It’s time for dessert for breakfast with these domed, bakery style, Chocolate Chip Streusel Muffins. Filled with chocolate chips and covered with a crunchy, chocolatey streusel topping… plus, all the tips for baking jumbo-sized domed muffins in regular a regular size muffin tin!

It’s no secret that I love muffins. Most of the time, I like normal sized, fruit-filled muffins, perfectly appropriate for breakfast.

But sometimes… sometimes you want the dessert-for-breakfast muffin.  The giant, domed, sugar-topped bakery style muffin.  The kind of muffin you eat when you really want to treat yourself.

A big, beautiful, domed top. A crunchy, chocolatey streusel topping. Rich, chocolate chip filled muffin base.

When you’re in the mood for that kind of muffin, you want chocolate chip streusel muffins.

Here’s the good news: these freeze beautifully.  So you can make a whole batch, without the temptation to eat them all at once.

Whether you call them dessert-for-breakfast or a legitimate dessert, chocolate chip streusel muffins are perfect for pretty much any occasion.  Bake sale?  Overnight guests?  Family brunch?  Because you’re in the mood for a delicious muffin?  Absolutely perfect.

The Best Chocolate Chip Muffins

The muffin base for these is similar to the cranberry orange streusel muffins I shared back in January. 

For extra moist muffins, we’ll use vegetable oil instead of butter. And for an extra tender crumb, we have buttermilk. Except instead of cranberry and orange… these muffins are all about the chocolate chips!

Regular sized chocolate chips in the muffins.  Mini chocolate chips in the streusel.  Yes, please!

Of course, one of the other requirements for dessert-for-breakfast, bakery style muffins is the jumbo size, right?  But how many people actually have the jumbo muffin pans?  (I don’t.)

Fret not, there are some great ways to make big, domed muffins using your regular muffin pan!

Tips for Bakery Style Domed Muffins

These chocolate chip streusel muffins look jumbo thanks to the giant, crumbly tops.  But they’re actually baked in plain old regular sized muffin tins. 

So how did we get them so tall and big?  It’s time for my favorite subject… kitchen chemistry!

These muffins contain a high ratio of baking powder, a chemical leavener, to help provide the lift.  But the true secret to getting big domed tops: steam!

Kitchen Chemistry

For large domed muffins, start the muffins at high temperature for the first 5 minutes.  This initial high temperature heats the liquid ingredients enough to form steam, which helps to boos the height fo the muffins.  The outside edges of the muffins, up against the muffin pan, start to bake and set while the middle is still batter and continues to expand upwards.

Just don’t forget to turn your oven down after the first 5 minutes – otherwise, the tops of the muffins will burn!

Fill Muffin Tins to the Top

The next tip for jumbo domed muffins? Fill your muffin tin all the way to the top!

These aren’t cupcakes where you want a flat surface for decorating.  Fill those cups right up to the very top so the batter spills up and over, creating the classic domed muffin shape.

And while you’re at it, skip the paper liners and just grease the muffin tins well and bake right in the tin.

Paper liners stick to the batter and hold the muffin down.  We want our batter to slip and slide right up the edge of the muffin tin.  Don’t forget to spray the top of the muffin pan too, so the domed part doesn’t stick when you try to turn out the muffins!

Frequently Asked Questions about Chocolate Chip Streusel Muffins

More Muffin Recipes

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• Cherry Chocolate Chunk Muffins
• Cinnamon Chocolate Babka Muffins
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• Blueberry Muffins
• All Muffin Recipes ≫