Gluten Free Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins

Moist, fluffy and made with pantry staple ingredients, these gluten free banana muffins are the best snack, breakfast or dessert to get you through a busy day. Studded with chocolate chips, dairy free and perfectly sweet!

It only took me about 1 million tries to finally get these gluten free banana muffins right, but it was so worth it. They are similar to my chocolate chip banana bread, with a few key tweaks to make them perfect as muffins. They’re a bit lighter and fluffier thanks to the egg, and have the perfect amount of chocolate in every bite.

Have them for an on the go breakfast, a sweet snack, or a healthier dessert. You can use blueberries instead of chocolate chips so you have the best of both worlds with a banana blueberry muffin.

All you need is a few pantry staple ingredients like almond flour and 30 minute until you have fresh, bakery style muffins! If you love this recipe, try my gluten free blueberry banana bread, chocolate banana bread or gluten free zucchini bread next!

Tips before we get started…

• I personally like pureeing the banana in the blender to prevent any dense bits of banana in the muffins, which can help prevent a gummy texture. If you prefer, you can just mash the bananas.
• If you have a nut allergy, you can sub the almond flour for oat flour instead.
• Almond flour can be clumpy, if you notice this, just sift it before adding to the batter.

How to make gluten free banana muffins

Mash or puree your bananas and measure out 1 3/4 cups of mashed banana. Add this to a large mixing bowl with the oil, egg, sugar, vanilla, and apple cider vinegar. Mix until well combined.

Next, add in all of the remaining dry ingredients and mix together until a batter forms. It will be on the thicker side, so don’t be alarmed.

Carefully fold in 1/2 cup chocolate chips into the batter. I don’t recommend using more as this will make the better more heavy and wet and the muffins will take much longer to cook, but you can add a few extras to the tops if you want with no problem.

You can omit the chocolate chips if desired or add some crushed walnuts for a healthier twist, or even some fresh or frozen blueberries. If you have access to wild blueberries, those are delicious in the mix.

Measure the batter into a lined muffin tray, filling each cup almost to the top so we get nice round muffins. I like to use a medium cookie scoop to ensure even sized muffins.

Top with a sprinkle of extra chocolate chips if desired. Bake for 18-22 minutes, depending on your oven, or until a toothpick comes out mostly clean with a few moist crumbs.

How to add moisture to muffins

A lot of people hear gluten free baking and think of crumbly, tasteless, cardboard like food. Well, my whole mission with Eat With Clarity is to prove otherwise! These gluten free banana muffins are quite the opposite of dry and bland. They’re fluffy, moist, full of flavor and have a soft, melt in your mouth texture.

They’re the perfect gluten free muffin without the need of ingredients like xanthan gum. The bananas, oil and even almond flour are the key ingredients that add moisture and the addition of the egg or flax egg will help bind all of the ingredients together.

You can reheat these muffins in the microwave for 10 seconds to help soften the chocolate chips so they’re good as new!

Make them vegan!

I have made them both with an egg and flax egg and they are great either way. If you make this recipe vegan, the muffins will have a slightly different texture, but will still be delicious! They will be a bit fluffier with an egg and a bit more dense with a flax egg.

To prevent the muffins from getting too dense, we’ll be keeping the baking powder on the lower side and not using any baking soda. This will ensure the muffins rise properly, but don’t collapse, resulting in a dense muffin.

How to store and freeze

These gluten free banana muffins will last for about 3-5 days once they have completely cooled. With most baked goods, you generally want them to be at room temperature in an air tight container for best results.

However, whenever a baked good involves fresh ingredients like banana or apple sauce, I find they can get too moist if kept fully sealed. I like to store these on a plate covered loosely with foil, or just in the original muffin tin with a kitchen towel on top.

You can also store them in the fridge for up to 1 week or in the freezer for up to 2 months. Simply reheat at 300 Fahrenheit until warm through the center.

Try these snack recipes next!

• Paleo Chocolate Chunk Cookies
• Healthier Chocolate Chip Cookies
• Chocolate Chip Banana Bread
• Gluten Free Chocolate Chip Cookies

Lastly, if you try this recipe, leave a comment below and let me know how it turns out! Be sure to follow me on instagram and subscribe to my newsletter for more recipes and daily eats.