These Tim Hortons inspired Chocolate Chip Muffins are tender & moist, loaded with decadent chocolate chips! Start your day right by serving these fresh out from the oven with a big mug of hot coffee.
One of the iconic things of Canada is Tim Hortons. Throughout my almost month-long trip, I have visited Timmies (nickname) numerous times. Sometimes just to grab a quick coffee, a wrap or donuts and Timbits of course. They are everywhere so its convenient.
Tender, moist & chocolatey muffins
These Chocolate Chip Muffins are inspired by Tim Hortons but truth be told, I have not tried the actual muffin from Timmies. I have wanted to but somehow always ended up with Timbits and donuts. The chocolate chip muffins did caught my eye. So I baked these one bowl chocolate chip muffins inspired by Tim Hortons’ when I got back home and they were delightful! Tender, moist, full of chocolate chips and most importantly, SUPER EASY TO MAKE! I baked these in square muffin pan but these will be perfect in regular round muffin pan too.
What ingredients you need to make this Chocolate Chip Muffins
Fats – I prefer using 50/50 butter/oil. Melted butter for flavour and vegetable oil to keep the muffins tender and moist. I used sunflower oil but any flavourless vegetable oil is good.
Sugar – I used 2 types of sugar like how I do with chocolate chip cookies. White sugar and light brown sugar for a bit of colour and flavour. These muffins are not overly sweet so there is no need to further reduce the sugar for those of you who prefers lower sugar bakes. Always remember that sugar is an important ingredient for sweet baked goods so lowering too much will affect the outcome of the product.
Egg – Most muffin recipes are very straight forward. Mix wet ingredients into dry ingredients and that’s about it. There is nothing wrong with that but I like to lighten the batter up by beating the egg and sugars till light and pale before adding the rest of the wet ingredients. This extra step will give your muffins a fluffier texture.
Milk & Yogurt – I find that a 50/50 of milk and yogurt provides good moisture to the muffins and a slight acidity that will give your muffins that nice doomed muffin top. I used plain yogurt for this batch. You can use greek yogurt or sour cream too, both works well.
Flour – Nothing fancy, just regular AP flour. You can swap with some wholegrain flour if you wish to add some nutritional value.
Mini chocolate chips – Tim Hortons’ chocolate chip muffins uses mini chocolate chips. I used a mix of mini and regular chocolate chips just because I ran short of the mini ones. You can use all minis or mix, it’s up to you. But I suggest to keep some mini chips for decorating the muffin top.
Baking powder & soda – Essential for muffins to give it a good rise.
How To Enjoy These Chocolate Chip Muffins
These muffins are best eaten fresh out of the oven! Is there anything better than a warm fat muffin with crisp cookie-like top and finger-licking melty chocolate?? These are super easy to make so you don’t really need to bake ahead, rather make it when you want to eat it. This recipe makes a small batch of 6 muffins so I really don’t think you will have much leftover but if you do, they’ll keep well at room temperature for up to 2 days or a week in the refrigerator. You should really heat it up before eating if you store them in the fridge. A 3-5 minutes in 180C oven / toaster / air fryer is good enough to warm up these muffins.
Chocolate Chip Muffins
Ingredients
- 30 grams unsalted butter melted
- 30 grams vegetable oil sunflower and canola are good choices
- 50 grams white sugar
- 35 grams light brown sugar
- 1 egg
- 45 grams milk
- 45 grams plain yogurt alternatives: greek yogurt or sour cream
- 1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract
- 130 grams all-purpose flour
- 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
- 1/4 tsp baking soda
- 1/4 tsp fine salt
- 120 grams mini chocolate chips
- 20 grams mini chocolate chips for toppings
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 200C and line 6 muffin pan with paper baking cups
- In a medium mixing bowl, combine the sugar and egg, whisk for about 3 minutes until fluffy and pale in colour. I use an electric hand mixer.
- Add melted butter and oil into the egg mixture, whisk to combine.
- Add yogurt, milk and vanilla extract, whisk to combine.
- Sift in flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Fold gently until almost mix but not completely. You should still see some streaks of flour.
- Toss in mini chocolate chips and fold gently to fully combine. Do not overmix. Stop folding once all the flour is fully incorporated. It is ok if the batter look slightly lumpy.
- Scoop batter into prepared muffin pans, filling the cups full. Don't worry, the batter will not overflow in the oven.
- Sprinkle mini chocolate chips on top of each muffins evenly. Use up all 20g of chocolate chips on 6 muffins. They may look crowded now but will be ok once the muffins puff up during baking.
- Bake for 5 minutes at 200C, then lower the temperature to 180C and bake for a further 15 minutes. Remove from oven and allow to cool before eating.
I posted a tutorial on Instagram Reel. Do have a look to get a visual guidance on making this recipe.
Have a muffin good day!
If you make this recipe, please let me know! Leave a comment, rate it and don’t forget to tag me @vanillynbakery on Instagram. I’d love to see your lovely bakes!
If you like this recipe, be sure to check out these as well:
Our Favourite Blueberry Crumble Muffins