Moist and delicious banana chocolate chip muffins with simple ingredients. No fancy equipment needed and ready in about 35 minutes! The recipe is vegan, gluten-free, and super easy to make. These tender banana muffins are great for breakfast or as dessert!
If you love banana bread, I am sure you will love these vegan banana muffins. Maybe you have a couple of overripe bananas and don’t know what to do with them? Please don’t throw them away, no matter how mushy they are! Overripe bananas are the BEST for banana bread muffins.
I love making muffins because they have the perfect size to satisfy my cravings for a sweet treat in the afternoon. They bake quicker than a cake and are simply convenient. Kids love muffins too and often want to get involved in making them. So, let’s start baking!
Simple Ingredients
The recipe has only 8 simple ingredients (baking powder, baking soda, and salt not counted) and you probably have all ingredients in your pantry already.
Oats or oat flour – You can use store-bought oat flour (regular or gluten-free). If you have a bag of oats, simply process them in an electric coffee/spice grinder or a blender to make oat flour. Blend for some seconds and your oat flour is ready (I always do that).
Even though oat flour is naturally gluten-free, people who have a gluten allergy (celiac disease) need to buy certified gluten-free oats/oat flour. Oats are often processed in facilities that also process regular wheat flour, therefore, contamination can occur!
Coconut sugar – You can use brown sugar, white sugar, date sugar, cane sugar or any other granulated sweetener. For me, 1/3 of a cup is sweet enough, however, if you want the banana muffins to be sweeter (simply taste the batter), you can add 1/2 cup of sugar.
Dairy-free chocolate chips – I often use these vegan mini chocolate chips but you can use regular-sized chocolate chips.
Plant-based milk – Any dairy-free milk is fine. Some examples are almond milk, cashew milk, coconut milk, oat milk, etc. I prefer canned or homemade coconut milk because it’s higher in fat and make the vegan banana muffins moist.
Bananas – They must be super ripe, yellow with many dark spots. Please don’t use green unripe bananas!
Nut butter – I used peanut butter because that’s what I always have in my pantry. You can also use almond butter or cashew butter, etc. Choose coconut butter for a nut-free version! If you don’t have nut butter at home, you can use coconut oil or canola oil.
Apple cider vinegar – In combination with the baking soda and baking powder, it helps the banana chocolate chip muffins to rise. You can use white vinegar or lemon juice instead.
All ingredients AND measurements including the nutrition facts are listed in the recipe card BELOW!
How To Make Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins?
You don’t need a blender or food processor to make these healthy banana muffins! All you need is two bowls, one whisk, and the plant-based ingredients that I just mentioned.
STEP 1: First, you should line a muffin pan with paper liners (or grease the pan with vegan butter or oil). Preheat oven to 360 degrees Fahrenheit (ca. 182 °C).
STEP 2: Add all dry ingredients (except the chocolate chips) to a large mixing bowl. Stir with a whisk.
STEP 3: Mash the bananas in a medium-sized bowl and add the other wet ingredients (you can also blend all wet ingredients in a blender).
STEP 4: Add the wet ingredients to the large mixing bowl and stir with a whisk or a hand mixer. Stir in the chocolate chips.
STEP 5: Divide the batter among the wells of the muffin pan. There is enough batter for 8 muffins.
STEP 6: Bake for approximately 25 minutes or until you spot cracks on top of the muffins. Insert a toothpick into the center of a muffin. It should come out almost clean (it’s fine if the toothpick comes out crumbly/slightly sticky but it shouldn’t come out wet).
STEP 7: Let the banana oatmeal muffins cool and enjoy!
Tips & Variations
How to store banana muffins? You can double the recipe and store leftover muffins in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 5 days or freeze in zip-lock bags for up to 3 months. These muffins are also great for meal-prep!
Make them refined sugar-free! Simply, leave out the chocolate chips to make these banana muffins healthier and refined sugar-free. You can replace the chocolate chips with nuts, raisins or possibly even blueberries, raspberries, cranberries, etc.
Not a fan of bananas? 🍌 Even though these are banana chocolate chip muffins, you can use applesauce instead of bananas. I know it’s quite funny but I often get asked if my banana desserts can be made without bananas. Go figure!
Regular flour – Most of my readers appreciate my gluten-free vegan recipes and thank me for it. However, I often get asked if specific desserts can be made with regular all-purpose flour because it’s easier to get. And yes, that’s often possible and most of the time baked goods turn out fluffier with wheat flour because of the gluten. Also, for these banana muffins, you can use regular flour or spelt flour instead of oat flour.
On the left you can see the banana chocolate chip muffins made with oat flour and on the right are the exact same muffins with all-purpose flour. Btw. I prefer the ones with oat flour!
