Banana and chocolate chip muffins recipe

I’m all for reducing food waste, and bananas are one of those foods in our house that either are eaten fast, or sit and fester once they’ve gone past the perfect (still slightly green) point. So this banana and chocolate chip muffins recipe is a great way to use up any brown bananas.

It turns out N really likes these, although the OH won’t eat them. That doesn’t matter when they get demolished by a snacking teen.

I like to think they’re slightly healthy with the banana in but really, they’ve still got lots of sugar.  They will freeze though, so if you won’t eat them all, freeze them and you can defrost at room temperature ahead of when you want to eat one. (Great for taking to work!).

If you’re not a whizz at baking, it doesn’t matter because the recipe for banana and choc chip muffins is simple. 

You can make them cupcake size if you’ve only got that size of paper cases (or even mini muffins). Just reduce the cooking time for the smaller cakes.

The recipe really is as simple as mixing the dry ingredients together. Melting the butter (I used the microwave, but in a pan over a low heat is fine). Mixing in the mashed banana and other wet ingredients.  Combine wet and dry, add the chocolate chips, and the batter is ready to be cooked.

I use a silicone muffin tray, but these muffins work just as well in a metal one. Personally I prefer baking in metal, but I only have smaller cupcake trays, not muffin ones. You might find if you’re using silicone, they may need a few minutes longer to cook through.

If you want to go fancy on the presentation, you could use pretty muffin cases, but anything goes. I just have white.

Testing if they’re ready only needs a cocktail stick to go in and come out dry. I also try and lift one out to check the bottom of the case. If the muffin’s a bit too squashy it needs a little more time. But not too much because they will be quite moist due to the banana. 

Leave them in the tin on a baking rack to cool slightly before removing them from the tin to cool fully on the rack.

There are quite a few ingredients in this banana and chocolate chip muffins recipe, but only what you’d usually have for other cakes. As with most recipes you can switch ingredients if needed. For the sugar, I use light brown, but you could use caster sugar. If you don’t have chocolate chips, you can buy mini chunks, or even just chop up chocolate of your choosing. I prefer dark, but milk chocolate works too.

These muffins always go fast in our house, but they’re easily stored in an airtight container for up to 3 days. Alternatively, you can freeze them, then just defrost one at a time at room temperature if you’ve got a glut of bananas to use up, and not enough time to eat the muffins!

Recipe for banana and chocolate chip muffins

Equipment I like

• Muffin cases 
• Ice cream scoop for getting the batter even across the cases
• Cooling rack
• Muffin tin
• Mason & Cash mixing bowl 

Try the recipe below.

Print

Banana and chocolate chip muffins

Course Dessert, Snack

Keyword baking, muffins

Prep Time 10 minutes

Cook Time 25 minutes

Total Time 35 minutes

Servings 10

Ingredients

• 3 ripe medium bananas
• 70 g unsalted butter melted, cooled slightly
• 95 g light brown sugar
• 195 g plain flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
• 1/4 tsp sea salt
• 1 egg large
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• 130-150 g chocolate chips milk or dark
• Milk if needed

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 180C/170C fan.

2. Line muffin tray with paper liners.

3. Melt the butter either in the microwave or in a pan on a low heat. Leave it to cool a little

4. Mix the flour, sugar, baking powder, bicarb and salt in a large mixing bowl

5. Add the mashed banana, vanilla and egg into the melted butter and stir until mixed.

6. Stir the wet ingredients into the dry mixture and beat until mixed. If the batter is a bit dry and stiff, add a little milk and stir in to ease the batter

7. Stir in the chocolate chips.

8. Spoon the batter into the muffin cases to 3/4 full. Depending on the size of your cases you may get 9-12.

9. Bake in the oven for 20-25 minutes until a toothpick can be stuck in coming out clean. Cool on a wire rack.

Recipe Notes

You can easily swap the brown sugar for caster or demerara as you prefer.