Bakery Style Chocolate Chip Muffins (video)
A crispy, sky-high muffin top, full of chocolate chips, soft and buttery on the inside – a perfect way to start your morning!
I love enjoying a good muffin with a nice, warm cup of coffee, especially now that the fall weather is setting in. My favorite part of a muffin is the muffin top, that’s why I love bakery style muffins. Breaking off that large, crispy muffin top and taking that first bite is heaven to me. When I was a kid, I would only eat the tops of my muffins and it used to drive my mother crazy because she though it was so wasteful. But, the bottom just couldn’t compare to the top. This reminds me of that Seinfeld episode back in the 90’s where Elaine had the idea of a store just selling muffin tops. I know I totally dated myself with the last reference, but I hope some of you know what I’m talking about or else I’m just going to feel old and geeky.
Anyway, let’s talk baking science. The key to the perfect bakery style muffin is to have just enough leavening agents (baking soda and baking powder) to create that puffy dome when baking, but not so much that you can taste it. Baking at an initial high temperature will cause the air bubbles in the batter to expand even further. This will help give the muffin a soft and fluffy texture and also create the high rise. Using enough fats and liquids like butter, eggs, and milk, will make the muffins moist and rich. You also need enough volume of batter to fill the tins to the top. Lastly, and this is a tip in general for making soft and tender muffins, mix the wet with the dry ingredients until JUST combined. Over mixing will result in hockey pucks and you don’t want that. Everything else is a matter of preference in taste.
I used mini chocolate chips for this recipe because they disperse more evenly throughout, but you can use regular chocolate chips or chocolate chunks if you prefer. I also added some salt to enhance all the flavors. I used to shy away from salt, but I learned from watching Master Chef that it’s useful for more than just adding a savory taste, it also potentiates all the other flavors. I added 1 tablespoon of vanilla because I like vanilla in all my baked goods. It’s just one of those flavors that goes well with most things, and of course you need some sugar. I only used 1 cup of sugar for this recipe because the chocolate chips are already sweet. So, in a nutshell, that’s pretty much how I came up with the recipe.
Enjoy these fabulous muffins with your morning coffee and/or as an afternoon snack. They’re moist, fluffy, rich in flavor, loaded with sweet chocolate chips, and they’re so delicious, I promise you’ll want to devour the whole thing, not just the tops.
Bakery Style Chocolate Chip Muffins
- Prep Time: 10 min
- Cook Time: 20 min
- Total Time: 30 minutes
- Yield: 12
- Category: breakfast, snack
- Method: bake
- Cuisine: American
Description
The BEST chocolate chip muffin recipe – soft, moist, fluffy, loaded with chocolate chips, and a perfect crispy sky-high muffin top!
Ingredients
- 2 & ½ cups (315g) all-purpose flour
- 1 tbsp (13g) baking powder
- 1 tsp (5g) baking soda
- ½ tsp (2.5g) salt
- ½ cup (114g) unsalted butter, melted and cooled
- 1 cup (200g) granulated sugar
- 2 large eggs
- 1 cup (250ml) buttermilk (see notes for substitutions*)
- 1 tbsp (15ml) vanilla extract
- 1 & ½ cups (275g) semi-sweet chocolate chips
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 425°F. Spray a 12 cup muffin tray with non-stick cooking spray or line with paper liners.
- In a large bowl, toss together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and chocolate chips. Set aside.
- In a medium bowl, whisk together the melted butter, sugar, eggs, milk and vanilla. Slowly add to the dry ingredients. Gently fold together until JUST combined.
- Divide the batter into the 12 muffin cups and bake at 425°F for 5 minutes. Then reduce the oven temperature to 375°F and continue to bake for another 12-15 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Do not overbake or the muffins will be dry. Let cool for about 5-10 minutes and enjoy warm.
Notes
*You can substitute the buttermilk with any kind of milk. Even non-dairy milk like almond or rice milk works. Simply mix it with 1 tablespoon of white vinegar or lemon juice to make 1 cup.
