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.
Just made these. They were super delicious! I’d like to make them again. But, I had an issue with texture. I followed the directions carefully, but my batter was very thick and clumpy. I’m not sure if it is supposed to be that way. They didn’t turn out as nice looking as yours.
Hi Erin, perhaps try sifting your flour before you measure next time. That should lighten up your flour content and make your batter less thick. Thank you for your question and let me know if that helps:)
I’ll try that next time, thanks! 🙂
Dear Lily,
I was wondering if I could use self-rising flower instead of regular flower with baking powder/soda? Thank you!
Hi Eliza, yes you can use self-rising flour instead of AP flour by eliminating the baking powder, baking soda and salt.
Hi Lily,
May I know why we dont need to add in salt if we use self raising flour instead of AP flour? Does self raising flour have salt in it?
I would like to try your recepi. Have both flour but no bicarbonate soda. 🙂 It is great to know that I can use self raising without the soda.
Thank you and have a lovely weekend!
Hi Aizat, one cup of self-rising flour contains about 1&1/2 tsp baking powder and 1/2 tsp salt, so I would omit the baking powder, soda and salt in this recipe if you are using self-rising. Thank you for your question and enjoy:)
So I just made these with 1 cup whole wheat and 1.5 cup white flour. Amazing! Doesn’t make me feel as guilty eating the whole thing!! I can’t wait to try the other recipes.
Awesome, that’s great to know. Thanks for the feedback Stephanie:)
I absolutely love these muffins! My family always asks for them.
I do have a question, though: no matter what I do, the muffins never dome. They flatten out and run over the top of the muffin tin. I’ve changed the temperature and made sure I followed the instructions precisely. Anybody have any ideas?
Hi Amanda, is your batter on the thinner side? If so, reduce the milk to 3/4 cup. I’ve noticed when I do that, I get a higher dome. Thank you for your feedback and enjoy the rest of your weekend:)
HI! Can I use a 12 cup mini-muffin pan, for this recipe?
Yes, just bake at 375F for 10-12 minutes, enjoy:)
I made this with Bob’s Red Mill 1 to 1 gluten free flour and they turned out marvelous!!!! These are delicious muffins! Thanks for my my morning taste so yummy!!
You’re welcome Christina and thank you for your lovely comment. That’s good to know about Bob’s Red Mill 1 to 1 GF flour, so I can share that with my GF reader – thanks:)
I made these muffins .V nice.I want to ask you one thing is there anything we can add as I can feel the smell of egg. Don’t know the reason.Can u advise anything
Hi Preet, you can add 1/2 tsp to 1 tsp of cinnamon to the recipe. Thank you for your question and enjoy:)
Hi. I would like to try this. But how do I make dark chocolate muffins using this recipe? Is it as simple as adding unsweetened coco power and maybe some melted chocolate as you would in a German Chocolate cake?
Hi Mika, you can replace some of the flour with unsweetened cocoa. Try 1/3 to 1/2 cup. Thank you for your question and let me know how it turns out:)
For your chocolate chip muffins, how would you adjust your ingredients amounts to make 6 large muffins. I have a 6 large muffin tray. 12 is too many as I live alone.
Hi Bobby,
Replace the baking soda and baking powder with just 2 tsp of baking powder and reduce the vanilla to 2 tsp. Everything else divide in half and baking instructions is the same. That’s what I do when I just want to make a small batch. Enjoy and thank you for your question:)
Why would you want to cut the 12-muffin recipe in half to make 6 jumbo muffins? All the recipes I’ve seen say that 6 jumbo muffins are equivalent to 12 regular-size muffins. If you cut everything in half, you’re only going to get 3 jumbo muffins.
Hi Minerva, Bobby asked about 6 large muffins (just enough for one person) not jumbo, so that’s why I recommended the recipe divided in half. Thank you for your comment and have a lovely day.
How can this recipe be modified for high altitude? If it can be modified, I look forward to trying it.
Hi Caroline, I have never baked at high altitude before, but from what I understand, start with decreasing the baking soda by 1/2 tsp, decrease the sugar by 1 tbsp, increase the milk by 1 tbsp, fill 14 muffins cups instead of 12, same temperature, so 425F for 5 mins, then 375 for remainder of time and keep a close watch at this point. Please let me know how they turn out and thank you for your question:)
Thanks so much for your baking recommendations…I really appreciate it!
