Chocolate Banana Muffins
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These Chocolate Banana Muffins are not only moist and delicious, but they are packed with sneaky nutrition. They are a kid favorite and freeze beautifully. Serve as an easy, make-ahead healthy breakfast.
About The Recipe
“Mom, can you make the brown muffins again? Those are so good!”
It’s not often that I can find a healthy breakfast that my kids beg for. These Chocolate Banana Muffins are one of those rare recipes. I love them and so do my kids!
This is a great recipe for 1 year olds or little eaters. They are easy for little gums and full of nutrition. I often use this as a freezer meal for new moms, too.
What Makes These Chocolate Banana Muffins Healthy?
We find great joy in sneaking vegetables into kid-favorite recipes. This muffin recipe is no exception. While they look chocolaty and delicious on the outside, the inside is full of nutritional ingredients like:
- Whole wheat flour
- Sweet potato (or pumpkin)
- Ground flaxseed (here’s why it’s so good for you) If you don’t have it, just sub flour.
- Banana (you did freeze them when they were ripe, right?)
They not only make a great breakfast but I use them as an on-the-go snack idea, too.
Muffin-Making Tips
I’ve made a lot of muffins in my life. They are my go-to healthy breakfast, and I almost always have a stash in my freezer. Here are some pro tips I’ve learned over the years:
- Double and freeze! If you already have all of the dishes and ingredients out, you might as well make two batches and save some time in the future. Here are more tips on how to freeze muffins.
- Don’t over-mix the batter. To keep them light and fluffy, only mix the batter to the point where all the dry ingredients are combined.
- I like to use silicone baking cups when making muffins. I have to hand wash them after, but I think it’s easier than scrubbing out a pan.
- Use ripe bananas for the best flavor. The bananas bring a lot of sweetness to this recipe so make sure they are nice and ripe!
Can I Turn These into a Chocolate Banana Bread?
Good news! This recipe works great as a muffin but also as a bread. Just hop over to our Chocolate Sweet Potato Banana Bread to see how it’s done.
More Easy Breakfast Ideas You Might Like:
How to Turn Pancake Mix into Waffle Mix
Did you make this? Snap a photo and tag us on Instagram at @thrivinghome so we can see your creations and cheer you on!
Whole Wheat Chocolate Banana Muffins
These Whole Wheat Chocolate Banana Muffins are packed full of nutrition and flavor. Feel good about feeding your family these for a quick breakfast!
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour (I prefer white whole wheat)
- 1/4 cup ground flaxseed (sub: flour)
- 1/4 cup cocoa powder
- 1/3 cup sugar (I like coconut sugar, since it has more nutrients.)
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1 cup mashed ripe bananas
- 1/2 cup pureed pumpkin or pureed sweet potato
- 1/3 cup plain yogurt
- 2 large eggs, beaten
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 1/3 cup honey
- 5 tablespoons coconut oil, melted (Sub: butter or avocado oil)
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Instructions
Make It Now:
- Preheat oven to 350°F.
- In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the flour, ground flax, cocoa powder, sugar, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon.
- In medium-sized bowl, stir together the mashed bananas, pumpkin or sweet potato puree, yogurt, eggs, vanilla, honey, and oil until combined.
- Add the wet mixture to dry ingredients. Stir just until mixed. Do not over mix.
- Pour batter into greased muffin tins or silicone liners.
- Bake for 15-18 minutes, until a wooden toothpick comes out clean.
- Remove from oven and let the muffins cool on wire rack.
Freeze For Later: Bake muffins as stated in directions. Place muffins on cookie sheet lined with waxed (or parchment) paper. Flash freeze the muffins long enough to harden them up. Once frozen, transfer them to freezer safe bag or container. Store up to 3 months.
Prepare From Frozen: Let them thaw at room temperature or in the refrigerator. You can also stick them in the microwave for a brief time to warm them up.
My 3yr old grandson is the pickiest eater ever. I cannot hide any thing in his food. He knows something is different and refuses to eat it. I really worry about his health. I decided to try this recipe because I thought that the dark chocolate color would camouflage the added veggies. Hallelujah, it worked. He loved them. So did the other grandkids. Thank you so much for sharing the recipe. I’m making them again today!
Oh I’m so happy to hear that! I had very picky eaters at that age too. That’s why I created recipes like this one. You can find some more sneaky veggie recipes here: https://thrivinghomeblog.com/50-ways-to-sneak-vegetables-and-fruits-into-kid-favorites/
These muffins were easy to make and my picky granddaughter loved them.