Muffins taste best the day of, but can be stored in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 5 days.
For mini muffins; bake for 10-12 minutes at 375F only.
You might also like my Bakery Style Blueberry Streusel Muffins, Bakery Style Banana Nut Muffins, and Double Chocolate Muffins. Click here to see all muffin recipes.
Every time I want chocolate chip muffins, I come to this recipe! It is amazingly good!!
Thank you for your kind words, Leah! I’m happy to hear you think these muffins are amazing:)
Can I replace the 308g all-purpose flour, 13g baking powder and 5g baking soda with 308g self raising flour? Thank you and awaiting your advise.
You can substitute the flour, baking powder and salt with self-rising flour, but for this recipe, you’ll still need to add 3/4 tsp of baking soda to make it equivalent. I hope that helps and please feel free to reply back if you have any further questions.
Thank you for the advice. I tried your recipe today. My batter turns out to be quite liquid not like the batter you have in your video. But it tastes great! Thank you for the recipe. I will use your muffins recipe for my future baking.
My muffins did not raise as much as yours. Is it because my batter is too liquid? Do you know why the batter so liquid? Is it because I over-mix or under-mix the batter?
Yes, if this batter is too thin, it won’t rise as much, but instead spread out to the sides. Mixing wouldn’t affect the viscosity of the batter.
I am using the grams and millimetres as the unit of measurement as we do not measure in cups in country. I am wondering whether that is the issue for the batter to turn out liquid. When I mix the wet and dry ingredients, the batter is very liquid.
Grams and milliliters is the more accurate way of measuring, so you did that right. I’m wondering if your butter was too hot and melted some of the sugar causing it to be more liquid than it should be? How did you melt your butter, and did you let it cool?
I put the butter in the microwave to melt before preparing the other ingredients. When I start to mix the wet ingredients, the butter is cool. Can it be that I use low fat milk instead of buttermilk? I will get the buttermilk today and will try the recipe again. I will let you know. Thank you so much for the prompt advice. You are great!
Aww, you’re very welcome and thank you for your kind words. Any kind of milk works in this recipe. However, buttermilk does make it a little more moist. I hope it works better for you this time.
I bought the buttermilk and tried the recipe again today. I also took extra care that the melted butter is completely cool before mixing it with the sugar. The batter turned out great and the muffins raised a lot. They are nice and delicious. My family likes the muffins a lot. I also tried your ‘Bakery Style Blueberry Muffin’ recipe. The crunchy and sweet streusel topping makes the muffin even taster. Your recipes are great! Your prompt reply and expertise advice is extremely valuable. Thank you very much, Lily.
Yay, I’m so happy it worked! My pleasure:) I’m thrilled you and your family enjoyed the muffins.
Is this for 12 regular sized muffins or jumbo?
12 regular size muffins. I hope you enjoy it!
These are seriously THE best muffins I have ever made. And I make a lot. My kids request them all the time which is fine because they are easy to make with ingredients I always have on hand. They have never failed!
Great to hear and thank you so much for your rave review!
Do these freeze well? Thanks in advance!
Yes, they do freeze well. Let the muffins cool completely, wrap each in plastic wrap, place in a freezer bag, label and date, and store in the freezer for up to a month.
Thank you so much for the quick reply, they are in the oven now, 6 minutes left tobbake, the tops are huge and they look beautiful! I sprinkled with turbidano sugar for that bakery-style crunch on top! Wishing everyone well.
This is our go to recipe, a true family favorite. My kids always ask for it and my husband raves about these muffins. I’m notorious for trying lots of different recipes even when we find recipes that we love, but I continually come back to this recipe! I don’t ever use another chocolate chip muffin recipe! I did make it into mini muffins for my son’s class party this morning and they turned out great! Thanks so much for the perfect recipe!
