Raspberry Chocolate Chip Muffins

Flour – While I like cake flour for cupcakes, all-purpose flour is fine for most muffins.

Leaveners – I use a good amount of baking powder in muffins, and just a small amount of baking soda.

Lemon – Use both the zest and juice from a lemon. The lemon flavor goes well with most berries, and the extra acid from lemon juice helps to balance the tartness of the raspberries.

Sugar – For most muffins, I like to mix both white granulated sugar and brown sugar. Light or dark is fine.

Dairy – I like to use a combination of milk and sour cream for added moisture and flavor in muffins. Use full-fat sour cream and 1%, 2%, or whole milk is fine here. If using non-dairy, I would suggest unsweetened almond or oat milk.

Fat – Use a combination of oil and melted butter for the fat. I usually use vegetable oil and unsalted butter. This helps prevent too much gluten forming and gives muffins a fluffy texture.

Vanilla – As in most baked goods, a bit of vanilla extract is a great balance to all flavors.

Eggs – Use two large eggs at room temperature for the batter. These provide structure, moisture, lift, and a lighter texture overall.

Raspberries – I like to use fresh here, but frozen are fine as well. If using frozen, don’t thaw beforehand or they can turn the whole batter kind of pink. I use about 1 ¼ cup or so, or a standard 6-ounce package. I also like to give the larger ones a rough chop right before using so you can get more pieces of raspberry in every bite.

Chocolate – Optional, but I like to add some mini chocolate chips for a bit more sweetness and chocolate flavor, especially if making for Valentine’s Day. You could also use bittersweet, milk, or dark chocolate chips or chunks. Dark chocolate is especially good.

In a mixing bowl, add the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and lemon zest. Whisk it together and set it aside.

In a larger mixing bowl, add both sugars, oil, the melted and slightly cooled butter, the milk and sour cream. Whisk until the sugar has dissolved and everything is fully combined.

Add the vanilla extract and lemon juice and give it a quick whisk. Finally, add the eggs one at a time until just combined.

Now add the dry ingredients in 2-3 additions and mix until just combined and no dry streaks are visible.

Fold in the chocolate chips, then give the raspberries a rough chop and fold them into the muffin batter as well.

Let the batter rest for about 15 minutes while you heat the oven.

Preheat your oven to 425°F / 220°C and either spray a 12-count muffin pan with nonstick spray or add cupcake liners (I would still spray the top though).

Scoop or spoon the batter into the muffin pan, filling each well to the top. Place the muffin pan into the center of the oven and bake for 5 minutes.

After 5 minutes, lower the temperature to 350°F / 180° C while leaving the oven door closed. Bake for an additional 18-20 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.

Remove from the oven and let the muffins cool in the pan for 5-10 minutes. Remove and let them finish cooling on a cooling rack. Serve at room temperature or while they are still warm.

Different Berries – As with most berry types of recipes, you can swap out the raspberries here. Good options include blueberries, blackberries, strawberries, cranberries, or even cherries. Use roughly the same amount (1 ¼ - 1 ½ cups) and give them a rough chop. Again, frozen is also fine, but don’t thaw first.

Toppings – As mentioned earlier, I kept this recipe simple without a topping. If you’d like to add one though for extra sweetness or texture, here’s two common options. Once you fill the muffin wells, completely cover the top of the batter with a course sugar like demerara or turbinado. Another option is a streusel topping. In a bowl, mix ½ cup all-purpose flour, 1 tablespoon brown sugar, 3 tablespoons white sugar, a pinch of salt, and ¼ cup unsalted butter that’s melted and cooled to barely warm (or use cold, cubed butter and cut it in). Apply to the top of the muffins and gently press into the batter just a bit, then bake as usual.

Different Sizes – As written, this recipe makes 12 regular sized muffins. If you want to make jumbo muffins, use a deeper, 6-count muffin pan. Make and bake them as usual but increase the time at 350°F from 18-20 minutes to 22-25 minutes. Going in the other direction, if you wish to make these into mini muffins, use the smaller pans and skip the initial high temperature. Bake for a total of 12-14 minutes and you should end up with 3 dozen or so minis.

Whisks – I recommend whisking muffin batter so that you’re less likely to overmix things. While I use a balloon whisk to combine the dry and wet ingredients, I prefer to switch to a Danish dough whisk as soon as I start combing them. This helps to not overwork the batter, makes folding in the raspberries and chocolate easier, and is honestly just so much easier to clean.

Scoop – In the past I would use a serving spoon or narrow type of ladle to transfer the batter to the muffin tin wells. No matter how careful I tried to be though, it was almost always a messy transfer. I suggest using an ice cream scoop, or what I use now, a 3-tablespoon cookie scoop.

Bowl Scraper – I’ll never stop recommending these things. They really help to scoop batters and doughs out of mixing bowls and great for cleanup as well. A decent bowl scraper can bend to the contour of your mixing bowl, and they’re super cheap to buy while being so useful.

❄️ How to Store Muffins

Once your raspberry chocolate chip muffins have finished cooling completely, you can store them in an airtight container at room temperature for 3-4 days. If you don’t think you’ll finish them in that amount of time, place them in an airtight container and refrigerate them for 5-7 days instead.

You can also freeze muffins. Wrap them individually in plastic wrap and place them in a freezer safe bag or container. Frozen, muffins should be good for 2-3 months. You can thaw overnight in the fridge or leave them out at room temperature for a while and then microwave to warm them.