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.
I’m sorry, I do not have my vocabulary complete, at all (I’m mexican).
But, what is the difference between baking powder and baking soda?
Thanks
Hi Jackie, both are leavening agents which causes baked goods to rise. Baking soda is pure sodium bicarbonate and baking powder is sodium bicarbonate and cream of tartar. Please let me know if you have any further questions.Thank you and happy baking:)
I have never had a muffin like this. It was fabulous beyond. I used the mini chips and threw in some chunks. The recipe made 12 muffins and 2 huge muffin tops. My husband an I visit a shop that makes muffin tops of all types, and they are the best, but this recipe supercedes them. We ate them with a tad of butter and a cup of coffee.
I am going to put this on my blog if you don’t mind, with the change of chips and types of chocolate
Hi Crystal, thank you for your lovely comment and yes, please feel free to share the recipe on your blog. Enjoy:)
I made these today and they are sooooo amazing! Im obsessrd with tim hortons chocolate chip muffins and these taste just like it. Thank you so much!
Hi Sarah, I’m glad you enjoyed them. I’m a big fan of Tim Horton’s chocolate chip muffins too. Thank you for your lovely comment:)
I really want to make these muffins but lemon poppyseed! Do you have a suggestion of how to do that?? 🙂
Hi Sarah, to make these into lemon poppyseed muffins, simply reduce the milk to 3/4 cup and vanilla to 1 tsp. Add 2 tbsp of poppyseeds, juice and zest of 1 lemon. Sorry for the late reply, please let me know if you have any further questions, enjoy:)
Thank you so much! I will be making these tomorrow 🙂
Made these tonight and they were great! I didn’t have buttermilk so i used regular milk and my butter wasn’t melted all the way so they didn’t turn out quite as pretty as yours but definitely will make them again! Thanks for the recipe! You don’t by chance have a recipe for crispy carrot muffins do you? 🙂
You’re welcome Marli, I’m glad you liked the muffins. I don’t have a my own carrot muffins recipe, but here is a fantastic one from Taste of Home http://www.tasteofhome.com/recipes/carrot-bran-muffins
Thank you for your comment and have a wonderful day:)
These were delicious! Thanks for an easy and yummy recipe! We all loved them :). I followed your recipe and they came out perfectly.
You’re welcome. I’m glad you all loved the muffins. Enjoy and thank you for your lovely comment:)
Hi, I’m assuming it’s because of the salted butter. There is quite a lot of salt in salted butter. I have made this recipe with half white and half brown sugar so it not that. I’m sorry your muffin turned out heavy, let me know how they taste at least.
these are great!
Thanks Kelly, glad you enjoyed them:)
Oh my goodness! Lily, I have to say these muffins are AB-SO-LUTE- LY DELICIOUS. Please believe me when I say that. I’ve followed quite a few recipes and they never came out this great. My son took one to school and he shared it with a friend, the friend said it was so good where did he buy it, my son said,my mom made it,friend didn’t believe..Conclusion- your muffins were a hit. I love blueberries so next time I’ll use them. I will definitely be making them again. 🙂 ❇❇❇❇❇.
Wow, you just made my day! Thank you so much for your lovely comment. I’m so happy that you and your son liked the muffins so much:)
I just made these muffins and they are fabulous! I’ve been making muffins for years for my family and this is my favorite recipe ever! Would you use 1 and 1/2 cups of blueberries if you were to substitute them for the chips? Thank you so much for this delicious recipe.
You’re welcome Barbara. I’m so delighted to hear that this is your new favorite recipe and yes, simply sub 1&1/2 cups of blueberries. Enjoy!
Would these work in jumbo silicone forms?
Yes, bake at the same initial 425F temp for 5 minutes, then 375F for about 15-18minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the centre comes out clean. Enjoy 🙂
Lily, I have to say these are the muffins I have been searching for, they are amazing! Big, soft and not dry!
FYI in regards to my previous post…I did use the jumbo silicon cups and they worked great (baking time was closer to 20 minutes) the only thing is with these cups there is no base for the tops to rest on as they bake so you don’t get that “real” muffin top. They ran over some too, so next time I will not fill them quite to the top.
I may also look into a regular jumbo pan as I DO like the tops!
Def a keeper for me!
Thanks!!
Oh, so glad to hear Geri. Thank you for letting me know about the baking time for jumbo muffins and thank you so much for your feedback:)
I tried this recipe and love it-it’s the first one where we could actually get the muffin tops to puff! I was just wondering what kind of modifications would be necessary to make Blueberry muffins? I’m guessing there would be more to it than just substituting berries in for chocolate?
