Soft and moist Banana Muffins with melty chocolate chips are the ultimate treat and are a great way to use overripe bananas. These banana chocolate chip muffins take less than 30 minutes to whip up, so they are perfect for meal prep, sharing with neighbors and coworkers, and a quick recipe to bake with kids.
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Helpful Reader Review
“My kiddos loved how these turned out. I loved making these for us all. The easiest most delicious and moist muffins. I’ve made this 4 times already and came here to make it for the 5th time. I can tell this is going to be a repeat recipe for me so I better memorize now.“ – Fayeza ★★★★★
Banana Muffins Video
Watch me turn those brown, overripe bananas into the best banana bread muffins with chocolate chips. See how easy this recipe truly is, and then let’s get baking!
Easy Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins
If you’re staring at a few browning, speckled bananas on the counter, please don’t toss them! Those ripe bananas add the perfect natural sweetness to this banana muffin recipe. The browner the better, in fact! Once they are smashed up and baked into muffins, you’ll never see how brown they started anyway.
We’ve had so many questions about turning our chocolate chip banana bread into muffins so here you go – your guide to the best banana muffins! While we love classic banana bread, these muffins bake fast (25 minutes), and are irresistible with melted chocolate morsels.
Banana Muffin Ingredients
Whip up these banana muffins with just a few pantry staples, like flour and sugar. You’ll need 30 minutes and a muffin pan for the single-serving-sized treats.
- Dry ingredients – flour, baking soda, salt, and sugar
- Wet ingredients – unsalted butter (to control the sodium level), eggs, and vanilla
- Ripe Bananas – 3 medium-sized bananas (about 1 cup) mashed up. Browned bananas work best since they have the most natural sugar. If they aren’t quite ripe, see my tips below on how to ripen them quickly.
- Chocolate Chips – we prefer semi-sweet chocolate chips, but you can use any kind you prefer. You can omit if you’d prefer, or also substitute the chocolate chips with an equal amount of toasted chopped pecans or walnuts to make banana nut muffins, or replace them with raisins for banana raisin muffins.
Pro Tip:
To ripen bananas in 24 hours, place the bunch into a brown bag, close it, and store it on the counter for 24 hours. You can also bake almost-ripe bananas in the oven at 250°F for 15-20 minutes.
Can I use Frozen Bananas in Banana Bread Muffins?
If you have overripe bananas and aren’t ready to use them, toss them in a ziploc (peel on) and freeze them for later. Before adding frozen ripe bananas to the recipe, thaw completely at room temperature, or in the refrigerator overnight. Frozen bananas tend to release more moisture, so peel and lightly pat dry with paper towels to remove excess liquid.
How to Make Banana Muffins
Our easy Banana Muffins recipe comes together in just a few minutes and has that irresistible banana flavor and a moist, spongy crumb.
- Preheat the oven to 350°F and place liners in a 12-count muffin tin.
- Cream together butter and sugar, then mix in lightly beaten eggs.
- Add mashed bananas and vanilla.
- Whisk together flour, baking soda, and salt, then mix into the batter. Fold in 3/4 cup chocolate chips.
- Scoop batter into your lined muffin tin (a trigger-release ice cream scoop makes it easy), sprinkle with chocolate chips, and bake for 20-25 minutes.
Natasha’s Tips for The Best Banana Muffins
There are 3 “secrets” or key points for achieving tender and moist muffins:
- Use very ripe or overripe bananas. Underripe bananas will be difficult to mash and won’t incorporate into the batter well.
- Do not skimp on the butter. Since there is no other ‘liquid’ in this recipe, softened butter is needed for a soft and moist crumb. Watch our video on how to soften butter in 5 minutes.
- Don’t over-bake. If you’re wondering how long to bake banana muffins, test for doneness by inserting a toothpick into the center after 25 minutes and continue baking only if you see wet batter on the toothpick.
Please DO NOT throw away your overripe bananas because they are the secret ingredient for these moist and delicious banana muffins. The browner and spottier the peel, the better!
