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These gluten-free chocolate chip muffins have a moist and tender crumb, beautiful dome, and just enough chips. The combination of buttermilk, oil, and butter makes a muffin that isn't too sweet, and is just right for breakfast, or an afternoon snack.
Why this recipe works
These muffins have a slightly denser texture than cake. But with a mixture of butter and oil in the batter, the crumb is so tender and moist, it leans a bit closer to cake-like than usual.
I do have a very adaptable recipe for gluten free muffins, and it's a great recipe. But this muffin recipe is what my dream of a chocolate chip muffin looks like.
A really special chocolate chip muffin has a slightly more tender crumb, so it starts with a slightly softer batter. We use a mixture of fats and plenty of buttermilk to keep the muffins super moist but not oily-tasting like they would if we used all oil.
Ingredients explained
Here's the purpose of each of the ingredients in these bakery-style chocolate chip muffins:
- Gluten free flour – Be sure to use a high quality blend with a superfine rice flour base, or your muffins will be gritty. If you're using Better Batter's classic blend, it already contains xanthan gum so don't add more. If you're using Nicole's Best multipurpose, be sure to add 1 teaspoon. You can also use Bob's Red Mill 1-to-1 gf flour in the blue bag, but add another 1/4 teaspoon xanthan gum or the muffins will be crumbly.
- Baking powder – Helps the muffins rise and keep their dome after they cool.
- Baking soda – Activated by the acid in the buttermilk, it helps your muffins brown in the oven.
- Granulated sugar – Sugar adds sweetness and tenderness to baked goods. That's why, when you reduce the sugar, your muffins turn out tougher.
- Butter – Melted butter adds flavor and tenderness, so it plays a similar role here to oil, but without the greasy mouthfeel that too much oil in muffins can cause.
- Neutral oil – Pairing melted butter with a neutral oil, like canola, vegetable, grapeseed, or peanut oils, makes your muffins stay super tender even when they're not fresh out of the oven, without making them unpleasantly oily.
- Buttermilk – True store-bought buttermilk is thick, rich, and makes your muffins tender, tall, and super flavorful by activating the baking soda and softening the crumb.
- Eggs – They add structure and rise.
- Vanilla extract – Adds some depth of flavor. Pure vanilla extract, unlike imitation, has a complex flavor with lots of elements.
- Chocolate chips – I like semi-sweet chocolate chips best here since they are the perfect way to offset the flavor of the buttermilk. Resist the urge to add more chips, since we want to keep them from melting together in pockets in your muffins, making these more like gluten free chocolate muffins (a great muffin, but a distinct one).
My Pro Tip
Expert tips
Keep the chips from sinking
Before you add the chips to the muffin batter, line the well of each muffin tin with a small dollop of plain, no-chip, muffin batter. Then, add the chips (you'll probably want to stick with 4 ounces or less) to the remaining batter and divide it among the wells.
Bake hot and fast
Baking your muffins at 375°F/190°C encourages them to rise quickly, which is what helps create that lovely muffin dome. You'll bake them for less time, though, than you would expect (about 18 minutes is plenty).
For the best of both worlds, preheat your oven to 375°F, place your muffin tin in the oven, and then immediately reduce the temperature to 350°F. As the temperature falls, it will more gently bake the inside of your muffins without a chance of burning the outside.
Bake in a lightly colored tin
A dark muffin tin attracts too much heat too quickly in the oven, and increases the chance that the bottoms and edges of your muffins will burn. That's especially true when your muffins are baking at 375°F. If your pan is dark in color, try reducing the oven temperature to 350° after 5 minutes, and to 325°F after 5 more.
How to make gluten free chocolate chip muffins
These muffins are made by whisking together the dry ingredients and then mixing in the wet ingredients. Here's an overview of how you can make them in your own kitchen:
Make the muffin batter
Whisk together one of my recommended gluten free flour blends (including xanthan gum), baking powder, baking soda, salt, and granulated sugar. Whisking the dry ingredients completely ensures that the leaveners are evenly distributed for an even rise.
Create a well in the center of the dry ingredients and add melted butter, neutral oil, buttermilk, beaten eggs, and vanilla, and mix. The muffin batter will be thick but soft and not stiff. We want a denser crumb than cupcakes, so we don't cream the butter and sugar together.
Add the chocolate chips and mix until they’re evenly distributed throughout the muffin batter so there's some in every bite.
Fill the wells and bake
Fill the prepared wells of a standard muffin tin about 3/4 of the way full with batter, and smooth the tops. With the muffin wells nearly full, there's plenty of room for them to rise into tall domes without overlapping.
