Chocolate chip muffins are single-serving quick breads with chocolate chips stirred into the batter. The muffins can be enjoyed in the morning as part of breakfast or as a quick dessert. A baker can make the muffins in a range of sizes. Usually, chocolate chip muffins are considerably sweeter than other muffins, such as corn or blueberry muffins. The batter may be vanilla or chocolate flavored. Some cooks add in other flavors, such as banana or mint.
To make chocolate chip muffins, a baker usually mixes together wet ingredients, such as eggs, butter or oil, and milk. Vanilla extract is also a common wet ingredient in muffin recipes. The baker then mixes the dry ingredients, such as flour and baking powder, in a separate bowl. Sugar is considered a wet ingredient when making muffins.
After the wet and dry ingredients are mixed, the baker adds the dry to the wet and carefully folds the dry into the wet ingredients. If she stirs too vigorously, she will end up with tough muffins. A wooden spoon or spatula is preferable over a mixer when making muffins. Once the batter is prepared, the chocolate chips are stirred in and the batter is portioned into muffin cups.
The size of chocolate chip muffins can vary greatly. Some bakers like to use miniature muffin cups, which produce bite-size muffins. Others use regular muffin cups, while still others use jumbo muffin cups. The average muffin recipe makes 12 standard-size muffins, 24 miniature muffins, or six jumbo-size muffins. Usually, recipes instruct a baker not to fill the muffin cups too high or the batter will overflow the cups. Some bakers prefer the overly rounded top, though.
Add-ins for chocolate chip muffins can vary. Some bakers add cocoa powder to the dry ingredients in the batter to make chocolate chocolate chip muffins. Others may stir in a mashed banana, which can replace some or all of the eggs, and gives the muffins a banana flavor. Other options include stirring in a small amount of an extract, such as mint or almond extract, to give the batter a different flavor.
A baker can choose between using semi-sweet chips or milk chocolate chips in the muffins. She may also use miniature chocolate chips or larger chocolate chunks. For further variation, she may like to use a variety of chips, such as semi-sweet and white chocolate chips, in the same recipe.