What is YOUR favorite way to use overripe bananas?
Banana Muffins
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup unsalted butter, (8 Tbsp), softened
- 2/3 cup granulated sugar
- 2 large eggs, room temp, lightly beaten
- 3 bananas, very ripe, coarsely mashed with a fork
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour, measured correctly
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1 cup semisweet chocolate chips, divided
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350˚ F and line a 12-count muffin tin with paper liners.
- In a mixing bowl, cream together 8 Tbsp softened butter with 2/3 cup sugar. Add 2 lightly beaten eggs.
- Add 3 mashed bananas and 1 tsp vanilla extract and mix until blended.
- In a separate bowl, whisk together dry ingredients: 1 1/2 cups flour, 1 tsp baking soda and 1/2 tsp salt. Mix the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients until incorporated.
- Fold in 3/4 cup chocolate chips. Divide batter evenly into your 12-count muffin tin and sprinkle the remaining 1/4 cup chocolate chips evenly over the tops. Bake at 350˚F on the center rack for 25-30 minutes or until the top is golden and a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Cool in the pan for 5 minutes then transfer to a baking rack to cool to room temperature.
Notes
- Room Temperature: Cooled muffins keep well on the counter in an airtight container for up to 5 days.
- Freezing: Place cooled muffins in an airtight freezer container for up to 3 months. Thaw on the counter or in the fridge.
Nutrition Per Serving
Filed Under
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Hi Natasha,
Thank you so much for this great recipe! I make a batch a week and my husband and son have them for breakfast every morning. Such a time saver.
Love your recipes 🙂
That’s just awesome! Thank you for sharing your wonderful review, Shireen!
They’re absolutely YUMMY!!
Made them for a spring time camping trip & they didn’t last long 🙂
Lovely to know that the recipe was a huge hit!
Hi Natasha I have made a number of your recipes and they are always delish ! I just made the muffins and already 1 has “disappeared” from the cooling rack , right out of the oven lol. Thank you for another awesome recipe ! Here’s hoping for more over ripe bananas.
Haha, that means you have to make more next time lol. Thanks a lot for this review, Wanda.
Hi Natasha!!! Unless I am missing something, your banana bread recip and your banana muffin recipe is the same recipe, except for the amount of sugar, right? I just wanted to make sure I’m not missing anything else before I make the muffins this weekend. I made the banana bread last night and my neighbors LOVED it!!! Thanks so much!!!
Hi Gail, they’re slightly different but are made based on the same recipe/ idea. The muffins have a bit more vanilla and less sugar, also with chocolate chips. In comparison, the Banana Bread has walnuts and raisins. I hope you love the muffins recipe!
Thank you so much!!!! I am really looking forward to giving these a try!!!
I hope you enjoy them!
I have been baking banana muffins for years. My little tip is to add 1/4 c of unsweetened apple sauce to my liquid ingredients. It makes the muffins very moist and delicious. I have also added 1/4 cup of sour cream too.
Thank you for sharing that with us, Sharon.
Hi,
How many cups is the 3 bananas? or ounces? I mashed a few bananas. but I’m not sure how many there were exactly! Thank You!
Hi! That would depend on the size of bananas used. 3 medium bananas yield about 1 cup mashed according to google search.
I am so happy with the way my banana muffins turn out: moist, fluffy and delicious! I had 3 ripen bananas that needed to be used, so I am glad I found and used your recipe. Thanks for sharing 👍🏼
I’m so glad you enjoyed it! Thank you for the wonderful review, Cassandra!
I made the Banana Muffins w/Chocolate Chips this morning. They were easy to put together and were absolutely delicious. I did add a 1/2 tsp. of cinnamon because I like cinnamon with banana breads. Natasha, I have enjoyed making several of your recipes. You never disappoint!!
That’s just awesome! Thank you for sharing your wonderful review!
I’m glad it was a huge success! Thank you for sharing that with us.
