Chocolate Chip Muffins

Oct 4

I love getting requests from people about what recipes they’d like to see. It helps me out to know what you’d like from me and challenges me to try out and test new things. When I put out my YouTube video on how to make the Perfect Chocolate Chip Cookies I got a request from a former student to teach him how to make muffins better, specifically chocolate chip muffins. Hence, after much testing, this recipe was born. I know it seems like a basic thing that wouldn’t take much testing, but for some reason I had a hard time making this recipe just right for my taste. I wanted something that was fantastically delicious, tasted like a chocolate chip cookie in muffin form, but also wasn’t your traditional brunch buffet muffin. I think that I’ve succeeded with this recipe, and I hope you’ll all agree.

As with all quick-bread recipes, we start by mixing our dry ingredients. The thing that I am most proud of in this recipe is a little pop of extra flavor that you get from an unexpected ingredient. Cinnamon! When I was testing these muffins, they were tasting just like chocolate chip cookies. That’s fine, and if you leave out the cinnamon that’s what you’ll get. However, the more I ate them, the more I wished there was something special about them that made them stand out from every other chocolate chip muffin that you get a hotel’s continental breakfast bar. I found that adding just a touch of cinnamon really made all the flavors pop and puts these muffins over the edge!

To make this muffin mix a distinctly chocolate chip muffin mix, I decided that instead of using all white sugar, which is what you would traditionally see from a muffin, I would use some brown sugar as well. Brown sugar is what gives chocolate chip cookies their depth of flavor, and I wanted to capture that taste in my muffin recipe. So, in it went and that addition truly makes these muffins so rich in flavor. In addition, I used buttermilk in the wet ingredients to react better with the leavener, and give the muffins a lighter texture and a sharper flavor.

Pro-tip here, kids. Whenever you’re making quick-breads, like banana breads or muffins of any kinds, always toss the mix-ins in the dry ingredients before you mix in the wet ingredients. I truly can’t explain why it works, but it prevents the chocolate chips (in this case) from sinking to the bottom of your muffins. This ensures that you get some chocolate in every bite, which I feel is something we should all aspire to in life. Chocolate in every bite…haha

One of the complaints that my former student made about his muffins is that they come out tough whenever he makes them. This is not an uncommon problem when people make quick breads or even pancakes. The solution is simple though. DON’T OVERMIX THE BATTER! It’s easy to feel uneasy when you see lumps in your batter. You should want it to be smooth right? WRONG! A lumpy batter is actually just what you want from this type of recipe. It keeps the texture light, and keeps the finished product from being tough. As long as everything in your bowl looks wet, you’re done mixing.

Now, you can easily mix in an entire cup of chocolate chips into this batter and be done with it. However, I didn’t like the final look when they came out of the oven when I did this. I found that some of the muffins didn’t have enough chocolate chips peeking through the top of the muffin to make them look appetizing enough for me. As we know, presentation is very important in food. If you want people to drool over your goodies, you should take the time to do the extra steps to make the food look drool-worthy. In this case, the extra step is just holding back 1/4 cup of chocolate chips and sprinkling them on top of the muffins before you put them in the oven. Be careful though…try not to have any of the points of the chips sticking straight up. It isn’t a BIG deal, but if you do, you might get a few burnt tips of chocolate in your muffins. You probably won’t notice a taste difference, but it’s the type of thing that bugs me so I avoid it…haha

I truly cannot be happier with these chocolate chip muffins. They turned out so great, and I hope that you all will try them out for yourselves. If you do, make sure to tag me in a photo on Instagram or Twitter. I’d love to see your fine handiwork. Remember, you don’t have to be a pro to make magic in your kitchen!

Joe the Blue Wizard