Chocolate chip mini muffins are the perfect on-the-go snack or bite sized dessert. Filled with mini chocolate chips and topped with turbinado sugar, these muffins are made from scratch and come together in a single bowl.
You're going to love this recipe for Chocolate Chip Mini Muffins. It makes a small batch of 24 soft and moist mini muffins, and the batter comes together in a single bowl.
Best of all, I made this recipe using common, easy to find ingredients. You may already have what you need on hand!
Mini muffins make a great snack, on-the-go treat, or small dessert. Plus, this recipe is easy to customize with your favorite mix-ins, like nuts or dried fruits.
Ingredients and substitutions
For this recipe, you'll need a few common baking ingredients like all-purpose flour, baking powder, granulated sugar, an egg, milk, butter, and vanilla extract.
Make sure you're using baking powder and not baking soda - otherwise your muffins will not rise like they should.
You'll also want some mini chocolate chips to fill your mini muffins. Regular size chocolate chips will work just fine, if that's what you have on hand, but mini chocolate chips are the perfect size for these mini muffins.
You can also substitute the chocolate chips with your favorite chopped nuts, like pecans or walnuts.
Turbinado sugar
I like to top my muffins with a sprinkle of turbinado sugar. If you don't have turbinado sugar on hand, granulated sugar will also do the trick.
Adding sugar to the tops of your muffins before they bake gives them a crunchy sugar crust.
Mini muffin pan and liners
This recipe will make 24 mini muffins, or about 8 standard size muffins. To make mini muffins, you'll need a mini muffin pan, like one of these:
- Wilton Perfect Results Premium Non-Stick Mini Muffin and Cupcake Pan, 24-Cup
- USA Pan Bakeware Mini Cupcake and Muffin Pan, 24 Well
I'd suggest using mini muffin liners, or giving your pan a thin coating of butter before adding your muffin batter. Even in my nonstick pans, I like to use a thin layer of butter to make sure the muffins release from the pan easily.
How to prevent dry muffins
Be careful not to overbake:
- Ovens can run hot or cold (they're all slightly different!). If your oven runs hot, your baked goods may be done a few minutes before what is suggested in the recipe.
- Use an instant-read thermometer inside your oven to make sure your oven is set to the proper temperature for any given recipe. Here's what I use: Rubbermaid Instant Read Oven Thermometer
- If your oven regularly runs hot, try testing your mini muffins about 2 minutes early. Stick a toothpick in the center of a muffin. If the toothpick comes out dry, or with crumbs, your muffins are done. If your toothpick comes out with wet batter, give it another 2 minutes and check again.
Measure properly and don't substitute:
- Adding too much flour. Scooping flour directly from a bin (especially one that's been sitting for a while and may have settled) can compact the flour and add up to 25% extra flour to your recipe. Extra flour can make your baked goods dry, dense, and crumbly. For best accuracy, use a kitchen scale to measure your flour. 1 cup of flour = 120 grams.
- Substituting ingredients. Eggs, butter, milk, and sugar all help make and keep your baked goods moist. Substituting ingredients or reducing quantities can make your bread dry.
- Using a sugar substitute can also make your bread dry. Not only does sugar sweeten your bread, but it also attracts and holds on to moisture. Most sugar substitutes do not have these moisture-retaining qualities.
Chocolate Chip Mini Muffins
Ingredients
- 1 cup all purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- ⅓ cup granulated sugar
- 1 large egg
- ⅓ cup whole milk
- ¼ cup unsalted butter melted
- ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
- ¾ cup mini chocolate chips
- 2 tablespoons turbinado sugar optional
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit and butter or grease mini muffin pan. Set aside.
- In a large bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, and salt. Set aside.
- In a separate bowl, add sugar, eggs, milk, butter, and vanilla extract. Mix until fully combined. Make a well in the center of your dry ingredients, add your wet ingredients, and stir until just incorporated. Scrape down the sides of the bowl, then add min chocolate chips and stir to combine.
- Fill mini muffin tins halfway with batter. Optionally, sprinkle tops of muffins with turbinado sugar. Bake for 12-14 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean (or with crumbs, not batter).
- Allow pan to cool for 2-3 minutes before removing muffins. Store cooled muffins in a sealed container.
Equipment Recommendations
Notes
- This recipe will make 24 mini muffins, or about 8 standard sized muffins. If making standard size muffins, bake for 18-22 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean.
- Muffins will keep at room temperature in a sealed container for 3 days.
- Baked muffins can be stored in the freezer for up to 3 months, tightly wrapped in foil and stored in a freezer safe container.
- Turbinado sugar can be substituted with granulated sugar.
Is it possible to provide metric measurements as well. Its a lot easier than cup measures. Thanks!
Hi Maryanne, I agree! Using a kitchen scale makes baking so easy 🙂 You can find gram measurements in the recipe card by clicking on 'metric' below the list of ingredients.
I made these for coffee hour at church and they were perfect, but I had a little bit of a learning curve. I made a test batch for my husband first. I didn't want to use the paper liners because I wanted a touch of a crust and didn't want to lose any of the muffin from tearing the paper away. However, in my attempt to encourage a crust, I overcooked them. They were still good, but dry and more like a cookie. Also, I did not have turbinado sugar and instead sprinkled the tops with cinnamon sugar which was OK but not the best. For the next batch, I was careful to bake them for the shortest time (12 minutes) and I bought turbinado sugar and sprinkled the tops generously. My pan is a good quality, dark pan so they came out with a nice color crust and the turbinado sugar provided a little crunch on top. The chocolate chips provide just the right amount of sweetness. Perfect!
So glad to hear you enjoyed the muffins!
I must have done something wrong. My mini muffins came out like scones. They were still good but just not muffins. Haha. My batter was quick thick when spooning.
Hi Lily, I'm sorry to hear that your muffins didn't turn out! This sounds like possibly too much flour was added to the batter if it was thick before baking. Did you scoop your flour from a bin, or did you use a kitchen scale? Did they rise in the oven when baked? It's also possible that your leavening agent was expired. It's hard to say without being in the kitchen with you, but those are a few things that came to mind.
Same thing happened to mine. They were very dry. ☹️
Hi Kelly, I'm sorry to hear your muffins didn't turn out the way you wanted! I have a section above about how to prevent dry muffins. This could be due to overbaking, adding too much flour, or substituting some of the moisture-providing ingredients (butter, milk, egg sugar). Your oven could also be running slightly hot, causing them to bake a little faster. It's hard to say without being in the kitchen with you, but these are a few common things that can cause dry baked goods.
Omg! What a great recipe! So easy and super simple ingredients! So we made half the batch that this recipe was called for, we split the egg too 🙂 haha! Came out amazing! We used organic cane sugar to sprinkle on top instead! I’ve also read elsewhere to put them in at 425F and then lower down the temperature to get the the crispy tops and I did that! My 5 year old loved it!! Asked for a second one!! 🙂 thank you so much!
I made these fof my kiddos but I used oil instead of melted butter. They turned out perfect and my kids liked them.
Great recipe! Easy to make and they taste superb! Fantastic snack, dessert or breakfast!
Great recipe. I made this with my five year old. She loved making it as well as eating it.
That is so sweet, I'm glad you both enjoyed the recipe!