Chocolate Banana Muffins

By: Rachel TiemeyerPosted: 2/16/21Updated: 1/27/26

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.

Chocolate banana muffins cooling on a baking rack.

Table of Contents

4 Reasons You’ll Love This Recipe

Nutritious: Thanks to whole wheat flour, flaxseed, sweet potato and bananas, you’re getting lots of fiber, vitamins, and minerals.
Filling: Thanks to all that fiber, these are a hearty, satiating breakfast or on-the-go snack idea.
Use Up Produce: Have sweet potato or bananas to use up? This is the perfect recipe!
Freezer-Friendly: Make a double or triple batch and freeze to have on hand for quick breakfasts, snacks, or lunches. We include directions below.

Cooking Notes from Our Kitchens

This recipe was tested by three team members a total of 7 times! Here are some tips for success.

Bananas: Make sure your bananas have brown spots on them and mash easily. The easiest way to mash bananas is with a fork or potato masher.
Honey Tip: Lightly spray your measuring cup with cooking spray before measuring the honey. This prevents sticking and allows the honey to pour out easily.
Do not overmix: otherwise, the gluten will overdevelop, resulting in tougher muffins with air pockets (known as tunneling).
Tip for removing the cooked muffins from the pan: If you didn’t use muffin cups, use a plastic knife to go around them and carefully lift them out. This keeps from scratching a nonstick pan.
Another way to test doneness: Use a digital thermometer. For chocolate muffins like these, they’re perfectly done at an internal temperature of 200–205°F. That’s the sweet spot where the center is fully set, the crumb is moist, not gummy, and they won’t sink as they cool.
Pan Type:
- Dark or nonstick metal muffin tins usually bake 2-3 minutes faster, so check a little early.
- Light metal pans take a little longer to bake.
- Ceramic muffin tins may take longer to bake than stated time.

Ingredients

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.

Ingredient Notes

Sub for all-purpose flour and whole wheat flour: white whole wheat flour.
Sub for avocado oil: any neutral oil (canola, vegetable, etc).
Sub for bananas or pumpkin puree: you can use unsweetened applesauce or sweet potato puree in a pinch. Caveat: This may add extra moisture (and/or sweetness), so it may take longer to bake.
Sub for mini semi-sweet chocolate chips: dark or milk chocolate chips
If using frozen bananas, 2-3 bananas will be needed, because they shrink when frozen. Also, be sure to drain off any extra liquid from them when they thaw.

Add-In Ideas

1/4 cup chopped and toasted walnuts, pecans, pepitas, or almonds

1/4 peanut butter chips

1/2 teaspoon espresso powder

Step-by-Step Instructions

Prep

Preheat the oven to 350°F. Grease a standard muffin tin or line with silicone or paper liners. (Note: Silicone liners will increase bake time by a few minutes.)

Dry Ingredients

In a large bowl, whisk together the flours, sugar, ground flaxseed, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder, salt, and cinnamon.

Wet Ingredients

In a medium bowl, whisk together the mashed bananas, pumpkin purée, avocado oil, yogurt, honey, eggs, and vanilla until combined. (Tip: Blend all this in a small blender to avoid any chunks.)

Combine

Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and stir just until a few streaks of dry ingredients remain. Gently fold in the chocolate chips, stirring only until all dry ingredients are incorporated. Do not overmix.

Mini chocolate chips being folded into chocolate banana muffin batter with a whisk.

Bake

Scoop about ¼ cup of batter into each prepared muffin cup. Bake for 17-22 minutes, or until a wooden toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.

Chocolate banana muffin batter in a Caraway muffin tin.

Cool and Enjoy

Remove from the oven, carefully transfer muffins from the pan to a wire rack, and allow to cool completely.

Chocolate banana muffins on a cooling rack.

How to Freeze Muffins

Freeze for Later: Bake muffins according to the directions. Place the cooled muffins on a cookie sheet lined with parchment or wax paper and flash freeze until firm. Once frozen, transfer the muffins to a freezer-safe bag or container. Store for up to 3 months.

Prepare from Frozen: Thaw muffins at room temperature or in the refrigerator. For a quick option, warm them briefly in the microwave before serving.

Chocolate banana muffins lined up in a freezer bag.

FAQs

Can I turn these into 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.

What’s the best way to store muffins?

Store muffins in an airtight container or freezer bag at room temperature for 2-3 days, or in the refrigerator for 3-5 days.

Can I make these as mini-muffins?

Yes! In fact, I usually double the recipe and make one batch regular sized and one batch mini muffins. They will cook much faster so keep an eye on them!

What if my bananas aren’t very ripe?

If your bananas aren’t ripe and sweet, I’d recommend adding a little sugar to the recipe via more chocolate chips or maple syrup. Or even a tablespoon of table sugar.

More Healthy Muffins

Pumpkin chocolate muffins on a cooling rack.

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffins

Blueberry Avocado Muffins

Zucchini Carrot Muffins

Gluten-free banana muffin with a bite taken out of it.

Gluten-Free Banana Muffins

All Muffins and Sweet Breads

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.
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!

A baking rack full of chocolate banana muffins.

Rachel Tiemeyer

As co-founder of Thriving Home, Rachel dreams about creating recipes (literally) and uses her husband, her 3 kids, and even the neighbors as guinea pigs several nights a week. She believes that good food has the power to bring families and friends closer together and continues to wake up excited about her job each day, even after 10+ years!