By far the best banana nut bread I have ever made. I love the raisins. Next time I will cut down a little on the nuts. I sprayed my muffin tins with coconut oil. Yummy! Thanks for posting!
You’re welcome! I’m so happy you enjoyed it, Jennifer!
I agree that these are the best banana muffins and I make them often for the fam. My kids request them! TY
Thank you! I’m really glad to hear that.
It the greatest muffin recipe I have ever try, all the family loved it… you are the best… I tried a lot of your recipes, I appreciate you very much! I am from Romania ❤️
I am happy you enjoy my recipes! Thank you for the review, Aura.
That’s just awesome! Thank you for sharing your wonderful review, Aura!
What can I substitute for egg please for this banana muffin
Thanks
I’m sorry, I have not tested any substitutions to be able to advise on that. If you find something that works, please share.
Use extra banana. I use 1 or 2 extra banana to replace the egg in the bread recipe and it came out perfect and very delicious. I do the same for this recipe.
I just made these muffins as I had some bananas so ripe they were getting close to being soup in a peel! I found I was out of chocolate chips, but I did have peanut butter chips. I figured bananas and peanut butter can’t be wrong together, and I was right! These muffins are delectable, and I can’t wait to try them with chocolate chips. Or maybe I’ll go wild and add both chocolate AND peanut butter chips!!! Thanks for sharing such a great recipe!
Hi Rachel, nice one! Glad you gave this recipe a try, I hope you love all the recipes that you will be trying in the future.
Lovely muffins..love all your recipes..you are the best!! I am still baking at 77..enjoy baking for my grandchildren..they are grown adults but still like to have a stock in freezer when they come to visit
Aww, that’s the best! Thank you so much for sharing that with me. I’m all smiles!
Natasha,
This recipe is absolutely amazing!
I made it as is and also added 1 cup of chopped walnuts. WOW!
I ended up with 18 muffins instead of 12.
Do you think I could freeze them?
Yum! That sounds amazing! Thank you so much for sharing that with me, Yana! I haven’t tried freezing these, but I bet that will work! If you happen to try it out, I’d love to know how you like that.
I made your recipe, for banana cupcakes. Except I made bread instead, without chocolate chips. I did substitute Vanilla extract for Banana extract. It was Delicious! My hubby and so did my neighbor love it. I will be making this again. Thank You!!!
That’s nice and good to know that worked out well! Thanks a lot for sharing that with us, Barb.
What if I only have two large very ripe bananas instead of three?
That depends on how much bigger, but you can also adjust the recipe. To adjust this recipe to two bananas, I think that should be about 8 muffins. I hope that helps!
Can I make these the day before? And what’s the best way to store them ? Thanks
Hi Debbie, you may store it with a plastic wrap or foil or an airtight container to prevent drying if making it ahead. We hadn’t stored this for longer than two days, but it should work for a few days.
TOO MUCH BUTTER. The muffins were oozing butter from the top and through the bottom of the cups after I took them out of the oven. I was patting them with paper towels. The muffins were very dense and lacked in flavor. I will not use this recipe again.
Hi Victoria, I have made these many times and haven’t experienced that. I wonder if you used a different measure of butter? Some butter comes in different packages, I suggest checking the metric measurements to what you are using. That definitely sounds unusual.
The recipe card says half a cup of butter and then underneath it says 8 tablespoons so maybe she added all of it. Like half a cup of butter and 8 tablespoons makes it a little confusing. Might want to change that! This recipe is divine!
I also had the same issue ,pools of butter in the bottom of the muffin tins , butter soaked through the paper liner. Never had that happen before with other recipes 🤷🏻♀️
Hi, I haven’t had that experience either however the only thing I can think of is to make sure that the butter is softened and not melted, otherwise it may not incorporate properly into the batter.
Easy to make but way too sweet for me. Would cut the sugar way down if I make again.
Sounds good, Marsha. Feel free to adjust the sugar level next time, I hope that helps!
Family loves theses muffins. Definitely track baking time. Do not over bake.
I’m so glad your family loves the banana muffins.