Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins

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These easy banana muffins are cozy and quick to make, with a hint of spice and plenty of semi sweet chocolate chips. Ready in under and hour and perfect for breakfast or brunch!

Banana muffins in yellow wrappers on a wire cooling rack.

Everyone needs a good muffin recipe in their back pocket, and these easy banana chocolate chip muffins? They're about to be your new breakfast BFF.

We'll start by mashing up a few very ripe bananas and whisking them into a quick, simple muffin batter with a generous scoop of chocolate chips. The whole thing is done start-to-finish in under an hour!

You get a mellow, cozy spice from a bit of cinnamon and nutmeg here, but I promise the spices don't overwhelm the other flavors in this recipe: They really just give some depth in the background while the banana and chocolate chips shine.

Banana muffin ingredients, organized into individual bowls on a white table.

A few notes on ingredients

What do we mean by "ripe bananas"? With any banana-based baking recipe, it's important to use very ripe bananas: Look for bananas with lots of browning on the peels, that feel squishy and have visible soft spots along the fruit. Why? Over-ripe bananas are much softer, which means they're easier to mash and incorporate more smoothly into our final batter. They're also sweeter, which helps balance out our favorite baked goods without just adding more sugar and lends the muffins a certain... (oof, sorry, but it has to be said) moistness.
If you can, let the egg and milk come to room temperature for 30 minutes to an hour on the counter before you mix the batter. They'll incorporate more smoothly into the batter and give you a slightly taller muffin with a more even interior crumb!
Why use baking soda AND baking powder? The short version: this combo made the best muffin in our testing! The long (but still pretty short, tbh) version: Baking soda and baking powder are very different, chemically speaking. Baking soda gives us most of the lift in this particular recipe, but it needs some acid to "activate" it so our muffins rise. We accomplish that by adding some apple cider vinegar and a touch of baking powder, which gives us a little more acid for better rising and lets us preserve some of the tart cider vinegar flavor for a more balanced taste. The soda + powder combo also helps baked goods brown, which gives our finished muffins a richer, deeper color. (You can also see this technique in action in our Apple Butter Muffins, Coffee Cake, and Biscuit Recipes!)

Pro tip: Use a kitchen scale!

Measuring flour by volume (with cups) is notoriously unreliable: because every cook measures a cup of flour a little bit differently, it's easy to accidentally use too much (which has a big impact on the final texture of a recipe). For best results, use a kitchen scale (we use and recommend Escali Kitchen Scales) and measure your ingredients by weight using the gram measurements provided in the recipe below! If you don't have a kitchen scale, no worries: Just be sure to measure your dry ingredients (especially flour, which is the most finicky) with the scoop-and-level method for best results.

Mashing bananas in a small glass bowl with a silver fork.

How to make these muffins

Start by mashing a couple of bananas up with a fork until they're quite smooth, then whisk the mashed banana together in a large bowl with an egg, melted butter, and some granulated sugar.

Note: You can make this muffin batter in a stand mixer, or use an electric hand mixer if you want to - but honestly, we usually just mix the batter with the same fork we used to mash the bananas to keep things simple!

Stir the rest of your dry ingredients (all purpose flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, and spices) into the batter until everything is about halfway mixed, then whisk your remaining wet ingredients (milk, vanilla, apple cider vinegar) together in a small measuring cup and slowly stir that liquid into the batter until everything is just combined.

Mixing wet and dry ingredients in a glass mixing bowl.

Once the batter is done, fold in your chocolate chips and portion the batter out into a lined cupcake pan or prepared muffin cups (see the next section for some advice on what type of pan to use).

Tip: Fill your muffin cups fairly full - maybe ¾ of the way; a little more than you would in a cupcake recipe - for taller, fuller, more muffin-y looking muffins (<-- fancy technical term).

Pop the muffins in the oven; bake until they're lightly browned and a toothpick or cake tester inserted into the center comes out clean, then transfer to a wire rack to cool. (We love serving these muffins while they're still a bit warm to fully enjoy all those gooey, melted chocolate chips, but they're great at room temperature as well!)

What kind of muffin pan should I use?

We used a regular cupcake pan in these photos, but you can also use a specialty jumbo muffin tin for larger muffins.

If you use a standard cupcake pan, you can line it with with regular paper liners; if you use a jumbo muffin pan, use a few pieces of parchment paper to line the pan. (You can also skip the liners entirely: just grease and flour the inside of each cup instead!)

Note: If you prefer to use reusable silicone liners, you may need to extend the baking time by 2-3 minutes.

Stirring chocolate chips into muffin batter in a glass mixing bowl.

Riffs and Substitutions

These banana muffins are fairly forgiving! A few of our favorite swaps and upgrades:

Adjust the mix-ins! We used our favorite Ghirardelli Bittersweet Chocolate Chips in this recipe, but you can use any type of chocolate chips or mini chocolate chips (semi-sweet chocolate chips, dark chocolate chips, or milk chocolate chips are all good) or even a roughly chopped bar of baking chocolate. We also love these muffins with a few handfuls of chopped walnuts or pecans thrown in (bonus points if you toast them first).
Swap the melted butter for melted coconut oil, vegetable oil, or canola oil if you need to.
Add toppings! We kept these muffins simple, but they're excellent with a pinch of demerara or turbinado sugar for some crunch, or a quick crumble on top (find our favorite cinnamon crumb topping in our Apple Butter Muffins and Coffee Cake recipes).
For Instagram-worthy muffins, add a few extra chocolate chips directly to the tops of each muffin just before baking (we forgot to do that for these photos, but trust us: it makes these muffins look classy AF).

Muffins in a baking tin on a white table.

A few FAQs

How should I store these muffins?

Store cooled muffins in an airtight container on the counter for 3-4 days! (Note: Countertop storage works best when the bananas have incorporated very smoothly into the batter; if you have large chunks of banana still in your muffins, you may want to store them in the fridge instead. Just note that they will dry out more quickly in the fridge).

Can I freeze these muffins?

Yes! They freeze pretty well. Let them cool completely, then store in an airtight container in the freezer for up to 3 months. When you're ready to eat them, let frozen muffins defrost for a few hours on the counter. You can also reheat leftover muffins by popping them into a hot oven or toaster oven (we usually do 350° F) for a few minutes until they're warmed through!

Can I make this recipe in different sizes?

Sure! This recipe makes great mini muffins (you'll need to reduce the baking time a bit for mini sizes), and you can also turn it into a loaf of regular banana bread: Just pour the batter into a greased and floured loaf pan and bake (you will need to extend the baking time by quite a bit: a full loaf of banana bread can take an hour or more to bake, so keep an eye on it!)

What's the apple cider vinegar for?

The apple cider vinegar in this recipe provides acid, which helps our baking soda activate (and therefore helps our muffins rise!) This small but mighty ingredient is important to make sure your muffins rise properly: don't skip it!

Can I use whole wheat flour here?

Yes - you can swap up to half of the all purpose flour in this recipe for whole wheat flour if you like (we don't recommend using 100% whole wheat flour as it can alter the texture of these muffins quite a bit).