Chocolate Chip Muffins (Revisited)

Ever since I started with my new job, I have been eating almost the exact same breakfast from the exact same bakery every morning. Call it plain laziness, but I just can't wake up an extra 5 minutes to go out of my way and buy breakfast from other bakeries. =P

Well today I got fed up with myself and vowed to eat something different for my breakfast tomorrow. But instead of waking up earlier, I thought I would just bake it ahead of time... ;-) I know I've made chocolate chip muffins before in the past, but I wanted to shake things up a little and try something a bit off the norm. So I found a recipe for chocolate chip muffins with a little bite... Sally's Baking Addiction Bakery Style Chocolate Chip Muffins! This recipe is a bit unusual as it uses cinnamon and nutmeg... which turned out to have a nice combination with chocolate chips. The end result reminded me of old fashioned donuts for some reason...

Anyway I was a bit wary about using oil in the recipe, but it turned out ok... you can't taste the oil at all! I halved the recipe and cut down on the sugar and chocolate chips so it was less sweet. I'm glad that I tried this recipe... my baking craving was satisfied and I have a new breakfast for tomorrow!

Ingredients (makes around 6-8 small sized muffins):

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/8 tsp ground nutmeg

1 egg, at room temperature

1/2 cup sugar (or less)
1/2 cup buttermilk
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1/4 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 425F/220C. Spray your muffin tin of choice with non-stick spray or line with muffin liners. Set aside.
2. In a large bowl, sift flour, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, and nutmeg. Set aside.
3. In a medium bowl, whisk together eggs and sugar until combined. Mix in milk, oil, and vanilla. Mixture will be pale and yellow.
4. Fold wet ingredients into dry ingredients and mix everything together by hand with a wooden spoon. Avoid over-mixing. Gently mix until all the flour is off the bottom of the bowl and no big pockets of flour remain. The batter will be thick and somewhat lumpy. 
5. Fold in the chocolate chips.
6. Pour batter into prepared muffin tins, filling all the way to the top.
7. Bake at 425F/220C degrees for 5 minutes. Reduce oven temperature to 375F/190C and continue to bake for 25 minutes until tops are lightly golden and centers appear set.
8. Allow to cool for 10 minutes in pan before enjoying. Muffins taste best fresh the same day. Store muffins at room temperature in an airtight container for up to 5 days. Muffins freeze well, up to 3 months.