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Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffins are a fall breakfast classic waiting to happen.
I love anything pumpkin this time of year.
For me, it’s my favorite time of the year right alongside Christmas.
Give me ALL the fall flavors, cozy sweaters, and warm drinks. I’m basic like that.
However… the one thing fall baking is often missing is CHOCOLATE. Don’t get me wrong, I love apples, caramel, and straight-up pumpkin spice. But I also require my daily dose of chocolate, so you know I’m going to find a way to bring it to the autumn party.
Which is exactly what’s happening with these Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffins!
Easy to make and so quick to throw together, these babies are ready in only 35 minutes.
How to Make Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffins
How to Make MOIST Muffins
There’s a small arsenal of ingredients that lend moisture and flavor to this recipe: dark brown sugar, buttermilk, and pumpkin puree!
Additionally, to ensure moist muffins, accurately measure your flour. It’s so easy to accidentally add too much flour when using measuring cups. That’s often how you end up with dense, dry, or crumbly muffins. I like to use the spoon and level method – or better yet, a digital kitchen scale. Learn more about the importance of measuring flour correctly here.
Do I Have to Use Buttermilk in Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffins?
- I definitely recommend using real buttermilk. It really makes a difference!
- In my Ultimate Guide to Muffins, I tested side-by-side muffins made with milk vs. buttermilk. The result was that the buttermilk created a more moist, fluffy, and flavorful muffin.
- If you’d like to learn more about the science of buttermilk, check out my Buttermilk 101 article.
- If you can’t find buttermilk, you can use whole milk instead (1:1 ratio).
Do I Have to Use Dark Brown Sugar?
No! You can use light brown instead (1:1 ratio). However, dark brown sugar will lend more moisture and flavor.
Can I Leave Out the Chocolate Chips?
I actually have a separate recipe for that! Check out my Pumpkin Muffin recipe here.
How to Make Flavorful Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffins
- Be sure all of your spices are fresh and not expired. The fresher the spice, the more powerful the flavor.
- I like to use canned pure pumpkin puree. Preferably Libby’s brand.
- Never use canned pumpkin pie filling.
- If you wish to use homemade pumpkin puree, check out my fresh vs. canned pumpkin puree post here.
Never Overmix Muffin Batter
- Overmixing muffins will create dense or rubbery muffins, which no one wants.
- Once the dry ingredients are combined with the wet, gently stir with a rubber spatula *just* until it’s combined.
- Since we’re adding in chocolate chips next, I actually like to leave a few streaks of flour. They’ll get stirred into the batter with the chocolate chips.
How to Bake Tall Muffins
You may have seen that high-to-low baking temperature trick for getting muffins to bake up nice and tall. That trick works, but I almost always forget to lower the temperature. Which, of course, ruins the whole batch! So, I simplified things for this recipe with just one temperature.
The height instead comes from using a generous amount of baking powder in the batter, and a generous amount of batter in each muffin tin cavity.
Check out my 3 tips for baking tall muffins here! Hint: Chilling your muffin batter overnight makes for the BEST ever muffins!!
Why Do My Muffin Liners Stick?
Oftentimes this is due to the brand of liners. This is my favorite brand of muffin / cupcake liners. If you find your liners still get stuck and end up ruining your muffins, don’t worry. I’ve actually written an entire article about how to prevent muffin or cupcake liners from sticking here.
How to Store Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffins
Store Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffins in an airtight at room temperature for 3 days. Reheat in the microwave for about 15 seconds, if desired, to get the chocolate chips nice and gooey.
Can You Freeze Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffins?
Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffins can also be frozen in an airtight container for up to 3 months. Defrost on the counter or in the microwave before serving.
More Homemade Muffin Recipes:
-
2
cups
(254 grams) all-purpose flour
-
3/4
cup
(150 grams) dark brown sugar
-
1
tablespoon
baking powder
-
1
teaspoon
ground cinnamon
-
½
teaspoon
fine salt
-
½
teaspoon
ground cloves
-
½
teaspoon
ground nutmeg
-
3/4
cup
buttermilk, at room temperature
-
6
tablespoons
(85 grams) unsalted butter,
melted and cooled
-
1
large egg,
at room temperature
-
1
cup
(244 grams) pure pumpkin puree
-
1
teaspoon
vanilla extract
-
1
cup
(170 grams) semisweet chocolate chips
-
Preheat the oven to 400°F. Line a standard muffin tin with paper liners.
-
In a large bowl whisk together the flour, sugar, baking powder, cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, and salt.
-
In a medium bowl, whisk together the buttermilk, butter, egg, pumpkin puree, and vanilla. Pour into the dry ingredients and stir with a rubber spatula until just combined. Gently stir in the chocolate chips. Do not overmix. Divide evenly among the muffin tin cups.
-
Bake until golden brown and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, about 20 to 22 minutes. Let cool until barely warm.
