Mini Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffins

Looking for a good pumpkin muffin recipe? These Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffins are seasonally spiced and speckled with mini chocolate chips for easy pumpkin muffins that your whole crew will devour. These bite sized treats are a cross between a muffin and scone. They are best served warm from the oven with coffee, tea or hot cocoa, and that orange and black hue makes them perfect Halloween muffins.

Ingredients For Mini Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffins

• All purpose flour
• Sugar
• Baking Powder
• Baking Soda
• Salt
• Cinnamon 
• Ginger
• Nutmeg
• Cloves
• Allspice
• Butter 
• Chocolate Chips
• Buttermilk
• Pumpkin Puree (not pumpkin pie filling)

Note: You can substitute 2 teaspoons of pumpkin pie spice for the cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, cloves and allspice.  I like to blend my own, but if you’ve got the pre-mixed spice, why not use it for these easy pumpkin muffins, right?

This is a bit different than most pumpkin muffin recipes. Others combine melted butter or oil blended with milk, egg and pumpkin puree.  These pumpkin mini muffins cut chilled butter chunks into the dry ingredients, almost like a biscuit. The result is a moist, tender crumb with a craggy outer shell.

Tips For Making Pumpkin Mini Muffins

• I used a pastry cutter to cut the butter into the flour. Make sure the butter is very cold before you add it and start cutting.
• I like to cut the butter into small chunks and then chill it in the refrigerator for 10 minutes before continuing.
• You could also cut the butter into the flour using a food processor. Pulse 5-8 times  until it’s shaggy and rough and the butter is about the size of peas. Just don’t over process, otherwise it will form a dough. Transfer the flour/butter mixture to a large bowl to continue. 
• Add the mini chocolate chips to the pumpkin muffin recipe and toss to combine. (Note: if you added the chocolate chips while in the food processor, it would obliterate them when you pulse together.)

Easy Way To Measure Wet Ingredients For Halloween Muffins

• Pour the buttermilk into the measuring cup until it reaches the 3/4 cup point.  
• Then add enough pumpkin puree until the combined mixture reaches 1 1/4 cups. (That’s 3/4 cup buttermilk and 1/2 cup pumpkin).
• Whisk the ingredients together until smooth.

Final Assembly For Pumpkin Muffin Recipe

1. Add the pumpkin puree mixture to the dry ingredients and stir until everything is just combined. Don’t overwork the dough, which will be thick and sticky. 
2. Drop the batter by rounded teaspoonfuls into the prepared mini muffin tin and bake until set.

These chocolate chip pumpkin muffins are like a cross between breakfast scones and mini muffins. They’re rubbly, tender, lightly spiced with melty mini chips in every bite.

Variations:

• If you want to add a little more flourish to your pumpkin muffins, sprinkle with a little sugar and spice mixture or add a few more chocolate chips.
• Add chopped, toasted walnuts or pecans,
• Swap mini chips for M&M candies.
• Substitute dried cranberries for chocolate.

These mini pumpkin chocolate chip muffins smell so good as they’re baking. There’s the unmistakable pumpkin spice aromas with the promise of a soft, delicate bread. You’ll want to let these easy pumpkin muffins rest for a few minutes before popping them out of the muffin tin and into your mouth — just to prevent scorching your palate with molten chocolate.

That said, these easy pumpkin muffins are really spectacular while they’re still warm. They’re not overly sweet, or overly spiced… and have a beautiful balance of fall flavors. These Halloween muffins would also be a pleasant surprise on Thanksgiving morning or any Saturday or Sunday in between.

More Pumpkin Recipes:

• Thanksgiving Pumpkin Pie with Gingersnap Crust
• Pumpkin Blondies
• Banana Pumpkin Streusel Quick Bread
• Nutty Pumpkin Cranberry Bread with Yeast

More Muffin Recipes

• Light N’ Fluffy Gluten-Free Strawberry Muffins
• Fruit and Nut Bran Muffins
• Cranberry Orange Oatmeal Muffins
• Jiffy Lemon Blueberry Cornmeal Muffins
• Crunchy Banana Chip Mini Muffins

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