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
The banana chocolate chip muffin recipe was excellent. I absolutely loved it! So did my daughter.
I’m so happy you enjoyed that. Thank you for sharing that with us!
These were truly so yummy! My siblings usually hate banana cake and so I didn’t expect them to even eat any but all of them consumed more than one each. I was planing to munch on these soft muffins for a few days but turned out it was only for a few hours. Oh well, looks like I’ll just make some more!
That is awesome! I’m so glad that your family loved the banana muffins, I hope that you love every recipe that you try.
The recipe was amazing! I just made them and followed the recipe exactly. They look great! New go-to recipe for me for sure!! Thank you for sharing!!! I
That’s just awesome!! Thank you for sharing your wonderful review Bren!
Can I use margarine for the muffins?
Hi Shirley, I honestly just haven’t experimented with that so I’m not sure.
Thank you for sharing this recipe. I made this today & they were a hit. Will definitely save this recipe for future baking. These muffins were moist, tasty and also filing.
You’re welcome Sanj, so great that you loved it!
Just made these and they are very, very good! Just the right amount of chocolate chips. The muffins are moist and I only had two bananas but they were still soooo good!! Definitely a keeper!!
Thanks Natasha..
Love it! So glad that you loved the recipe, Linda. Thanks for sharing and for giving it great feedback.
I tried this today.. i changed the chocolate chips to kitkat😋 so soft, moist and yummy
Wow I’ve never tried using kitkat yet but now that you mentioned, it sounds like a great idea!
Tried it today! It’s soft and yummy. Thanks for the recipe.
You’re welcome and thanks for giving this recipe a try!
If I want to make banana nut muffins instead, would I put the nuts in place of the chocolate and would it still come out the same? And what kind of nuts would you recommend me using?
It will work with nuts also! I hope you love this recipe!
Is all purpose flour. The same as plain flour in uk ?
In UK we have either plain or
self raising flour no all purpose.
Thanks
Hi Alison, I wish I could say, do you know the protein count of the plain flour in the UK? I’m assuming it is similar to all-purpose but it is hard to say without knowing.
Hey
I tried it today And it turned up so well.i had no baking soda so instead I used baking powder but it still worked ☺️I tried it with honey topping and it tastes awesome.
Thanks for sharing that with us, Sarika. So good to know that you had some substitute ingredients available and that it worked great too!
I made this Banana Muffins Recipe it was delicious and moist.
I use 1/4 cup of sugar only but add 1 cup of unsweetened apple sauce then I use 1 Pure Semi-Sweet chocolate bar and use a mallet yo crush up the chocolate and I add chopped up cranberry to my mixture
Thought the muffins would be hard this morning because they were so moist yesterday but they are actually great
Thank you for the recipe I trek it with the sugar because I am diabetic
Thanks for sharing that with us, Collette. I’m glad that you had a good experience making this recipe!
SO SO good and SO easy! 110% recommend!!
Love the more than perfect rating!
Made your banana muffins recipe and it came out great! I actually added pistachios to it and less chocolate chips 😊.
Nice one! I should try that next time it sounds yummy
Want to substitute olive oil for the butter. Would I need 1/2 cup. Please
Respond
To my email as below.
Hi Linda, I wouldn’t recommend skimping on the butter. Since there is no other ‘liquid’ in this recipe, softened butter is needed for a soft and moist crumb. Although here is what one of our readers wrote that you may find helpful – “”Wonderful muffin recipe! I made a few tiny tweaks… I subbed canola oil for half of the butter (I want very moist muffins!), half brown sugar for the white (I like the depth of flavor it brings) and I added a little cinnamon. They were fantastic! My entire family loved them. Thank you for the easy, excellent recipe!””
I made a double batch and although they taste good they were so dense. I don’t know what I did wrong.
I made these but had to change ingredients for our allergy kiddos. I used a gluten free all purpose flour that I mix up (sorghum, potato, tapioca, and xanthan gum) and replaced the eggs with a flaxseed and water mixture (2 Tablespoons Flaxseed with 6 Tablespoons water). We also had to use Earth Balance Soy Free to replace the butter. I also added just under a cup of blueberries instead of chocolate chips. Our middle child has had to go gluten free like our other two and he normally dislikes everything I make. He loved these muffins and wanted 3 at a time! It has been his to go breakfast in the morning. Thank you for providing a recipe that I was able to substitute and that turned out delicious!!
We are managing 82 food allergies in our house, so it is difficult to find recipes that work for us. I did attempt to substitute the banana for applesauce and it did not work. The banana is a must!! I am so happy that we found a great recipe that I can make work for our family. Thank you!!
Wow! Thank you so much for sharing all of these tips and changes with us, Sara!! Our readers will find this extremely helpful!
Hi Natasha!
Just wanted to ask how much butter in grams I need to use for this recipe (1/2 cup butter (8 Tbsp)? We used to measure in grams… And thank you so much for you blog!!! So easy and so tasty!!!!
Hi Tania, I completely understand, we have the metric conversion option available via our printable recipe. Simply click “Jump to recipe” at the top of the post that will take you to our printable recipe where you’ll have the option to change the measurements from US Customary to Metric. I hope that helps!
Doubled the recipe and made a batch of 12 muffins and a cake for my boyfriend’s quarantine birthday. Baked the cake for 30 mins and the muffins for 25, both turned out SO delicious. Kept opening the box up to smell these delicious muffins and had one for breakfast as well. The muffins rose well and formed beautiful brown tops. I used chocolate chips as well as roughly chopped chocolate chunks, which gave me those delicious pools of chocolate in the muffin and cake! All in all, a perfect recipe. Thank you!
Thank you so much for your detailed and wonderful feedback! Your message makes me happy and inspired to do more recipes!
These look great, can I also add a handful of frozen blueberries to this recipe?
Hi Jeanette, I haven’t tried that but that sounds tasty. Let me know if you experiment.
Wonderful muffin recipe! I made a few tiny tweaks… I subbed canola oil for half of the butter (I want very moist muffins!), half brown sugar for the white (I like the depth of flavor it brings) and I added a little cinnamon. They were fantastic! My entire family loved them. Thank you for the easy, excellent recipe!
You’re welcome! I’m so glad you enjoyed that recipe!!
I am such an amateur baker that I read each instruction and scanned your pictures about three-four times while making these muffins.
They are so good. So moist. So delicious. You’d think I was baking for a few years!
This is the second recipe I’ve tried and no matter how much I’ve messed up the process, it’s turned out pretty brilliant!
Thank you, Natasha!!!!
PS – didn’t have a few ingredients, so I substitutied granulated sugar for 80gms caster sugar, as I don’t like it too sweet and chopped up a few dairy milk cubes instead a of chips. Worked out great! 👌🏻
I’m so glad you’re enjoying our recipes Tamsin! Thank you for sharing that with me!