Estimated reading time: 8 minutes
Indulge in these mouthwatering chocolate chip muffins, just like the famous ones from Tim Hortons. This copycat recipe is sure to satisfy your sweet tooth.
Discover a simple Copycat recipe for Tim Hortons Chocolate Chip Muffins.
Bake them at home and store them in the freezer for up to three months.
Stopping at Tim Hortons can quickly eat into my allowance, so I’ve decided to make a copycat version.
Let me show you how I make my Copycat version of Tim Hortons Chocolate Chip muffins.
Homemade Chocolate Chip Muffins Are The Best
Nothing beats baking homemade bakery items at home vs. buying them at the shops.
I’ve tried making this recipe many times and settled on this for our best muffin version.
Even our seven-year-old son approved the muffins, which means they are delicious.
He has autism and is a very picky eater, and he loves these muffins and my Cookies.
It’s a proud father moment for me because he eats a limited diet and has never had candy.
I enjoy a moist, high muffin top (the best part of the muffin) and loads of semi-sweet mini chocolate chips.
Although I may never nail the Tim Hortons recipe, I try duplicating it as closely as possible.
Granted, this muffin recipe I’m sharing is not what you would call healthy chocolate chip muffins.
I consider them “once in a while” muffins.
If I make a batch, I freeze or share it with our friends when they come around.
Tim Hortons Style Chocolate Chip Muffins
I was on a mission to learn how to make chocolate chip muffins to save money in my allowance fund.
When we go on a road trip, we pack a lunch, including snacks and these muffins.
One of the biggest vacation money gobblers is eating out, and if you can save a portion of those expenses, you’re further ahead.
Chocolate Chip Muffin Recipe Tips
I center on these two “must-have” rules in creating a muffin recipe.
- Easy chocolate chip muffins (meaning I don’t want a million steps)
- Moist chocolate chip muffins, which you can do by adding yogurt or sour cream
Always dust the chips with flour or incorporate the chocolate chips before adding the wet ingredients.
The chocolate chips are dusted because they don’t all end up at the bottom of your muffin.
I also do this when I make muffins or cakes with berries.
Baking High-Top Muffins
I try to make a sizeable, fluffy chocolate chip muffin, as you would find at any Canadian Tim Hortons.
I’m not too fond of a flat muffin top, and it took me a few tries to get it right.
As a Tim Hortons baker in the 90s, Mrs. CBB taught me a secret to making high-top chocolate chip muffins.
How to make high-top muffins is easy if you follow these tips.
Types Of Muffin Liners
Fill the muffin tins with batter up to the top, leaving no room in the cup or liner.
I’ve used a paper muffin liner in a 12-cup pan and no liner in the extra-large pans.
Tim Hortons uses fancy bakery-style muffin liners, which are pretty and suitable for high-top muffins.
Either way works well, although if you use the larger muffin pan, you will achieve a more realistic muffin than Tim Hortons.
Check the Dollar Store, as you might find different varieties of muffin liners.
Secret To Creating High-Top Muffins
After filling the muffin cups to the top, bake at 400 degrees for 5 minutes to raise the batter so it sets.
Finally, lower the temperature to 350 degrees to cook the inside for 15 minutes.
I have a simple solution if the muffins are browning too fast at the top.
Add a piece of aluminum foil or parchment paper to the top by lightly setting it over the muffins.
Covering the muffin tray will stop baking on the top, but bake in the middle.
Our son is a die-hard Tim Hortons chocolate chip muffin lover, so I’ve made a copycat version.
Varieties Of Chocolate Chips
We used the large chocolate chips as the shop didn’t have the mini chips.
If you want to keep the muffin original to Tim Hortons, use the mini semi-sweet chocolate chips.
If not, you can use regular semi-sweet chocolate chips as I did, and they work just as well.
Using Sugar-Free Chocolate Chips
For anyone who would like less sugar, use sugar-free chocolate chips.
Below are our favourite sugar-free chocolate chips in our keto recipes.
- Krisda Sugar-Free Chocolate Chips (our favourite sweetened with Stevia)
- Lily’s Sugar-Free Chocolate Chip Minis
- Chocxo Sugar-Free Chocolate Chips and Vegan Friendly
Buy the mini chocolate chips if the texture is essential to get the full Tim Hortons muffin effect.
How To Make Copy Cat Tim Hortons Chocolate Chip Muffins
You’ll notice I have two different types of photos of my Tim Hortons muffins on this page.
I made one batch in the jumbo muffin tin and the other in the 12-cup; both are delicious.
Printable Version Below
- Recipe Type: Dessert
- Author: Mr.CBB
- Prep time: 10 mins
- Cook time: 20 mins
- Total time: 30 mins
- Serves: 6 or 12, depending on the muffin tin used
If you are looking for an easy chocolate chip muffin recipe similar to what you would find at a Tim Hortons, Bakery, or grocery store.
