Moist Chocolate Chip Muffin

These Chocolate Chip Muffins have a beautiful golden dome top (we all know muffin tops are the best part!) and are nice and moist inside, not dry and crumbly which is a notorious problem with muffins. No stand mixer required, you just need a wooden spoon and 10 minutes.

This muffin recipe is a great base recipe for sweet muffins. The chocolate chips can be substituted with anything you want. Blueberries, raspberries, nuts, apple – let your imagination run wild!

Muffins are one of those recipes that many people think / say are really easy to make but in actual fact, I think a lot come out quite disappointing. The biggest problem being muffins that are dry and hard. I’ve made muffins in my time that I swear were as hard as baseballs!

Over baking is one culprit for this. But the batter is also a contributor. To avoid dry muffins, some recipes make the batter by creaming butter in a stand mixer. But it’s ingrained in my mind that muffins should be a fast recipe, and creaming butter doesn’t qualify!

The other way is to make the muffins using both baking powder AND baking soda / bi carb (which is baking powder on steroids) for extra lift power, plus buttermilk for moistness and also to activate the baking soda (which requires something with acid like milk + vinegar, yoghurt, sour cream or buttermilk to activate it).

This is my chosen method that I have always used. I know there are many muffin recipes out there that do not use baking soda and/or buttermilk. But they are not as moist and fluffy as these. I have made more than my share in my lifetime in a bid to find the moistest muffin with the least ingredients possible, and concluded that it is not possible to omit these without compromising the muffin!

And the good news? You don’t have to use buttermilk. You can substitute with milk and vinegar, left to curdle. I don’t always recommend that as a substitute, but for this recipe, I can barely tell the difference. Actually, I can’t tell the difference.

I know curdled milk doesn’t look very pretty, but I wanted you to see what it looks like because this is the magic ingredient in this recipe!

My “go to” sweet muffin base recipe used to be a Ina Garten blueberry muffin recipe. It really is a wonderful moist muffin BUT the batter is slightly thinner than this one so the choc chips sink to the bottom (even when I tossed in flour which is a trick that usually works for things like berries, like what I use for my Blueberry Lemon Loaf).

So now this recipe is my base recipe, and it has never failed me. My recipe is slightly adapted from this brilliant Bakery Style Chocolate Chip Muffins recipe by Little Sweet Baker. This recipe is BETTER than Ina Gartens, I’ve tried both!

PS I top the muffins with extra chocolate chips so they are visible when they come out of the oven. This is optional. 🙂

If you don’t use paper patties and spray the muffin tin instead, the tops will spill over and become a bit crispy, just like muffins you get from some bakeries. My personal preference is to use paper patties because clean up is easier and I think it looks prettier, but it is entirely up to you!

Happy weekend! What have you got planned? Maybe baking some MUFFINS??? 😉 – Nagi x

PS These freeze fabulously. Promise. I’ve been eating frozen ones all week!

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Best Chocolate Chip Muffin

Author: Nagi | RecipeTin Eats

Prep: 10 mins

Cook: 20 mins

Total: 30 mins

Sweet Baking

4.95 from 19 votes

Servings12

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A perfect sweet muffin base that's super quick to mix! This is moist and fluffy, with a beautiful dome like the muffins you get from bakeries and cafes. I load this up with chocolate chips but feel free to substitute with your favourite berries, nuts or dried fruit. Don't worry if you don't have BUTTERMILK - use the substitute in Note 1. KEY TIP: Do not over mix the batter, it is the key culprit for hard muffins. A few flour lump remaining is absolutely fine. UPDATE 14 Oct 2016: This recipe was originally made with just butter. However, I found that by swapping out half the butter with oil, you get a slightly more moist muffin while still having the benefit of the flavour that the butter provides.

Ingredients

Dry Ingredients

• 2 1/2 cups / 375g plain flour (all purpose flour)
• 3 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp baking soda / bi carb soda
• 1 cup / 220g white sugar (Note 1)
• 1/4 tsp salt

Wet Ingredients

• 1 cup / 250ml buttermilk (Note 2)
• 1/4 cup / 60g unsalted butter, melted
• 4 tbsp / 80 ml vegetable oil
• 2 large eggs, lightly whisked
• 2 tsp vanilla extract

Chocolate Chips

• 1 3/4 cups / 300g chocolate chips (US: semi-sweet)

Instructions

• Preheat oven to 200C/390F (all ovens) (Note 6). Line a 12 hole muffin tin with paper patties.
• Whisk flour, baking powder, baking soda, sugar and salt in a bowl. Stir through chocolate chips.
• In a separate bowl, whisk buttermilk, melted butter, oil, eggs and vanilla.
• Make a well in the flour bowl, pour in egg mixture. Mix until just combine - try not to stir more than 8 times. Some flour lumps in the batter is fine.
• Divide batter between paper cases. Top with remaining 1/4 cup chocolate chips.
• Bake for 5 minutes, then turn down to 180C/350F (fan forced/convection) and bake for a further 15 minutes, or until a skewer inserted into the muffin comes out clean.
• Remove muffins from the muffin tin immediately onto a cooling rack.
• Serve warm or at room temperature (warm is extra yum!)

Recipe Notes:

1. Granulated / ordinary table sugar used for coffee etc is fine for this recipe. Super fine / caster sugar also works just fine.

2. Buttermilk substitute: Combine 1 cup room temperature whole (not skim) milk + 1 tsp white vinegar. Let stand for 5 minutes until curdled, then use per recipe. If milk is fridge cold, microwave for 30 seconds.

3. Muffins are always best on the day, but this keeps for 3 days in a super airtight container. I always prefer to reheat the muffins in the microwave - just for 20 seconds or so. Makes a world of difference!

4. Fantastic to freeze. Just wrap so they're airtight, freeze then defrost to room temperature before consuming.

5. Slightly adapted from this brilliant Bakery Style Chocolate Chip Muffins recipe by Little Sweet Baker. This recipe is BETTER than Ina Gartens, I've tried both!

6. UPDATE: For most sweet baking recipes I share, I provide different temps for different ovens i.e. fan forced / convection vs normal ovens. For this recipe, after I initially published it, I found that the same temp produces the same results, except the bake time just differs by a few minutes. So the recipe has been updated for these new instructions!

7. Nutrition is per muffin.

Nutrition Information:

Serving: 97gCalories: 340kcalCarbohydrates: 44.8g (15%)Protein: 5.3g (11%)Fat: 16.1g (25%)Saturated Fat: 10.3g (52%)Polyunsaturated Fat: 5.8gCholesterol: 58mg (19%)Sodium: 263mg (11%)Fiber: 1.3g (5%)Sugar: 30.4g

Did you make this recipe?I love hearing how you went with my recipes! Tag me on Instagram at @RecipeTinEats.

Life of Dozer: Getting waaaaaay too close to the muffins…… But I can’t blame him. The smell as these were cooling must’ve been torture for him!!!

Count the muffins: Yes there is 1 missing. Restraint is imposed on Dozer by me. There was no one around to control ME.