You’re very welcome, Lorean! I’m so happy to hear that you keep coming back to this recipe. Thank you for your rave review – much appreciated!
So yummy! Kids loved making these with me. One of the best muffin recipes I’ve made.
Great to hear! Love it when kids help out in the kitchen. Thank you for your feedback:)
Yummy! Everyone loved them. I followed the recipe but
next time will reduce the amount of chocolate chips. Super
easy and super delicious. Two thumbs up from my five year old son.
Thank you for your kind words, Linda! I’m so happy everyone loved them, especially your son:)
I just made these tonight and they are amazing. By far the best batch of muffins I’ve ever made (and I’ve made a lot). I made a couple of adjustments: I used 300ml of buttermilk, which was a little over the 1 cup called for. I added 1/4 cup of veg oil, so they came out super moist. I used 240g of choc chips (a bit less than called for). They’re still plenty chocolaty. I added 1 tsp cinnamon to add a little extra flavor to the cake.
Really YUM!
Thank you for your wonderful feedback and for sharing your adjustments, Ally! I’m glad you thought the muffins were really YUM:)
These muffins are absolutely delicious! Great recipe 🙂
I do recommend strongly that you add oatmeal to this recipe. My mom and i doubled this recipe, so we added 2 cups of oatmeal, and it was yummy! They were jumbo sized too! By the way, i will be definitely using this recipe every time i want to make chocolate- chip oatmeal muffins.
Thank you for your feedback, and great idea about adding the oatmeal! I’m glad you liked the recipe so much:)
Muffins were delicious- used soy milk with lemon and they came out great. Quick question- do they freeze well? We will never eat all of them in the next day or two!
Yes, they freeze really well. Enjoy and have a great day!
I just made and they were so delicious!!
Thank you! I’m glad you liked it.
I’m not a baker but it’s says 425 for 5 minutes then reduce to 375 and bake for 12-15 minutes. So does that mean I take the muffins out of the over until it goes down to 375 before baking the 12-15 minutes?
Hi Chrystal,
Keep the muffins in the oven and just turn the temp down to 375F and continue to bake for another 12-15 minutes. Please feel free to reply back if you have any other questions.
Can I double or triple this recipe?
I have never double or tripled this recipe, but here’s what I recommend:
Make it as is first before you double it, and compare the difference if there is any. If there’s no difference, then go ahead and triple the recipe, and see how it works. I hope that helps and let me know if you have any other questions.
Made them this morning! Delicious and moist. I also had no idea you could add lemon juice to milk as a substitute for buttermilk. Good to know! Thank you!
You’re very welcome! I’m glad you enjoyed the muffins. Happy Easter!
These turned out amazing! My kids loved them! Very moist and the perfect amount of chocolate chips! Will definitely be using recipe this every time I make chocolate chip muffins!
Thank you for your rave review, Shay! I’m glad your kids loved them:)
Can i use regualr milk instead of buttermilk
Yes you can. Enjoy the muffins!
Made this recipes twice and hands down the best muffins we ever had. Super easy and used half half and milk because I didn’t have buttermilk but still just as good.
When i made this the first time, I thought these muffins were very close to the PERFECT bakery-style muffin. Like another reviewer however, I found they were slightly dry (more noticeable second day) and a little too chocolatey for our preferences. For round two I added 1/4 cup vegetable oil to impart more moisture, cut the sugar by 1/4 cup, and halved the chocolate chips. For us, this resulted in the PERFECT chocolate chip muffin. Thank you so much!!
You’re very welcome and thank you for your review!
I used buttermilk, but my batter looked very dry, so I added another couple of splashes of butter milk. Taste was good, but a bit dry… I checked the recipe and all the measurements were right, wonder what happened… also tried your double chocolate muffin recipe and it worked perfectly!!
Hmm…that’s strange. The batter should have not been dry. Did it look anything like my batter in the video?
Not at all… it looked like there was only half the amount of liquid in there