-
Serve or store in an airtight at room temperature for 3 days. Reheat in the microwave for about 15 seconds if desired. Muffins can also be frozen in an airtight container for up to 3 months.
This recipe was originally published in 2019 and has been updated with additional baking tips. Photos by Ashley McLaughlin.
Okay, but these speak to my SOUL. These are the epitome of fall. My new go-to pumpkin muffin recipe. I’m obsessed and already planning on making another batch.
I took your advice and made the recipe and stored it in the refrigerator overnight. Made it the next morning. When I went to eat my first warm muffin, the bottom of it stuck to the liner. I looked at your muffin tips and decided to refrigerate the rest of the muffins. No trouble peeling away the liner this time, and I swear the muffins tasted better the second day! Thanks for a great recipe!
I tried this recipe and found that they were moist and baked nicely. I did notice a bit of an after taste of baking powder. Not sure if that was due to swapping out oil instead of butter and I baked immediately. Would the taste of baking powder disappear if I followed the recipe exactly. I have baked several of your other muffin recipes with great results so not sure what I did do wrong. What do you think?
Hi Cara! Removing the butter could be the issue as butter adds quite a bit of flavor to these muffins. The only other thing I can think of is if either too much baking powder was added, or you’re baking at high altitude and need to reduce the amount. I’d suggest making the recipe as written with the butter to see if that corrects the issue. Let me know how it goes!
This is the second recipe of Tessa’s the I made that had dark brown sugar in it instead of light. I am completely not sold on it. First of all the good stuff–my muffins came out looking exactly like Tessa’s picture. The texture was fantastic, even though I had to make my own buttermilk, which was not recommended, I know. And nothing was at room temperature as the recipe said. I wanted muffins and I wanted them now. At least appearance and texture turned out fine. The downfall for me was the taste. These muffins were so overwhelmingly bitter, like molasses. Next time I will skip the dark brown sugar. I almost think the recipe would be better with white sugar. I could barely taste the spices. The pumpkin flavor was there, but such a bitter taste and aftertaste! Thank goodness for the gooey chocolate chips that made these muffins salvageable. Next time I will add nuts. They definitely needed some sort of bulk and taste from some nut like walnuts.
Hi Lisa! Thanks so much for your feedback! You are more than welcome to use light brown sugar instead if you’re not a fan of dark, which would definitely reduce the molasses flavor. As for your spices, I would double check to make sure they’re fresh and not expired. I hope you give this recipe another try! Hopefully with the change in brown sugar, it will result in the best flavor for your preference 🙂
THIS RECIPE WAS WONDERFUL. EVERY INGREDIENT CAME OUT IN THE FLAVOR. THIS IS NOT JUST YOUR NORMAL MUFFIN. MAKES THE ENTIRE HOUSE SMELL GOOD AND LIKE FALL IS IN THE AIR.
So happy you enjoyed this recipe, Deb!
Best pumpkin chocolate chip muffin I’ve ever made! Passed the test of my PICKY teen! So easy and fast and delicious!
Hooray!! So happy to hear that 🙂
I made this into pumpkin chocolate chip bread instead and it turned out excellent! I chilled the batter for 48 hours in my wine fridge (so it’s not as hard and I don’t have to wait for it to warm up), dumped it into a 9×5 aluminum loaf pan lined with parchment paper sticking up, and baked at 350F for about 1 hour.
Wonderful! Thanks for sharing the details, David! Bread sounds absolutely delicious 🙂
Has anyone figured out how many calories are in each muffin if you make 12?
Amazing soft and tall muffins. My kid couldn’t tell if there was pumpkin in it. When I told him in the end, he was really surprised.
Yay! Consider it then a sneaky way to get some nutrients in haha 🙂
Absolutely delicious. Even the picky breakfast eater loved these muffins. I packed them full of cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, and I added ginger for the extra twang with the pumpkin. Seriously, this is now my go to spice/chocolate chip muffin recipe.
These were amazing! I’ll be making them again.
I made this recipe exactly as stated. These muffins came out so moist and delish. They are super rich, creamy and perfectly dense. I will make these for everyone I know!
Absolutely delicious and very easy to make – no special equipment needed! My husband loved them. The pumpkin flavor has nice kick to it and when you bite into those gooey chocolate chips, wow!!
Delicious recipe – I made it gluten free and turned out awesome.
Love the sounds of this muffin but can you use a non dairy milk instead of the buttermilk? Thanks!
I made mine with a lactose free whole milk and it turned out just fine! I made my own buttermilk with it. They’re super yummy
Thank you so much for Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffins. The great recipe, my brother’s birthday is coming soon. I will make this one cake. thank you for a useful recipe to share us
I have one little question for next time… In the fixings, you have recorded cloves however they vanish in the ways. Should cloves be in the formula?