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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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 the flavor is just as good.
Banana Muffins Video
Watch me turn those brown, mushy 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 Muffin Recipe
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.
Since chocolate chips make everything better, we’ve tossed a few into the batter. They add great moisture and a gooey chocolate chip is the equivalent of melty cheese in the dessert world. One look at our chocolate chip cookies and you’ll agree.
Ingredients for Banana Muffins
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
- Wet ingredients – unsalted butter (to control the sodium level), sugar, eggs, and vanilla
- Ripe Bananas – 3 medium-sized bananas (about 1 cup) mashed up. Brown is best since it has the most natural sugar. Here’s how to determine if they are past ripe. If they aren’t quite ripe, see our 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 for 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 and store on the counter for 24 hours. You can also try to 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 batter. Fold in 3/4 cup chocolate chips.
- Scoop batter into your lined muffin tin, sprinkle with chocolate chips, and bake for 20-25 minutes.
Pro Tips for Moist Banana Muffins
There are 3 key points for achieving moist and tender muffin:
- 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.
Make-Ahead
Cooled muffins keep well on the counter in an airtight container for up to 5 days. They keep even longer in the freezer. Make a double batch so you’ll always have muffins on hand!
- Freezing: Place cooled muffins in an airtight freezer container for up to 3 months.
- To Reheat: Thaw on the counter or in the fridge.
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?
More Muffin Recipes
Enjoy our top-rated, made-from-scratch, bakery-quality muffin recipes. I hope you find some new favorites here.
- Egg Muffins
- Blueberry Muffins
- Mixed Berry Muffins
- Zucchini Muffins
- French Breakfast Muffins
- English Muffins
- Cinnamon Muffins
Banana Muffins Recipe
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
Nutrition Per Serving
Filed Under
Absolutely divine was tired of banan bread had to try these no changes now I can freeze what’s left for later.
Thank you
I am new to baking and made these for the first time. I followed your recipe to a T but the muffins were dry, not moist inside. What could have caused this? Please advise. PS I did use raw sugar, could that have made a difference? Can I mix this up next time in a kitchen aid stand mixer?
Hi Berkeley! Two common reasons are over baking or using too much flour. Are you using a convection (fan) oven? If so, it would require modifications since they would bake faster. This recipe was tested in a conventional oven. I would recommend using an internal oven thermometer (Amazon affiliate link) to check to see if you oven is heating correctly. Also, watch my tutorial on how to measure ingredients here.
You can use a stand mixer, but it’s easy to overmix the batter in a stand mixer. This can cause a gummy and dense cake so you’ll want to be mindful to not overmix.
I just want to say, I love that you repeated the measurements in the directions!! I wish all recipes did this!! I hate having to flip back and forth it makes it take so much longer to make the recipe!
Muffins were delicious!
You are so welcome. I’m so glad it was helpful.
Delish! Substituted the chocolate chips for half toffee chips and half walnuts as I was out. Also used brown sugar and they were great:)
What a great idea with the toffee chips!
Made them! Loved them! Added frozen blueberries once in pan and used maple instead of sugar! Thank you so much first time muffins 😊
Hi Natasha, can i use Becel margarine instead of butter?
I have not tested margarine in place of butter.
What measuring tools do u use? As far as I know American measurements differ from European ones.🙏🌺
Hi! This recipe includes US customary and metric options. Just click on the metric button in the recipe card to get the conversions.
I just made these and they came out so freaking good! I used gf flour due to dietary needs. I’m so pleased. They’re moist, not dense, and very flavorful. Thank you for sharing!
That’s great, Kati! Thanks for sharing.
Hi Natasha, can I use white whole wheat flour on this recipe? Thank you.
Hi Janice, I haven’t tested that so I’m not sure how it would affect the texture or what else needs to be modified with using that.
Delicious! Perfect texture and flavor and very easy to make. Thank you!
I’m so happy you enjoyed that. Thank you for sharing that with me, Susan!
Hi, I had anyone tried them with maple syrup instead of sugar.
Hi Anne, while I haven’t tried that, here’s what one of my readers wrote: “Turned out amazing. I used spelt flour, raw brown sugar and didn’t have vanilla so put in some maple syrup. Best muffins I’ve ever made.” I hope that helps.
I made these last night, baked at 350 for 25 minutes and they were very dark and dry. I bake a lot, so it’s not my oven. I’m wondering why this happened? Was a waste of ingredients as they were all thrown out
Hi Jordynn! Are you using a convection (fan) oven? This recipe is written for a conventional oven on regular bake mode. A convection oven will bake a lot faster. Also, did you use standard sized cupcake/muffin pans? I am not sure why they would be dark unless they were over baked. Over baking can also cause them to be dry, but using too much flour can make them dense and dry. I would ensure you’re measuring your ingredients correctly. I have a tutorial on how to measure ingredients here. I still encourage the use of an Internal oven thermometer (Amazon affiliate link) to see if your oven is well calibrated. I hope that helps.
The thing I did was put them in a smaller muffin pan (they were like 2 inches) and they were so dark lol I realized when I had left over batter but I just put it aside and made something else with that. I made them again a second time last night in a larger muffin pan and they were delicious, very moist! I also added another banana! But I was also thinking if you don’t have a larger muffin pan just put them in for less time and keep checking them. I felt so stupid😂😂
What size scoop did you use ? There are so many different sizes . Where can I the parchment muffin liners ?
Hello Pam. Here’s my Amazon Affiliate link for the Ice Cream Scoop. You may also go to my Amazon Shop to view the liners and all the other kitchen tools that I am using.
Hi, you ask for 3 ripe bananas, but how many grams of unpeeled bananas would that be, as my bananas are quite small.
Hi Alice! I did not measure my bananas in grams. Since they are all different sizes, the grams slightly change, but a medium banana weighs about 118g.
fool proof yummy muffin! They stay so moist for long time.. Thank you Natasha! We’ve been cooking your recipes for years! All fantastic!
I used apple sauce instead of butter, brown sugar and cranberries. Came out great! Thanks!
How long would you bake this if you wanted to make a loaf instead?
Hi Andi! Please reference my Banana bread recipe for that.
These are the absolute best banana muffins! I’ve made muffins with this recipe only for a couple years now. I love all of Natasha’s recipes I’ve tried.
I’m so glad to hear that, Laci!
I love your recipes, especially for cakes and muffins! I’m planning to make these muffins eggless for my mom. Do you have any suggestions for egg substitutes?
Thank you for your great feedback, Anita. I have not tried making this eggless to advise.
Is 1 muffin a serving? I am needing to know as I am counting calories to try and lose weight.
Thank you!
Hi Angela, yes that is correct!
Thank you Natasha for sharing this oh so yummy Banana muffin recipe!
My daughter, Leia(8yo), and son, Luke (10yo), helped bake them this morning and the results were amazing! We all think they taste so good. 😊
That is the best when kids love what we moms make. That’s so great!