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.
Can I use a cupcake tray if I don’t have a muffin tray?
Yes, you can. Enjoy the muffins and have a great week!
Amazing recipe. I did it for my son bday but I don’t know why the cupcakes got stuck in the tray, I did put nonstick cooking spray in the tray… but overall they were super yummy lol and for sure I will make them again!
Very easy and delicious.
Just make this and my kiddos love them and so did my husband and me. Very appreciated of you sharing this amazing recipe. Thank you so much.
You’re very welcome, Berenize! Thank you for your kind words and I’m so happy to hear your whole family loved it:)
I made these this morning and they were great. Sometimes I have issues with oven temp, but these were so moist. Made them for my grandson and he loved them. Will be making again.
Hi young baker, my fren recommended your website to me. It was really really good.
1. How do we melt the butter? Can we replace to a non melted to a softened one?
2. Why do we need to use baking soda? Can we omit that if we opt for self raising flour?
3. As for the temp, if we don’t want create a high rise look, can u pls advise on what temp best to use to bake the muffin?
Thank you so my for time and adviae.
Hi Ann,
Thank you for reaching out to me. Here are my answers:
1) Melt the butter in the microwave 20 seconds at a time until almost completely melted. Stir to completely melt. Set aside to cool while gathering the other ingredients.
2) You can omit the baking soda if you don’t want maximum rise but stick with all-purpose flour and baking powder as per the recipe.
3) If you don’t want to fuss with the two temperatures then just bake at 375F for about 20 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.
I hope this all helps and please feel free to reply back with any further questions!
can’t wait to make these! Quick question – I only have a 6 muffins tray. Is it okay if I make them in two batches? If so, when the first batch is baking do I need to put the batter in the fridge to keep fresh?
Thanks!
Hi Ti,
You can just cover it while the first batch is baking. You can also cut the recipe in half if you’d wish. Enjoy and have a great day!
Great recipe! I added raisins and chopped pecans in addition to the chocolate chips, and cut the sugar down to 1/2 cup because the raisins are sweet too. Kid and husband approved 🙌🏼
This recipe makes two dozen muffins
It came out great, and due to lack of ingredients in the house and wanting to get these done before a heatwave struck, they ended up vegan; vegan butter, applesauce instead of eggs, almond milk, and vegan CC worked well. With all these adjustments and being a mediocre baker at best, they came out great tasted like chocolate chip muffins from a bakery!
Baked this recipe twice this week. At both times I used vegan butter (i.e. margarine), and I was surprised at how fluffy the batter turned out (we know how tempramental vegan butter can be); I guess the baking soda and buttermilk created a leavening effect and covered the vegan butter’s inability to hold air when whisking. Love how it’s not too sweet too. Will defs bake it again! Thank you!
You’re very welcome Sasha and thank you for sharing your success with the vegan butter!
I made these today and they are extremely tasty! The only thing is that the muffins deflated once they cooled…. not sure why, but I will try to make them again soon!!!
Sorry to hear that your muffins deflated. When this happens it’s usually due to one of two reasons: Inactive/insufficient leavening or underbaked. Since there is plenty of leaving in this recipe, perhaps it was slightly underbaked. Try baking them for 2 minutes longer to see if that helps.
Hiii young baker here! I havent made these yet but I expect them to be great! I came to the comments to ask if I could use cream of tartar and milk as a substitute for buttermilk?
You can just use the milk. Enjoy and pls feel free to reply back with any further questions:)
Hey so is it tbs as tablespoon or teaspoon because I weighted them and with a teaspoon it’s a third time art of what it should weight and now I’m worried haha
Tbsp is a tablespoon. I hope it still worked out.
Lol got all my ingredients ready, butter melted, dry ingredients mixed and then went hunting for my chocolate chips. None to be found! Apparently I had used them the week before. So in a panic and not wanting to waste anything I threw in blueberries. They turned out amazing!!
Thank you and I’m so glad you were quick on your thinking and threw in some blueberries to save the batter, lol!
Amazing recipe! I didn’t have buttermilk or normal milk so I used almond milk and it still turned out great!
I reduced sugar to 1.5 cups instead of 2 cups. I followed everything else exactly as in the recipe and it was great. It was still sweet enough for me. I might take out a little more sugar next time.
I forgot I only used 1 cup of semi-sweet mini chocolate chips.
Hey Hannah,
The recipe actually only calls for 1 cup of sugar so try that next time:) Thank you for your feedback and I’m glad you enjoyed the muffins!
Turned out great!
Is there a way to use this recipe to make mini muffins? What temp and how long would I bake it for?
Yes, for mini muffins, bake for 10-12 minutes at 375F only. Enjoy!
These muffins were taste tested approved by 4 out of 5 of my boys (the youngest is a baby, so he didn’t get a vote lol), AND my husband, so it’s definitely a keeper in this house! I didn’t read all of your notes though, and didn’t catch that you used mini chocolate chips. I’m going to use those next time as my husband’s only complaint was that they were a bit TOO chocolate-y.
Thank you for your feedback, Jessica! I’m glad to hear it was a hit:)
OMG sooo good!!
Thank you!!