Chocolate Chip Muffin Ingredients
- 2 1/2 cups of mini chocolate chips (semi-sweet)
- 2 1/2 cups of all-purpose flour
- 1 cup of granulated white sugar
- 1 1/2 Tbsp baking powder
- 1 Tsp baking soda
- 3/4 cup salted butter, softened
- 2 large eggs at room temperature
- 2 Tbsps pure vanilla extract
- 1 cup of buttermilk or (2% milk with 1 Tbsp white vinegar until it curdles)
- 1/4 cup plain Greek Yogurt or sour cream
Step-by-Step Instructions
- Preheat oven to 400 degrees and grease a 6-cup jumbo chocolate chip muffin tin or a 12-cup large muffin tin with cooking spray.
- Melt butter in a microwave.
- Add these dry ingredients (flour, 2 cups of chocolate chips, baking soda, and baking powder) into a bowl.
- Add melted butter, sugar, eggs, buttermilk, and vanilla in a second bowl, and mix until combined (do not over-mix as this will produce a dense muffin). Gently fold in the yogurt.
- Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and fold just until combined. It’s ok if the batter is lumpy.
- Pour batter into muffin tins. I like to fill mine right to the top to create a sizeable top muffin. Add the leftover 1/2 cup of chocolate chips to the tops of each muffin before baking.
- Bake the muffin at 400°F for 3-5 minutes until you see your muffin top expand, then lower the oven temperature to 350°F for another 15 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. (If the toothpick is full of chocolate, this does not indicate the muffin is done. You can touch the top of the muffin, and if it springs back, it is likely done. If you see your tops browning too fast, add a piece of parchment paper over the top to cover lightly for the rest of the baking.
- Enjoy these chocolate chip muffins hot or cold, or freeze.
Use either mini-chocolate chips or if you can’t find them, use regular size but buy a good brand.
Make 6 Jumbo Muffins or 12 Large Muffins
You can make 12 large muffins if you prefer them over the jumbo.
Get fancy using the same type of muffin liners that Tim Hortons uses for a reasonable price.
I bought a pack of 200 from Amazon and will share photos here once I make them again.
Perhaps you don’t like either muffin; you can make mini chocolate chip muffins.
All you need is a 24-cup mini muffin tray, which you can buy on Amazon Canada.
Remember that the baking time will differ when you change the size of the muffin tins.
Always keep an eye on the muffins to ensure they aren’t burning.
Copycat Tim Hortons Chocolate Chip Muffins
I made many recipes to try and crack the copycat Canadian Tim Hortons Chocolate Chip Muffins. Our son approves and he's hard to please.
Ingredients
- 2 1/2 cups of mini chocolate chips (semi-sweet)
- 2 1/2 cups of all-purpose flour
- 1 cup of granulated white sugar
- 1 1/2 Tbsp baking powder
- 1 Tsp baking soda
- 3/4 cup salted butter softened
- 2 large eggs room temperature
- 2 Tbsp pure vanilla extract
- 1 cup of buttermilk or (2% milk with 1 Tbsp white vinegar until it curdles)
- 1/4 cup plain Greek Yogurt or sour cream
Instructions
- Pre-heat oven to 400 degrees and grease a 6 cup jumbochocolate chip muffin tin or a 12 cup large muffin tin with cooking spray.
- Melt butter in a microwave
- Add these dry ingredients (flour, 2 cups chocolate chips, baking soda, and baking powder into a bowl.
- In a second bowl, add melted butter, sugar, eggs, buttermilk,vanilla, and mix just until combined (do not over-mix as this will produce a dense muffin), then gently fold in the yogurt.
- Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and fold justuntil combined. It’s ok if the batter is lumpy.
- Pour batter into muffin tins. I like to fill mine right tothe top, so they create a large top muffin. Add the leftover 1/2 cup chocolate chips to the tops of each muffin before baking
- Bake the muffin at 400 for 3-5 minutes just until you seeyour muffin top expands, then lower the oven temperature to 350 for another 15 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. (if the toothpick is full of chocolate, this is not an indication the muffin is done.
- You can touch the top of the muffin, and if it springs back, it is likely done. If you see your tops browning too fast, add a piece of parchment paper over the top to cover lightly for the rest of the baking.
- Let cool for 10 minutes before eating or serving.
- Enjoy these chocolate chip muffins hot or cold or freeze for 3 months.
Notes
Once you remove the chocolate chip muffins from the oven let them cool for 10 minutes on a rack before eating them.
Related Food Recipes You’ll Love
All my recipes, including keto and gluten-free, are in my free recipe depot drop-down box.
Theses look mighty good!!! The only time I hit Timmies is at the hospital for appointments with hubby. As he is currently doing so much better than two years ago even that isn’t often. The muffin there I really like is the pumpkin spice muffin they have in the fall……so good!!!!
