Chocolate Chip Strawberry Muffins — Soft, moist, easy strawberry muffins that are bursting with juicy berries and chocolate chips! Great for breakfast or snacks!
Easy Strawberry Muffin Recipe
I wanted to make a scratch strawberry cake. But when I realized what needed to be done to accomplish that, strawberry muffins sounded real good.
There are so many recipes for strawberry cakes and cookies, but most of them involve cake mix. Nothing wrong with Strawberry Cake Mix Cookies or cake mix in general, but I wanted to make a scratch cake.
However, scratch strawberry cakes involve making a homemade strawberry jam of sorts, which is added to the batter, but because of the volume of flour and dry ingredients needed to compensate for all that liquidy jam, the cakes tend to turn out very pale pink and lackluster. Unless you use red food coloring, which seems to defeat the point of a scratch cake, so muffins it is.
These strawberry muffins were proclaimed the “best muffins I’ve ever had” by my taste tester. However, it was 1pm when I gave him the muffins and he hadn’t had breakfast or lunch, so a dirty shoe would taste good by that point.
But he inhaled 3 muffins in 10 minutes. And then 3 more by the end of the first day.
They’re easy to make, no mixer is needed, and I used frozen strawberries.
What I also love is that the berries don’t all sink to the bottom, a problem that tends to plague fruit-based quick breads. That wall of berries on the bottom tastes fine, but I want the visual appeal of pretty berry chunks in the middle of the muffin, not just sunken at the bottom.
To combat the sinking issue, the batter is extra thick. Like, really thick. It’s hard for berries to move around in such a heavy, thick, dense batter.
My strawberries weren’t very sweet and I only used 3/4 cup sugar to sweeten 1 dozen muffins plus 1 small mini loaf (or ~14 muffins).
To compensate for their tartness, I added mini chocolate chips. Chocolate and strawberries are a great combination. Isn’t that what every Valentine’s Day candy company is counting on with chocolate-covered strawberries?
I used buttermilk, oil, and Greek yogurt, and all three are wonderful for keeping quick breads soft, moist, springy, fluffy, with just the right balance of lightness and density. I’ve written extensively about buttermilk, most recently in this post. I prefer oil to butter in quick breads for keeping them moist and soft.
And even though you’ll still be eating chocolate chips for breakfast, the strawberry muffins aren’t overly sweet. What they are is soft, tender, and moist with big chunks of strawberries in every bite. Who needed that strawberry cake anyway?
What’s in Strawberry Muffins?
To make these homemade chocolate chip muffins with strawberries, you’ll need:
- Frozen Strawberries
- All-purpose flour
- Granulated sugar
- Baking powder
- Cinnamon
- Salt
- Egg
- Buttermilk
- Canola oil
- Greek yogurt (or sour cream)
- Vanilla extract
- Mini semi-sweet chocolate chips
How to Make Strawberry Muffins
Place the berries in a bowl and toss with a couple tablespoons of flour. Then, whisk together the wet ingredients in a separate bowl and the dry in another.
Add the wet ingredients to the dry and mix until combined. Gently fold in the berries and chocolate chips.
Fill regular sized muffin cups about 3/4 full, then bake until tops are domed, puffed, and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, or with a few moist crumbs dangling but no batter.
Can I Use Fresh Strawberries Instead?
I’m sure you could use fresh, but fresh strawberries in January aren’t too practical.
How to Store Strawberry Muffins
These chocolate chip strawberry muffins will keep airtight for up to 5 days at room temperature. You can also store them in the freezer for up to 4 months.
Tips for Making Chocolate Chip Strawberry Muffins
I used half of a 16-ounce bag of frozen berries. Allow the berries to come up to room temp for about 10 minutes from the freezer, or just long enough that you can put a pile on your cutting board and chop them. Don’t let them thaw completely because by that point they’re watery and will water down the thick batter you’ve created.
Toss the berries with 2 tablespoons of flour. That’s another trick that helps prevent sinking.
I used mini chips because I like smaller chips in muffins, but if all you have is larger, I’m sure they’ll work.
