These Pretzel Muffins with Chocolate Chips began, like many of our simple recipes, at a tiny lake cottage in rural Wisconsin.
School is back in session and practices—football, soccer, band and more—are in full swing. Keeping hungry kids fueled is a constant task, and luckily for us, if something is edible it disappears fast. A doughnut box filled with these muffins went to soccer practice with our oldest one afternoon and came back empty.
At the cottage we have a dedicated snack cupboard inside an old maple buffet. It’s always stocked with s’more fixings, chips, crackers, trail mix—and almost always pretzels.
I’m grateful our boys aren’t too picky—especially when a recipe includes chocolate chips. Give them anything with chocolate and pretzels and it will be a hit.
You’ll notice the doily in the photo—perhaps not what you’d expect when feeding a house full of boys. But when chocolate chips, pretzels and a crisp streusel top are involved, presentation becomes irrelevant; the muffins were gone before anyone paid attention to the frilly prop.
These muffins tasted as good as they look. The ingredients are everyday pantry staples you likely have on hand. Most importantly, what kid—or adult—would turn down a treat with chocolate chips? For the record, I still consider myself a kid when chocolate is involved.
Pretzel Muffins with Chocolate Chips
Ingredients
- for the streusel
- 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
- 1/3 cup sugar
- 1/4 cup ground pretzels
- 1/4 cup broken pretzels
- 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 6 tablespoons unsalted butter
- for the muffins
- 1 cup all-purpose flour
- 1 cup ground pretzels
- 1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
- 1 tablespoon baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon table salt
- 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1 cup milk
- 2/3 cup sugar
- 2 eggs
- 1/4 cup canola oil
- 4 tablespoon unsalted butter, melted
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- Kosher salt
Instructions
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Preheat oven to 400°F (200°C).
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Line a 12-cup muffin pan with liners and coat with nonstick spray.
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For the streusel:
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Combine all streusel ingredients, mix until crumbly, then cover and chill.
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For the muffins:
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Whisk together the flour, ground pretzels, chocolate chips, baking powder, salt and cinnamon.
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In a separate bowl, combine the milk and sugar, stirring until the sugar dissolves.
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Add the eggs, canola oil, melted butter and vanilla to the milk mixture and mix thoroughly.
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Stir the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and let the batter rest for 2 minutes.
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Divide the batter evenly among the muffin cups.
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To assemble:
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Squeeze the chilled streusel into small clumps, then top each muffin with a portion of the streusel and sprinkle lightly with kosher salt.
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Bake about 18 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.
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Let the muffins cool in the pan for 10 minutes before transferring to a wire rack.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated and should be used as an approximation.