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 30 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!
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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:
- Pumpkin Muffins
- Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins
- Banana Espresso Chocolate Chip Muffins
- Brown Butter Blueberry Muffins
- Lemon Poppyseed Muffins
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.
This recipe was originally published in 2019 and has been updated with additional baking tips. Photos by Ashley McLaughlin.
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?