These gluten free chocolate banana muffins are moist, fluffy and so easy to make. They’re healthy and can be made vegan and refined sugar free. Perfect for a simple snack, breakfast or healthy dessert!
If you’re like the rest of the world and made too much banana bread in the past few months but still have lots of ripe bananas lying around, these homemade chocolate banana muffins are for you!
This gluten free chocolate muffin recipe is rich and fudgy while still being light and fluffy, can be made vegan and refined sugar free! They come together in just about 30 minutes and are perfect for a healthy dessert or snack.
These muffins are made really moist thanks to oil, lots of banana, maple syrup, a bit of nut butter and almond milk (or whatever milk you like)!
If you’re as obsessed with muffins as I am, be sure to try my blueberry oatmeal muffins next.
Key ingredients
Banana. A few fresh bananas not only add a delicious flavor to these gluten free muffins, but also help keep them super moist!
I like to puree the banana so there aren’t any chunks, but you can also just mash them.
Sugar. A mix of maple syrup and granulated sugar help sweeten these muffins. I like using coconut sugar to keep them refined sugar free, but whatever you have works!
Oil. Just a bit of oil will help moisten these muffins and fluff up the texture. I like using refined avocado oil, but any neutral flavored oil will work.
Nut butter. Another key ingredient to add moisture! I love almond butter because it has a neutral flavor, but peanut butter is so delicious with chocolate and banana.
Flour. This recipe calls for gluten free all purpose flour, and I highly recommend sticking to that for best results. I like Bob’s Red Mill 1:1 Baking Flour.
Cocoa. This is how we’ll get a rich chocolate flavor. Cocoa plus some chocolate chips of course.
How to make gluten free chocolate muffins
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Line a muffin tray and set aside.
Add the bananas to a blender and puree until smooth. Measure out 1 1/2 cups. This is usually 3-4 medium/large bananas. Just make sure you have 1 1/2 cups worth!
Add the banana puree to a large mixing bowl along with all remaining wet ingredients. Whisk until smooth.
Add the dry ingredients to the wet and whisk together until smooth. The batter will be on the thick side. Fold in the chocolate chips.
Use a medium cookie scoop or spoon and add the batter the lined muffin tray. You want to fill eat about 3/4 of the way full.
Top with additional chocolate chips if desired. Bake for 18-23 minutes, my oven is usually 21, but check with a toothpick for doneness.
Let cool in the tray for about 15 minutes, then remove and let finish cooling on a cooling rack.
Make them vegan!
I have tested this recipe with both a regular egg and a flax egg and they turn out really well either way. If you want to use a flax egg, just combine 1 tablespoon of ground flax seeds (ground chia seeds work too) and 3 tablespoons of water. Whisk together and set aside to thicken.
This will help bind all of the ingredients together. You can also sub for 1/4 cup of apple sauce or just 1/4 cup extra banana puree if you prefer.
My favorite chocolate
For this recipe you need cocoa powder and chocolate chips, either dark chocolate or regular. I’m not loyal to any one brand of cocoa powder, but Ghirardelli makes a great one!
You can use either dutch processed or regular. Please do not use the Trader Joes cocoa powder, I have tried it several times in various recipes and it never turns out well!
For chocolate chips, I almost always use the enjoy life mini chocolate chips. The mini ones kind of melt right into the center of the muffin and makes them super fudgy!
How to store
Once prepared, these chocolate banana muffins will keep for about 3-5 days stored in a container at room temperature.
You can keep them in the fridge to preserve for longer and then warm them up for 10 seconds in the microwave before eating!
Why did they turn out dense?
Banana muffins are generally more dense than other types of muffins simply because of the amount of banana in the batter. This particular recipe strikes a balance between light + fluffy and fudgy + dense.
These should not be too dense, and if you’re worried about that happening, there are a few things to do to prevent it.
First, do not over mix the batter! This will force too much air and eventually cause the muffins to rise, then collapse, creating a dense texture.
Second, be sure to puree the bananas, don’t mash them. This is especially important if you’re using gluten free flour like I did. Banana puree will make the muffins much fluffier than mashed banana.
Still hungry? Try these!
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Double Chocolate Chip Banana Muffins
by: claire cary
Ingredients
Wet:
- 1 ½ cups banana puree about 4 bananas
- ¼ cup oil
- ¼ cup maple syrup
- ½ cup brown or coconut sugar
- ¼ cup nut butter I used almond
- 1 egg see notes for vegan
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
Dry:
- 1 ¼ cup gluten free all purpose flour baking flour
- ½ cup cocoa powder
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1 tsp baking soda
- ¼ tsp salt
- ½ tsp cinnamon optional
- ⅔ cup chocolate chips
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.
- Line a muffin tray and set aside.
- Add the bananas to a blender and puree until smooth. Measure out 1 1/2 cups. This is usually 3-4 medium/large bananas.
- Add the banana puree to a large mixing bowl along with all remaining wet ingredients.
- Whisk until smooth.
- Add in all dry ingredients aside from the chocolate and whisk until smooth. The batter will be on the thick side, but be sure to spoon and level the flour and cocoa powder.
- Fold in the chocolate chips.
- Use a medium cookie scoop or spoon and add the batter the lined muffin tray. You want to fill each pretty close to the top.
- Top with additional chocolate chips if desired.
- Bake for 18-24 minutes, my oven is usually 21, but check with a toothpick for doneness. Careful not to over bake or they will dry out!
- Let cool in the tray for about 15 minutes, then remove and let finish cooling on a cooling rack. Enjoy!
Michelle says
I have almond flour and coconut flour. Can I use a combo of those and how much of each?
Claire Cary says
I do not recommend that for this recipe. Almond and coconut flours absorb wet ingredients very differently than all purpose, so I would stick to the recipe as written for best results!
Muthu says
I have tried many recipes but this the best banana recipe. I will give 100 out of 100 thank you for sharing this recipe
Claire Cary says
Thank you, so glad to hear that!
Gabby says
These are amazing!! I made a couple swaps – used whole wheat flour (replaced by weight, as I always bake with metric) and melted coconut oil and they were absolutely delicious. So hard to stop eating after one, this recipe is a keeper! Thank you!
Milly Bennet says
These muffins were good! They did turn out dense and not moist. I had followed the recipe completly and still had this issue. This is a good recipe but not very moist. I have seen way better and delicous recipes on eatwithclarity.
Claire Cary says
That could be with how you are measuring the flour, the ripeness of your bananas, or the temperature of your oven. All ovens are different, some end up being higher than the temperature actually reads. I would try lowering your oven temp by about 25 degrees or simply baking for less time.
Jessica Bolster says
What kind of oil did you use?
Claire Cary says
I used refined avocado oil but any kind of oil will be fine!
Jennifer M. says
OMG! I just don’t know what else to say! These are amazing! Rich, chocolatey, flavorful! They taste just like the chocolate chip muffins I remember as a kid, but without all the calories and fat those had!! You would never believe that these aren’t loaded with calories and sugar. A great snack in the middle of the day that really holds! Will definitely be making these again and again!
Claire Cary says
Perfect! So happy you enjoyed these, Jennifer!