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!
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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.
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.
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.
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.
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).
A few FAQs
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).
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!
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!)
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!
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).
Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins
- Prep Time: 15 minutes
- Cook Time: 25 minutes
- Total Time: 40 minutes
- Yield: 12-16 muffins 1x
- Category: Breakfast
- Cuisine: American
- Diet: Vegetarian
Description
These easy banana muffins are perfect for a cozy breakfast!
Ingredients
- 270 grams mashed ripe banana (about 1 cup or 2 large bananas)
- 70 grams sugar (about ⅓ cup)
- 1 egg
- ¼ cup melted unsalted butter
- 270 grams flour (about 2 ¼ cups when measured correctly by scooping and leveling)
- 4 grams cinnamon (2 teaspoons)
- 1 gram grated nutmeg (¼ teaspoon)
- 4 grams kosher salt (1 teaspoon)
- 5 grams baking soda (1 teaspoon)
- 7 grams baking powder (1 ½ teaspoons)
- 80 grams milk (⅓ cup)
- 14 grams apple cider vinegar (1 Tablespoon)
- 4 grams vanilla extract (1 teaspoon)
- 165 grams semi-sweet or bittersweet chocolate chips (1 cup)
Instructions
- Heat the oven to 325° Fahrenheit and line a standard cupcake tin with cupcake liners.
- In a large mixing bowl, whisk mashed banana, sugar, egg, and melted butter together until you have a smooth mixture. Try to work out as many banana lumps as possible!
- Add flour, cinnamon, nutmeg, kosher salt, baking soda, and baking powder to bowl and stir until flour is not quite combined.
- Stir milk, apple cider vinegar, and vanilla together in a small bowl or measuring cup. Slowly stream this liquid mixture into the batter, stirring until ingredients are just combined.
- Gently fold chocolate chips into the batter.
- Divide batter into prepared muffin tin. Fill the liners quite full - about ¾ of the way (a little more full than you might do for cupcakes! We want the muffins to pop up over the liners and look full and hearty).
- Bake muffins at 325° F for 23-25 minutes, until a toothpick or cake tester inserted into the center of a muffin comes out clean.
- Remove muffins to a wire rack to cool. Serve immediately or store cooled muffins in an airtight container on the counter for up to 3 days.
Notes
How ripe should my bananas be? We prefer using very ripe bananas here because they are a bit sweeter and softer. Choose bananas with heavily browned peels and very squishy fruit. You can use less-ripe bananas if you need to: they just won’t mix into the batter quite as well and the sweetness of the muffins won’t feel quite as well balanced (but it's not an enormous difference!)
A note about measuring the bananas: If you mash up 2 big bananas but they don't quite reach 270 grams, don't worry! We've tested this recipe several ways and you can go as low as 230 grams of banana (about ¾ cup) if you need to: the final texture won't be *quite* as soft, but it's still good! If you have extra mashed banana left over, pop it in the freezer for smoothies.
Please use a kitchen scale! Measuring flour by volume (with cups) is notoriously unreliable – for best results, use a scale to measure by weight with the gram measurements provided! We use and recommend Escali kitchen scales. If you don’t have a kitchen scale, measure ingredients (especially flour, which is the most finicky) with the scoop and level method for best results. Note: If you have another brand of kitchen scale, you may want to use a volume (teaspoon) measurement for ingredients 1 teaspoon or less; some scale brands struggle to measure such small amounts, although we've found Escali scales to be very reliable at small quantities!
Additions and Substitutions. Use any kind of chocolate chips you like here (we love semi-sweet or bittersweet chocolate chips, but dark, milk, or bittersweet chocolate chips are all good). You can also swap a roughly chopped bar of baking chocolate for the chocolate chips here. Add a few handfuls of chopped walnuts to the batter for extra texture. Use melted coconut oil or vegetable oil in place of the melted butter if you prefer.
Add toppings. Dress these muffins up by adding a bit of turbinado or demerara sugar on top before baking, or make a quick cinnamon crumble to put on top (like in our Apple Butter Muffins). For prettier muffins, you can also press a few chocolate chips into the top of each muffin just before baking.
Storing Muffins. Store cooled muffins in an airtight container on the counter for up to 4 days, or in the freezer up to 3 months (we love freezing these muffins in a reusable silicone Stasher Bag!)
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1 muffin
- Calories: 242
- Sugar: 17.7 g
- Sodium: 253.8 mg
- Fat: 8.5 g
- Carbohydrates: 38.8 g
- Protein: 4.4 g
- Cholesterol: 25.8 mg
Keywords: muffin, breakfast, brunch, bread
Tim
Excellent and tasty, we usually double the recipe because they do not last long at our house.
★★★★★
Team Life As A Strawberry
YIPPEE! This is a great recipe to double!
Rhonda
I've made these muffins a number of times, including for my mom when she was sick. Each time I tell myself I'm going to eat one and share them. I eat one fresh out of the oven and then proceed to eat more throughout the day. Others are lucky if they get any! I made them again this morning and they were ready by the time the others were up and going. So easy! So good!
★★★★★
Team Life As A Strawberry
We're so grateful you love this recipe and keep coming back to it!
The Beeroness
Gorgeous photos! And This sauce sounds incredible.
Melanie
These are so good! Thank you Jessie for sharing with me today!