Actually, you can just substitute the chocolate with the berries or you can use my Blueberry Buttermilk Muffin recipe http://littlesweetbaker.com/2014/07/25/blueberry-buttermilk-muffins/
Thank you for your comment and have a great weekend:)
You don’t happen to have the nutritional values do you? Mine are in oven as we speak and look delish
Hi Sonja, I don’t normally calculate the nutritional value of my recipes, but here is a site with a free calculator if you are interested http://nutritiondata.self.com/mynd/myrecipes/welcome?returnto=/mynd/myrecipes
Thank you for your comment.
If i use fat free milk will it work?
Yes, fat free milk will work, enjoy:)
thank you so much for sharing this recipie!! I was shock as to how good they turned out. They were absolutely delicious
I’m so glad to hear! Thank you for your feedback:)
sooooo i did the 1/2 brown sugar and 1/2 granulated that i read in comments
and did 1/2 chocolate chip and 1/2 peanut butter chip and omg omg omg. The batter made 12 and they will be gone before breakfast tomorrow. And i have a family of 4 (including me). My family is happier when peanut butter is involved.
Hi Carrie,
OMG! I think I’m going to have to make your version this weekend for my family. My 4 yr old loves peanut butter, so what a great idea. Thank you so much for your lovely comment:)
Funny story it was my 4 year olds idea. I told her that we were making muffins this week and she came up with it when we were in the grocery store. Gotta love her lol
Kids are cute, aren’t they? Especially at that age. Have a wonderful day Carrie:)
After pouring milk and my other wet ingredients into my melted butter, the butter immediately solidified. I was very disappointed because then I had to scoop out the butter chunks from the mixture, remelt it, and pour it in hot. I’m not sure what went wrong, but the batter became very thick. I just put them in the oven so we’ll see how they turn out!
Hi Jenna, sorry to hear about the butter. Next time, try mixing the wet ingredients one at a time in the order listed, so the butter with the sugar first, creating a sandy mixture, then mix in the eggs, then milk and vanilla. The sugar butter slurry helps prevent the butter from solidifying when you add in the cold milk or have all your ingredients at room temperature helps too. Please let me know how it turns out.
Do you think blueberries would be good if substituted for chocolate chips?
Yes, you can substitute the chocolate chips with blueberries or you can try my Blueberry Buttermilk Muffin recipe http://littlesweetbaker.com/2014/07/25/blueberry-buttermilk-muffins/
Enjoy!
Made these 3 days ago, I’ve been on a desperate search to find the perfect chocolate chip muffin recipe, I’ve made atleast 5 or 6 and wasn’t impressed with any of them until yours, it’s the perfect subtle yet chocolately taste I’ve been looking for. I over cooked them a little, those were some high temps for muffins, so I’ll watch them better next time. But I loved the taste of these and I always sift my dry ingrediants for light airy muffins but I might have to try letting them sit for a few minutes. Thanks for ending my search for a chocolate chip muffin recipe I can keep reusing.
One question have you ever done 1/2 cup brown sugar and a 1/2 cup white? I’ve seen so many recipes that use brown sugar, they say for moisture.
Hi Daphne, thank you for taking the time to leave your lovely comment and no, I have not tried this recipe with half brown sugar, but I certainly will next time, I think the extra flavor and moisture the brown sugar will provide would be nice, thanks for the suggestion and happy baking:)
I made these muffins for the first time this morning for Christmas. They are really delicious, but how do you get the tops to be so smooth?
I think its how I spoon the batter into the muffin tins, I use 2 large tablespoons to divide the batter into the tins and top with a few more chocolate chips. Enjoy and Merry Christmas Stephanie:)
OMG these were soo yummy!!!! Over the years I’ve found a trick to keep the muffins nice and light…I tend to be an over-mixer, I had so many muffins with clumps of flour still in them it was disgusting. I also had more than a few hockey pucks too so one day I hit on a solution by accident. I had made up the batter and filled the pan…..only I had forgotten to pre heat the oven, So I let them sit while it heated and then popped them in. Result? the lightest fluffiest muffins I had ever made! Apparantly that couple minutes of resting waiting for the over let the gluten relax enough from the mixing to turn out perfect!
Hi Jane, thanks for sharing your tip, I’m going to try that next time, have a lovely day:)