Tessa’s Recipe Rundown
Taste: I love the combination of pumpkin spice + chocolate!
Texture: Tender, fluffy, and gooey with chocolate.
Ease: Ridiculously quick and easy 35-minute recipe.
Pros: Fast, fun, and flavorful fall recipe.
Cons: None.
Would I make this again? I already can’t wait to make these again!
This post may contain affiliate links. Read our disclosure policy.
Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffins are a fall breakfast classic waiting to happen.
I love anything pumpkin this time of year. Give me ALL the fall flavors, cozy sweaters, and warm drinks. I’m basic like that.
It’s my favorite time of year, right alongside Christmas.
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.
Enter, Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffins!
Quick and easy to make and so simple to throw together, these babies are ready in only 35 minutes. Check out just one of the countless 5-star recipes these muffins have received:
Reader Love
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.
–
Sprinkle of Science
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, ending up with dense, dry, or crumbly muffins. I like to use a digital kitchen scale to weigh my ingredients, but if you don’t have one, use the spoon and level method. Learn more about the importance of measuring flour correctly here.
Do I Have to Use Buttermilk?
- 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. I found that real buttermilk created a more moist, fluffy, and flavorful muffin.
- If you’d like to learn more about the science of buttermilk in baking, 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?
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 streusel-topped 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.
- Feel free to experiment with homemade pumpkin puree, but I don’t necessarily recommend it as it may add too much excess moisture.
- 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 muffins ever!!
Why Do My Muffin Liners Stick?
This is often due to the brand of liners. This is my favorite brand of muffin / cupcake liners. If this is a common issue for you, or you’ve just baked a batch of muffins and are finding the muffins sticking to the liners, check out my article on how to prevent muffin or cupcake liners from sticking here.
How to Store Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffins
Store 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 Muffins?
Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffins can be frozen inside an airtight container for up to 3 months. Defrost at room temperature or in the microwave before serving.
More Homemade Muffin Recipes:
Become a Baking Genius!
Sign up for our free email newsletter for NEW recipes & baking science secrets.
Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffins
Ingredients
- 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
Instructions
- 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.
Recipe Notes
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!