Mini muffins are the perfect after school snack or sweet breakfast treat! My recipe makes 30 super soft and fluffy muffins in just over 20 minutes. Recipe includes a how-to video!
Mini Muffins From Scratch
Were mini muffins a favorite snack of yours as a kid? If so, were you team blueberry or chocolate chip? 🫐🍫 Chocolate chip was usually my favorite (no surprise there!), but honestly, blueberry was right up there too!
I’ve moved on from the store-bought version and instead opt to make this homemade version for my own kids. They are soft, tender, and fluffy with plenty of mini chocolate chips. We’ll use a special baking technique (different than the one I use for my chocolate chip muffins) for nice tall muffin tops. I can’t wait for you to try them!
Why You’ll Love This Recipe
- Just over 20 minutes to make with minimal dishes, especially if you use a kitchen scale.
- Freezes well, so you can keep them on hand for quick after school snacks or grab-and-go breakfasts.
- Can be made with either blueberries or mini chocolate chips to emulate those little snack packs we all loved as kids. I include instructions for substituting blueberries in the FAQ section below.
- Makes the perfect toddler snack or breakfast alongside some scrambled eggs and fresh fruit! Though the adults in my life also enjoy them just as much 😉
Ingredients
Just 11 ingredients today, and most should already be in your kitchen. I’ll review a few before we get started.
- Sour cream. I love using sour cream in my baked goods to encourage a tender, moist texture and incredible depth of flavor (much like using buttermilk). If you don’t like sour cream, trust me–you won’t taste it in the final product! Full-fat, plain Greek yogurt could also work.
- Baking powder and baking soda. A combination of both encourages our muffins to rise nice and tall with fluffy interiors and lightly golden exteriors. You can learn more about the role these two leavening agents play in my post on baking powder vs. baking soda.
- Mini chocolate chips. While you could use regular chocolate chips, I prefer mini semisweet chips here–these are mini muffins, after all!
- Vanilla. A teaspoon of vanilla adds such a nice flavor and complements the chocolate chips so well. You get bonus points if you use homemade vanilla extract!
- Coarse sugar. This is optional, but I sometimes like to sprinkle some coarse turbinado or baker’s sugar over my muffins before I bake them for a little extra texture and sparkle. You can always use granulated sugar for this or just skip it entirely though!
SAM’S TIP: If you’ve ever struggled with greasy muffin or cupcake liners, this can happen from the muffins sitting in the muffin tin and cooling completely there. To help prevent this, gently remove the muffins to a cooling rack after about 5 minutes (I use a butter knife to gently lift each muffin and carefully remove it–be careful, the pan will still be hot!).
This is just an overview of the ingredients I used and why. For the full recipe please scroll down to the bottom of the post!
How to Make Mini Muffins
Make the batter
Whisk the dry ingredients and sugar together in a large bowl, then stir the wet ingredients together in a separate bowl or measuring cup. The butter might separate a bit depending on the temperature of your other ingredients–that is fine! Just do your best to incorporate everything.
When folding the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients, you can add everything together all at once but use a gentle hand and add the chocolate chips once the ingredients are about 50% combined. When making muffins (and other quick breads like banana bread) you need to take care to not over-mix or the muffins can end up dense and dry.
The batter will be very thick and stiff–this is normal (and if you’ve ever made my blueberry muffins, the consistency won’t surprise you, it’s quite similar).
Divide into liners
Portion the batter into a lined muffin tin, spacing the muffins in every other cavity (or just about). Since this recipe makes an odd number of muffins (30!) you’ll need either two muffin tins or you’ll need to do what I do and just do two separate batches. By spacing the cupcakes rather than baking them all next to one another, we encourage the muffins to rise higher, bake more evenly, and finish baking faster.
I know it might seem silly, but trust me and give it a try–I think you’ll be pleased with the results!
Bake
Bake for 12-13 minutes or until the tops are just starting to turn light golden brown. Let cool for a few minutes, then remove to a cooling rack to cool completely.
Once your muffin pan has cooled down, repeat the process with your second batch of muffins.
SAM’S TIP: It is totally fine for your muffin batter to sit on the countertop while you wait for your first batch to finish in the oven. In fact, allowing the batter to rest (covered with plastic wrap!) will encourage the muffins to rise even higher (just like when making my buttermilk pancakes!).
