Orange Ricotta Chocolate Chip Muffins
Updated March 26, 2019
Knock, knock? Who’s there. Orange. Orange who? Orange you glad I made you Orange Ricotta Chocolate Chip Muffins? Sorry for the corny joke. I hope you will forgive me after you taste one of these delightful Orange Ricotta Chocolate Chip Muffins.
We had a big tub of ricotta cheese in our fridge that needed to be used up before our vacation. I made stuffed shells, ricotta cookies, and still had enough left to make one more thing. I was in the mood for a little morning baking…and a morning treat, so I made Orange Ricotta Chocolate Chip Muffins.
I am so glad I hate wasting food. I could have let the ricotta cheese sit in our fridge and grow mold while we are in Maui, but instead I created these glorious Orange Ricotta Chocolate Chip Muffins. I may have eaten one too many, so sorry if you saw me and my muffin top on the beach..ha! These babies were so worth it! And don’t worry we will be sharing our Maui experience soon. We got home yesterday and are exhausted. We want to go back already:)
These muffins are on the verge of being a dessert since they have chocolate chips and a sweet glaze. But since they are technically muffins, you can enjoy them for breakfast. Orange is in the title too, so that cancels out the chocolate and glaze in my book. These are made to be eaten as soon as you climb out of bed. They are too good to wait for dessert time.
If you haven’t baked with ricotta cheese before, you are missing out. It produces the most amazing results. These muffins are rich, tender, and dotted with chocolate chips. I added orange zest and fresh orange juice to the muffin batter, but I wanted a little more burst of orange so I drizzled the muffins with a sweet orange glaze. The chocolate and orange combo is incredible.
If you are trying to use up your ricotta cheese, start with these Orange Ricotta Chocolate Chip Muffins. And if you don’t have any ricotta cheese, go grab some to make these marvelous muffins!
Orange Ricotta Chocolate Chip Muffins
Ingredients
- 2 cups all-purpose Gold Medal flour
- 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- Zest of 1 orange
- 1/2 cup unsalted butter at room temperature
- 1 cup ricotta cheese
- 1 large egg
- 1 tablespoon fresh orange juice
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 cup chocolate chips
- For the glaze:
- 1 cup powdered sugar
- 1/2 teaspoon orange zest
- 2 tablespoons fresh orange juice
Instructions
- 1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line 12 muffin cups with paper liners. Set aside.
- 2. In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Set aside. In a small bowl, add the sugar and orange zest. Rub the orange zest and sugar together with your fingers.
- 3. Using an electric mixer, beat the butter and sugar and orange zest mixture together until light and fluffy, about two minutes. Add the ricotta cheese and beat until smooth. Beat in the egg, orange juice, and vanilla extract.
- 4. Add the dry ingredients and mix until just blended. Stir in the chocolate chips. Using an ice cream scoop or large spoon, divide the batter evenly between the 12 muffin cups.
- 5. Bake muffins for about 18-20 minutes, or until the tops are slightly golden brown. Let muffins cool completely.
- 6. While the muffins are cooking, make the glaze. In a medium bowl, whisk together powdered sugar, orange zest, and orange juice. Drizzle glaze over muffins. Let the muffins sit until glaze hardens.
- Note-we've made these muffins with low-fat and full fat ricotta cheese. Both work nicely so take your pick:)
Have you tried this recipe?
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If you like these Orange Ricotta Chocolate Chip Muffins, you might also like:
- Lemon Ricotta Blackberry Muffins from Two Peas and Their Pod
- Glazed Orange Muffins from Pinch of Yum
- Orange Ricotta Cookies with Dark Chocolate from Two Peas and Their Pod
- Orange and White Chocolate Muffins from Baked Bree
Baking with ricotta sounds crazy! You always come up with the most interesting combinations.
These look so scrumptious Maria! I AM glad you made them, and I love the ‘orange-you-glad’ thing too! 😉
Chocolate and orange is a match made in heaven. I need to try ricotta in my baked goods!
Beautiful muffins Maria- love the chocolate!
I made these this morning and they are SOOOO divine! I made half the batch with chocolate chips and half with fresh blueberries…delicious! The ricotta makes all the difference!
I bet the blueberries were so good!
Why do you make me drool so often?! Haha! As always amazing photos, always stirring up my appetite!
As soon as I read this I knew I had to make it. So I did and I am back to say thank you for sharing this recipe! The muffins are so perfect! I modified a bit by using half a.p. flour and half w.w. flour, 3/4 cup sugar, and 2 Tbsp o.j. I cannot wait to share them with friends who are coming over for brunch tomorrow!
Just made these and ate one warm…yummy!
They are so good warm!
These look so moist and fluffy. Perfection…sort of like a trip to Maui! 😉
I just made these muffins today and we are in heaven. My husband has eaten three already.
Glad you enjoyed the muffins!
The texture and taste of these muffins is amazing! Will definitely be making them often.
I made these today and the batter was a little thick. Also you do not mention the chocolate chips in the instructions, I guess that’s a part of the dry ingredients. The icing was also thick I followed the directions 1 cup of conf. sugar, 1/2 tsp of orange zest and 2 tbs of orange juice and I had to add more. They do taste delicious but I wonder what I did wrong? Have any ideas.
Fabulous recipe! I pinned these as a way to use up some extra oranges someone gave me, and satisfy my daily chocolate craving. These are perfect. Thanks!
Read your recipe while lying in bed this morning. My daughter does not like orange and chocolate together and she is out of town for a few days so it was the perfect time to make these. So I did! Delicious! I used mini semi sweet chocolate chips which I dusted in flour so they would not sink to the bottom of the muffin. The muffins did not want to become golden brown like the recipe stated ( I should have looked at your pictures again) even tho I baked them longer then recommended. I think I put the glaze on too soon. I assume I was to let them cool first. However, we didn’t want to wait for them to cool. Next time I will try the 1/2 wh wh flour and less sugar that another reader recommended and maybe some coconut oil with the butter. Thank you for another delicious recipe. I love these.
