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 used white vanilla to keep them white and used small chips. I also used 2 cups of the chips. I made extra large muffins and kept them in there for roughly 4 minutes longer. They were the best muffins I ever made. Thanks for the recipe. I wrote it on a card for later. Lol
You’re welcome Gabrielle, and thank you for your feedback. I’m glad you enjoyed them so much:)
Hi Lily!
Since I returned from the USA to my homecountry, France, I couldn’t find ANY muffins that tasted exactly like the ones I used to eat back then. So, totally desperate and in need of chocolate chips muffins, I ended up on your website. I followed each step of the recipe except the one concerning the baking soda (impossible to find it in my local supermarket) so I added 5g of baking powder to compensate. They turned out great! They really are delicious and all my friends and family want the recipe ahah
Obviously they were not as beautiful as the ones you make, but the taste hid their awfult looks ahah
I’ll try the blueberry muffins next time 🙂
Hope your having a wonderful day!
Hi Lea,
Thank you for your kind words. I’m glad you and your friends like them so much. Enjoy and have a wonderful day too:)
hi, I don’t have any baking soda and was wondering if I should add 3 tsps. of baking powder, even though there’s already one full tbsp. of it.
I had really bad experience with chocolate muffins so I really need to double check this… Thanks 🙂
Hi Nourjehan, I would just do 1 tbsp and 1 tsp of baking powder total for this recipe. Enjoy an let me know what you think:)
Thanks so much, this really helped. the muffins were awesome!!
Hi! I made these heavenly looking muffins yesterday, and couldn’t wait to taste one. I followed baking instructions for temperature, but kept them in for 20 minutes (instead of 13-15) because they were still raw in the center. I was so upset to see that the bottoms were burnt 🙁 I’m thinking of maybe skipping the baking at 425, and only baking at 375 for 20-25 minutes. Could that be the reason?
Hi Chaya,
Place a baking sheet underneath the muffin pan next time to deflect some of the bottom heat, and that should help. Also, I would keep the initial temp at 425F for 5 minutes (because that’s what gives the muffins the nice rise), then reduce to 375F for 13 minutes, check, and check every 2 minutes there after until done. An extra 5 minutes, might have been too long. Please feel free to email me back if you have any further questions and thank you for your feedback.
I followed these instructions and would never make these muffins again. Cooking them at such a high temperature (even for only 5 min) cooked the tops of the muffins so quickly that by the time the rest of the muffin was cooked the tops were on the verge of being burned. They are extremely dry inside that they have to be eaten with tea or coffee or you’re at risk of choking. 🙁 …I was really thinking that I had found a “Just like Tim Horton’s” chocolate chip muffin, but this one isn’t even close.
Hi Michelle, I’m sorry to hear this recipe didn’t work for you. I hope you find the version for the Tim Horton’s muffins you are looking for. Thank you for your feedback and have a great day.
These turned out perfectly! No complaints whatsoever. I used buttermilk. Muffins are dense, moist and delicious. My husband works early and takes 2 every morning. 🙂 I’ll defintely be saving this recipe.
Wonderful to hear, Angie. Thank you for your feedback and enjoy:)
Hi, I would like to thank you for your great recipe for chocolate chips muffins. They were even better than bakery style . I was looking for such a recipe quite a while, because every time I tried to bake muffins they would fall together after a while. Now yours were just Perfect. Thanks a lot and have a nice evening. Kind regards from Zurich, Saskia
via Facebook
Hi Saskia, thank you for your lovely feedback. Your muffins look great! Enjoy and have a wonderful day:)
So I just made these and they are in the oven… The batter seems kinda thick… I was wondering if that is normal or if I messed up on the batter. Thanks!
Hi Ellie, the batter should be thick, but not overly. How do they taste?
These muffins came out looking just beautiful – they were nice and fluffy and seemed perfect. However, they had a really strong metallic aftertaste. I used 1 Tbsp of baking powder and 1 tsp of baking soda, but we could really taste the baking powder in the finished muffins. I may try reducing the amount a bit the next time, and/or switching to a different brand.
Hi Mary, Try the recipe with only 2 tsp of baking powder and 1 tsp of baking soda and that should eliminate the aftertaste. I don’t think you need to buy new baking powder. Thank you for your feedback and have a lovely day:)
Update: So I cut the baking powder back to 2 tsp instead of 1Tbsp and the muffins turned out great – not weird metallic aftertaste this time. Thank you for sending along the suggestion. They quickly disappeared at work today.
Wonderful to hear. Thank you for taking the time to update me. Enjoy the rest of your weekend:)
These turned out great! Our local Tim Hortons closed and my daughter has missed her chocolate chip muffins! I used nonfat milk, 3/4 cup sugar, and subbed 1/2 cup all purpose flour with whole wheat pastry flour. Delicious!
Aww, great to hear. I’m glad you and your daughter enjoyed them. Thank you for your feedback and kind words:)
Hi, My husband is in Love with this recepie, thank you!
I got a question: I find the inside not as fluffy as I thought, is there something I can do or add?
Thanks again!
