Sweet, soft, and fluffy bakery style chocolate chip muffins.
At the time of this writing, if you google “chocolate chip muffins”, you will get 1,260,000 results. That’s over a million results, friends.
A million chocolate chip muffin recipes and I have the nerve to suggest that I have something new for you, something that’s better than a million other recipes.
But that’s exactly what I’ve got for you today, and considering that you’re here and maybe (hopefully?) you’ve been following along with my recipes, I’m going to assume that you and I have similar taste, and you are going to love this recipe as much as I do.
As usual, this recipe went through many different versions before settling in its final form.
I wanted these chocolate chip muffins to be soft (thank you, cornstarch, for finally solving that for me!), fluffy (an extra, well-stirred egg white), and definitely not dry (do not underestimate the moistening power of buttermilk, it helps give these muffins the best texture you could ever ask for).
I wanted them to be big and proud, like something you’d see in a New York City bakery display.
I spend a lot of my time reading about the science behind baking, but for the life of me I couldn’t get these muffins to have nice, full, rounded muffin tops, no matter what I did (well, I should say I couldn’t get them to have the muffin tops I was looking for and the perfect texture/flavor.)
I finally found this article from The Kitchen Whisperer, which solved all of my problems. Evidently, if you start with your oven on a high temperature and then drop the temperature about a third of the way through baking, your muffin tops will spring to life and your muffin bottoms won’t burn or dry out (this was another thing I’d been struggling with).
Sweet muffin top perfection.
Mondays call for muffins. Big, soft, fluffy muffins with extra chocolate and well-sugared tops.
I hope you’ll try these out and let me know in the comments how you like them, and how they stack up against the one million-plus other chocolate chip muffin recipes out there.
Enjoy!
Bakery Style Chocolate Chip Muffins
Ingredients
- 4 Tablespoons unsalted butter melted and cooled at least 5 minutes (57g)
- ¼ cup canola oil may substitute vegetable oil (60ml)
- 1 cup sugar (200g) (granulated sugar)
- 1 large egg + 1 egg white room temperature preferred
- 1 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1/2 cup buttermilk* room temperature preferred -- please see note for buttermilk substitute
- 1 3/4 cup all-purpose flour 220g
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 2 teaspoons corn starch
- ½ tsp salt
- 1 cup chocolate chips I used a mix of mini and regular sized, but you can use either or a combination (175g)
- 1/3 cup additional granulated sugar, coarse sugar preferred for topping (67g)
Instructions
- Combine butter and canola oil in a large bowl. Stir well.
- Stir in sugar.
- Add egg, egg white, and vanilla extract. Stir very well, until all ingredients are thoroughly combined.
- Add buttermilk and stir well.
- In a separate bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, corn starch, and salt.
- Fold dry ingredients into wet gently, taking care not to overmix. Once about half of the dry ingredients have been incorporated into the batter, add in chocolate chips and continue to fold in to batter until all ingredients are just combined.
- Cover bowl with a dry towel and allow batter to sit 15 minutes**
- Preheat oven to 425F (218C) and line muffin tin with paper liners.
- Once oven has preheated, portion batter into 6-cavity large muffin tin (you may also use regular, 12 count muffin tin, you will just need to bake them for less time), filling each tin all the way to the top with batter (without overflowing).
- Sprinkle tops generously with sugar and place muffin tin in preheated oven.
- Bake on 425F (218C) for 8 minutes and then reduce the oven temperature to 350 (177C) (do not open the oven door or remove the muffins, just leave them in and reduce the temperature) and bake another 15 minutes, or until tops are just beginning to turn golden brown (if you are using a 12-count muffin tin rather than jumbo-sized, these will not need to bake as long. Start checking your muffins after 7-8 minutes on 350F (177C).
- Allow to cool, and enjoy!
Notes
Nutrition
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Su says
Hey Sam!
Sorry just to add on, although I loved it so much, I don’t know why my muffin tops were cracked and a bit hard. I want them to be soft and fluffy the next time round, like yours in the pictures! What could be the cause and what can I do to prevent that from happening?
Sam says
It sounds like they may have been baked just a minute or two too long, or if they were baked too close to the heating element that could also do it (I recommend baking in the center of your oven). I hope that helps!
Su says
Hey Sam, my oven is really small and the insides of the muffins were baked well, it’s just the tops that were cracked and a little hard 🙁
Would baking it a minute or two less affect the insides too much?
Sam says
I think I would try a minute or two less. Use the toothpick test and make sure it isn’t coming out with wet batter (a few moist crumbs are fine if not ideal though!) and you should be golden 🙂
Su says
I made these about a week ago and my family and I loved it!! I even tried putting some nutella in the middle of the batter and they came out so good! Kept the extras we had left in the fridge and it was still so yummy the next day. Thank you for sharing this recipe Sam 🙂
Sam says
I’m so glad you enjoyed! Thank you for commenting, Su!
ChrisWish says
What does the corn starch do?
Sugar Spun Run says
Hi, Chris! Cornstarch is used to help breakdown the harsh proteins of the flour, creating a softer more tender muffin. 🙂
Sunshine baker says
Will definitely make these again!!! They are so good. I let them rise for 15 minutes. They took 17 min to bake at 350F using the yellow scoop. It made 15 muffins. I didn’t use the sugar on top since my kids don’t like that.
Sugar Spun Run says
I am so glad that they were a hit and everyone enjoyed them! Thank you for trying my recipe. 🙂
Michele says
Five Stars These muffins are excellent. Definitely worth the little extra effort necessary to make them. I didn’t have buttermilk so I followed the directions to make my own. This recipe is definitely a keeper. Moist and delicious!!!
Sugar Spun Run says
Thank you so much, Michele! I am so glad that you enjoyed them. 🙂
Kate says
These really were incredibly delicious. Definitely will be my go-to! The tops rose so beautifully and my kids devoured them – my 7yo moaned after the first bite, he was so in love!
What do you think about making them as mini muffins? Would you keep the time at 425 the same or shorten?
Sam says
I’m so happy to hear this, Kate! Ooh, I have not tried these as mini muffins but I would definitely shorten the time at 425. I’m not positive how long they will take to bake honestly, if you find a “sweet spot” for how long it takes would you let me know? I’m sure others would love to know as well!