These are my new favorite muffin! I love the orange and chocolate together as always and the ricotta leaves them so moist. I will def be making these again soon. I almost decided to skip the glaze, but am so happy I didn’t after eating one. Delicious!
Ohhhhh my goodness. I made these last night and they are INCREDIBLE. It was my first time baking with ricotta and I am sold. Some of the best muffins I’ve ever eaten. I am typically not a fan of orange-flavored-chocolate, but these are great. I used part-skim ricotta and 3/4 cup of mini chocolate chips (simply because I was out of regular chocolate chips). I am wondering how these would taste with almond extract instead of vanilla, or an amaretto glaze…
Glad you enjoyed the muffins!
I baked these last night, as a gift for my neighbors. They were so delicious, and hard to give up! Definitely will be baking them again in the future! My muffins deflated a little while they were cooling. Any suggestions on to avoid this in the future?
Hmmm…I never had them deflate at all. Sorry you had issues. Glad you still liked them though!
Just made your orange ricotta chocolate chip muffins and let me say OMD (oh my dog). They are absolutely awesome. Am taking them to work tomorrow. I will be carried around the office on shoulders. They will probably write folk songs about me. Can’t wait to try more of your recipes.
I made these over the weekend – it was a fantastic recipe. However, I think next time I’d use either dark chocolate chips or a combination with bittersweet. I used milk chocolate and it was too sweet for me. Another combo I want to try would be to substitute walnuts for the chocolate chips. I used low fat ricotta because that’s all I had and they came out nice and moist. Definitely a keeper recipe!
Yummy! I made these on Saturday and after munching on two (or three or four), I’ve been eating them for breakfast the past two days. Delish! Thanks, Maria!
Glad you liked the muffins!
These are fantastic. I made them for a carryin breakfast and many asked for the receipe. I will be making these more often. Thank you!
Absolutely delicious, Maria! These are my favorite muffins now! And I always seem to have some oranges & ricotta that need to be used up, so these are perfect. Thanks for sharing!
These were delicious! I made them tonight. They were fluffy, moist, and all-around great tasting. I skipped the glaze.
These sound delicious! I wonder if you could make them into scones? I am ging to put the ingredients on my list for breakfast next week!
Thanks for the great recipe! I loved the orange and chocolate combo. They turned out perfectly. I wrote about making them on my blog.
This may be a dumb question- but how would this work with a bundt cake? Like temp/cookin time wise? Will I have to double the recipe any?
I’m already making cupcakes for my daughters baptism & would Love to make this in bundt form
I had a craving for Orange Ricotta pancakes but we weren’t in the mood for a big breakfast. You had a link to these muffins so I made them as minis and we had a perfect small breakfast. And we’ll have more for the week even better. I used mini chocolate chip which worked well for the small size. Thanks for the link and the great recipe.
You are welcome!
These are wonderful, made them last night but, just tired one this morning. Put in microwave for 10 seconds to warm up and melt chocolate chips just enough – these are moist and the Orange and chocolate are wonderful together! Thank you another great muffin recipe I will make again & again!
These muffins are fantastic. Thank you so much for helping me use up my leftover ricotta cheese. The texture of the muffin is extremely moist and the flavor of the chocolate and orange together tastes delicious.
Glad you liked the muffins!
I baked these and followed the instructions exactly, as it was my first time baking with ricotta. They are delicious but very sweet. I would recommend cutting the chocolate chips in half and forgoing the glaze. They are good enough without the extra sugar. I will definitely make these again.
These are truly delicious! Melt in your mouth, and the combination of flavors is wonderful. Great way to use up some leftover ricotta, I also hate throwing food away.
These are delicious. I was looking for a way to use up the ricotta left over from a dinner recipe and make something good for breakfast, and these muffins are perfect. The ricotta makes such a light, tender crumb. We like any baked good with orange and chocolate, so this recipe went over well with my kids while also having enough flavour for us adults with our tea. I subbed in some almond flour for the all purpose and that turned out well. I also like that these weren’t overly sweet (I skipped the glaze – I ran out of icing sugar, but didn’t miss it at all). Thanks for the recipe!
These are delicious, even without the glaze! I love how mixing the orange zest into the sugar gives great orange flavor throughout each bite. I made 12 muffins using an ice cream scoop and still had batter left over. The next time I will use less batter in each one and get more!
The batter was very thick, so I was a little worried and considered thinning it a bit with milk, but they came out delicious. I love ricotta and hate when it ends up souring in my fridge because I didn’t use it all up fast enough. I’ve been craving a baked item so this worked out perfectly for me. Even my husband said they were good and he usually does not like when I put glaze on muffins, cookies or breads.
Added an extra tbsp of orange juice to the muffin batter by accident but it was great. Instead of chocolate chips I put broken up raspberry pieces in the center tossed in a little flour. Ricotta is great for desserts because of that mild taste!
Just made these and they seem to be tasting fine but I had a few issues with the measurements:
– I cut down sugar to half a cup and skipped the glazing, and it was just the right amount of sweet for me. Can’t imagine how insanely sweet they will turn out per the actual recipe.
– Even with half the sugar, the batter turned out way too thick, almost dry, so I had to add more liquid to make it the right consistency to scoop. I did measure the two cups of flour as 240gr, so I can’t have gone wrong there.
– With all the above, I only got enough batter for 11 muffins.
All in all, I don’t think I’ll make these again.
Thanks!