Add a few more chips to the top of each well, and press gently so the chips don’t pop off as the muffins rise in the oven.
Bake at 375°F until the center muffin in one of the center wells of the muffin tin springs back when pressed gently in the center. The edges will be lightly golden brown, as they bake from the outside in. If your oven runs hot, lower the oven temperature to 350°F after 5 minutes of baking for a high dome without burning.
Remove the muffins from the tin to a wire rack quickly, as soon as you can handle them, so they don't steam in the pan which can turn the outside of the muffins chewy.
Substitutions
Ingredient substitutions
Dairy free
There's a combination of a neutral oil and melted and cooled butter in these muffins. If you can't have dairy, I don't recommend trying to replace the melted butter with more oil or even with virgin coconut oil (the kind that's solid at cool room temperature). The muffins would be too oily.
When I tried making these muffins with all oil, the muffins looked fine, but tasted very oily to me. Instead, try using vegan butter (Melt and Miyoko's Creamery are my favorite brands) or even Earth Balance buttery sticks (and then reduce the salt to a pinch).
In place of buttermilk, use half nondairy milk and half plain unsweetened nondairy yogurt, each with the most neutral flavor you can find.
Egg free
There are two eggs in this recipe. I think you should be able to replace each of them with a “chia egg” (1 tablespoon ground white chia seeds + 1 tablespoon lukewarm water, mixed and allowed to gel). If you prefer flax eggs, remember that they will add some flavor.
Vegan
You could try replacing both the dairy and the eggs in this recipe, but I'd recommend using our recipe for vegan gluten free muffins instead, which doesn't use any “egg replacers,” but was developed to be made without them in the first place.
If you don't have buttermilk
Store-bought buttermilk is thick and rich. Adding a bit of acid to regular milk, dairy or nondairy, just makes slightly sour-tasting milk that's still watery.
If you don't have buttermilk, replace it with half milk and half plain unsweetened yogurt by volume. You can also use plain milk kefir alone in place of buttermilk.
FAQs
When baked goods rise in the oven and then fall as they cool, they almost always weren't baked all the way through. Baking times are always approximate, so be sure to follow the doneness test that the recipe specifies, not just the time.
Yes! Follow the same instructions and bake them in a light-colored miniature muffin pan for about 14 minutes, but start checking at 10 and remove them when they're nicely domed. Be sure not to overbake them.
You can add different flavored pieces, like white chocolate or even raisins or dried cranberries in place of some of the semi-sweet chocolate chips.
Yes, they would take longer to bake if you make jumbo-sized muffins. Start at 375°F and bake for 10 minutes, then reduce the oven temperature to 350°F and continue to bake for about another 20 minutes or until done.
No, buttermilk powder is great for baking as a replacement for regular milk powder, but it isn't thick like true buttermilk when you add water to it. If you don't have buttermilk, replace it with half milk and half plain yogurt or with plain milk kefir.
Gluten Free Chocolate Chip Muffins Recipe
Ingredients
- 2 cups (280 g) all purpose gluten free flour blend, (please click thru for full info on appropriate flour blends; See Recipe Notes)
- 1 teaspoon xanthan gum, omit if your blend already contains it
- 1½ teaspoons baking powder
- ¼ teaspoon baking soda
- ½ teaspoon kosher salt
- ¾ cup (150 g) granulated sugar
- 4 tablespoons (56 g) unsalted butter, melted and cooled
- 3 tablespoons (42 g) neutral oil, (canola, grapeseed, vegetable, peanut, etc.)
- ⅝ cup (5 fluid ounces) buttermilk, at room temperature (See Recipe Notes)
- 2 (100 g (weighed out of shell)) eggs, at room temperature, beaten
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- 4 ounces semi-sweet chocolate chips, plus up to 1 ounce more
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 375°F. Line the wells of a standard 12-cup muffin tin and set the tin aside.
- In a large mixing bowl, place the flour, xanthan gum, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and granulated sugar, and whisk to combine well.
- Create a well in the center of the dry ingredients, and add the melted butter, neutral oil, buttermilk, beaten eggs, and vanilla, and mix until just combined.
- Add 4 ounces of the chocolate chips, and mix until evenly distributed throughout the batter. Stir in a few more chocolate chips if you’d like a more dense ratio of chips.
- Fill the wells of your muffin tin about ¾ of the way full, shake the pan back and forth to distribute the batter more evenly, and/or smooth the tops with wet fingers. If there are any chips remaining, you can place them on top of the batter in the wells and press down gently to adhere.