These Banana Bread Muffins Are:
- Vegan (dairy-free, egg-free)
- Gluten-free (if using oat flour)
- Can be made nut-free
- Can be made refined sugar-free
- Moist
- Delicious
- Easy to make with simple ingredients
- Healthier than most banana muffins
If you love muffins, make sure to check out my other delicious vegan & gluten-free recipes:
You can also make mini banana muffins! How cute is this little guy:
Should you give these tasty banana chocolate chip muffins a try, please leave a comment and rating below and tag me in your Instagram or Facebook post with #elavegan and @elavegan.
Banana Bread Muffins
Ingredients
Dry ingredients:
- 1 2/3 cup (150 g) oat flour gluten-free if needed (*see notes)
- 1/3 heaped cup (75 g) coconut sugar (*see notes)
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1/3 tsp baking soda
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 1/3 cup (60 g) dairy-free chocolate chips + more for the top
Wet ingredients:
- 1/2 cup (120 ml) plant-based milk (*see notes)
- 2 small/medium (160 g) bananas mashed (*see notes)
- 1/4 cup (65 g) nut butter (*see notes)
- 1 tbsp apple cider vinegar
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
Instructions
- Line a muffin pan with paper liners and preheat oven to 360 degrees Fahrenheit (ca. 182 °C).
- Add the dry ingredients (except chocolate chips) to a large mixing bowl.
- Mash the bananas in a different medium-sized bowl with a fork. Add the other wet ingredients and stir until combined. You can also blend all wet ingredients in a blender or food processor.
- Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and stir with a whisk. You can also use a hand mixer.
- Finally, stir in the dairy-free chocolate chips.
- Divide the batter among the wells of the muffin pan. I had enough batter to make 8 muffins.
- Bake for about 25 minutes or until you spot cracks on top of the muffins. I also recommend making a toothpick test. Insert a toothpick into the center of one muffin. It should come out almost clean (it's ok if there are some crumbs attached to the toothpick, but it shouldn't come out wet).
- Let the muffins cool and enjoy! Store leftovers in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 5 days or freeze for up to 3 months.
Notes
- Flour: You can use regular all-purpose flour, whole wheat flour or spelt flour instead of oat flour. A gluten-free 1:1 all-purpose flour should work fine too (I haven't tried it though).
- Sugar: Use brown sugar, white sugar, date sugar or any other granulated sweetener instead of coconut sugar. For me, 1/3 of a cup is sweet enough, however, if you want sweeter muffins (simply taste the batter), you can add 1/2 cup of sugar.
- Plant-based milk: Any dairy-free milk is fine. Some examples are almond milk, cashew milk, coconut milk, oat milk, etc. I prefer milk that is higher in fat like canned coconut milk.
- Bananas: They should be very ripe, yellow with many dark spots. Please don't use green unripe bananas!
- Nut butter: I used peanut butter, but you can also use almond butter, cashew butter or coconut butter. If you don't have nut butter at home, you can use coconut oil or canola oil.
Nutrition information is an estimate and has been calculated automatically
Equipment
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My kiddo loves this muffins.
I made them coconut sugar free and replace the chocolate drops for chopped walnuts. They taste just PERFECT!
Thank you 🙂
That’s awesome! Thanks so much for your great feedback, Andreyna. 🙂
Dear Ela,
I’m new to gluten free diet and I’m milk and egg intolerant so you’re recipes are incredibly helpful. But truly you’re awesome, I’ve tried many of you’re recepies they were all very delicious. A common problem for me is that gluten free things can get dry very soon but when I follow your recipes they are actually always quite good. So I just wanna say thank you and keep creating more recipes because they are incredibly good 🙂
Dear Renato, that makes me so happy! Thanks for letting me know, I am glad you appreciate my recipes. 🙂
Hello..
I am new to gluten free and refined sugar free baking. So before baking this recipe I request you to answer my few queries.
1. Will oats flour give the sticky mouth feel. If yes then what should I do..
2.should I sieve the oats flour or any other gf flour which I blend at home or purchased or it’s not necessary.
3.can I use homogenised cow milk instead of vegan milk in all your recipes.
4. Is dates powder and dates sugar the same thing and will it give a good texture to the muffin.
5.if I bake it without sugar or any sugar chemical and use dates what be the quantification.
Thank you
Hi! 1. Yes, oats can cause this if used alone and not in a blend. You can use buckwheat flour or sorghum flour. 2. No, I never do that. 3. If you aren’t vegan, then yes. Of course, I never tried it. 4. I don’t know, maybe google it. 5. That depends on the recipe. I can’t answer this question, you will need to experiment. 🙂
Im allergic to most grains, especially oats… is there another flour you recommend?