Although I am an avid baker, I am trying to learn as much as possible about tweaking recipes for high altitude, as I just moved to Denver (CO) from Houston (TX). Eager to try your recipe!
I was going to ask about high altitude for this recipe as well so thank you for answering that question. I plan on making these very soon and maybe I can come back and let you know how they came out. 🙂
Wonderful, thanks Taisha and I look forward to hearing back from you:)
I made these this past week using the high altitude tweets you mentioned. The muffins tasted good but weren’t as moist as I know they should be and I was really cautious about filling the tin so I didn’t get a good muffin top haha. I need to tweet it some more it seems because the potential for awesome muffins is definitely there.
Hey Taisha, perhaps try increasing the butter by 2 tablespoons, thank you for your feedback and let me know again how it turns out after you tweak it:)
These muffins are amazing! Thank you so much for posting. I have looked hi and low for the best muffin recipe. No need to look any further! :o)
You’re welcome Bonnie! I’m glad your search has ended, now you can just enjoy:) Thank you for your wonderful comment and have a good night.
I did a lot of research before choosing which muffins to make and I am SO glad I chose these! They are absolutely delicious! I ended up making 18 smaller muffins instead of 12 big ones and they all puffed perfectly and are light and fluffy. Thank you!
You’re welcome Kelly. Thank you for your feedback and have a lovely day:)
I was a bit scared of trying this since im not used to cook with cups (here in spain we use gr and ml ) but on my last trip to ireland i bought some us measuring cups and spoons and today ive decided to use them for the first time .All i can say is that i’ve tried many muffin recipes before but this is the best one so far,they are super fluffy and A-B-S-O-L-U-T-E-L-Y D-E-L-I-C-I-O-U-S!!
Awww, thank you so much Nuala. You totally made my day! I’m so happy to hear that the muffins are absolutely delicious. Thank you for your wonderful comment and for choosing my recipe as the first one to try with your new baking tools:)
just made the muffins. i was a little nervous since its the 1st time i was baking something sweet. they r awesum and moist. this recipe is a keeper.
I’m so glad to hear and I’m honoured that you picked my recipe as your first sweet recipe. Thank you for your lovely comment and have a great day:)
Hi, do you have any suggested modifications to use this recipe for making mini-muffins?
Hi, just bake at 375F for 10-12 minutes, enjoy:)
greeting from indonesia.I made the muffin this morning.It’s perfect.It rose tall and has soft texture inside.I reduced the amount of sugar.Love this
Hello there Indonesia! I’m so glad you love them and thank you for your feedback Ariana, I greatly appreciate it:)
You know what the worst thing about these muffins are? Trying to decide what flavor I LOVE the most!!!these are so perfect and we make them all the time! This time we chose butterscotch and milk chocolate…. YUM! My boys love these just as much as I do and they are great to send to work with my husband. Again, thank you for such a wonderful recipe! And the sky high muffin tops get better each time I bake them! They still don’t look as good as your though!!
Hey Brailey, thanks for giving me another great flavour combination to try, I love butterscotch and milk chocolate. Glad to hear the muffin tops are getting bigger each time, aren’t the muffins tops the best? I always sprinkle a few extra chocolate chips on top before I bake, it makes for pretty muffins and the more chocolate the better! Thanks for stopping by again and have a fabulous weekend with your family:)
The chocolate chip muffins are awesome. Thanks for sharing this great recipe!
You’re welcome Debbie, I’m so glad you like them, thank you for taking the time to leave a comment and have a great weekend:)
Pretty darn tasty! Not so dense that it sits like a brick after you eat it but not so light that you think you’re eating a cupcake. Glass of milk is an absolute necessity! I think I could have made more like 15 muffins. Filled up my 12 to the top and had lots of spillover, but no big deal as I still had the nice puffy muffin top with crispy edges. Thanks for the great recipe!
You’re welcome Michele, glad you liked it, I enjoy my muffins with a glass of milk too, thank you for the lovely comment and have a great weekend:)
Really easy and awesome outcome! First batch seemed a bit dry so I added a little more butter for the second batch. Also, I made the second batch with half a cup of cocoa powder replacing half a cup of the flour and they came out gorgeous as well. Thank you so much for the recipe! This will be my go to recipe for muffins from now on.
Hi Maya, great idea with the cocoa. I’m going to try that next time. Thank you for taking the time to leave your lovely comment and have a great day:)