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.
Hi these sound lovely and I’m about to try! However, I’m making a half-batch so how does that affect the temperature and baking time?
There is no change at all to the baking temperature and time for a half-batch. Enjoy!
Made these last week and they didn’t last long! They were that good! My family very much enjoyed the muffins. Excellent recipe.
Thank you for your lovely feedback, Mariangela! So glad your family enjoyed them so much:)
These look amazing, and from all of the great comments I’m sold on making them. These are for a client of mine who is very particular.  Can these muffins be frozen? If so, how is the texture once thawed?Â
These muffins freeze well. However, you will lose the crispiness on the outside after it thaws, so it’s best to reheat in the oven to freshen up the muffins.
These sound soo good!!! I am looking to make mini muffins though, do you think it’s okay to use this recipe?Â
* I’m aware the cooking time would be much less.Â
Yes, you can definitely make these into mini muffins. Bake at 375F for 10-12 minutes.
Stumbled across this gem this morning. I don’t like to use oil in my recipes and was pleased to see this didn’t have any. I feel like oil overtakes the flavor of any baked good. Gross.Â
Anyway, I followed this to a T. Used the milk/lemon juice substitute.Â
Turned out just as described. Kids, well, 4 teens to be exact  & husband raved over them.Â
Thank you so much for a simple and fabulous recipe!Â
You’re very welcome, Stephanie! So glad the whole family raved over them. Enjoy and have a great week!
These were the perfect Valentine’s Day muffins for my kids! I doubled the recipe thinking it wasn’t going to be enough, but then I ended up with 36 muffins so no complaints here! Thank you for the milk/vinegar substitute as well!!!Â
You’re very welcome and happy Valentine’s Day to you and your kids!
Can you make muffin TOPS with this recipe?
By muffin tops; do you mean baking it in a muffin top pan? If so, yes. But you’re planning on using a flat baking sheet, then no, because it would spread too much. I hope that helps and let me know if you have any further questions.
This recipe was fabulous and everyone at my office LOVED them. It’s really a perfect recipe. Thanks for sharing!
You’re very welcome! Glad to hear everyone at the office loved them:)
Just made these and they are DELICIOUS! Moist and chocolatey in the inside with a nice crunch on the outside. I used regular sized morsels and they worked great! This will be my new go to recipe for CCM!Â
They were deliciousÂ
Love THIS!!!! SO GOOD! I made them on ft with my bff
The first choc chip muffin recipe we keep! And I’ve tried many. Substituted yogurt for buttermilk (didn’t have it) and worked great.
Thank you for this wonderful recipe!
You’re very welcome, Diane! So happy to hear it’s a keeper:)
This is perfect and everything I want in a muffin, and the muffin tops turned out so beautiful!
Hi, do you use a regular muffin tin? i want to make super large muffins but my 12 muffin tin seems too small – can you link the tin you used? Sorry for the stupid question.
It’s not stupid at all. Yes, I use a regular-size Wilton brand muffin pan https://www.wilton.com/perfect-results-12-cup-muffin-pan/2105-6789.html
perfectly moist and tasteful but the vanilla was a bit overpowering
This recipe is soo good. I didn’t have a muffin tin in a rental so I made it into a cake and it was super!
Made exactly to recipe and these were fantastic! They taste like chocolate chip cookies in muffin form, seriously!!
My batter was a little thick so I was a little worried but I baked to recipe and they turned out perfect!
I was a bit skeptical about this recipe at first because the muffins looked a bit dry in the picture/video, but boy am i happy to be proven wrong! These are so delicious and truly moist and tender, buttermilk being the hero here I assume. Next time I would reduce the amount of sugar a bit more because the chocolate chips added a great deal to the sweetness.
Can’t wait to try your blueberry muffins next!
Thank you for your kind words and I hope you like the blueberry muffins just as much!
I’m just starting out baking and these are the best baked good I’ve made yet!! Everyone in my family loves them and I’m sure that their going to be begging for more (and so will I)!!!
Thank you for your kind words, Christina, and I’m so glad to hear that everyone loves them. Enjoy and have a great weekend!
These are amazing!!! My son and i are eating them for supper right now 😂 I was wondering if i could substitute the choc chips fir blueberries? Or if you have a good bb muffin recipe? ThanksÂ
Thank you for your kind words and yes I do! https://www.littlesweetbaker.com/bakery-style-blueberry-streusel-muffins/ I hope you enjoy it just as much as the chocolate chip ones:)