Frequently Asked Questions
Yes! Dried or frozen wild blueberries will be most similar to mini chocolate chips in size (and will emulate the blueberries in the usual store-bought mini muffins), but fresh will work too! You can use the same amount of blueberries as chocolate chips.
If you use frozen blueberries, there is no need to thaw them first, but know that your batter will likely turn purple when you stir them in.
Your muffins might need just a minute or two longer in the oven with fresh or frozen berries, but the bake time should be the same with dried.
They sure do! I recommend wrapping each muffin individually in plastic wrap before storing in an airtight, freezer-safe container. To thaw, you can let them sit at room temperature or pop them in the microwave for a few seconds.
My banana muffins, chocolate muffins, and gingerbread muffins are freezer-friendly too–give them a try next!
This batter is pretty stiff so it’s fairly easy to scoop and you can easily portion it with a pair of spoons. Personally, I like to use my 1 ½ tablespoon cookie scoop for the easiest and most accurate filling.
If you need more toddler or kid-friendly snack ideas, check out my list of back to school snacks!
Enjoy!
Let’s bake together! Subscribe to my newsletter to be notified of all the newest recipes, and find my free recipe tutorials on YouTube 💜
Mini Muffins
Ingredients
- 1 ¾ cups (220 g) all-purpose flour
- ¾ cup (150 g) granulated sugar
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- ¼ teaspoon baking soda
- ½ teaspoon table salt
- 1 cup (240 g) sour cream
- ½ cup (113 g) unsalted butter melted
- 1 large egg
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 cup (170 g) mini chocolate chips
- Coarse sugar for sprinkling optional
Recommended Equipment
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 375F (190C) and line 15 wells of a 24-count mini muffin tin with paper liners (see note), alternating wells. Set aside.
- In a large mixing bowl, whisk together flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.1 ¾ cups (220 g) all-purpose flour, ¾ cup (150 g) granulated sugar, 2 teaspoons baking powder, ¼ teaspoon baking soda, ½ teaspoon table salt
- In a separate, medium-sized mixing bowl or a large measuring cup, whisk together sour cream, butter, egg, and vanilla until mixture is well-combined (it’s OK if the butter separates a bit, just do your best).1 cup (240 g) sour cream, ½ cup (113 g) unsalted butter, 1 large egg, 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- Add the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and gently stir the ingredients together with a spatula. The batter will be quite stiff/dry, this is normal! When ingredients are about 50% combined, add in the chocolate chips and finish stirring until ingredients are just combined and no flour streaks remain.1 cup (170 g) mini chocolate chips
- Scoop batter by 1 ½ Tablespoon sized scoop into prepared muffin tin.Coarse sugar for sprinkling
- Bake in center rack of 375F (190C) preheated oven for 12-13 minutes. When muffins are finished baking you may notice some light golden browning and a toothpick inserted in the center should come out clean or with a few moist crumbs.
- Allow muffins to cool in their pan for 5 minutes before carefully removing and baking your second batch of muffins.
Notes
What’s with the alternating rows?
This recipe makes 30 muffins, which means you’ll need to bake two batches of muffins. By spacing out the muffins (and alternating the paper liners, you can see what I mean in the photo in the post if that helps!) you encourage the muffin tops to grow taller and you will get more even, faster baking. I bake one batch at a time and allow the muffin tin to cool before baking your second batch. It’s totally fine for the batter to sit, covered, as it waits for the first batch to bake and cool, in fact it will help the muffin tops be even taller!Coarse sugar
Baker’s sugar, organic cane sugar (which is more coarse than average granulated sugar) or even cane sugar work best here for a nice texture! However if you don’t have any of these, you can just use a light sprinkling of regular granulated sugar (or even skip it).Storing
Muffins are best enjoyed warm, but they will keep in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 3 days. They may also be tightly wrapped and frozen for several months.Nutrition
Nutritional information is based on third-party calculations and should be considered an estimate only. Actual nutritional content will vary based upon brands used, measuring methods, cooking method, portion sizes, and more.
Erica
Loved these ! So easy to make. I want to try blueberry next ! Would freezed dried blueberries work, or is it better to use fresh ?
Sam
Hi Erica! Due to the size I think freeze dried will work best in the mini muffins. 🙂
Ivy
This recipe looks SOOO delicious!!! Can you use white chocolate chips in this? We need another Crumbs post! 😁 Thank you for this amazing recipe!
Sam
White chocolate chips will work fine here. They are just a bit bigger. 🙂