These pumpkin muffins are becoming a quick staple around our place. Fluffy + moist + chocolate = devoured.
A couple years ago when I was visiting my older brother’s family in San Francisco, my sister-in-law, CarrieLyn, whipped up a batch of pumpkin muffins for breakfast one day. And I seriously loved them, like in a seriously way. I’m talking serious. Served with a side of raspberries, the perfect start to a cool crisp Fall day.
I finally asked her where she got the recipe (after finding others that just didn’t step up to the plate), and she led me to this little gem on the Nestle Very Best Baking website.
While I do like the original, I found that it made A LOT of muffins and my high-altitude woes dry them out a little. Also, call me unhealthy (it’s fine, I won’t take offense), but I’m not the biggest fan of wheat flour. So, I did some measurement tweaking, spicing, and added a little of my secret ingredient (ahem, ‘sour cream’), and let me tell you, well, we’ve been devouring batch upon batch ever since.
Also, on another important note, I am quickly falling in love with Ghirardelli Mini Chocolate Chips (are there any other brands, btw? These are the only ones that I ever find in the store). They are fabulous for these muffins, and also for my favorite best-ever banana bread.
Mini Chocolate Chip Pumpkin Muffins
Ingredients
- 1 cups and 1/2 unbleached all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- clove Dash of ground
- Dash of ground allspice
- Dash of ground nutmeg
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 2 eggs
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 3/4 cup canned pumpkin puree
- 2 tablespoons sour cream
- 1/2 cup canola oil
- 1/2 cup to 1 cup mini chocolate chips
Instructions
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Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
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Spray 18 tin muffin cups or line with paper liners.
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In medium bowl, combine flour, leavening, spices, and salt.
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In a large bowl, combine eggs and sugar, and whisk until combined and frothy.
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Add pumpkin, sour cream, and oil and mix well with a spoon.
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Stir flour mixture into wet ingredients until batter is just moistened.
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Stir in mini chocolate chips.
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Divide batter into prepared tins.
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Bake 18-20 minutes, or until top springs back when lightly touched.
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Cool muffins in pans on wire rack about 5 minutes; remove from pans, and enjoy!
Recipe Notes
Change it Up:
For a little healthier version, substitute half of the flour with whole wheat flour. You may want to add an extra one to two tablespoons of sour cream or reduce your cooking time, as I've found that wheat flour can quickly dry these out if not careful.
Dress it Down:
Eliminate the clove, allspice and nutmeg for a little simpler version.
Eliminate the chocolate chips for a strictly pumpkin muffin (although I'm not sure why you'd want to remove the chocolate!)
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For those who are going the healthier route, in addition to the substitution of whole wheat flour for half of the AP flour, you can also substitute applesauce for half of the oil. I think it might actually help the moisture. And how can you POSSIBLY have too many of these? We often double the original recipe (that would be 4x your recipe; it’s just right to use the larger size can of pumpkin that you can buy), keep the batter that we haven’t used in the refrigerator and then eat them fresh-baked for a few days! Or take to neighbors, friends, school parties (once your kids are old enough, they are great at the class Halloween party), as snack at soccer games, etc., etc., etc….
Thanks for the additional tips CarrieLyn! I will definitely try it with some applesauce next time. Nice to know that the batter keeps well in the fridge, too, as that’s not always the case with batters.