Yay! Love hearing when picky eaters can’t resist something. Thanks for taking the time to leave a review Amy.
great recipe….this big kid loved it, amazing and moist, yummy
Glad you enjoyed it! Thanks for the review.
These were amazing and fun to make! My four year old daughter helped me make this and I only changed the coconut oil to butter because I forgot to buy it and the greek yogurt for zero sugar vanilla greek yogurt. Not only did she love these but she discovered she likes the yogurt and finished what was left and that was a bonus for me as she is very picky. We will defintely be making more in the future and I plan on making the next bath with walnuts.
This is wonderful to hear Mariam. I love when my kids found out for themselves that they like something. 🙂 Thank you so much for taking the time to leave a review.
My kids love them!
Wonderful! Thank you for taking the time to leave a review Sue.
I’m realizing that the recipes on this site just do.not.fail! Made these last night on a lark because I had some bananas that were going and some leftover pumpkin in my fridge. I ended up smashing two bananas because one wasn’t quite enough for a cup so maybe had some extra moisture but wow were these yum for breakfast this morning! It’s hard to believe they are healthy because they do not taste like it haha! My picky toddler actually ate breakfast today so that’s a win in my book! (I serve her breakfast daily obviously but she’s never really feeling it)
Yaasss! Love hearing this feedback, Shannon. Thank you so much for taking the time to leave a comment. Super encouraging!
I love this recipe! It’s my go to for a “chocolate fix”. My grandkids love it too and have no idea what’s in them. They are moist and have an amazing chocolate flavor. I’ve always used pumpkin and avocado oil instead of sweet potato and coconut oil. I make them gluten free and regular and both versions are amazing!
Hmm, do i boil pieces if sweet potatoe and then puree it? Thanks!
Yes, you can do that if you want. However, I usually just poke a few holes in 1 or 2 sweet potatoes with a knife and microwave them for about 3 minutes until softened. Then, I scrape out the orange flesh. Or you can use pumpkin puree in place of the sweet potato too. I hope that helps!
I was just looking at these muffin recipes that I got in the email and it calls for whole wheat white flour I’m wondering if you can use almond flour in place of flour it would be so awesome to have that alternative in the recipes so that that those of us trying to stay away from gluten could adapt them to ourselves and the one with the chocolate and banana and sweet potato I’m wondering if you could leave out the sugar because the bananas would add so much sweetness and perhaps add a little extra almond flour to take place of the sugar as a dry ingredient. Can you just substitute almond flour for other flours
Oh my! I just made your Whole Wheat Chocolate Banana Muffins and they are AWESOME!! I substituted one cup of King Arthur’s Gluten Free 1 to 1 baking flour and 1/2 cup gluten free oat flour for the whole wheat flour. I just made one batch to try and will now make two more to freeze. Thanks for your amazing recipes!
Great tips, Susan! Thank you so much for taking the time to leave feedback and a rating, too.
can i sub the pumpkin puree with more bananas? or maybe applesauce? thanks!
Yes, I think either of those options would work!
Oh wow these are good! I had a little buckwheat flour I wanted to use so I subbed that for the flax & stirred in some mini chocolate chips. ☺️ I will make these again!
Yes, so great to hear that you all liked them.
I was happy to see I had all the ingredients already to make these on a snow day! The kids gobbled them up and I love that they have added nutrients hidden inside.
Wonderful to hear, Renee! Thanks for the review. I made them last night myself, served some for breakfast, and froze the rest for later.
We liked these a lot. My 4 kiddos like them, which is awesome! My favorite thing about them is that we could eat each 1, as opposed to 2-3 of our other muffin recipe, to feel full. A little extra work, but it’s worth it. Thanks for a great recipe!
Awesome, love hearing that, Erin.
Hello, just a quick one… for the pureed pumpkin and pureed- are these cooked ones? I have to steam or cook them then puree them first? Thank in advance for responding!
Yes, it’s cook pumpkin that’s been pureed. It comes in cans where we live, but you can certainly make your own. Good luck!
These are GREAT!
I was out of sweet potato puree, but used blueberry and spinach puree in it’s place… FANTASTIC. My kiddos love em! Thanks for sharing!
I do that too sometimes. What a great way to add in greens and lots of antioxidants. Glad these were a hit!
I put the muffin batter in our waffle iron. It was a fun way to serve the muffins to my kiddos for a snack. 🙂
Laura, what an awesome idea!