Olympic Chocolate Muffins Recipe
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Updated Jan 17, 2026, Published Aug 07, 2024
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Norweign swimmer, Henrik Christensen, has made everyone crave these triple chocolate muffins from the Olympic village dining hall. I now think of them as the official Olympic Chocolate Muffins. They’re tall bakery-style chocolate muffins that have a bit of ganache in the center, a large crumb and square chocolate chunks. Delicious!
Like everyone else, I’m so into the Paris 2024 Olympics. I find the athletes so inspiring and I love watching them achieve their dreams; it’s truly amazing. But my favorite thing that has come out of some of the coverage online has been the obsession that the athletes have (mostly swimmer, Henrik Cristensen a.k.a. “The Muffin Man”) has had with these muffins!
I was craving them so much; I knew I had to make them. I did some research and I found that it’s most likely coming from this French food supplier called: Coup de Pates.
Ingredients You’ll Need for these Olympic Chocolate Muffins
- Three types of chocolate is used in this muffin: we have baking cocoa, chocolate ganache made with dark chocolate and milk chocolate chunks.
- Neutral oil. I love using oil in muffins or cakes. It adds a ton of moisture and it makes these muffins have a large crumb while also being delicious. You can use vegetable oil, canola oil or avocado oil.
- Buttermilk. This will give the muffins a super fluffy texture. I love using buttermilk.
- Instant Espresso Powder. This will give these chocolate muffins even more of a deeper, richer flavor. Instant espresso powder will really compliment the chocolate in a delicious way.
For the rest of the ingredients (and the measurements), please see the recipe card below!
How to Make this Olympic Chocolate Muffins Recipe
- Mix together the wet ingredients in a medium bowl: sugar, oil, egg, vanilla extract, salt and instant espresso powder.
2. Sift in the cocoa powder and flour.
3. Next, pour in the warm buttermilk and mix.
4. Transfer the batter to the muffin liners. And top with a few chocolate chunks.
5. While the muffins are baking, make the ganache. Warm up the heavy cream and pour it over the chopped chocolate. Let it sit for 2-3 minutes. Whisk until smooth.
6. Allow the muffins to cool for 10 minutes, just so they’re cool enough to handle.
7. Using a paring knife, remove a bit of the center. And pipe in the ganache. Serve and enjoy!
How to Get the Perfect Domed Muffin Top
The secret to perfectly domed bakery-style muffins is to bake them at two temperatures.
- Preheat oven to 350F. When the muffins go in, raise the oven’s temperature to 425F and bake for seven minutes.
- Then, turn the heat down to 350F and bake for an additional 10-12 minutes, until a skewer comes out clean.
What this does: The initial high heat gives the muffins a jolt resulting in super tall muffins. I do this trick with my Blueberry Muffins and swear by it!
Recipe FAQs
I haven’t tried it (obviously) but reports of lack of protein for athletes, undercooked meats and food that is under seasoned, makes me think that the food at the Olympics Dining hall isn’t very good. But the muffins have a great reputation lol.
In an airtight container, stored in the fridge, they’ll be good for up to a week.
I love to eat muffins with coffee like my Horchata Coffee, Mint Vanilla Iced Coffee, Pumpkin Spice Latte or Iced Matcha Latte.
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Olympic Chocolate Muffins Recipe
Video
Equipment
- 1 muffin pan
- 2 Medium bowls
- 1 small saucepan
Ingredients
Chocolate Muffins:
- 125 (1/2) grams (cup) granulated sugar
- 1 large egg
- 1/4 cup neutral oil, (such as vegetable, canola or avocado oil)
- 1 teaspoon instant coffee
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract , homemade or store-bought
- 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 (120) cup (g) all-purpose flour
- 35 (1/3) grams (cup) baking cocoa
- 150(5) ml(ounces) buttermilk, warmed
- Handful milk or dark chocolate chunks
Chocolate Ganache:
- 3 ounces dark chocolate, chopped
- 1/4 cup heavy cream
Instructions
To Make the Chocolate Muffins:
- Preheat oven to 350F. In a medium bowl, whisk together the sugar, egg, neutral oil, instant coffee, vanilla and salt. We want a smooth mixture. Sift in the baking soda and salt; mix. Next, sift in the all-purpose flour and baking cocoa. Pour in the warm buttermilk and mix one last time.
- Add four tulip muffin liners to a muffin tin. If you’re using regular muffin liners, add six! Fill up the muffin liners. Top with a handful of chocolate chunks.
- Place in the oven and raise the oven temperature to 425F and bake for 7 minutes. Bring the temperature down to 350F and bake for another 10-12 minutes, until a skewer comes out clean.
To Make the Ganache:
- While the muffins are cooling, make the ganache. Chop up the chocolate and add it to a heatproof bowl. Warm up the heavy cream and pour it over the chocolate. Let it sit for 1-2 minutes and then mix it up until smooth. Transfer to a piping bag or ziplock bag.
- When the muffins have cooled a bit, use a paring knife to remove the center. Pipe the ganache in the center each of the muffins. Serve them up and enjoy.
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
the muffins came out a bit dry and not totally chocolatey and it says to use salt twice in the first step. also, the ganache was runny like the other comment said but i added extra chocolate until it came out to a more ganachey consistency. still pretty good though.
Step 1 says to add the salt in two different places. Could probably use a touch more salt. Also, I doubled the recipe. The handful of chocolate chunks doesn’t change automatically so you have to remember to double it yourself if you click the 2x or 3x button. The ganache came out really runny for me, similar to chocolate milk like another reviewer said (I did double check and weigh my ingredients). I looked up another recipe for the ganache and they used double the amount of chocolate, which worked well. I also topped the muffins with the chocolate chunks as written before putting it in the oven, but it was a lot of chocolate just at the top of the muffin with the ganache as well, next time I would just add the chocolate chunks straight into the muffin mix so it is evenly distributed. I used regular size muffin tin/liners, and with a double batch, it came out to 21 muffins. A lot more than I was expecting. Also, if you are using a standard home sized muffin liners, remember to adjust how long your muffins are in the oven, because they will probably be overcooked if you leave it in the oven for that long.
Hi Devon, I’m sorry you had a bit of trouble. Let me make those changes so it’s easier for others. Thanks so much for the feedback.
Need to mention how to make buttermilk, amazing performance otherwise
Iโm Asian and do not like super sweet treats. This has the perfect amount of sweetness!! Instead of the ganache, I just added dark chocolate chips in the batter. Adding this in rotation for desserts!
yumm that sounds amazing!! so glad you love them ๐