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.

inside of a banana and chocolate chip muffin

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.