Chocolate Banana Muffins
What to do with browning bananas? It’s the question that never stops needing to be answered. The other day I was about to make a batch of my Yogurt Banana Bread with some over ripe bananas, but I decided to change it up last minute. I added little cocoa powder and a handful of chocolate chips to the batter, then scooped it into a muffin tin instead of a bread pan for easy portioning, and I got these tasty little Chocolate Banana Muffins. They’re the perfect not-too-sweet treat that I can keep in my freezer for days that I want a little something special to go with my morning coffee.
Use Ripe Bananas for the Best Flavor
I know chocolate banana muffins sound delicious, but have patience and wait until you have some brown, over ripe bananas to make this recipe. Over ripe bananas are sweeter and their banana flavor is more intense, which is what you want for the banana flavor to really come through in the muffins. Plus, they’re easier to mash when they’re soft and super ripe. ;)
How to Freeze Chocolate Banana Muffins
I love the fact that these banana muffins are already in single-serving portions, which makes them really great for freezing and thawing as-needed (or “as-wanted”?). To freeze the muffins, make sure they cool completely to room temperature, then place them in a gallon-sized zip top freezer bag and transfer to the freezer. To thaw, you can either let them sit for 15-30 minutes at room temperature, or microwave for about 30 seconds until they’re warm and the chocolate chips are melted. They’re sooooo good with a cup of coffee!
Other Muffin Add-in Ideas
Muffins like this are kind of fun because you can really play around with the add-ins (in addition to, or in place of the chocolate chips). Peanut butter chips would be really good in these muffins, as would something like shredded coconut. Walnuts are a classic with banana bread, but almonds would probably taste really nice with this banana-chocolate combo, too.
Chocolate Banana Muffins
Ingredients
- 1 cup mashed bananas (about 2-3 bananas) ($0.42)
- 1 cup plain yogurt ($0.67)
- 2 large eggs ($0.46)
- 1/2 cup sugar ($0.40)
- 4 Tbsp melted butter ($0.52)
- 1 tsp vanilla extract ($0.30)
- 1.5 cups all-purpose flour ($0.23)
- 1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder ($0.21)
- 1 tsp baking powder ($0.02)
- 1/2 tsp baking soda ($0.02)
- 1/2 tsp salt ($0.01)
- 1/2 cup chocolate chips ($0.70)
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350ºF. Line a muffin tin with paper liners.
- Mash the bananas well. You'll need one cup mashed bananas. If you have slightly less than one cup, you can use slightly more yogurt to make up for the banana. If you have slightly more than one cup, you can reduce the yogurt slightly to compensate for the extra banana.
- Add the mashed banana to a large mixing bowl along with the yogurt, eggs, sugar, melted butter, and vanilla. Whisk the ingredients together well.
- In a separate bowl, stir together the flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.
- Pour the dry ingredients into the bowl with the wet ingredients and stir just until they are combined. It's okay if the mixture is a little lumpy. Do not over stir. Finally, fold the chocolate chips into the batter.
- Divide the batter between the 12 wells of the muffin tin (it will fill each well up to the top). Transfer the muffin tin to the preheated oven and bake for 35 minutes.
- After baking, remove the muffins from the tin and allow them to cool on a wire rack before serving.
Nutrition
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Scroll down for the step by step photos!
How to Make Chocolate Banana Muffins – Step by Step Photos
Preheat the oven to 350ºF and line a muffin tin with paper liners. Mash 2-3 bananas well with a fork. You’ll need 1 cup mashed bananas. If you have slightly less banana, you can add a little extra yogurt to make up for it. If you have a little more than 1 cup banana, you can reduce the yogurt a little to compensate for the extra banana.
Add the mashed banana to a large mixing bowl along with 1 cup plain yogurt, 2 large eggs, ½ cup sugar, 4 Tbsp melted butter, and 1 tsp vanilla extract. Whisk these ingredients together well.
In a separate bowl, stir together 1.5 cups all-purpose flour, ⅓ cup unsweetened cocoa powder, 1 tsp baking powder, ½ tsp baking soda, and ½ tsp salt. Stir until the dry ingredients are very well combined.
Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and stir just until everything is moistened. The mixture will be lumpy, but try not to over stir (the photo shows the mixture half stirred, check the next photo for the appearance of the fully stirred batter).
Finally, fold a ½ cup chocolate chips into the batter, again taking care not to over stir.
Divide the batter between 12 wells of a muffin tin. The batter will fill each well all the way up to the top. Transfer the muffin tin to the preheated 350ºF oven.
Bake the muffins in the preheated oven for 35 minutes. Remove the baked muffins from the tin to cool before serving.
Enjoy!
Just curious, I don’t usually have bananas on hand (usually just frozen ones for smoothies!). Is it possible to use apple sauce in place of bananas? Thank you!
Sometimes you can make that swap in recipes, but it’s hard to say how much it would affect the outcome of this without testing it first.
Thank you so much for sharing this recipe! Just made them and these were some of the best cookies I have ever made!!
Love this! I stuck to the recipe with just one addition: 1 tsp espresso powder. Makes 12 generous muffins which are so good they might not last all day. Batter is thick so if you use large chips they don’t all fall to the bottom. It’s great to have another good way to use up ripe bananas.
I can’t get hold of a muffin tin as we are in the highest Covid tier, retail is closed and my local supermarkets don’t sell muffin tins! What is the temperature/baking time for a loaf tin? I can’t wait to try the recipe!
I would probably follow the baking instructions for my Yogurt Banana Bread, which this recipe was based upon. :)
Thank you Beth! :)
I don’t usually have plain yogurt on-hand. Is there something I can use in place of the yogurt? Thank you. Please stay well!
Unfortunately, I haven’t tested this recipe with any yogurt substitutes. Baking can be an exact science, so it’s too difficult to say how much a substitute would affect the outcome without testing it.
Sour cream should work!
I used sour cream and it worked out!
To start off- I’m so glad to have found your website! Someone left a comment about how awesome it is on reddit, so glad I followed their comment here. All the recipes I have made so far turned out great – I made meal prep recipes, marinara sauce, balsamic mushrooms are to die for….:) so now to these scrumptious muffins- i made them multiple times and they are delicious, not to sweet, just right. I keep bananas in a separate bag to brown them for this recipe. One time I didn’t have regular flour on hand and used almond flour while also adding 1/2 cup of crumbled walnuts. The muffins turned out divine! The taste is so elegant, they are moist, just perfect taste wise. The problem I have is that they are a little crumbly, moist but crumbly. They are in a muffin liner so I eat them with a spoon, but of course I would like to eat it like a regular muffin without it falling apart. Could you recommend what should be done/added/subtracted to keep the taste but change the texture to be a little more firm. Thank you in advance and thank you for this comprehensive collection of recipes!
Your muffins are crumbly because you used almond flour. It is often used as a sub for all purpose flour but it doesn’t have the same chemical characteristics as “regular” flour so it usually needs additional binding agent (ie eggs) to help it stick together.
I should add I found this out through my own failed substitution to a recipe years ago so I can’t remember exactly how I fixed it. All I remember is everything I found online said “additional binding agents are needed when using almond flour”. Good luck!
These are my new favorite muffins! I did everything according to the recipe, except the baking time, and found them perfect. (Like many others, mine were done in 25 minutes.) Thanks, Beth!