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Strawberry Chocolate Chip Muffins
Ingredients
- 8 ounces frozen strawberries, roughly chopped into 1/2-inch pieces (allow to come to room temp for about 10 minutes, or until they can be chopped; do not thaw completely) OR 8 ounces fresh strawberries
- 2 cups + 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour, divided
- ¾ cup granulated sugar, use 1 cup if your berries are tart or you prefer sweeter muffins
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- pinch salt, optional and to taste
- 1 large egg
- â…” cup buttermilk
- ½ cup canola or vegetable oil
- 2 rounded tablespoons vanilla/plain Greek yogurt or sour cream
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- ¾ cup mini semi-sweet chocolate chips, full-size may be used but are more likely to sink
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 400F. Line a Non-Stick 12-Cup Regular Muffin Pan with paper liners or spray with floured cooking spray (I prefer the cosmetic look of not using liners so I didn’t); set pan aside. You will likely have batter for a 13th or 14th muffin, and I baked it in a cooking-sprayed 3×5 mini loaf pan. My oven is small and that setup works; discard extra batter if that’s easier.
- Place the strawberries in a medium bowl, add 2 tablespoons flour and toss to coat; set aside.
- In a large mixing bowl, combine 2 cups flour, sugar, baking powder, cinnamon, optional salt, and whisk to combine; set aside.
- In a medium mixing bowl or glass measuring cup, combine egg, buttermilk, oil, Greek yogurt, vanilla, and whisk to combine.
- Slowly pour wet mixture over dry ingredients, and stir lightly until just incorporated. Batter will be very thick and lumps will be present; don’t overmix. If your batter is ridiculously thick, add a splash of buttermilk to thin it.
- Gently fold in the strawberries.
- Fold in the chocolate chips.
- Using a medium cookie scoop, fill each of cavity of the prepared muffin pan to about 3/4-full. Don’t be afraid to fill them quite full because this is how you’ll get domed-shaped, tall muffins.
- Bake for about 20 minutes, or until tops are domed, puffed, and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, or with a few moist crumbs dangling but no batter. Because the moisture content in strawberries varies, as do pan sizes, climates, and ovens, bake until done; watch your muffins and not the clock.
- Allow muffins to cool in pan for about 15 minutes before carefully removing.
Notes
- Muffins are best fresh, but will keep airtight for up to 5 days at room temp; or in the freezer for up to 4 months.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
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More Strawberry Recipes:
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Strawberry Cream Cheese Shortbread Bars — A buttery shortbread crust topped with cream cheese filling, frosting, and strawberries!! EASY and perfect for spring and summer parties!!
Crustless Fresh Strawberry Pie — FAST, super EASY, no-mixer dessert that’s perfect for summer entertaining, picnics, or potlucks!! Somewhere in between pie, cake, and blondies is what you get with this FABULOUS recipe!
The Best Strawberry Banana Bread — This strawberry bread is packed with fresh, juicy strawberries in every bite! This is an easy, no-mixer quick bread recipe you’re going to love!
Strawberry Layer Cake with Strawberry Frosting — Soft, tender cake loaded with FRESH strawberries and a sweet strawberry frosting!! An EASY strawberry layer cake that’s perfect for parties! Strawberry fans will LOVE IT!!
Strawberry Lemonade Bars — Imagine crossing lemon bars with a strawberry pie. These easy bars taste like strawberry lemonade! Sooo good!
Strawberry Custard Bars — These easy, one bowl, no mixer custard bars are perfect for your fresh strawberries. There’s a shortbread crust, topped with diced strawberries, before a custard filling is poured over the the top.
I just made these and they came out great! I ended up having enough batter for 18 muffins . Yay! Perfect breakfast on the go. :)
Thanks for trying the recipe and I’m glad it came out great for you!
These look so good and I want to try them. But we are trying to cut out refined sugar as much as possible. Any recommendations for a possible honey or maple syrup substitute?
Please read over the Baking and Recipe FAQs https://www.averiecooks.com/faq for answers to the most common questions.
It’s not easily possible to add a liquid sweeter to replace a dry one like granulated sugar without then altering the rest of the dry/wet ingredient ratios.
These are fantastic! Super easy and they came out just as described. The batter was really, really thick so I added the rest of the small tub of yogurt I had opened and it made the difference.
I had some berries and was about to put them in the freezer when I discovered I already had too many in there so I decided to make these muffins. Glad I stumbled upon this recipe. Thanks for posting.
Thanks for trying the recipe and glad it worked out great and love those berry surplus moments :)
Oh my…this is the type of dessert I can’t stop eating it, mmmmm
Thanks for trying them and glad you’re happy!
