One of my all-time favorite recipes, these muffins are fluffy, tender, and bursting with banana and chocolate flavor. Naturally-sweet brown bananas mix with warm notes of cinnamon, brown sugar, and walnuts for the coziest way to start your morning!
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While I am usually a very patient person, I am currently struggling to wait for my bananas to ripen enough to make another batch of these amazingly addictive, tender, chocolaty muffins.
Seriously, these muffins bookend my days: it's the first thing I eat when I come down in the morning, and a comforting, cozy "nightcap" that hits those sweet, caramel, chocolaty notes just before bed.
The interior crumb is moist yet light and full of natural banana flavor, which means only a minimal amount of sugar is added to this recipe (minus the chocolate chips, of course). The muted presence of chopped walnuts also brings a crunchy contrast while enhancing the sweetness from the bananas.
Serve these during busy school mornings or have these as something to look forward to during afternoon slumps at work. Or, if you're like me, you'll also grab one during a midnight Netflix binge session in addition to the aforementioned scenarios, which at that rate, means you'll be baking these once a week-- yes, please!
Methods for This Recipe
This recipe can be made in two ways, depending on the overall ripeness of your bananas:
Option 1 - Yellow/Brown Bananas: As with most banana bread-style recipes, these muffins call for bananas that are still yellow with brown spots (see "Ingredients" for a reference picture). If your bananas are at this stage of ripeness, proceed with the recipe below as written.
Option 2 - All-Brown Bananas: If you bananas are completely browned without any yellow pigment remaining, use 250-300g of bananas (about 1 ½-2 bananas) and reduce the buttermilk to just 3 tablespoons. The extra natural juices and sweetness from the bananas will only add further depth of flavor and a fluffy interior that you will crave again and again.
A Note on Ripening Bananas
There are many methods that supposedly help bananas ripen faster, either by baking them in the oven, by storing them in brown paper bags, or by simply allowing them to sit and ripen naturally.
It seems that the general consensus is that while some of these other methods will yield similar results, nothing beat the rich banana flavor and moist texture of waiting for the bananas to ripen naturally on the counter. So I will leave it up to you as to which ripening method you prefer, but I strongly recommend the delayed gratification approach; I promise the results will be more than satisfying.
Why Chocolate Lovers Make This Recipe
- One bowl recipe -- these muffins require just two dishes--a mixing bowl and a spatula--which means you can reallocate the time it would have taken to clean up to instead accomplish other items on your to-do list, and have delicious muffins afterwards as a reward!
- Lower-sugar recipe -- as mentioned above, the use of overripened bananas drastically cuts down on the added sugars in the recipe, since browned bananas are full of natural sugars.
- Tender and moist -- since I'm not really much of a cake person, a muffin must be light and full of moisture, without exception. These muffins contains lots of wet ingredients with just enough flour to bring them together, resulting in a tender, craveable crumb.
Ingredients and Variations
These banana chocolate chip muffins come together with lots of kitchen staples, including:
Bananas -- as mentioned previously, use browned bananas for the sweetest flavor and their high juice/water content, both of which lend to the muffins' natural flavor and light texture. And if you are just bursting to make these muffins sooner, you can bake these bananas in the oven on low heat (around 300 degrees Fahrenheit for about 20-30 minutes, but know that this caramelizes the bananas instead of ripening them, so the flavor and texture won't be the same.
Melted butter -- incorporating melted butter adds to a richer texture, a more decadent flavor, and tenderizes the interior crumb for an unforgettable bite.
Sour cream -- much like melted butter, sour cream adds moisture and fat to the recipe, preventing the muffins' interior from drying out during baking. You can also substitute 1-1 with plain Greek yogurt.
Buttermilk -- using real buttermilk, as opposed to whole milk, adds an acidic depth of flavor that balances the natural sweetness from the bananas and prevents the muffins from becoming too rich. If you don't have buttermilk on hand, stir together 1 cup of milk with 1 tablespoon of vinegar or lemon juice and allow to sit for 5-10 minutes, or until the milk has visibly curdled and is then ready to use.
Walnuts (optional) -- bananas and walnuts have been a signature combination in cooking and baking forever, and this recipe is no exception. Finely chop the walnuts to create tiny pockets of crunch that, in conjunction with the chocolate chips, lend some toothsome-ness to the final product. If you don't like walnuts, you can substitute with pecans or another type of nut, or omit altogether for those with nut allergies.
Turbinado sugar (optional) -- not originally calculated in this recipe's sugar content, professional bakers often add a light sprinkle of turbinado sugar just before baking for last-minute caramelization and crystalized crunch. Feel free to omit this step, if desired.
Tips for Success
- As mentioned throughout this post, I recommend using overripe bananas that are completely brown for their sweetness and higher juice/water content, which creates a more tender muffin. While you can technically bake bananas until they are fully brown, know that this caramelizes them rather than ripens them, so the flavor and texture will still be different than waiting for the bananas to ripen naturally.
- Since this recipe uses baking soda to help the muffins rise during baking, do not let the batter sit for any length of time once the baking soda has been added to the batter. Baking soda activates as soon as it is hydrated, and quickly loses its leavening abilities the longer it sits.
- Coating add-ins like nuts and chocolate chips in a light dusting of flour prevents them from sinking to the bottom during baking.
- Don't forget to remove the muffins from the tins after their initial cooling time. Leaving them for much longer inside the tins causes the muffins to steam and then become soggy on the sides and bottom.
Storage and Reheating Instructions
For best results, wrap each muffin individually in a sheet of cling film, then store in either a resealable bag or in an airtight container for 5-7 days.
While you can eat these muffins straight from storage, I found that placing them in the microwave for 10-15 seconds warmed the inside enough to melt the chocolate chips, resulting in decadent, gooey goodness.
Video
Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins
Equipment
- 1 large mixing bowl
- 1 rubber spatula
- 1 12-cavity muffin tin
- 12 muffin wrappers
- 1 teaspoon
- 1 wire cooling rack
Ingredients
- 300 grams overripe bananas see "Methods for This Recipe" for more info
- 113 grams butter, melted
- 50 grams granulated sugar
- 50 grams dark brown sugar
- 1 whole egg
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 30 grams sour cream
- 4 ounces buttermilk see "Methods for This Recipe" for more info
- 200 grams all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 55 grams walnuts, chopped
- 200 grams semi-sweet or dark chocolate chips plus a few more for topping muffins
- 3 tablespoons turbinado sugar
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350℉. Grease a 12-cavity muffin tin with nonstick cooking spray, line each cavity with a cupcake wrapper, then grease each wrapper to prevent the muffins from sticking.
- Peel the bananas and add to a large mixing bowl. Thoroughly mash the bananas with a fork until they resemble applesauce, then add the melted butter, granulated sugar, dark brown sugar, egg, vanilla extract, sour cream, and buttermilk and stir to combine.
- In the same bowl, sprinkle in the all-purpose flour, ground cinnamon, baking soda, baking powder, and salt and fold until just combined-- do NOT overmix! Fold in the walnuts and chocolate chips.
- Use a teaspoon to neatly scoop the batter into the prepared muffin wrappers, filling each one to the top. Generously sprinkle the turbinado sugar overtop each muffin. Optionally, sprinkle a few more chocolate chips over each muffin, then bake for 18-20 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out with a few wet crumbs. Allow the muffins to cool in the pan for 2-3 minutes before turning out onto a wire cooling rack to finish cooling.
