Averie Cooks

-1 Preheat oven to 350F. Spray a standard 12-count muffin pan with floured cooking spray, or grease and flour the pan; set aside. For cosmetic reasons, I prefer to avoid the ruffled edges that paper liners create.
-1 In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the the first seven dry ingredients, ending with optional salt.
-1 Add the chocolate chips and whisk to incorporate; set aside.
-1 In a 2-cup measuring cup or medium bowl, whisk together the remaining 5 wet ingredients.
-1 Pour the wet ingredients over the dry ingredients and fold to incorporate using a rubber spatula. Don’t stir vigorously or beat; just make sure everything is combined and there are no unblended dry ingredients hiding at the bottom of the bowl or in the folds of the batter. Don’t overmix or muffins will be tough. Batter will be quite thick.
-1 Using a 1/4 cup-measure that’s been sprayed with cooking spray (helps batter to slide right out), scoop out quarter-cupfuls of batter into prepared pan. Re-spray measuring cup with cooking spray every third or fourth scoopful of batter, or as necessary. Fill muffin cups up to a solid 3/4-full, nearly filling to the top. This creates domed, high-top muffins. Underfilled cups create flatter muffins, and you’ll also end up with extra batter.
-1 Bake for 20 to 24 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center of a muffin comes out clean (noting that it’s hard to find a ‘clean’ patch to test that doesn’t have melted chocolate chips and it’s easy to confuse muffin batter with a gooey melted chocolate chip). Muffins should be domed and springy to the touch; don’t overbake.
-1 Allow muffins to cool in the pan on top of a wire rack for 5 minutes before removing them from the pan. Then place on a wire rack to cool completely.
-1 Serve with peanut butter, chocolate peanut butter, Nutella, jam, cream cheese, frosting, or enjoy plain.