I’ll have to try this recipe soon!!! I need to stock up on baking supplies at the bulk store!!!!!
I tend to go when I’m on the road or out for a long time. Going on road trips I pretty much go for certain and that’s when I might grab that chocolate chip muffin. My wife LOVES the pumpkin spice muffin but my pumpkin cake that is on the blog is better! If you love pumpkin pie the cake is like a slice of pie and I told her I could put a white icing like Timmies has on their muffin but on the cake. You should try it sometime!! THanks for commenting Christine.
This chocolate chip muffins always get my attention. I just bought some last week, which I shared with my kids. They loved it. Thanks for the recipe. I would definitely try to bake this next weekend. Hope I can get the same results.
Well let me know what you think. The only reason I would not get the same results when following recipes is my oven is different in terms of temps or the ingredients I use are not as high quality or different.
Just made these and they are absolutely delicious!! Moist and fluffy like Tim’s and the taste I’d better. I was suprised by how little sugar you needed and I am curious to try 1/4 cup next time to see if there is much of a difference I. Sweetness. The chocolate chips take care of the rest of the sweetness. I used parchment baking cups and they just peel off the muffin perfectly. Definitely keeping this one in my recipe book!!
Thank you for the great recipe!
I just made these on the weekend and normally I don’t leave comments but our daughter loves them and so do we.
Ever since Covid-19 it’s been hard getting out of the house so we are doing more at home. Thanks, Mr.CBB for such a great recipe and for the tips to make them just like Tim Hortons.
Hi Elisa,
Well thank you for taking the time to leave a review on my recipe. I’m glad she liked it. Our son adores these Tim Horton Copy Cat chocolate chip muffins and I’m glad because they are far cheaper to make than buy.
The instructions are poor
First you say “add all the DRY ingredients together”
Then you say “add the milk SUGAR…blah bah blah” but I already add the DRY sugar to the DRY ingrediants – Hope this doesn’t mess it up – cause I made a double batch that would be a costly waste
Maybe a change to the directions is in order….
Hi Sarah,
Before you attempt any recipe it’s advised to read it in full as some recipe authors do make mistakes.
Sugar is not really a wet ingredient, it’s just treated as one in certain types of baking (i.e. cakes and muffins).
In this instance, since it’s a cake sugar is not a dry ingredient as it is mixed with eggs. This is common practice when baking cakes and muffins. 🙂
Saying that, let me know how it turns out for you.
P.S – I’ve noted the dry ingredients as flour, baking soda and baking powder along with the added chocolate chips (this is obviously an extra). This way the next person won’t add sugar to the dry ingredients. I hope that helps.
Hi would you recommend hand mixing or using a machine?
Thank you
I use my kitchenaid and fold in chocolate chips. Tim Hortons uses a professional large mixer. By all means you can hand mix too.
Unfortunately didn’t come out like the timmies muffins at all 🙁
I was looking for those crispy delicious muffin tops
They were Ok, consistency inside fluffy and nice but lacked a bit of sweetness. Think I’d need to add a bit more sugar next time
Trying to think how to make those crispy muffin tops come out as they’re the best part and what I miss so much about tim Hortons muffins!
Hi Jen,
You can definitely add more sugar if you didn’t find them sweet enough. Did you hike the oven up to 400 degrees? I think that’s what I have in the post. My wife used to work at Tim Hortons back when she baked the muffins and that’s how they got the big muffin tops then lowered the heat to finish cooking in the inside. Every oven is different which is sad. Try it again and see. Thanks for the feedback. 🙂
Hi Mr.CBB
I made a batch this weekend using the small chipits and they turned out great. Putting them on high heat and lowering it did the trick. Yay. It’s way better than having to go buy them at Tim’s, especially during Covid-19.
Hi Carol,
That’s awesome feedback and thank you for stopping by. Please come back again for more great recipes. 🙂 Mr.CBB
My wife was a muffin baker in the 90’s at Tim Hortons so she knows the tricks. Glad you liked them.
Wow. Just wow
I made them with milk chocolat chips and they turned out spectacular thank you. The thing i do every morning will having my coffee is look at pinteress to see what i could make today and i do not regret today
Hi Marie-France,
I’m glad you enjoyed the chocolate chip muffins. It is the only muffin our son will eat so it saves us money making them at home.
I’m glad you Iiked them. Our son does too and saves us from going to Tim Hortons.
I have to agree with Jen R. They were nothing like a tim Hortons muffin. Not at all sweet, and I had the oven up to 400 for seven minutes and they were still super flat. The consistency was decent though. That’s the only thing that was good. Very disappointed
Hi, I’m not sure what happened as others have had great success. I’m sorry you felt that way. Thanks for stopping by.
