Chocolate chips muffins are the beauty of the sweet baking culinary. They are equally liked, loved and appreciated at all levels of age groups, cuisines, events and countries. Sometimes, it feels amazing to get a muffin in your hand and enjoy the 2 bites with no sharing. This little, sweet, quick sensation of a few seconds leaves the impact of many minutes.
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A Sweet Childhood Memory
We have been eating and enjoying muffins since childhood. We are also watching our moms bring the tray of muffins to the sitting room and we, when we were kids, getting impatient to pick our proper share of muffins. I feel surprised that the charisma of chocolate chips muffins has not decreased or faded away. Even though we have countless choices in sweet as well as savory menus still our attachment with muffins is the same till now.
What is Inside this Recipe…
In this era of variations, customizations and choices, we have the ease to give different and unique tastes to our cute muffins. So some modifications are here for you. We shall see the basic recipe of chocolate chips muffins first and then move on to its variations.
Ingredients with Quantities
- 3 cups all purpose flour (375g)
- 2 cups of granulated sugar
- 3 tsp baking powder
- ½ tsp baking soda
- ¼ tsp of salt
- 1 pinch of ground nutmeg/ cinnamon
- ⅓ cup of unsalted butter
- ⅓ cup vegetable oil/ coconut oil
- 2 large eggs
- ⅓ cup of sour cream/ yogurt
- 1 cup milk (at room temperature)
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 cup chocolate chips
Special notes on Some Ingredients of Chocolate Chips Muffins
- All purpose Flour
All purpose flour is the best to be used as the base of chocolate chips muffins but if you want to make the sweet treat a bit more fiber rich then you may use half quantity of all purpose flour and half of whole wheat flour. Moreover if you want to opt for a gluten free base then gluten free flour options are there like the mix of powdered nuts and cocoa powder.
- Nutmeg or Cinnamon
Nutmeg or cinnamon both have all to do with the flavor. They are taste enhancers. The addition of nutmeg or cinnamon in chocolate chips muffins will make it taste different from regular sponges and cookies. Just one or 2 pinch can cause a deep effect.
- Butter plus Oil
People usually use unsalted butter or vegetable oil in cakes and muffins. I recommend adding both. The combination of the two in chocolate chips muffins cause them to come out softer, less dense and fluffy from the oven. Even the option of coconut oil in place of vegetable oil elevates the taste to another level.
- Sour cream or Yogurt
Sour cream or yogurt helps in raising a balanced texture of chocolate chips muffins. Though the batter of muffins is thicker as compared to other cakes, the mixing of cream does not make the batter thin. Moreover it is well beaten with other ingredients and adopts the form of a solid puff. But its effect finally comes out when the baking process ends when we see the firm yet soft stuff to be ready as your treat!
Instructions
The making of chocolate chips muffins is surprisingly easy. Your concern is only the right ratio and quantities of the ingredients and that’s all. So lets start making the batter
- Step 1
Take a bowl and sift all the dry ingredients in it except sugar and chips. Add them into a sieve one by one like put flour then baking powder and baking soda then cinnamon/ nutmeg and salt. Mix with soft gentle strokes using a hand mixer. Set this mix aside.
- Step 2
In a large bowl start adding the wet ingredients one by one. I always prefer to start with eggs. Beating eggs first helps in making the liquid more foamy and light. Keep blending it for 2 minutes which is the longest beating in this whole process. Now add sugar and beat. Then add butter and beat. After that add sour cream or yogurt and beat well. Next to it add the remaining wet ingredients like vanilla extract, oil and milk. In this final beating make sure that the batter becomes smooth.
- Step 3
Now mix the dry powder into the wet ingredients. Mix them well with a hand mixer or a spatula. Keep this point in mind that over mixing will affect the size and density of muffins. As soon as you feel that the batter is well mixed, stop mixing.
- Step 4
The star ingredient of chocolate chips muffins is the cup of chocolate chips. They will be added in the end. Slowly and gently mix them in the batter so that they get equally spread in the whole batter. Also check that the batter should have a consistency in which the chocolate chips won’t flow down to the bottom. They must be fixed and present at their place.
- Step 5
Take the mold of your choice. This quantity is equal to 2 pound cake. If you want to make jumbo size muffins then opt for that. And if you love the chunky bites then go for the small size muffins tray. Pour the batter almost to the top of the mold. Don’t keep it low from the surface level as chocolate chips muffins rise to one inch height which seems cute when giving a bumpy look.
- Step 6
Here comes the baking stage. Preheat your baking oven at 425 degrees fahrenheit. Put the tray into the oven. Keep this temperature at the same degree for the initial 5 minutes. After 5 minutes adjust the degree at 350 fahrenheit and bake for 25 minutes. This technique helps in raising the batter in a balanced way and also gives extra height to the muffins.
- Step 7
After the completion of 30 minutes, remove the tray from the over. Let the muffins cool for about 10 minutes. And your darling sweet bombs are ready to serve.
So this was all about baking the simple plain chocolate chips muffins. Now we are going to enter into another arena of taste; that is the variation in muffins which can be best enjoyed.
New Tastes, Brand New Vibes
Chocolate Chips Muffins with Caramel Inside
Caramel is always an inviting quality which your taste buds crave for. In this enhancement we shall do a trick. All you have to do is to fill a syringe with a moderate consistency of caramel sauce (1 tsp) and point the needle right in the center of the chocolate chips muffin and insert it into the half. Then inject the caramel sauce into the muffin and pull back the syringe gently. For easy homemade caramel sauce you may check caramel-sauce-recipe. Otherwise packed sauce is also quite finer, rather finer. Believe me your chocolate chips muffins will burst out with a load of sensational taste.
Full Chocolate Muffins
Like cakes and breads, the trend for full chocolate muffins is also increasing. Chocolate chips muffins with the addition of cocoa powder in the sponge gives a full chocolaty satisfaction. What you need to do is to just add half a cup of cocoa powder in the dry ingredients
- of muffin base
- and that’s all.
If you like contrasts you may add white chocolate chips in place of brown chips and this light and dark contrast will end up in a high aesthetic presentation.
Another trick is to inject the chocolate sauce into the center of the muffin in the same way just like in the method above mentioned (of caramel sauce). You can decorate the top of these chocolaty chocolate chips muffins with the flakes of a chocolate bar.
Chocolate Chips Banana Muffins
This baking treat is my personal favorite for breakfast. It not only adds a new flavor to chocolate chips muffins but also provide you with a bulk of nutrition. You can use any other fruit in place of bananas which can adopt the form of mashed bananas. For this type of muffins you will do an extra step which is combining mashed bananas, brown sugar and walnuts (3 ripe bananas, 1 tbsp of brown sugar and 1 tbsp of roughly chopped walnuts) in a bowl. Then you will add this batter in the chocolate chips muffins batter before mixing the chocolate chips. And the rest of the procedure will remain the same.
Chocolate chips muffins are the shining stars in the baking culinary. Small but valid techniques and tips which I have shared here will definitely bring the best muffins out of your oven and force you to thank me from the core of your heart.
