Bakery-Style Double Chocolate Chip Muffins

Ahhhh the goodness of muffins freshly baked at your neighborhood bakery and served warm with a steaming mug of coffee on a lazy weekend morning… This makes for an ideal way to start your day. So comforting and filling and just plan delicious! Now you can bake up some Bakery-Style Double Chocolate Chip Muffins at home with this easy, no-fuss recipe. And indulge at home any day of the week!

What’s the difference between a muffin and a cupcake?

You definitely get bonus points if you know the answer to this question! It’s been searched for in Google a few times in my household, that’s for sure. My older daughter came up with this question awhile back when she asked to eat a chocolate cupcake for breakfast. No way! was my reply. Until we researched it. And we discovered that there really isn’t much of a difference when you get down to it.

In fact, there are many articles written on the subject. The results come up mighty quickly when you type this question into the search bar, too. This says to me (a) that people mistake them for each other all the time because they’re so closely related and (b) there really must not be much of a difference. So, despite my own mom’s voice in my head saying “chocolate isn’t for breakfast!” (see one of my earlier posts about this childhood mantra), I caved and my daughter occasionally eats chocolate cupcakes (minus any frosting) for breakfast. When I saw this was becoming a bad habit (I know some of you are judging me mightily for this one!), I came up with a solid double chocolate chip muffin alternative to bake for her at home.

Muffins may very well be Cupcakes in Disguise

For those who are interested, the difference between a muffin and a cupcake is claimed by some websites to be (1) the frosting (duh), (2) muffins are sometimes made with whole wheat flour and filled with fruit instead of chocolate chips and (3) cupcakes tend to have more sugar and butter than muffins. However, you’ll notice the words “sometimes” and “tend to” here. What this says to me is that not all muffin recipes are created equal. In fact, some/most do have a lot of sugar (and sometimes butter, too, i.e. this recipe right here) and some do have chocolate chips instead of fruit. So…. this double chocolate chip muffin recipe below may very well be a chocolate cupcake recipe in disguise. I’ll go on believing it’s a muffin recipe for the sake of feeling better about myself for allowing my daughter to eat them for breakfast on the daily.

Capturing the Bakery Style at Home

For some reason it always used to seem to me that muffins baked at the bakery were consistently bigger (like way bigger) and moister and just plain better than those I made at home. Anyone else have this experience? Maybe it’s the atmosphere at the bakery and the heady aroma of fresh-baked goods all around that gave me that feeling. Well, I’ve figured out the way to bring this to my own home without having to get out of my pjs to do so. And now you can enjoy these bakery-style double chocolate chip muffins at home, too. And, perhaps you won’t feel as guilty about giving these cleverly disguised cupcakes to your family for breakfast since they’re homemade!

The key to achieving bakery style muffins lies in the ingredients used in this recipe and the way they’re baked. To keep these double chocolate chip muffins moist, I used a combination of melted butter, vegetable oil, milk, and sour cream for some added richness. I also used brown sugar which has more moisture than granulated sugar and helps to retain some of that moisture when baked. The melted butter is mixed with melted chocolate to create a fudgy chocolate muffin while also helping to achieve moistness.

The way these double chocolate chip muffins are baked is also key to creating a bakery-style muffin. Starting with a higher than normal baking temperature, baking for a few minutes, than lowering the temperature for the remainder of the baking time helps to create the domed top that captures the bakery style so well. And, who doesn’t love a good muffin top? (I’m not talking about the body part that’s so affectionately referred to as a muffin top on some of us, but rather a literal muffin top).

Tips for Making This Recipe

• Choose the highest quality cocoa powder and chocolate chips you can afford. It makes a big difference in the finished product’s taste and texture. I really like Guittard’s Cocoa Rogue Cocoa Powder. It is of a high quality, affordable and has this beautiful deep reddish color that really enhances the look and taste of the baked muffins
• Starting with a hotter than normal baking temperature helps achieve the nice, rounded, dome look on your muffins. The recipe calls for baking the muffins for 5 minutes at 425 degrees F then lowering the temperature to 350 degrees F for the remainder of the baking time
• These muffins are best consumed when warm. The chocolate gets all melty and you’ll really capture that just-baked bakery feel in your own kitchen!

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