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.
Could I substitute full-fat plain greek yogurt for the buttermilk? I’ve tried a couple recipes with buttermilk but they turned out kind of dry. Then again, maybe I just baked them too long.
You can sub half of the buttermilk with full-fat Greek yogurt. I’ve had other readers do that with great success. Enjoy the muffins and have a great weekend!
I bake a lot!! Followed the instruction but wound up with them being a bit on the dry side. I hate dry muffins !! Can you suggest anything I could add to keep them moist ! Otherwise I guess I shall keep searching for another recipe. Thanks so much 🙂
Hi Deborah,
Based on what you’ve commented, perhaps try baking the muffins for a few minutes less (2-3 minutes) and see if that makes a difference. Let me know if that helps!
Made these muffins they turned out great.
Very sweet. And really, what did I expect?? 🙂 They tasted like a very good bakery style choc.chip muffin. Enjoyed, thanks!
Could I
Use apple sauce in place of sugar?? And oat flour in place of reg flour? 🙂
No, you can’t replace the sugar with applesauce. You can try replacing 1 cup of the flour with oat flour but you are going to end up with a denser muffin.
What can I use in place of white sugar?
You can try using 1 cup of light brown sugar instead or 1/2 cup of honey. I can’t guarantee the results as I’ve not tried it for myself, but in theory, it should work.
I’ve used coconut sugar with great results! 🙂
Hi Lily, I discovered your blog today while I was searching for a chocolate muffin recipe,. I just took the second tray of muffins out of the oven ( I managed 20 muffins) and three have been devoured already and pronounced delicious! The rest will be packed up for my son to take for his camp picnic tomorrow. Thank you so much for a great recipe and the tip to get nice, high muffin tops. Your Chocolate Fudge Cake recipe has been bookmarked to make next.
You’re very welcome, Amber! Thank you for your lovely review and I hope you like the chocolate fudge cake just as much:)
Hi am I able to use dairy free spread such as Nuttelex instead of the butter? Thanks
No, You’re better to use vegetable oil if you don’t want to use butter. I hope that helps and enjoy!
Thanks for getting back to me, how about butter flavoured crisco would that work? Thanks
I don’t know what that’s like when it’s melted, so I would recommend vegetable, canola, safflower or avocado oil if you don’t want to use butter.
Delicious buttermilk chocolate chip muffins!!! I added extra vanilla but that’s just a personal preference. Other than that PERFECTION!! My go to recipe from now on!
Thank you for your rave review, Jody! Have a wonderful day:)
Thank you for a very tasty and easy recipe. Just made this with my 5yo girl. It came out so fluffy, flavorful and the just delicious. We used mini chips and they were distributed quite evenly (as you said). I’ll be adding this to our baking rotation. My family thanks you. 🙂 Can’t wait to try out your other recipes.
You’re very welcome, Dinah! I’m so happy you and your family love the muffins. Thank you for your kind words and I hope you enjoy my other recipes as well!
Great chocolate chip muffins! This makes 12 very large muffins. I needed to use lotus shaped paper liners to hold all of the batter. I reserved 1/2 cup of the chocolate chips to sprinkle on top of the muffins before baking. Because these are very large muffins, I found they needed approx. 3 minutes more than the maximum time stated in the recipe.
I just made these this morning & they are yummy! I didn’t have butter so I used vegetable oil like you recommended below. I also added a little cinnamon, delicious. Thanks for the recipe 🙂
You’re very welcome, Jana! I’m so glad you enjoyed the muffins. Thank you for your lovely comment:)
Made these this morning and soooooo amazing!
Just made these and they’re delicious! Thanks!!
I made these chocolate muffins tonight and came out really good and taste so good. Thank you Lily for sharing. This recipe is a keeper.
You’re very welcome, Marion! I’m so glad you like it and thank you for your kind words:)
I made this recipe today for my three girls and they absolutely loved them. They did not last to long need to make more. Thanks
I am going to make these today…I just wanted to say that I totally relate to the whole muffin top part. I also remember the Seinfeld episode because I too thought that might be a great idea for someone like myself who only wanted to eat the tops.😁
Thanks and I’m glad others remember that episode too, lol! I hope you enjoy the muffins and have a great weekend:)
Love the recipe but found the flavor kind of bland. I would have preferred (now I realize) some orange zest or lemon zest or a hint of cinnamon. Loads of chocolate though and that’s awesome!
How can I make these into mini muffins? Thank you!
Hi Rebecca,
For mini muffins; bake for 10-12 minutes at 375F only. Enjoy and have a great weekend!
can i substitute the butter with margarine?
No, but you can substitute with vegetable oil. I hope that helps and please feel free to reply back if you have any further questions.
This recipe made my kids so happy this morning! Thank you for sharing!
Aww, that’s great to hear. You’re very welcome and happy new year!