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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The muffins are great!
I was wondering if i can use vanilla powder (like solid vanilla extract) and instead mix it with all the dry ingredients, do you think it would make a difference?
Also, can i have all the dry ingredients together instead of seperating the sugar. This would be useful for a project.
I’m glad you love the recipe. I think the vanilla powder would be fine, it could alter the taste a bit since not all vanilla extracts/powders taste similar. I have not tried mixing the sugar with the dry ingredients. It’s important to cream the butter with the sugar and eggs. I would experiment with a batch beforehand to see if it works well for your project.
Hello,
Suprisingly it works! You can add the sugar with the rest of the dry ingredients! It doesn’t look the greatest (probably beacause it was 2 days old) but still tastes the same. I have not yet tried the vanilla sugar. This test was done without chocolate chips.
Thank you for sharing with us.
I made these banana muffins with white chocolate chips yesterday and they were delicious, flavourful, and moist! My partner loves banana bread but I didn’t have the one hour for the baking so I made these muffins instead. They were easy and quick and the recipe was accurate. I will keep making them for sure! Thank you very much for sharing this recipe Natasha!
Hi May, you are very welcome! I’m so glad that you both loved this recipe.
I made these this morning, and after five minutes in the pan cooling, I decided to eat one. They are amazing so light and fluffy. The texture is out of this world. I added dark chocolate chips, and walnuts to mine. Myself a pretty continuous baker. And having made Many different banana breads/muffins. This is by far the best. Thank you so much.
You’re so welcome! I’m very happy to know that you enjoyed our Banana Muffins Recipe so much!
My First time trying banana muffins and this recipe is a must try. Muffins are soft and moist, very delicious. I added nutmeg and cinnamon powder to my mixture.
So glad you loved it!
Followed recipe exactly, the butter amount is higher than my usual recipe of 1/3 cup! Ended up boing too oily and the butter seeped through the muffin wrapper. Also a good portion of the muffin stuck to the wrapper. I never have such issue, so it’s not a me or an oven problem. It’s a recipe problem. Too much butter does not necessarily translate to successful recipes!
Hi Sarah, I haven’t had the experience that you are describing here. Did you possibly sub any of the other ingredients or change proportions?
Same thing happened to me! Oil seeped through the liners and muffins stuck to the paper. I don’t like a lot of cinnamon, but I think a little would improve these. I followed the recipe. Banana sizes can vary considerably. A range of mashed banana volume might be helpful.
I replaced the sugar with 1/3 cup of maple syrup and did not use chocolate chips. The sweetness was perfect. These were the best banana muffins I’ve ever made. Thank you for the recipe!
Great to hear that it was a success! Thanks a lot for sharing.
I made these with a minor tweak, it substituted 1/3 cup of honey for the sugar, and they were delicious. I’d like to try subbing oat flour for the all-purpose. Has anyone tried that? any tips?
I’m so glad you loved it with honey! I honestly haven’t tried this recipe with oat flour to advise.
Do I have to use baking soda?
What about baking Powder?
What happens if I use baking powder instead?
Hello there, I saw one of our readers shared this comment “This recipe was fast to make and absolutely delicious! I made the muffins without the chocolate chips because I did not have any on hand. Also, I did not have baking soda, so I used baking powder in lieu of that. However, they were very tasty and super moist. Perfect use of leftover bananas!” I hope that helps.
Made these today and they were amazing. My family loved them.
So glad to hear that, Debbie! Thank you for the feedback.
I made the banana muffins, but used chopped pecans instead of chocolate chips. Oh so good. I had to hide them from my husband. I will make these often. Thank you!
I’m so glad you enjoyed it, Sylvia!
I have used so
Much of your recipes!This bananna muffin is the best by far.So moist
Hi Cristine, thank you for sharing! We’re so glad that you are enjoying our recipes.
Made 2 loaves of your banana bread. Wow!! Super moist & gone in to days. Also made your Apple banana muffins. Family ate all those up in 2-3 days also. My muffins were a bit small. What size of paper liner do you use? I going to make a double recipe of Chocolate chip banana muffins.
Hi Deana. That’s great! I use standard size cupcake liners that fit in a standard cupcake/muffin pan.
This is my go to recipe when I have overripe bananas. Tbh more often than not I let the bananas overripen just so I can make these muffins. Family loves to help make them and of course eat them.
Hi Tracy! I’m so glad your family loves the recipe.
I just made them. Easy. Haven’t tried one yet but they smell so good. The
I bet your home smells amazing right now, Di! I hope you love it!
These turned out amazing. So soft and delicious. I made it with a combination of whole wheat flour and all-purpose flour to make it healthy for my toddler. I was worried the texture will turn out dry but they were perfect. Thanks for the recipe!
I’m so glad you loved the recipe. Thank you for sharing your experience.
I made these last evening. They turned out sooo delicious and moist. I had four ripe bananas so I used them all.
I’m so happy you enjoyed that. Thank you for sharing that with us, Jeanne!
On your banana bread recipe you said you could sub honey for the sugar and it works great, would that work in these banana muffins as well?
Hi Katie! Yes, that would work for these as well.
We love these muffins! What is the best substitute for the butter to make them dairy free?
Hi Jayne, I Ddo not recommend skipping on the butter. Since there is no other ‘liquid’ in this recipe, softened butter is needed for a soft and moist crumb.
Jayne, Most grocery stores carry a dairy free butter substitute that works just like butter. Miyoko’s is one brand. Buy it in cubes in butter isle. Cooks just like real butter.
Have to say they are the best muffins!👍 I added chopped pecans as well! I use this recipe all the time & it never fails! Everyone loves them!
Thanks for sharing!
I’m so glad you loved the recipe, Anna!
Very easy recipe to pull together. I added walnuts this time but may try raisins next time. Thanks!
Sounds great! Happy to know that you loved our Banana Muffins Recipe.