These banana chocolate chip muffins are the best way to use leftover bananas before they get thrown away! They’re easy to make, full of delicious banana flavor, and can be made with nuts or no nuts! It’s one banana chocolate chip muffin recipe you’ll keep forever!
How many times have you been asked do you want chocolate chips added to that? Whether it’s pancakes, waffles, or muffins – the answer is always yes. Add chocolate chips, chocolate chunks, or some other form of chocolate to everything! Always. There’s a reason chocolate chip cookies are so popular!
The chocolate chips in these banana chocolate chip muffins is really what makes these better than all the other banana muffins out there. The chocolate chips + nuts really but if you don’t do nuts then at least stick with the chocolate chips!
This recipe is one that I got from my mom who made these for us all the time growing up. Any time we had leftover bananas we knew that when we got home from school those bananas would be replaced with these banana chocolate chip muffins.
Want to know the funniest thing about that? My mom doesn’t even like bananas. She made these muffins for us and sometimes even eats them (because they taste more like chocolate than bananas) but most of the time she just made them because she knew we loved them.
That’s just how moms are right?
Why You’ll Love This Recipe
- Super easy – this is one of those foolproof recipes where you just dump, mix, and bake. Everyone can make and enjoy them!
- Great consistency – these are a nice moist banana but have a good amount of texture as well because of the addition of walnuts! It’s kind of perfect really.
- Keep well – make a batch of these at the beginning of the week and enjoy all week long. Then freeze them when you get tired of them, they freeze and reheat fantastic!
Ingredients
Ingredient Notes
- Bananas – these are best with super ripe bananas but if you don’t have any and are still craving banana muffins, not so ripe bananas will work as well. Just make sure they’re not green!
- Chocolate chips – I like to use semi-sweet regular size chocolate chips in these but if you want them a tad sweeter you could also use milk chocolate. You can also use mini chocolate chips if you have those on hand instead!
- Walnuts – I think these are best with walnuts but if you’re not a nut person, you can leave them out!
How to Make Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins
The thing I love most about these is that you can have them in the oven baking in less than five minutes (or as long as it takes for your oven to preheat!)
Simplest recipe ever. There’s no mix this first than that next.
Preheat your oven and either line a muffin tin with muffin liners or spray it well so the muffins don’t stick.
Start by just mixing in everything other than the chocolate chips until they’re all well combined.
Then add chocolate chips and walnuts (if you want) until just combined. I recommend folding these in with a spatula but it’s not like with this ice cream bread where it’ll actually matter that much if you just turn the mixer back on!
Put the batter into your muffin tin and pat on the counter once or twice to get rid of air bubbles and then it’s go time!
Bake and eat. Okay maybe let them cool slightly first so the chocolate doesn’t burn your mouth but really bake and eat.
I recommend eating them with a little butter, maybe Nutella, or honestly just by themselves is delicious!
So easy to make and both kids and adults will love them! Watch the video in this post to see how easy they are to make!
Expert Tips
Mash your banana using a hand mixer to make it nice and smooth quickly. If you don’t have a hand mixer, mashing by fork works as well, it’ll just take a bit longer.
Store muffins in an airtight container for up to a week. If you have not eaten these in a week, place in an airtight container or storage bag and freeze. You can either just allow them to come to room temperature to thaw or put one in a cold toaster oven or oven and set to 350 degrees. Allow the muffins to warm up with the oven to get ooey gooey chocolate all over again!
If you skip the walnuts, I recommend adding another 1/4-1/2 cup of chocolate chips to the batter to make up for the missing walnuts. The amount depends on how chocolately you want these.
Banana Muffin FAQs
You likely didn’t cook them long enough. Bake the muffins until you can put a toothpick down the center of the largest muffin and it comes out clean (no batter on it). They should also spring back to the touch and not seem liquidy at all if you slightly move the pan left and right.
If you’re looking for healthy banana muffins, these are not them. But I do have a couple of options to make healthier if you want or you can just skip these muffins and do something like these breakfast muffins instead. For this recipe, omit the chocolate chips (or replace them with Whole 30 friendly Lily’s chocolate chips or try applesauce instead of the melted butter. It will impact the texture of the muffins but they still taste fine.
