What do you do when you have overly ripe, borderline unrecognizable bananas on the counter? Banana bread, perhaps?
Well let’s pause before you make another loaf of banana bread or inevitably toss them because this banana bread spinoff was MADE for those deep, dark brown bananas!
When I was little, I would purposefully not eat the bananas and wait for them to turn brown so I could excitedly ask my mom if she’d make the muffins. And she always would! I vividly remember getting home from school and smelling that familiar, sweet smell as soon as I opened the side door; a smell that only intensified as I climbed the 5 stairs from the side door to the kitchen, my joyful anticipation growing with each step. Her chocolate banana nut muffins were hands down one of my favorite, most requested recipes of my mom’s.
Derived from my childhood favorite, these pillow-soft muffins are packed full of a flavor combination that goes together like peanut butter and jelly: sweet bananas and decadent chocolate. With natural ingredients and zero refined sugars, these are truly good and good for you – seriously, after trying these my husband, who’s also indulged in my mom’s recipe, was convinced for WEEKS that I was lying to him and they weren’t actually healthy!
Who doesn’t love a family-inspired recipe? Especially one that’s healthy, dairy-free, gluten-free friendly, and puts your leftover, ripened bananas to use!
Chocolate Banana Bread Muffins
Ingredients
- 448 g (~4-5 large) very ripe bananas
- 2 eggs
- 2 tsp. vanilla
- 2 TBSP oil, melted: coconut, walnut, almond
- 2 TBSP maple syrup (Lakanto, monk fruit)
- 1 C flour: oat, AP, GF, spelt, WW
- 6 TBSP cocoa powder
- 1 tsp. baking powder
- 1 tsp. stevia*
- ¼ tsp. sea salt
- 60 g (¼ C) chocolate chips dairy-free
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350°F
- In a bowl or large container, mash the bananas with a fork or pastry blender until the chunks are pea-sized or smaller
- Once mashed, mix the rest of the wet ingredients into the bananas
- In a separate bowl, combine the dry ingredients
- Mix the dry ingredients into the wet, being careful not to overmix
- Fold the chocolate chips in
- Spray a muffin pan with cooking spray or line with baking cups, then fill each muffin tin ~¾ of the way full with batter
- Bake for 17-20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center of a muffin comes out clean
Notes
- *Stevia: if the bananas are very, very ripe, cut the amount of stevia or sweetener in half
- Storage: since they’re so moist, they can go bad rather quickly if they aren’t stored properly. Store them in an airtight container for 3-4 days at room temperature, or for a week in the fridge. They can also be prepped in large batches and stored in the freezer and unthawed as needed!
- To make mini muffins, follow the recipe as normal and cut the baking time in half – start checking them around the 8 minute mark. For mega muffins, add an additional 5-7 minutes to the baking time, or until a toothpick comes out clean.
The riper the bananas, the more flavorful and moist the muffins will be. But if you’re impatient like me and don’t want to wait for your bananas to ripen, there’s a couple tricks you can do to speed up the process (listed in order from slowest to fastest):
- Set them in a warm, sunny spot
- Place the bananas in a brown paper bag with a high-ethylene producing fruit or food (apple, pear, potato, avocado)
- Bake the unpeeled bananas on a lined baking sheet at 300F for 15-30 minutes until the peels are dark brown and shiny
- Poke holes all around each banana with a fork and microwave them on top of a paper towel or plate in 30 second increments until they’re browned
Next time your bananas are going bad, turn them into something better! Every time I have these muffins, a core memory is unlocked for me. And my hope is that through this recipe, you experience the sweet, comforting taste and feeling that these muffins hold, too.
These muffins have a super soft, equally as tantalizing blonde sister: Banana Bread Muffins.
If interested, the macronutrients are below. They are kept separate at the very end of each recipe blog so that this can remain a safe, positive space for all as not everyone wishes to see the nutritional information.
Macros per muffin (makes 12): 20.6 C | 5.6 F | 3.8 P
The exact macros will differ a bit depending on the type of maple syrup you use and if you use more or less chocolate chips. But to compare and give perspective, I looked up similar homemade chocolate banana muffin recipes and these are their macros:
- Recipe 1: 26.9 C | 10.3 F | 2.8 P
- Recipe 2: 35 C | 11 F | 4 P
The macros for recipes are also available on MyFitnessPal. Simply search the name of the recipe followed by “ – SUNutrition” (so for this recipe, search “Chocolate Banana Bread Muffins – SUNutrition”).
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