When you need breakfast, but you're craving dessert, look no further than small batch chocolate chip muffins. Studded with mini chocolate chips and topped with raw sugar, they're soft, fluffy, and amazing with a cup of coffee. All you need is 30 minutes and you'll end up with 6 gorgeous, bakery-style muffins!
Y'all, I just learned about Millennial Hobby Energy and I am internally screaming. As a young Millennial, I am absolutely 1,000% guilty of going full meta with my hobbies. This is evident by, oh I don't know, my entire career as a food blogger + photographer??
Luckily, what is my quarter life crisis is your reward, because today, I present you with the muffins I've been hyper-fixating on for the past few weeks. This recipe is based on my small batch blueberry muffins, but instead of blueberries, we have rich pockets of semi-sweet chocolate.
Also, I took a note from my small batch banana muffins and swapped the regular sugar with brown. It gives these pastries a bit of a caramelized flavor that goes perfectly with melty chocolate. This is a tip I've carried with me since I was in pastry school, because the brown sugar also makes the muffins more moist (but never soggy!).
Mini chocolate chips
Mini chocolate chips are my secret ingredient in this recipe. That's because they don't sink to the bottom of the muffins like the regular ones do. Obviously, if you only have regular chocolate chips, it's all good! You can either chop them into smaller pieces, or you can toss them with a little flour to keep them from sinking.
The rest of the recipe calls for unsalted butter, brown sugar, an egg, whole buttermilk, pure vanilla extract, all-purpose flour, baking powder, Kosher salt, and raw sugar.
Here's a little buttermilk hack. Combine 85 milliliters (5 ¾ Tablespoons) of whole milk with 5 milliliters (1 teaspoon) of white or apple cider vinegar. Give it a whisk & let it set for about 5-10 minutes, until it's slightly curdled.
How to make these muffins
Let the batter sit
For that 'bakery' style look, I usually let the batter sit for about 20-30 minutes before I scoop it. This gives the baking powder a head start which makes the muffin tops super tall and fluffy! Of course, if you're short on time, don't worry about it. The muffins will still taste great.
Store & freeze
- Store - place the muffins on a platter and cover them with a clean linen. This keeps the sugar from melting off the tops! The muffins will be good for 1-2 days before they start to dry out.
- Freeze - wrap each muffin in parchment paper and pop the muffins in a freezer bag or container. Freeze for up to 3 months.
When it comes to small batch baking, I always recommend using a scale to measure the ingredients. Just a small amount of flour can make or break an entire recipe. But if you don't have a scale, use the fluff, spoon, & level method to measure flour, cocoa, & other dry ingredients. Here is a whole guide on how I measure ingredients for small batch baking!
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The Best Small Batch Chocolate Chip Muffins
Equipment
- Standard cupcake pan
- Paper muffin or cupcake liners
Ingredients
- 60 grams unsalted butter, melted & cooled (¼ cup)
- 72 grams brown sugar, light or dark (⅓ cup, packed)
- 1 large egg, room temperature
- 90 milliliters whole buttermilk (6 Tablespoons)
- 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
- 135 grams all-purpose flour (1 cup + 2 Tablespoons)
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- ¼ teaspoon Kosher salt
- 100 grams mini chocolate chips plus more for sprinkling (½ cup)
- Raw sugar, for sprinkling
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 400°F (204°C). Line a 12-cup cupcake pan with 6 liners, spacing them out so there is an empty cup in-between each liner. The extra airflow will help the muffins rise even taller. (See the post for a visual example.)
- Add the cooled, melted butter and brown sugar to a medium mixing bowl. Whisk until smooth, about 2 minutes. Then, mix in the egg, buttermilk, and vanilla extract. Add the all-purpose flour, baking powder, and Kosher salt to the wet ingredients. Whisk until it's about 90% combined.
- Fold the mini chocolate chips into the batter just until there are no more streaks of flour. The batter will be a little lumpy, that's totally normal. Optional - cover the bowl and let the batter rest for 20-30 minutes. This will help make the muffins extra tall!
- Use a cupcake scoop to evenly divide the batter between the 6 muffin liners, filling them all the way to the top. Finish each muffin with a sprinkle of mini chocolate chips and a generous sprinkle of raw sugar.
- Bake the muffins at 400°F (204°C) for 5 minutes. Then, reduce the heat to 350°F (177°C) and bake the muffins for 13-14 more minutes, until an inserted toothpick has just a few moist crumbs. Let the muffins cool in the pan for about 5 minutes. Then, transfer them to a wire rack to cool completely. Enjoy!
Did you make this recipe? I'd love to hear what you think!