Easy One Bowl Chocolate Chip Muffins: No Mixer!

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Updated 4/28/2023

Whoever invented the chocolate chip muffin deserves a smooch. Nothing beats a fluffy muffin riddled with chocolatey puddles and a crunchy, sugary top.

Conveniently, these one bowl chocolate chip muffins only take 15 minutes to prepare, 15-20 minutes to bake, and use minimal equipment. One bowl chocolate chip muffins are simple to make, the kids can dump ingredients into the bowl, and there is no electric mixer required.

In fact, I’m whipping up a quadruple batch of these babies with my 6 year-old daughter today. She’s having a bake sale this weekend to earn some money for a stuffed snake toy she wants to buy.

Equipment

To make one bowl chocolate chip muffins, you will need:

• Medium mixing bowl
• Medium whisk
• Rubber spatula
• #16 scoop (not required, but makes filling the muffin cups much easier)
• 12 well muffin tin
• Wire cooling rack
• Paper muffin cups, if desired

Special Ingredients

The only special ingredient in one bowl chocolate chip muffins is turbinado sugar. Used for sprinkling on top of the muffins, turbinado sugar has a large crystal structure and creates a delicious crunchy muffin top.

It is not a required ingredient, but turbinado sugar really brings these, or any other sweet muffins to the next level of deliciousness. You can find turbinado sugar at most grocery stores in the baking aisle, or on Amazon.

Techniques

When making one bowl chocolate chip muffins, it is important to fold the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients without overmixing. To do this, start at the top of the bowl (the side furthest from your body). Slide your rubber spatula down the side of the bowl furthest from you, and scrape along the bottom of the mixing bowl until you reach the part of the bowl closest to your body. Next, hook the spatula to your left, creating a “J” shaped pattern. Repeat.

The goal is to bring wet ingredients up from the bottom and fold them together with the dry ones until the batter is well combined. If you do this by just stirring in a circular motion, you will create too many gluten networks. This abundance of gluten networks will make your muffins tough and dense, and nobody wants that!

Hot tip: for the most even chocolate distribution, use mini chocolate chips. I almost never have these lying around, so I normally just use regular chocolate chips, and place a few chips on the top of the muffins right before they go in the oven. This ensures that you get some chocolate on the top.

Bake Time and Muffin Storage

Every oven is different, and so bake times vary. For my oven, one bowl chocolate chip muffins are done after 18 minutes of total baking. You will know when the muffins are done when you lightly press on the top of a muffin and it springs back instead of sinking or feeling squishy.

Chocolate chip muffins will stay good covered at room temperature for about 3 days, though they’re best the day they’re baked. To freeze fully baked muffins, put them in a zip top freezer bag in the freezer for up to 3 months. Thaw at room temperature, in the fridge, or throw these chocolatey morsels in the microwave for about 15-20 seconds.

I can’t wait to see the muffins you bake! Tag me on instagram @at_home_test_cook so I can see your creations. If you love this recipe, check out these apple cinnamon muffins too!

Happy baking!

Carli