5 from 5 votes

Mini Muffins

Name: Mini Muffins
Prep time: 10 min
Cook time: 12 min
Total time: 22 min
Ingredients: 1 ¾ cups all-purpose flour; ¾ cup granulated sugar; 2 teaspoons baking powder; ¼ teaspoon baking soda; ½ teaspoon table salt; 1 cup sour cream; ½ cup unsalted butter (melted); 1 large egg; 1 teaspoon vanilla extract; 1 cup mini chocolate chips; Coarse sugar for sprinkling (optional)

By Sam MerrittPublished Feb 17, 2025

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27 Comments

Servings: 30 muffins

22 mins

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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!

Overhead view of mini muffins in a baking pan lined with a striped tea towel.

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

Overhead view of mini chocolate chips being folded into a muffin 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

Overhead view of a mini muffin tin with batter portioned in almost every other cavity.

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

Overhead view of mini muffins on a cooling rack.

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!).

Small muffin made with mini chocolate chips with one bite missing.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can I use blueberries instead of chocolate chips?

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.

Do mini muffins freeze well?

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!

How do you fill a mini muffin pan (without making a mess!)?

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.