Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffins

These Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffins are light and moist treats - perfect for breakfast, dessert, or an after-school snack! They have a hint of pumpkin flavor and are loaded with chocolate chips - you're going to love these this Fall!

I'm gonna step out on a limb here and confess... pumpkin is not my favorite fall flavor. At least not on it's own. Don't get me wrong, I like it, but I have never had a pumpkin spice latte and I do not like pumpkin pie. At all.

I know, I know... I'm contradicting all the memes. But if you add a little sweet to the equation, suddenly I find that I have quite a few pumpkin recipes in my files.

For someone who doesn't love pumpkin on its own, here are my favorite dessert recipes...

Pumpkin Dessert Recipes

• Pumpkin Bread Bottom Cheesecake
• Easy Pumpkin Spice Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting {Recipe}
• Pumpkin Spice Mini Bundt Cakes with Cream Cheese Glaze
• Instant Pot Pumpkin Cheesecake

You might notice a trend in those recipes... they're all desserts and the pumpkin is not necessarily the star! Hello... cheesecake, cream cheese frosting, and cream cheese glaze!

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffins

So, why Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffins? The truth is - I had canned pumpkin in my cabinet that needed to go. Haha! Since I'm not a fan of throwing away food, I decided I needed to bake something with it and that's why I ended up with these. And they are delicious!

Partly that's due to the fact that I added chocolate chips. As with the previous recipes, I needed something to pair up with the pumpkin flavor (and maybe even overshadow it a bit). I'm pretty sure chocolate chips will make any sweet treat better and that's certainly the case here!

Shop my favorite ingredients:

Chocolate Chips

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Flour

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Brown Sugar

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Baking Powder

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Since my family is always my testers, I wanted to see how well they went over with non-family members. To test them, I sent a batch to work with my second son (he's a mechanic) and we were both pleasantly surprised to find that his coworkers loved them!!

Is Canned Pumpkin Good for You?

You might be wondering why I'd even make pumpkin desserts if I don't really love them. The answer is mostly that I love Fall. And Pumpkin=Fall, right? So I feel like I must make pumpkin desserts as a hat-tip to Fall even though they're not my favorites.

But also, pumpkin is good for you. Like, really, really good for you. Also, unlike many canned foods, canned pumpkin doesn't lose much nutritional value when canned, so even whenn you bake with canned pumpkin, you're still getting all the good stuff.

Pumpkin is loaded with fiber, Vitamin A, potassium, and iron! So by adding it to your chocolate chip muffins, you're basically eating health food, right?

Okay, maybe not so much, but we can pretend 😉

Recipe Substitutions

I don't have a long list for you here, but I wanted to mention a few things that you can swap out if you want or need to.

• Sour cream. Instead of sour cream, you can use plain, Greek, or vanilla yogurt. This will give you a little more "healthy" edge and you won't notice the difference flavor-wise.
• Nuts. This is not a substitution but rather an optional add-in. If you like pecans or walnuts in muffins, I think they'd be great in these!
• Chocolate Chips. I prefer semi-sweet, but you could opt for milk chocolate or dark chocolate. And the chocolate can be in the form of chocolate chips, chocolate chunks, mini chips, or even completely change gears and use white chocolate chips or caramel chips in these muffins to change things up!
• Pumpkin Spice. Don't like pumpkin spice? Skip it! Or go with cinnamon alone.
• Milk. Soy milk or almond milk also work great in this recipe if you prefer a plant-based option.

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