Buckwheat flour might work if you can eat that. 🙂
I really love and appreciate all your recipes, and this one is so easy and delicious… mmm 😋 thanks a lot for sharing 🙏🏽
Yay! I am glad you enjoyed them, Cecilia. Thanks for your sweet comment! 🙂
Hey Ela, I follow you for a bit now and I am always craving your recipes. Today I tried this one and was a total success!! I usually mess up when baking because I don’t follow the measures but this time I did precisely with a scale. The only change was that I used maple syrup instead of coconut sugar, and I also made a double recipe. Thanks for your dedicated work <3
That’s wonderful, Nathalia! I am so glad they turned out great. Thanks for your kind feedback. 🙂
I love these muffins. I would like to share a variant I recently tried as my oven broke: steam cooking instead of oven cooking. Muffins grow in a magnificent way and stay a lot softer. Medium heat, not too full pot, wrap the lid of the pot to avoid watering the muffins, it takes a bit less time for the muffins to be ready. As you pull them out It may seems like they are too wet, but it’s just for a few minutes. Since I didn’t always have the ingredients, I tried whole rice flour instead of the oat one and silken tofu instead of bananas. I think these variations can be applied to many others of your great recipes. Thank you!
That’s awesome and so interesting, Flora! Thanks a lot for sharing. 🙂
Очень Вам благодарна! Вы талантище! Получилось очень вкусно, вместо бананов добавила пюре тыквы! Получилось замечательно!!!
Thanks for your comment! I am glad they turned out delicious. 🙂
Thank you for sharing. Your recipe is amazing, once again, congratulations! I made some changes: instead of chocolate chips, I added two handfuls walnuts. I didn’t add sugar either but I put 1 medijou date and 1 tbsp carob powder. The result was awesome!!!
Regards from Spain
So glad it turned out delicious! Thanks for your comment, Marina. 🙂
Just took these out of the oven and I”m going to need to hide them so I don’t eat them alL! I had four overly ripe bananas so I doubled your recipe and was able to make 24 mini muffins, 6 regular muffins and 3 mini loafs. I had never baked using oat meal or made my own oat flour but now I’m a huge fan! Thank you for sharing! This is the second recipe I’ve tried from your blog and I’ll definitely be doing more! Appreciate all the work you put in to this blog!
Aww, that’s amazing, Courtney! I am so glad you enjoy these muffins. 🙂
It was so good! I substituted with erythritol and it was soooo tasty!!!!thank you Ela!
You are welcome! I am glad you liked the muffins. 🙂
My new go-to recipe!!! LOVE IT! I’ve made it with pecans as well and also very good!
That’s awesome, Sara! I am so glad you love the muffins. 🙂
Wow delicious. I just made these. So good. I used half oat flour half wholeweat/Wholemeal Flour. I used regular milk and coconut oil as my child kinder is nut free and I wanted to share with the staff. I’m in australia.
Thanks for your great feedback, Josette! 🙂
Thank you for another amazing recipe! My family & I are trying to be healthier this year and your recipes have been such a help!!! These are so delicious & easy to make, and we get to feel like we’ve had a naughty treat – without being really unhealthy!
Aww, that’s awesome, Maude! I am so glad you enjoyed it. Thanks for your feedback! 🙂
Hello, I don’t have a muffin pan. Could I bake this in a loaf pan?
Hey, I never tried it with this recipe, but it might work (you will need to bake the loaf longer though). You can also check the recipe for my Chocolate Chip Banana Bread (Loaf) 🙂
Do you think I could omit the sugar all together? I prefer baked goods almost on the non sweet side but I don’t want it to affect the outcome.
Hi Laura, I think the muffins won’t taste very good if you omit the sugar. Maybe use half of it. My desserts tend to be not too sweet, so omitting it all together might make the muffins taste too bland. Hope this helps! 🙂
This is hands down the best muffin I’ve found and I have tried and searched for many.
Thanks.
Aww, that’s awesome!!! I am so glad you love the recipe. 🙂
Stellar muffins!! I did tweak it a bit to suit my dietary needs. Pure maple syrup instead of sugar, sun nut butter for the peanut butter and dark chocolate (85% cocoa.) It yielded 10 full-sized muffins. Will make these again…probably tomorrow!
Fantastic, Debra! I am so glad they turned out amazing. Thanks for sharing your modifications. 🙂
Recipe turned out great!!! I used 1cup whole wheat and 2/3 cup of 1to1 flour. And used ripple chocolate milk as plant based milk. Final mixture was very thick I added some milk to thin it out and baked in a bread pan since i didn’t have muffin pan with me. Baked at lesser temperature for longer time. It tasted awesome. This is my first baking recipe that turned good. my baking used to be a disaster. Do you have any sweetner free Baking recipes for kids?
