Best Ever Pumpkin Dark Chocolate Muffins

There is just about nothing better than starting a crisp fall morning, or even a dreary rainy one like we’re having today, with some amazing Best Ever Pumpkin Dark Chocolate Muffins. I figured it wasn’t nice to keep this joy all to myself, so here’s the recipe for you to try these amazing muffins your own self. Note this recipe yields 12 muffins, and I pretty much always double it because, well, deliciousness. Also note that you can use either all-purpose flour or almond flour to keep them gluten free, and either results in a great muffin.

Best Ever Pumpkin Dark Chocolate Muffins – Ingredients

The ingredients for these muffins are pretty much stuff that I always have on hand, which makes them even better. It’s no fun to get an idea in your head that you’ve got to have or make and then have to run to the grocery store for the ingredients necessary to get your fix. Here are the simple ingredients for the Best Ever Pumpkin Dark Chocolate Muffins:

1 ¾ cups flour (use almond flour if you’d prefer gluten free)

1 cup sugar

½ cup dark brown sugar

1 tsp baking soda

½ tsp salt

2 tsp cinnamon

¼ tsp ground cloves

¼ tsp nutmeg

2 eggs

1 15 oz can pure pumpkin puree

½ cup coconut oil, melted

1 tsp vanilla extract

½ to 1 cup of dark chocolate chips (I use Ghiradelli 60% Cacao Bittersweet Chocolate)

Preparation and Baking Instructions

Preheat oven to 375 and line your muffin tin with paper liners. Measure the dry ingredients in a bowl and slightly mix. In a smaller bowl, mix the wet ingredients (eggs, pumpkin, coconut oil, vanilla). Add the wet ingredients to the dry and combine until just mixed.

Here’s where I slow down for a minute. I prefer these muffins without chocolate—crazy, right? But I do. My kids, however, like pretty much everything with a dose of chocolate. So I separate the batter here and scoop some of the muffin batter before I add chips, then add chips to the rest. Depending on your love of chocolate, you’ll want to either use a half cup of chips or a full cup of chips. You can of course substitute milk chocolate chips for the dark chocolate if that’s your preference.

I use an ice cream scooper to scoop the batter into the muffin tins and I fill ‘em up until the liners are almost full, because I want nice, pretty, BIG muffins.

Bake for 20-24 minutes, testing for doneness with a toothpick at about 20 minutes. I usually bake these for 10 minutes on one oven shelf, then turn them around and move to another shelf for the remaining baking time. You know your oven, so do here what works for you.

That’s it! Quick and easy, and the perfect breakfast treat—for a Sunday or any other day. If you try these Best Ever Pumpkin Dark Chocolate Muffins, let me know what you think, okay?