These easy one-bowl chocolate chip muffins are made from start to finish in under an hour and are soft and delicious – better than a bakery (even with whole wheat flour)!
Chocolate chip muffins definitely fall into the didn’t know I wanted them category…until I did. So, holy moly, get out of the way until I get one.
Just me?
Light and airy, simple but delicious, full of wonderful chocolate flavours. Man, why are chocolate muffins so good??
This easy one-bowl chocolate chip muffin recipe is literally the only chocolate chip muffin recipe you’ll ever need. The dough is easy to make…and no surprises in this recipe. And that makes me happy.
The secrets behind a really good muffin
– Buttermilk. I use so much buttermilk that I have an actual store bought on hand 24/7. It is a magical ingredient. In pancakes, muffins, cakes, cookies. Buttermilk adds a nice kick to the heat of baked goods when it works (correctly) with baking powder.
I love living in the woods and a little buttermilk when a baked recipe calls for milk (like this cornbread, AMAZING!). Even if he harshly says no. It seemed like this was the only part of my life when I was truly rebellious.
Good news: making your own buttermilk is easy. You can use 1 tbsp lemon juice + 1 cup milk, but my favorite homemade buttermilk sub is to whip together half sour cream/half milk.
– Include additions along with dry ingredients. If your muffin calls for blueberries or chocolate chips (!!) or whatever, add them to the dry ingredients. Not only does this mean less mixing overall (which is a good thing), but it also helps prevent it from sinking to the bottom during cooking.
– Mix by hand. Muffins can be a bit tricky when it comes to mixing. You want to mix the ingredients so that there are no lumps of flour or salt (ew), but overmixing can mean the death of a fluffy muffin. For most muffins (except recipes like these blender muffins), mix with a spoon or rubber spatula until no dry streaks remain. It’s ok to have a few bumps here and there. Tell me: TRY NOT TO OVER BLEND. You can do that.
– Boil (of course), but do not overcook (of course). In fact, I might even suggest underbaking a little bit. I’m not looking for raw dough here…just trying to hit the sweet spot so the muffins are soft and moist instead of dry. I’ve found that baking muffins for 1-2 minutes can give them a cornbread-like texture instead of a delicious fluffy muffin bottom.
In my oven, muffins are usually done in 17-18 minutes. (Oven types, heights, muffin tins…all these factors contribute to the baking process, so keep an eye on what to do!)
These chocolate chip muffins are so much more delicious and look like a great bakery-style chocolate chip muffin, especially if you sprinkle some coarse sugar on top before baking. It adds just the right amount to make these muffins special.
I prefer light-colored muffin tins to dark-coated muffin tins. If you are using a narrow, nonstick muffin tin, you may want to lower the oven temperature by 25 degrees to prevent the bottom of the muffins from browning.
My favorite muffin pan of all time is the American brand {aff. connection}. The muffin cups have a deeper well, which means you can fill the muffin cups slightly for tall, bakery-style muffins without spillage. Miracle of miracles.
The muffin pan pictured in this post is a regular, super cheap Farberware muffin pan {aff. connection}; like a charm! You can get more than 12 muffins if you use a standard muffin pan like this one (especially if you play it safe in the dangerous overflow department). But I have a feeling no one will complain about it.
Whole wheat option
For all you whole wheat bakers out there, this chocolate chip muffin recipe works great with whole wheat flour. My favorite type of wheat for these muffins is half all purpose/half whole wheat flour. But 100% whole wheat flour is great too, especially when you get the slightly thicker, nuttier texture that whole wheat flour brings to the table.
I highly recommend using white versus red wheat for a softer texture (difference between these varieties here). If using whole wheat flour, measure lightly by hand as well (if using a scale, use about 1/4 ounce less per cup than all-purpose flour).
Well, enough talk! Get in the kitchen and make some easy one-bowl chocolate chip muffins. You’ll be glad you did.
They are so simple to make that I feel like they would be an instant breakfast/snack/whatever meal.
Easy one-bowl chocolate chip muffins
Yield: 16 Muffins
Preparation time: 20 minutes
Cooking time: 20 minutes
Total time: 40 minutes
Ingredients
- ½ cup neutral-flavored oil (see note)
- ½ cup (106 g) granulated sugar
- ½ cup (106 g) packed light brown sugar
- 2 large eggs
- ½ cup milk
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 2 cups (284 g) all-purpose flour (see note)
- 1½ teaspoons baking powder
- ½ tsp salt
- ¼ teaspoon baking powder
- 1 to 1 ½ cups (170 to 255 g) chocolate chips
- Coarse or raw/turbinado sugar, for sprinkling, (optional, but delicious)
Preheat oven to 35
Instructions
- 0 degrees F. Line a 12-cup muffin tin with paper liners and set aside.
- In a medium bowl, mix oil, granulated sugar and brown sugar. Add the eggs, milk and vanilla and mix until well blended.
- Add the flour, baking powder, salt, and baking soda and just before mixing, sprinkle the chocolate chips on top.
- Mix the batter with a rubber spatula until no dry streaks remain (do not overmix or the muffins will be dry and tough).
- Spread the batter evenly into the muffin tin (about 2/3 full). If you have leftover batter and are worried about overfilling the muffin cups, bake a second batch with the remaining batter.
- Sprinkle the tops of the muffins with coarse sugar, if using. Bake for 18-20 minutes until the top springs back slightly to the touch and/or a toothpick comes out clean or with a few wet crumbs.
Note
Oil: I recommend a neutral oil for the best flavor (canola, vegetable, grape seed oil, avocado oil). Melted coconut oil, if you like the flavor, can also work. These muffins also taste best with half melted butter (so 1/4 cup oil, 1/4 cup melted butter). I haven’t tried all the butters yet.
Flour: I made these muffins using white whole wheat flour – they were thicker but still tasty (50/50 white and whole wheat flour is great too!). If using wheat flour, measure lightly by hand (if not using a scale); white wheat flour has a softer texture than red wheat flour. If measuring with a scale, try to use 4.75 ounces per cup vs. 4.75 ounces per cup. 5 ounces per cup (the measurement I use for all flour).