Banana muffins typically take 18-25 minutes to cook depending on the temperate of your oven. Start checking them right around 18 minutes then check every 3-5 minutes after that if they’re not done yet.
These banana muffins freeze fantastic! Simply put them in an airtight container or zipper bag and put in the freezer. When you’re ready to thaw, put them out on the counter until they come to room temperature or put them in the cold oven (or toaster oven) and let them come to temperature as your oven preheats to 350 degrees.
More Delicious Muffins
If you like these banana muffins, you’ll love these other fantastic muffin recipes!
- Lemon blueberry muffins – these blueberry muffins have a refreshing pop of lemon as well as the most delicious cinnamon streusel topping!
- Pumpkin cream cheese muffins – a delicious pumpkin muffin filled with a cheesecake like filling, these will be on your fall must-try list!
- Cranberry orange muffins – these muffins use a similar recipe to my ultra popular cranberry orange bread, just in muffin form! Then they’re topped with a sweet little glaze for the ultimate fall treat!
- Sausage breakfast muffins – if you like biscuits and gravy, you’re going to love these sausage breakfast muffins!
Easy Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins
Ingredients
- 1 cup sugar
- ½ cup butter , melted
- 3 large ripe bananas , mashed
- 2 eggs
- 2 cups flour
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1 tsp vanilla
- ¼ tsp salt
- ½ cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
- ½ cup chopped walnuts (optional)
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 350 degrees and either line a muffin tin with muffin liners or spray it with nonstick spray well so the muffins don’t stick.
- Mix all of your ingredients other than the chocolate chips and walnuts in a large mixing bowl until well combined.1 cup sugar, 1/2 cup butter, 3 large ripe bananas, 2 eggs, 2 cups flour, 1 tsp baking soda, 1 tsp vanilla, 1/4 tsp salt
- Fold in chocolate chips and walnuts and stir until mixed in evenly.1/2 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips, 1/2 cup chopped walnuts
- Divide batter evenly into the prepared muffin tin.
- Bake in greased muffin tins or with paper baking cups for 18-20 minutes at 350 degrees. A toothpick poked into the center of the largest muffin should come out clean when they're done.
- Remove from the oven and allow to cool in the muffin tin for a few minutes.
- Remove from muffin tin and enjoy warm or at room temperature.
Tips & Notes:
Nutrition Info
Update: This post was originally written in 2018 and has been updated with new photos since. The recipe remains the same as always!
Coralyn says
Such a great way to use up ripe bananas and add natural sweetness to your muffins. I love the idea of adding chopped walnuts too for that added ‘bite’!
Jet says
Best banana muffin I’ve come across and intend to keep forever! About to make my 3rd batch this month! Between our household, friends, and neighbors – they don’t last long and have been highly requested! The recipe yields 18 muffins for us!
Geri says
They were great, I will them again. Thank You
BritniV says
Thank you!
Taunya says
This was an awesome recipe! So easy, and came out perfect!
BritniV says
Yea! Thank you
Wilhelmina Wessel says
These sure look yummy!
BritniV says
Thanks! Try them out and let me know how it goes!
Dini says
My mom loved to make us banana muffins too with leftover banana, but hell yea to chocolate chips and nuts! 🙂 I love the sound of these so much, I’ll making these this weekend!
BritniV says
So much better with the chocolate and nuts! I hope you enjoy them!
Ellie Kobelsky says
My family loves these muffins they are on my baking list now
Pamela @ Brooklyn Farm Girl says
Thanks for posting this at the Saturday Night Fever link party. Hope to see you back on Saturday!
Jenny Unternahrer says
Love banana bread, choc chips is just a bonus!
Becca @ Amuse Your Bouche says
These look delish! Great Christmas presents 🙂
Camila Rojas says
Those look so yummy Britni! and that printable is so cute! Thanks for sharing both recipe and the tag!!!
XOXO
Cami @ TitiCrafty