Pretzel Chocolate Chip Muffins

Not only do these pretzel chocolate chip muffins have a brilliant sweet & salty pretzel streusel on top, the muffins are moist and tender!

Well, listen, it should come as no surprise that I’ve eaten a lot of muffins in my day.

And so you have to believe me when I tell you that this pretzel chocolate chip variety is easily, and I mean easily, in my top 5 muffins of all time.

So good, in fact, that when Brian walked in from work, I told him to just bypass dinner and eat a muffin or three. I couldn’t wait any longer for him to taste one.

And if you know the workings of our house and schedule, you’ll realize how amazing these muffins must be because If I’ve slaved over dinner, no one is eating anything within an hour of it being served lest they ruin their appetite.

It’s a hard fast rule rarely broken except, it seems, by pretzel chocolate chip muffins.

Now in the interest of full disclosure, I need you to now that these muffins make for a bit of messy eating. As in, I probably wouldn’t serve them to a playgroup of 3-year olds on your new carpet.

But I would serve them to a hungry bunch of after-school kids while they frolick outside or to a group of responsible adults who know how to keep streusel from waterfalling to the floor.

Although, really, now that I think about it, if it meant that I could eat one or more of these delectable muffins, I’d be willing to do just about any amount of cleanup. They are that good. So bring it on 3-year old playgroup.

The crunchy, sweet and salty pretzel streusel is Einstein-level brilliant and I’m not sure I’ve ever had a muffin so moist and tender (don’t overmix that batter!).

Who knew come Friday morning I’d be craving a muffin filled with pretzels and chocolate chips. Better go fill that craving. Now.

One Year Ago: Pasta al Forno {Baked Pasta with Tomatoes and Mozzarella}
Two Years Ago: Massaged Kale and Craisin Salad with Feta Cheese
Three Years Ago: Cheesy Skillet Chicken and Rice with Green Beans

Pretzel Chocolate Chip Muffins

Yield: 12 muffins

Prep Time: 20 minutes mins

Cook Time: 20 minutes mins

Total Time: 40 minutes mins

4.50 stars (2 ratings)

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Ingredients

Streusel:

• ½ cup (71 g) all-purpose flour
• ⅓ cup (71 g) granulated sugar
• ¼ cup ground pretzels (see note)
• ¼ cup broken pretzels
• ¼ teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 6 tablespoons (85 g) salted butter, melted

Muffins:

• 1 cup (142 g) all-purpose flour
• 1 cup ground pretzels (see note)
• ⅔ cup (113 g) mini semisweet chocolate chips
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
• ½ teaspoon salt
• ¼ teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1 cup milk
• ⅔ cup (141 g) granulated sugar
• 2 large eggs
• ¼ cup canola oil
• 4 tablespoons (56 g) salted butter, melted
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

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Instructions 

• Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. Line a muffin tin (12-cup) with muffin liners or coat the muffin cups with nonstick cooking spray.
• For the streusel, in a medium bowl, stir together the flour, sugar, ground pretzels, broken pretzels and cinnamon. Stir in the melted butter. Cover and chill the mixture while you make the muffin batter.
• For the muffins, in a large bowl, whisk together the flour, ground pretzels, chocolate chips, baking powder, salt and cinnamon.
• In a large liquid measuring cup or medium bowl, whisk together the milk, sugar, eggs, oil, butter and vanilla. Mix well. Stir the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients, stirring only until just incorporated (so the muffins are light and fluffy).
• Let the batter sit for 2-3 minutes. Divide the batter evenly among the 12 muffin cups. Squeeze the chilled streusel into little clumps and top each muffin with a good smothering of streusel. This is fairly messy; don’t worry, it’s worth it. You may not use all the streusel but most of it should get piled high on top of the muffins.
• Bake the muffins for 15-20 minutes until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean without any wet batter. Let the muffins cool for about 10 minutes in the pan before removing them to a wire rack to cool completely. Try not to eat them all in one sitting.

Notes

Pretzel Pieces: so this recipe calls for ground pretzels. You can either use a food processor or blender to grind them up or smash them to smithereens in a ziploc bag. Take care not to grind them so small like the consistency of flour. It should be like a very coarse meal with small pretzel pieces – kind of like a crunchy dry cornmeal mixture. Too fine and the muffins will be dry. You’ll also need some broken pretzels for the streusel – I left mine pretty chunky, just a pound or two with a rolling pin so they stay in nice big chunks.

Types of Pretzels: I used pretzel sticks but any thin pretzel like that (twists or sticks) should work fine.

Author: Mel

Course: Bread

Cuisine: American

Method: Bake

Serving: 1 Muffin, Calories: 381kcal, Carbohydrates: 45g, Protein: 5g, Fat: 20g, Saturated Fat: 10g, Cholesterol: 54mg, Sodium: 434mg, Fiber: 2g, Sugar: 23g

Recommended Products

Nonstick Muffin Tin {USA Brand}

Mixing Bowl

Liquid Measuring Cup

Recipe Source: adapted slightly from Cuisine at Home October 2013 (eliminated salt from the top, used salted butter instead of unsalted, increased the chocolate chips…you know, adapted the important stuff)

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