These fluffy Chocolate Chip Crumb Cake Muffins are filled with chocolate chips, sweet cinnamon sugar, and loaded with a brown sugar crumb cake topping. One of my favorite muffin recipes!

If you love crumb cake, then you are going to flip for these Chocolate Chip Muffins topped with the best brown sugar crumb. They’re super fluffy, perfectly rich, and make the best bakery style chocolate chip muffin!

As a kid, if chocolate was apart of breakfast, it was probably a holiday, a special occasion, or someone’s birthday. Chocolate for breakfast was always one of those rare treats that never ceased to bring me probably more joy than most people.

While I never turned down a chocolate donut or some sort of chocolate pastry, a chocolate chip muffin was definitely my favorite chocolate-for-breakfast item. There was something about the understated chocolate flavor paired with a super fluffy muffin, especially if the chocolate chip muffin was slightly warm and the chips were a little bit melty in the center.

These Chocolate Chip Crumb Muffins are everything and more. They’re a combination of a classic chocolate chip muffin paired with my favorite part of a coffee cake (the crumb cake topping), and they make the best breakfast or brunch.

Reasons Why I Love This Recipe:

The chocolate chip muffins are incredibly fluffy and so moist.
The cinnamon sugar addition give the muffins a nice crust on top.
The cinnamon (in general) adds a fall/holiday feel.
They taste like a bakery-style crumb cake muffin!

Other Fluffy Muffin Recipes You Might Love:

Chocolate Chip Crumb Cake Muffin Recipe Ingredients:

all purpose flour
granulated sugar and brown sugar
baking soda, baking powder and salt
espresso powder: coffee brings out the flavor of chocolate without making the muffins taste like coffee.
buttermilk: gives the muffins a rich texture (if you don’t have buttermilk, squeeze a little lemon juice on top of regular milk and let it sit for a few minutes. Then you have buttermilk!)
canola oil (vegetable oil would work as well)
eggs
brewed coffee: like espresso powder, the coffee enhances the chocolate flavor. However, you can substitute with more buttermilk.
sour cream or greek yogurt: this makes them moist chocolate chip muffins and yields a fluffy, rich texture.
vanilla extract
mini chocolate chips: the mini chips disperse more evenly in the batter than regular chips.

Crumb Cake Ingredients:

unsalted butter
all purpose flour
brown sugar
ground cinnamon

When this is all mixed together, it might look a little more like a paste than the tradition ‘coarse crumbs’ of a crumble topping. As you keep mixing, the mixture should start to form crumbs.

Tips on How to Make the Best Chocolate Chip Muffins Ever!

Why Are My Muffins Always Dry?

There are a few reasons why muffins often come out dry and crumbly:
- Batter is over mixed: If muffin batter is overmixed, the muffins will be dry and tough when baked. When all of the ingredients are *just* incorporated together, stop mixing.
- Muffins are over baked: Muffins can often go from being underdone to overdone very quickly. I always start at the minimum baking time, and if the muffins aren’t done then, I keep a close eye on them to ensure I don’t let them over bake.
- Not enough liquid in the batter/too much flour: If the ratio of ingredients are off, muffins can come out super dry and unappealing.

Chocolate Chip Muffin Trouble Shooting aka How to Make Sure These Muffins Are Moist and Fluffy:

Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients.
- If you’re unfamiliar with this technique, making a ‘well’ in the center of the dry ingredients means pushing the dry ingredients up around the sides of the bowl to make a hole or ‘well’ in the center. This is important because it allows the wet ingredients to disperse a little more quickly into the dry ingredients, which helps keep the batter from being over mixed.
Sour Cream: Sour cream (or greek yogurt) is an integral part of the recipe, because it not only adds flavor and texture, it keeps the batter moist and makes for ultra fluffy chocolate chip crumb cake muffins.
Liquid: The buttermilk, oil, eggs, and brewed coffee are the perfect ratio to the dry ingredients in the recipe. If you don’t want to use coffee, don’t just omit it and not add another liquid back in. Make sure you replace it with more buttermilk.

How Do I Keep My Crumb Topping on my Muffins?

When you add the crumb topping to the batter, make sure you gently press the crumb topping into the batter. This will help the topping stick to the muffins as they bake. Otherwise, the crumb topping might fall off as the muffins bake.
Additionally, I like to be generous with the crumb topping, especially in the center of the muffins. You’ll be surprised how much the muffins expand as they bake, and how much area the crumb cake didn’t cover.

How To Make the Muffins:

Preheat oven first.
Line the muffin tin with liners. I prefer the foil muffin liners (they’re really sturdy and hold up nicely), but feel free to use whatever you have on hand.
Dry Ingredients: Mix all dry ingredients together. You don’t have to sift the ingredients, but make sure you do mix the dry ingredients well.
Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients.
Pour in buttermilk, oil, brewed coffee, and eggs. Mix until the wet ingredients are incorporated. *The batter will be dry at this point and that’s normal.*
Add in the sour cream and vanilla extract, mixing until just combined (we don’t want to over mix the batter otherwise the muffins will be dry and tough).
Add in the chocolate chips and mix until just combined.
Thick Batter Alert: This is a pretty thick muffin batter so don’t worry—it’ll bake up into perfect chocolate chip muffins with a crumb cake topping.
Fill the muffin cups only 2/3 of the way full. You will have enough batter for 12-14 muffins.
Sprinkle each muffin with cinnamon sugar (it gives the muffins extra flavor and a nice crust).
Make the crumb cake topping and press the crumbs gently into each muffin. Be generous with the topping. You’ll thank me later.
Bake.
If you want to, you can dust them with powdered sugar or top them with extra mini chips.

Should I Use Dark Brown Sugar or Light Brown Sugar?

You can use whatever you have on hand. However, I always use dark brown sugar in my recipes. I prefer the flavor (dark brown sugar has more molasses).

Can I Substitute Something for the Coffee?

If you don’t want to use brewed coffee in the muffins, then substitute with more buttermilk.

I Don’t Have Buttermilk. Can I Make Buttermilk at Home?

Yes! Adding a little bit of vinegar or lemon juice to your milk can make homemade buttermilk. For this recipe, you use 1/2 cup of milk. I add about 1/2 tsp of lemon juice to the milk and let it sit for five minutes or so. Then whisk it together and you have scratch made buttermilk.

Fluffy Chocolate Chip Crumb Cake Muffins Tips & Tricks:

Don’t over mix your batter and don’t over bake them, otherwise your muffins will be dry and tough (instead of light, fluffy, and moist!).
Don’t forget to make a well in the center of the dry ingredients. It will help the wet ingredients disperse evenly into the dry ingredients, keeping the muffin batter light and fluffy.
Press the crumb cake topping into the batter. This will help it stick on top of the muffins as they bake.
Fill the muffin cups with only 2/3 of batter, otherwise your muffins will be too big and won’t bake properly.