Chocolate Chip Streusel Muffins

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.

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.

Or you can share them with your friends, which is what I did: both these chocolate chip streusel muffins and the glazed lemon poppy seed muffins I recently shared were made for a group of friends who all came up to Philly for a girls weekend before Brielle was born.

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

First up, a little of 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!

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

Secondly, fill your muffin cups 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.

Third, skip the paper liners and grease the muffin tin well.  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 well, so the domed part doesn’t stick when you try to turn out the muffins!

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

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.

Print Recipe

Yield: 12 muffins

Chocolate Chip Streusel Muffins

Prep Time:10 minutes

Cook Time:20 minutes

Total Time:30 minutes

It’s time for dessert for breakfast with these domed, bakery style, chocolate chip streusel muffins.

Ingredients:

For the muffins:

• 1/2 cup vegetable oil
• 1 cup sugar
• 2 eggs, room temperature
• 3/4 cup buttermilk, room temperature
• 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
• 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 4 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1 1/2 cups chocolate chips

For the streusel topping:

• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
• 4 tablespoons cold butter, cut into half-inch size pieces
• 1/2 cup miniature chocolate chips

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 425 °F.  Spray the wells and top of a 12 cup muffin tin with non-stick cooking spray.
2. In a large bowl, whisk together the vegetable oil, sugar, eggs, buttermilk, and vanilla.  Slowly add in the flour, baking powder, salt, and cinnamon.  Mix until just combined and no dry streaks of flour remain.  Fold in the chocolate chips.
3. Divide the batter between the 12 muffin cups, filling nearly to the top.
4. To make the streusel, combine the sugar, flour, and butter in a small bowl. Using a pastry blender or fork, cut the butter into the dry ingredients until the streusel has the texture of clumpy, wet sand.  Stir in the mini chocolate chips.  Sprinkle the streusel evenly over the tops of the 12 muffins.
5. Bake at 425°F for 5 minutes, then reduce the oven temp to 375°F (do not open the oven in between!) and bake for another 13-15 minutes.  Cool muffins in the muffin tin for 10 minutes, then run a sharp knife under the edges of the muffin domes before turning out onto a wire rack to cool completely.

Muffins will stay fresh in an air-tight container at room temperature for up to 5 days, or in a freezer bag in the freezer for up to 3 months.

A Bunsen Burner Bakery Original Protocol