Hello! I am so glad the muffins turned out great. 🙂 Yes, I do have some desserts which can be sweetened with dates only. Here are some examples:
https://elavegan.com/vegan-peanut-butter-cookies/
https://elavegan.com/chocolate-granola-bars/
https://elavegan.com/healthy-no-bake-brownies-vegan-gluten-free/
There might be more, you can check out the category desserts here: https://elavegan.com/category/desserts/ 🙂
These came out excellent! They are so moist and delicious yet healthy. I’m definitely saving this recipe. Thank you!
My pleasure, Lindsay! I am so glad the muffins turned out delicious. 🙂
Made a 50/50 flours version.. turned out amazing! Thank you so much! 🙂
Awesome! I am glad it turned out amazing, Suse. Thanks for your feedback. 🙂
I made these using almond flour and it was a total fail. Followed the other directions, was it the almond flour? They were baking like regular cupcakes , but then sunk in and never really baked. Was still wet inside 😫
Hi Kesha, so sorry they failed but I never mentioned that almond flour can be used in this recipe. So, yes, I believe your muffins failed because you used almond flour. I have made the recipe successfully many times with different flours but never with almond flour. I hope you will follow the recipe next time and use either oat flour or the other flours mentioned in the recipe notes. Also, check the comment section. 🙂
Wow, that’s a bit harsh. I, myself came here to see if anyone had used almond flour. The reader was simply trying to make modifications, I don’t have access to oat flour so this was my thought also.
Hey, It was not my intention to sound harsh, however, oat flour and almond flour have completely different properties. Almond flour contains over 50% fat (it’s just blanched almonds) so it acts differently than oat flour. The more modification is made to a recipe (especially if it’s vegan and gluten-free), the higher is the chance that it fails. Hope that helps. 🙂
I too, was hoping I could use almond flour. Bummer that they won’t work..
Hi Jacueline, you can use a combination of oat flour and almond flour (check my banana bread recipe which uses both: https://elavegan.com/vegan-chocolate-chip-banana-bread/). 🙂
Perfecto.. absolutely enjoyed every bite. 💛
Wonderful! I am happy your enjoyed the muffins. Thanks for your feedback, Jayne. 🙂
This is an EXCELLENT recipe! Thank you! I love that you made it gluten free and added the weights for things. I only had a bit of oat flour so I used half oat flour and half gf blend for the flour portion. My daughter and I just polished off a couple muffins in a minute!
That’s awesome, Rachel! Thanks for your helpful comment! 🙂
Hi, is there an apple cider vinegar substitute please?
Sorry just saw lemon juice would work
No worries, Jackie! Yes, lemon juice, lime juice or anything acidic will work. 🙂
It’s delicious. So yummy. Banana bread one of my favorite recipes for baking. But banana chocolate chip muffins is something!!! Very juicy, great texture ! Love it. Ps. I didn’t have a chocolate chips so I added a chocolate and nuts. Thank you Elavegan!!!! U made my day with this delightful recipe!!!!
You are very welcome, Dilyara! I am glad you enjoyed the muffins. Thanks a lot for your feedback. 🙂
You sent out this recipe the day that I noticed we had two small, very ripe bananas to use up. I used 1 cup all purpose flour and 2/3 cup whole wheat flour (my body loves gluten) and I added 1/2 tsp of freshly grated nutmeg because I love banana and nutmeg together. I just ate my first one, and they are fantastic! Thank you so much for this recipe. It’s definitely a keeper.
Yay, that’s amazing, Elizabeth, perfect timing. 😀 I am so glad they turned out delicious! 🙂
Delicious! Truly recommend !!
Awesome! I am so glad you liked the recipe, Nicole. 🙂
can you just use bobs regular gluten free flour?
Hello Lisbeth, please check the recipe notes where I mentioned the following:
Please report back if you give it a try. 🙂
I dont hae his 1:1 just fresh bag of his gluten free flour and I can make oat flour thanks
It should be fine, Lisbeth. Another reader (Rachel) just commented that she used half oat flour and half GF flour blend and the muffins turned out excellent. 🙂
My baked goods with oat flour look great, but I find the mouth feel odd when I eat it. It’s sort of gummy and sticks in my mouth. Is this normal for things made with oat flour? Is there a trick to get rid of this issue? Thx!
Hi Tasha! Oat flour does make baked goods a little dense which I personally LOVE! You can sub half of the oat flour for rice flour, buckwheat flour or regular flour (if you aren’t gluten-free).
These look amazing and so easy to make. Gonna try them soon💕 thanks
You are welcome, Julia! I hope you will love them as much as I do. 🙂
If I don’t have any but butter how much coconut oil should I use for this recipe?
Thank you xx
Hi Alicia, you can add a 1/4 cup or a little less would be fine too! Hope this helps. 🙂
Thank you so much, truly amazing ❤️
I am so glad you liked the recipe, Ramona! Thanks for your feedback! 🙂