling.
Frozen and thawed raspberries may be substituted for the fresh, but they tend to discolor the batter.
This recipe will also make 12 standard-sized muffins, if you prefer. Bake at 350°F for 18-22 minutes or until the tops feel firm and a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.
{gluten-free, clean eating, low fat, low sugar}
View Nutrition Information + Weight Watchers Points
You may also like Amy’s other recipes…
♡ Healthy Raspberry Lemon Mini Muffins
♡ Healthy Raspberry Almond Mini Muffins
♡ Healthy Chocolate Drizzled Raspberry Banana Bread
♡ Healthy Raspberry Almond Scones
♡ Healthy Raspberry Almond Granola
♡ Healthy Raspberry Chocolate Chip Pound Cake
Yay, Cleveland! 🙋🏼♀️
Is that where you’re from, Liz?? I had no idea!! 🙂
Can you see my email address? If so, please email me – I’ll give you more details about the location.
Just emailed you! 🙂
This recipe is the third recipe I’ve made from this blog in the past two weeks and I have yet to be disappointed! Your recipes are amazing Amy and (as I’m sure many others do too) I really value the effort you put into creating them so thank you 🙂 p.s. – I have a couple of chemistry exams coming up soon so reading about the pH’s effect on the muffins was super interesting (and kind of made me feel like baking these counted as studying hahah)
Oh my goodness, I’m truly honored that you’ve made three of my recipes in such a short amount of time! That means the world to me Clementine — thank you so much!! 🙂 I’m really glad you’re enjoying my recipes, and good luck with your chem exam! I was actually an ochem major, so I remember those tests well. 😉 I’m sure you’ll ace them!
Omg! I had no faith to the point I almost threw the batter down the sink! I used vegan Greek yogurt by Kite Hill. It was in the back of my fridge so it was frozen solid when I took it out. I put the container in hot water to melt it, but it become so liquidy and soupy, not at all the texture of Greek yogurt so I thought this would never work. Also my egg whites were cold from the refrigerator, not room temp. Also I am brand new to vanilla stevia. So overall I had no faith! Also my raspberries were mush after I chopped them. I sprinkled the tops with Flavor God Chocolate Donut seasoning…. baked for 10 mins and omg… FLUFFY HEAVEN! My husband ran into the kitchen to see why I was yelling “Omg it worked it worked!” Almost every dairy Free muffin I make is chewy – I don’t know why. Finally I made one that came out fluffy!!! I can’t express how excited this makes me! (Or maybe you can tell lol). Raspberry and chocolate is my FAV flavor combo and these are amazing. Can’t wait for my toddler to try in the morning. THANK YOU! Also this made about 50 mini muffins 🙂
I’m SO glad you loved these muffins Tiff!!! It means a lot to me that you persevered, even when your yogurt and batter didn’t look quite right. And I’m super excited that you were finally able to make dairy-free muffins that turned out fluffy!! That’s so awesome! 🙂 Doctors put me on a gluten-free, dairy-free diet for a brief period of time a few years ago, and it was nearly impossible to find good store-bought baked treats or even decent recipes for homemade versions, so I can relate to where you’re coming from. 😉 I really hope your toddler loves the muffins too!!
What kind of vinegar do you recommend? There’s so many different kinds I don’t want to mess this up.
Thanks for catching that Anna — I’ve updated the recipe ingredients to include that info! 🙂 I’d love to hear what you think if you try these mini muffins!
Can I substitute either almond flour or coconut flour?
I really appreciate your interest in my recipe Robin! Coconut flour won’t work, but almond flour will. Your muffins may turn out denser (gluten is what allows the muffins to both rise and hold their shape without collapsing while cooling, and almond flour lacks that!), but the flavor will remain the same. 🙂 I’d love to hear what you think of these muffins if you try them!