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 at the last minute and thought of banana muffins instead. 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 when I want a little something special to go with my morning coffee.
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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
Servings 12Ingredients
- 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.
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Equipment
- Muffin Pan
- Liquid Measuring Cup
- Measuring Cups Spoons
Nutrition
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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 of 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!
These muffins rock. I just made them with Greek yogurt. I added 1/8 c milk to cup measure and then filled with yogurt to 1 cup. I also added a heaping teaspoon of espresso powder. I don’t use paper liners – just a nonstick muffin pan with cooking spray. They popped right out. The muffins are delicious and a nice break from regular banana bread. Thanks for another great recipe!
This sounds amazing! Could you substitute the yogurt with cottage cheese? Will report back if I try it! Thanks :)
Hmmm. We haven’t tried it so I’m not certain! Let us know if you do try it! I would definitely blend the cottage cheese first to get a similar texture to the yogurt.
I just made 2 separate batches, one was the muffins and the other was a banana bread and they both have turned out amazing!!! I used the yogurt in the muffins and sour cream along with added chopped pecans in the bread. What a great, quick and easy recipe!
Thank you so much for always making things so simple!! Our daughter, her family and my hubby and I will enjoy these goodies!!!
So good!! Every single recipe I’ve tried (and I’ve made many) has never disappointed. I had to use gluten free flour (Bob’s 1 to 1) and it turned out wonderful. Thank you so much for all your recipes!
WOW!! One of the best banana breads I’ve ever made/eaten &, ya know, I’ve tried plenty of recipes looking for ‘that one’ to become the tried & true, make again one. This one is a keeper & delicious. I followed as is, the only sub was sour cream for the yogurt. I’d done this before with good results so felt OK with it. I did it loaf style in a 9X5. It took about 60 minutes in my oven & it popped right out of the loaf pan after a 10 minute rest. Fantastic taste & I think even better the next day.
Yummy muffins! Quick to put together recipe. Baked on parchment wrappers for nonstick unwrapping. Loved by both kids and adults in our house. Thanks for another great recipe!
I made these muffins and they have become one of my faves!!! So easy to make and not overly sweet !
These were great except for the 25% of each muffin that stuck to the paper wrappers. I followed the directions as written and it made 18 muffins! I sprinkled walnuts on a few and loved it. Silicone wrappers aren’t an option when I’m taking them to an event or sharing with others. Next time I’ll try this as a loaf I can slice in a greased/floured pan.
Hi, Molly! I’m sorry that happened! Batters that are high in sugar/low in fat (like this one) have a tendency to stick to paper liners. I would suggest spraying the insides of each liner lightly with pressurized cooking spray before adding the batter to ensure they all come out of the liners with ease next time. When baking as a loaf, increase the cooking time to 50 minutes. ~Marion :)
https://www.budgetbytes.com/yogurt-banana-bread/
Same thing happened to me. Followed the recipe to a T and used paper cupcake liners. Stuck to the liners bad.
That should be mentioned in the recipe.
Beth, how do you make your own parchment paper?
I made a vegan version by using vegan yogurt and omitting the eggs. They were still very good and moist. Thanks for sharing this delicious recipe!
Wonderful! In case others wonder about substitutions, I subbed 1 to 1 gluten free flour and sour cream for yogurt and they turned out great!
Wow. These are so good. Th only thing different I did was up the chocolate chips and since I didn’t have muffin liners I just sprayed a pan and baked right in the tin. They came out amazing! Definitely will be in my regular rotation of baking now. Thank you for the recipe!
Don’t have plain yogurt on hand but do have vanilla flavored. Can I add this and skip the vanilla extract?Â
It’s hard to say without trying how much of a difference it will make. Keep in mind, too, that the vanilla yogurt is probably also already sweetened, so that may also affect the overall sweetness of the muffin.
Great recipe! I love making banana bread but never thought to make it chocolate… and in muffin shape/size. Brilliant!
Hello I followed the recipe but the bottom of my muffins were soft and runny still. I put back in the oven but it didn’t help. Do you think it was because my bananas were very ripe? Muffins didn’t rise either but sunk in the middle when taken out of oven.. tasted nice though but texture wrong…
I don’t think it was because the bananas were too ripe. It might be that your oven is running lower than the set temperature. How long did you put them back into the oven for after taking them out the first time? They may have still needed more time. When baked goods are not completely cooked in the middle they will sink like that after they’re taken out of the oven.
I started this and realized I only had 1/3 greek yogurt, so I did 1/3 of oil and 1/3 of applesauce. Came out beautiful – just might do this in the future instead of all yogurt. What cooking is about tbh. Thanks for the recipe.