I made these this morning – just half a batch for DH and myself. I ended up with 8 nicely domed muffins. They were very tasty, but I would cut down on the sweetness just a bit as the chocolate chips add a good amount of sugar too. I used fresh strawberries (weighed with my kitchen scale) and Splenda baking blend (DH is diabetic). I will make these again! Thanks for the recipe!
Thanks for trying them and possibly baking with Splenda made them taste sweeter than using regular sugar, even if the ratios were theoretically the same. I find Splenda to give that sharp POP of sweetness that real sugar doesn’t always do. Or you may have had nice and sweet berries (mine weren’t so much!). Thanks for trying the recipe and glad it worked out for you and good to know it’s successful using that baking blend and your hubby can have them, too!
Followed the recipe exactly (except used regular sized dark choco chips), and these were some of the best muffins I’ve ever eaten. I plan to use this same recipe for other fruits to see if it works as well (blueberries, mango, banana, etc.). The texture of these muffins was superb. Only one suggestion: I couldn’t figure out how many cups 8 oz. of strawberries equaled. I used fresh strawberries, and guess that maybe it was one cup. So it might be helpful if you put both the 8 oz. and a cup amount in the recipe.
Glad you loved them and that they’re the best muffins you’ve ever had – wonderful! One thing is that if I put ‘cups’ and then someone dices the fruit super small, it will come out to more than 8 oz in that 1 cup. Versus if you put 6 large strawberries and just halve them in a cup, only 6 will ‘fit’ in the cup. So that’s why I list it in ounces, but *roughly* speaking, yes, it’s 1 cup.
I tried these today, although I didn’t have a few too many of the ingredients. I substituted applesauce for the oil, milk+vinegar for buttermilk, and milk+vinegar+butter for sour cream, plus only about 1/3 bag of chocolate chips. Still, they turned out great. Thanks for the recipe.
Wow, that sounds great and way to go with all those subs and that they still turned out amazing! Also for an already vegan strawberry cake, try this one! https://www.averiecooks.com/2014/06/soft-and-fluffy-strawberry-banana-cake.html You can add choc chips to it if you’d like!
Hi Averie,
These looked so delicious! made them today – the batter looked perfect, but the muffins completely stuck to the paper liners…. :/ I mean half of the muffin was coming off with the wrapper.. I also noticed that they deflated a bit when I took them out of the oven. I followed the recipe exactly, except one substitution: I used apple sauce instead of vegetable oil (didn’t have any on hand). Could that be the problem?? I often substitute oil for apple sauce and it’s never been a problem thus far.. Would love to try making this recipe again, so your help with this would be greatly appreciated! :))
~Liliann
Yes, using applesauce instead of oil makes this recipe much lower in fat and there’s no grease/oil/butter present and so the liners could likely stick, and in your case, they did. And if you notice, I didn’t use liners for mine and indicated in the recipe section that I didn’t. And the deflating could be because applesauce is heavier/thicker than oil. I would recommend making the recipe as I wrote it until you have it down pat; then if you want to play around, do so. I’m sure if you make it as written it will work perfectly!
Nice Recipe, Averie :) Do you think it would work if I put strawberry jam inside? I am a HUGE fan of strawberry jam and I can’t find the frozen or fresh whole berries in my local market :(
Possibly – worth a try! Never know til you try!
Could be my new favorite recipe of yours – you know how I love muffins!
You know, knowing you and what you bake, I have a feeling you would LOVE them :) and thanks for the pins tonight!
These muffins look gorgeous! I am sure they’ll be gone in a flash when I make them :)
WOW these look positively amazing! I love strawberries and chocolate together so these just HAVE to be good :)
I made these a few days ago and my daughter demolished three of them in one sitting (declaring it was her dinner!). I used fresh strawberries and regular-sized choco chips, but other than that I followed the recipe exactly and it was fabulous! Thanks so much for the easy but totally delish recipe!
When using berries in muffins I too toss them in a little flour to stop them sinking, like you I find this works a treat. Nothings better than having fruit all the way through your muffin and not just at the bottom. These look beautiful and I bet they tasted great too :)
It’s a good trick, isn’t it!
The combination of strawberries and chocolate sounds incredible!!! And love your pix!
What a delicious combination!