These tasted just as they are at Tim Hortons but without the fancy brown muffin liners. I used mini chocolate chips and the trick of boosting the top by turning the oven to 400 worked. Smart. Overall my family over them and I know every ingredient I used. Thanks
Oh, I found the sweet enough white the chocolate chips.
Mya Broderick
Thanks for your positive feedback. The recipe is becoming very popular. 🌞
Only thing I didn’t like was the taste…just not quite sweet enough in comparison to Tim’s. I used milk chocolate chips…next time I think I will try minis and double the sugar…they did taste good…once I dipped the tops in sugar.
Good recipe..just needs some tweaks…could just be my taste buds ;). Thank you.
Next time try using the semi-sweet mini chocolate chips if you can find them at the grocery store or Bulk Barn. As well, I’ve updated the recipe to 1 cup of granulated sugar and extra chocolate chips for the tops.
Semi sweet are sweeter
Hey Maggie,
Yes, they depend on the brand. I’ve tried brands that aren’t where milk chocolate is. What brand is your favourite?
PC
Hi Maggie,
What does PC mean?
Mr. CBB
Oh, the brand of chocolate chips. Yes, ok. I’ve never purchased the PC brand. I’ll buy a bag and try them out. Thanks for the recommendation.
I have a mild addiction to Timmy’s chocolate chip muffins. I cringe a little every time I see the 420 calories, not to mention the price. After reading the recipe & the comments I came up with some changes. Sugars are liquids. One cup of white sugar…I split half & half white sugar & stievia. Then come the fats…butter, Greek yogurt, & buttermilk. This time I tried, 1/2 cup melted butter, 3/4 cup of fat free Greek yogurt & 3/4 cup skimmed milk with 1tbsp lemon juice. I added an instant pudding mix to the dry ingredients. I would still like to reduce the fats a little more…perhaps next time. Hand mixing muffins is best. It way to easy to over mix. Each muffin was topped with a portion of the mini chippits & white sugar crystals. Good batch of muffins though.
Wow, you really did switch it up. That’s awesome thanks for sharing. When Mrs. CBB worked as the muffin baker at Tim Hortons this was the recipe and process she followed. THey used a massive mixer to mix the muffins but I have heard many people like to hand mix small batches. Thanks for sharing.
Love Tim Hortons Chocolate Chip muffins and would really like to make these. What would be the weight of the flour added in grams?
Hi Teresa,
1 cup 128 g x2
1/2 cup 64 g
So 2 1/2 cups of flour is 320 grams
Mr.CBB
I made these with my 4 year old twin girls and they are delicious…I used mayo instead of sour cream or yogurt, and milk chocolate chips but they came out great…this is definitely a recipe we will make again for our famiky
I made these with my 4 year old twin girls and they are delicious…I used mayo instead of sour cream or yogurt, and milk chocolate chips but they came out great…this is definitely a recipe we will make again for our famiky
Hi Christina,
Thanks for your feedback. Our son loves muffins from Tim Horton’s so I really tried to come up with something similar that he would eat. He loves these. Phew. I love how you substituted the sour cream for the mayo. I’ve done that in the past for recipes or added yogurt. Thanks for stopping by. Mr.CBB
I didn’t see how much butter to add? Ingredient list doesn’t show it. Just in thrle directions says to melt butter in microwave.
Hi Rosie,
Both the printable recipe and written version state 3/4 of butter that you need to melt. Hope that helps.
I wish I had found this recipe sooner, I have made these twice now, both times they were light, fluffy, sweet and delicious!
I find the recipe easy to follow and they do look and taste like Timmy’s.
Thanks so much for this great little recipe!
Hi Shirley,
Well, thank you for the lovely comment and I’m thrilled you love the muffins as much as we do, especially our son. I hope you get to try more of our family recipes on CBB.
Mr. CBB
Well mine were a complete disaster. Overflowed the full muffin tin cups and now all over my oven. I followed the instructions to a tee. Any suggestions?
Hi Laurie,
I have no idea what might have went wrong. How many muffins did you make? I make this recipe at least twice a month for our son.
Can these be made with gluten free flour (preferably almond flour)? I know a lot of my fellow celiacs and I are craving things like these!
Hi Audrey,
I’ve never tried to make the muffins with almond or gluten-free flour before, sorry.
I’ve made your Copycat Tim Hortons Chocolate Chip muffins 4 times and my family loves them. I don’t normally comment on recipes but this one saves us money and taste just like the real deal. I live how fluffy and moist they are too. Thank you so much for sharing this awesome recipe. P.S I may or may not add extra chocolate chips. Yum!
Hi Carol,
Well thank-you for your comment and I’m glad that you enjoy my Copycat Tim Hoton’s Chocolate Chip Muffins.
What tyoe of chocolate chips did you use?
Mr. CBB