Tender, light, and filled with chocolate, Chocolate Chip Muffins are an easy family favorite. There’s no mixer required for this quick and simple recipe.
Back in the spring when I was making mountains of muffins for these Blueberry Yogurt Muffins, I made the mistake of making one batch with chocolate chips. The kids never forgot it. And for months they’ve been asking for those muffins, “not the fruit kind Mom”.
But when I started putting chocolate chips in that blueberry muffin recipe, I felt like it was missing something. A bit more sugar, a pinch of cinnamon, a richer vanilla base that comes from sour cream (instead of yogurt), and by the end I had an entirely new recipe that tasted more like it was built for semi-sweet chocolate chips rather than having them land there by accident. The kids all agreed (especially since they got to taste test many batches of these).
Here’s all you need to make these light, tender muffins.
Ingredients
- Unsalted Butter - If using salted butter, just skip the added salt in the recipe.
- All-Purpose Flour - Weigh the flour if possible, but otherwise, just gently spoon it into the measuring cup. Too much flour will cause the muffins to be more dense.
- Sour Cream - We tested these using full fat sour cream. They should also work with light sour cream, but it’s a good idea to reduce the milk by about 1 tablespoon with light sour cream so the batter isn’t too thin.
- Milk - Any type will work
- Ground Cinnamon - A small pinch of ground cinnamon really helps to bring out the chocolate flavors. It’s fine to skip it, and you don’t need much, but it does add a little something special.
- White Sugar, Baking Powder, Large Egg, Salt, Vanilla Extract - You’ll also need these basic baking ingredients.
- Chocolate Chips - This will also work with chopped chocolate. Save some to sprinkle over the tops of the muffins before baking.
- Turbinado Sugar - This a large grain sugar that I keep around just for sprinkling over top of baked goods. Totally unnecessary, but fun if it’s something you keep on hand. It gives the muffins a little extra something in the texture / crunch department.
How to Freeze Muffins
Muffins freeze well. Let them cool completely and then line them up on a baking sheet. Freeze on the baking sheet until solid, about 3 hours. Transfer to a freezer-safe plastic bag, pressing out as much air as possible. Freeze for up to 6 months.
To defrost, let sit at room temperature for a couple of hours or use the defrost setting on the microwave. Frozen muffins make great lunch additions - just wrap them in plastic or put them in a lunch box and they should be defrosted by noon.
More Chocolate Recipes
- Homemade Hot Chocolate
- Chocolate Brownie Crackle Cookies
- Chocolate Chip Ricotta Cake
- Chocolate Chip Brownie Tarts
- One-Bowl Chocolate Guinness Cake
- Salted Caramel Stuffed Chocolate Cookies
- One-Bowl Chocolate Cake
Favorite Tools
Chocolate Chip Muffins
Equipment
- Mixing Bowls
- Muffin Tin
Ingredients
- 1 stick (8 Tbsp) Unsalted Butter, melted
- 2 cups All-Purpose Flour (2 cups flour = 250g)
- ¾ cup White Sugar (¾ cup White Sugar = 150g)
- 2 teaspoon Baking Powder
- ¼ teaspoon Kosher Salt
- Pinch Ground Cinnamon
- 1 cup Sour Cream
- 1 large Egg
- 1 teaspoon Pure Vanilla Extract
- 1 cup Milk (whole milk preferred, but the muffins will work with any type of milk, including non-dairy milk)
- 1 cup Chocolate Chips, plus more for topping
- Turbinado or other large grain sugar, for topping (optional)
Instructions
- Heat butter in the microwave or on the stovetop until just melted. Set aside to cool slightly (about 10 minutes).
- Preheat oven to 350°F / 177°C.
- Spray a muffin pan with nonstick cooking spray (or line with paper liners).
- In a large mixing bowl, whisk together flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, and cinnamon. Set aside.
- In a second, smaller mixing bowl, whisk together sour cream, egg, vanilla, and melted butter. Slowly pour in milk while whisking.
- Pour wet ingredients over dry ingredients and stir just until no dry spots remain. (Do not overmix.)
- Gently fold in chocolate chips.
- Scoop batter into prepared muffin pan. Top each muffin with a few extra chocolate chips and turbinado sugar (if using).
- Bake until muffins are golden on top and a tester inserted in the middle comes out clean, 21 to 24 minutes.
- Allow muffins to cool slightly in the pan and then transfer to a wire rack to finish cooling.
Notes
Nutrition
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Natalie Speer
I'm following this recipe at this very moment, the sour cream is mentioned in the ingredients, but it's not mentioned in the instructions. I did go ahead and add it in with the wet ingredients and the batter in it's entirety looked about the right consistency. I'm hoping it cooks up correctly as well. ( I used 6 jumbo sized silicone cupcake molds, I just turned the temperature down to 325 for 15 minutes and turned it up to 350 for 10+ minutes)
Jess Smith
Hi Natalie - apologies! You were right that we missed adding sour cream to the ingredients list, but the recipes has been updated. Adding it with the wet ingredients was perfect. Hope the jumbo muffins came out! That's how I would cook them too.