- Place the muffin tin in the center of the preheated oven and bake until the top of the center muffin springs back when pressed gently in the center, and it’s lightly golden brown on the edges (about 18 minutes). Do not overbake.
- Remove the pan from the oven and remove the muffins immediately from the tin. Place them on a wire rack to cool before serving.
Video
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Leftover/makeahead
Storage Instructions
Store your baked and cooled muffins in a plastic container with a tight-fitting lid, to seal in moisture for a day or two. Don't refrigerate them at all, since that tends to dry out baked goods.
For longer storage, freeze them in a single layer on a baking sheet. Then, pile the frozen muffins into a freezer-safe ziptop bag and seal tightly. They should stay fresh for about 3 months that way.
To refresh frozen muffins, let defrost at room temperature or microwave for about 20 seconds at full power. You can also defrost them at room temperature and then slice in half horizontally and toast until warm.
IDear Nicole, I use Bob’s Red Mill 1 to 1 because I can’t get Better Batter in Sydney NSW and find your delicious, easy to follow, recipes adapt very well. I look forward to your email every Monday morning. Thanks Jacqui
I’m afraid I don’t recommend Bob’s Red Mill flour blends at all, particularly in yeast breads, Jacqui. I’m glad you’ve been pleased with results, but not only does the company use gritty rice flour, but their products are of inconsistent quality so you have luck sometimes, less luck others. Beware!
Nicole, Thankyou for your yummy recipes and stories. I look so foward to reading them. I also do the election, this year i did 4 days of the early voting, and then the actual voting day. . I love reading your family stories. I have 1 daughter 31, 2 rescued Newfoundlands ( with food allergies) and 1 rescued kitten. It seems all i do is cook for everyone but my self. Iam the person with all the food issues, but hardley have time to make myself something good. I indulge in reading your recipes and about your family. Its like iam actually eating something yummy. This past year reading your site has given me comfort. Keep up the good healthy work. Love to you and your family. Your recipes are delicious.
That’s a lot of poll working, Ant! I’ve wondered many times if anyone who works the early days works election day itself. You must have been so exhausted! They’re long days. I’m so glad my site has given you comfort, and I hope you’ll consider making some of your favorite foods using a recipe or two here so you can enjoy your meals, like everyone else. You deserve your own care!
Hello,
I wanted to say thank you for being a poll worker this year. Our country feels tense and sometimes scary to me right now. And so I thought a lot about all the poll workers around the country this last Tuesday and prayed for their safety. So I haven’t made this recipe yet, my rating is the equivalent of giving you, personally, a gold star for citizenship. Thank you again, (and for some of my favorite gluten free cookie recipes too!).
That’s so kind of you, Gretchen! I love a gold star. ⭐️ All was quiet, and almost completely well-mannered at the polling location I worked. :)
These muffins are fabulous!
So glad you enjoy them, Lisa!
Hello there – thank you for your lovely recipes. I am currently looking for a recipe for gluten free vegan chocolate cupcakes. I have tried a couple of recipes but they always seem to be dry. Would really appreciate your help :)
Hi, Amanda, you can always use the search function on the blog to find any recipe that I have in my archives. It’s very robust and helpful. I don’t have a recipe for vegan chocolate cupcakes, specifically, but search for “crazy cake,” which is a vegan chocolate cake, and you should be able to use that batter for cupcakes.
Made these yesterday with my niece! They are outstanding…best gf muffin I have had. Warmed 2 leftover for breakfast today and they were still moist and very tasty.. this recipe is a “keeper” for both of us!
That’s awesome to hear, Denise! My freezer is often stocked with these for my kids to rewarm on a busy morning!
I know you said not to use the dried buttermilk. What if I use the dried buttermilk with half-and-half, instead of water? Do you think that would work OK? I am a homebound, ambulatory wheelchair user. I don’t often have access to quick trips to the store. I’m trying to find a balance.
I really sympathize, Thea. I think buttermilk with half and half is definitely worth trying. And when you are able to, try keeping some plain unsweetened yogurt on hand in addition to milk, since together they’re a perfect buttermilk sub.
I made these muffins with mock better batter and half Greek yogurt/half milk combo–delicious! Thanks for the recipe.
That’s great, Marji!
Just made these with lactose-free yoghurt and lactose-free milk instead of buttermilk. They are absolutely delicious! Thank you!
That’s awesome, Rosemary! I’m thrilled you used my favorite buttermilk substitute successfully. Friends don’t let friends use bad buttermilk. 🙂