Pumpkin and chocolate chip is one of the most iconic yet underrated combos in baking history. I was trying to think of a music analogy, and the closest thing I could think of are Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell duets. Everyone knows and loves “Ain’t No Mountain High Enough,” but have you heard, “Ain’t Nothing Like The Real Thing“? I’m not saying it surpasses it, but it is way more intriguing and full of depth.

ANYWAY. Before I feel like I’m writing a dissertation on music and muffin analogies, I’ll tell you more about these pumpkin chocolate chip muffins. They were basically born because I had leftover pumpkin puree from a pumpkin spice cake I made a few weeks ago, and I wanted to use it up. Also, I was craving chocolate chips. I decided to throw everything into the mixer this morning to create these pumpkin muffins.

My favorite thing about baking with pumpkin is that without fail, the end product will smell and taste like a doughnut. I guess it has something to do with the starch of a pumpkin, but I’m not a food scientist, so I’ll leave the pondering there. Smelling these muffins after they came out of the oven was a somewhat surreal experience, a cross between stepping into a doughnut shop and lighting a pumpkin candle.

Also, the chocolate: I like dark chocolate chips in pumpkin baked goods, but semi-sweet will work just as well. I actually used semi-sweet this time because they were all out of dark chocolate chips at the grocery store. The chocolate chips add a little more sweetness but are happy to sit back and let the doughnut-like pumpkin muffins be the star of the show.

These go great with a cup of strong coffee or tea. I imagine they’d freeze well, too, so you could pop some in the freezer and reheat them throughout the week for breakfast or basically whenever. There is no wrong time to eat a muffin.

Here’s a song (and another duet) to get you started on your pumpkin chocolate chip muffins journey. I was just thinking about it yesterday when I went to get tacos at the farmers’ market from my friends at Brew Tulum and I asked for a little of everything on top. “A little bit of this, a little bit of that,” I said. “Isn’t that a song?” the owner exclaimed, and started singing the chorus with me. I love impromptu karaoke.

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffins

Ingredients
1 3/4 cups all-purpose or gluten-free all-purpose flour with xanthan gum
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
1/4 tsp ground ginger
2 large eggs
2/3 cup packed dark brown sugar
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 1/4 cups fresh or canned pumpkin puree
half a bag of semi-sweet or dark chocolate chips

Directions

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Line a muffin pan with 12 paper liners and set aside. Whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, ground cinnamon, salt, ground nutmeg, and ground ginger in a large bowl. In the bowl of a stand mixer, whisk together the eggs, sugars, vegetable oil, and vanilla extract. Whisk in the pumpkin puree until smooth. Add the flour mixture a little bit at a time until everything is combined. Fold in the chocolate chips with a spatula.

Use an ice cream scooper to scoop the batter into the prepared muffin tin, filling each liner until it’s almost full. Bake the muffins for 18-22 minutes or until the tops spring back to the touch. Remove the tin from the oven and allows the muffins to cool for five minutes in the tin before cooling them the rest of the way on a wire rack. Enjoy!