Lu from Québec, Canada
Hi Lu, I would be hesitant to add anymore baking powder or baking soda because there is more than enough in this recipe. Perhaps, preheat the oven after you are done making the batter to let it rest before baking. Give that a try next time and let me know if that helps. Thank you for your question and have a great day:)
Ok, Thank you for the tip, I’ll try it and let you know. I love the recipe!
tasty muffins! I used 1% milk and calculated the calories for the ingredients I used; 337cal per muffin. That is not too bad at all.
Thank you for your feedback Curtis and nice to know it is somewhat a guilt-free pleasure. Have a lovely weekend:)
Hi! 🙂
Do you think it would be okay to substitute the granulated sugar with brown sugar?
Thanks so much!
Hi Kayla, I have not tried this recipe brown sugar, so not sure how it would effect the results. However, I think one of my readers did half and half, and it turned out well. So, maybe try that. Thank you for your question and have a wonderful day.
Could these be made into mini muffins? I haven’t tried the recipe yet, and I want to be sure before I make them.
Yes, just bake at 375F for 10-12 minutes. Enjoy:)
Thanks! I’m baking them now. I’ll reply when they’re done!
The muffins turned out great! They had big, round tops and a nice color. Great recipe!
Wonderful to hear and thank you for your feedback Clara. Have a lovely evening.
I want to start making my own muffin mixes to store in the pantry until needed. Could I mix the sugar with the rest of the dry ingredients and add the wet ingredients later? Or, does the sugar absolutely need to be mixed with the wet ingredients? Thanks!
Hi Laura,
I don’t see why not. Though, I’ve never tried it myself. The only thing I recommend is to have your milk and eggs at room temperature when you are ready to use the muffin mix. That way, the butter doesn’t re-solidify because the sugar does help to prevent that. Thank you for your question and if you get a chance, please let me know how it works out after your first batch. Have a lovely day:)
These were fantastic, even with 1% milk (that was all I had in the house). Kids loved them and so did I!! Great recipe – thanks for sharing!! 🙂
You’re welcome Jen and thank you for your comment. Enjoy and have a lovely week.
Is it possible to use paper baking cups for these or will they stick? I have some cute Santa ones I want to use but wondering if it is better to just spray the pan and bake them without?
Hi Jenny,
Yes, you can use paper liners. Enjoy and have a happy New Year:)
Thank you! And did you use mini chocolate chips or normal sized?
I prefer to use mini chocolate chips, but normal size or even chocolate chunks works too.
Just took these out of the oven and couldnt wait to taste them! Though I had to make a few changes – I had the dry ingredients measured out and reached for the chocolate chips, only to discover I didnt have any! So still craving muffins I grabbed raisins and added 1 tsp of cinnamon to the dry ingredients. Also I have a bad tendancy to over mix the batter and I found a trick that really helps me from ending up with hockey pucks – Mix up the batter, scoop it into the muffin tin and THEN turn the oven on. That few minutes of resting while waiting for the oven to heat up relaxes the gluten in the batter and since I’ve tried that I ALWAYS end up with light fluffy muffins. And now if you’ll excuse me, i’m off to get a second muffin…..they are AMAZING 🙂
Hey Jane, great way to improvise with the raisins and cinnamon and great tip about letting the batter rest. Thank you for your lovely feedback and happy holidays:)
Hi, Just made your muffins and they are great! I was looking for a fluffy muffin and these definitely don’t disappoint. My muffins didn’t have as high of a top as yours, but they tasted great. Definitely will make them again. Thanks!
You’re welcome Alisa, I’m glad you enjoyed them. Have a lovely day:)
Hi Lily!
Your muffins look awsome! I am going to try them tonight only. I had a few questions though, before I jump into it –
1. You’ve mentioned granulated sugar. So do you run the granulated sugar in a mixer to powder it before using in the recipe? I’ve tried a cake before with granulated sugar, but it turned out to be sweeter than usual and also I had a hard time mixing the wet ingredients because of it.
2. How much should I mix the wet ingredients? Till they get a soft peak because of eggs or JUST mix them?
Thanks a lot!
Hi Seema, there is nothing you need to do with the white (granulated) sugar, just use as is. As for the wet ingredients, just mix until blended. It should only take a few whisks. Thank you for your questions and please feel free to email me back if you need any further clarifications. Enjoy:)
Thanks a lot Lily for such a prompt reply. Your muffins look so awesome that I can’t stop looking at them 🙂 Hope mine turns out well too. Will definitely update you once I make them.
I baked this today for my 2 y.o. with maple syrup instead of sugar and used chopped dark chocolate. Delicious, perfect! Thank you for specifying all the baking science, I’ll use that for any recipe from now on.
Thank you for your feedback Alice. Love the idea of using maple syrup as a substitute. I’m going to try that next time. Enjoy:)
Great recipe! I recommend using muffin liners; I ran out halfway and the ones without looked noticeably worse. I’d also try sprinkling sugar on top if I make them again.
Crunchy tops, chocolate chips didn’t sink, great taste… what’s not to like? 🙂