Double Chocolate Banana Muffins Recipe - Olga in the Kitchen (2024)

These Double Chocolate Banana Muffins are so easy to make, bursting with rich chocolate flavor and loaded with chocolate chips. They are soft and perfectly moist. You’ll forget you’re eating breakfast because these muffins taste like true dessert.

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We love homemade treats recipes for breakfast from Cranberry Scones to Blueberry Muffins and Banana Bread. There’s nothing like the aroma of freshly baked breakfast treat and these Double Chocolate Banana Muffins are about to become your favorite.Homemade muffins are the perfect grab-and-go breakfast or sweet treat that no one can resist.

Double Chocolate Banana Muffins Recipe:

This banana chocolate chip muffin recipe is so easy and a great way to use overripe bananas. They are perfect for brunch parties and for bigger crowds. The muffins are very easy to make, soft, chocolaty and full of flavor.

We buy a lot of bananas and usually keep them at room temperature. We snack on them while they are still yellow, but as they start darkening, no one wants to eat them so we put the leftovers into baking and no banana ever goes to waste.

Tell Me About These Double Chocolate Banana Muffins:

• Texture:If muffins are not over-baked, they are soft, rich, chocolaty and indulgently moist. Have you made our blueberry muffins? The texture is pretty much identical. These are made with Greek yogurt to obtain a fluffy and soft crumb, but sour cream works just as great. I more often use sour cream for these banana muffins because it’s an ingredient I always have on hand.
• Flavor: These muffins are sweet with divine chocolate flavor especially when you pair them with semisweet chocolate chips. You can control the sweetness of muffins by reducing sugar amount, as chocolate chips already have sugar and bananas are naturally sweet.
• Ease: Looking at the ingredient list below, the list is pretty straightforward and has all the basics you already have in your pantry. The recipe requires 2 mixing bowls and no mixer. Muffins are baked all at once because this recipe makes 12 standard muffins if you follow the recipe and avoid adding more liquid or additional ingredients.
• Time: The batter comes together in about 5 minutes, then spooned into muffin liners using the 3 tablespoons cookie scoop and 20 minutes later – you’ve got a breakfast that resembles a fat slice of moist chocolate cake.

Key Ingredients in Chocolate Banana Muffins:

• All-Purpose Flour – all-purpose flour works best.
• Natural Unsweetened Cocoa Powder – naturally turns muffins into dark chocolate when it reacts with Greek yogurt and baking soda. Use quality chocolate since it is one of the main ingredients in this recipe.
• Semi-sweet Chocolate Chips – make muffins even more moist, so don’t leave these out. There’s something special about mini chocolate chips in baked goods so that is our preferance, but you can use regular chocolate chips or even chopped semi-sweet chocolate chunks.
• Bananas – naturally sweeten the muffins. Make sure you’re using very ripe bananas to avoid dense muffins. The chocolate overpowers the banana, so don’t expect tons of banana flavor. Rather, expect a chocolate muffin with a hint of banana.
• Plain Greek Yogurt – makes muffins healthier with the added protein, adds moisture, flavor and keeps the muffins light and fluffy. If you don’t have Greek yogurt, sour cream will work equally well. Either way, the muffins will turn out soft, fluffy, moist and delicious.
• Baking Soda – will make muffins rise up nicely.
• Grapeseed Oil – adds moisture to muffins to form a soft crumb and keep muffins softer longer (for days). You can use vegetable oil or any unflavored oil.
• Granulated sugar – we use only 1/2 cup because the bananas and chocolate chips provide extra sweetness. If you prefer less sweeter muffins, reduce down do 1/3 cup or even 1/4 cup.
• Large Egg – 1 egg gives the muffins structure.
• Fine Salt – a little salt goes a long way to balance out the flavors.
• Vanilla Extract – pure vanilla extract adds flavor.

How to Make Banana Muffins:

1. Prep. Line a 12-count standard muffin tin with cupcake liners. Preheat the oven to a 350°F.

2. Wet ingredients. In a large bowl, mash overripe bananas with a fork or potato masher. Scrape mashed bananas to one side of the bowl. On the other side of the same bowl, combine plain Greek yogurt and baking soda. Then add fine salt, oil, granulated sugar, egg and vanilla extract. Whisk the wet ingredients until just combined.

3. Whisk dry ingredients. In a medium mixing bowl, combine all-purpose flour, cocoa powder and mini semi-sweet chocolate chips.

4. Combine dry and wet ingredients. Combine dry and wet ingredients and stir with a spatula just until combined. Do not overmix.

5. Spoon batter equally into muffin pan, filling cups 3/4 to the top. Bake at 350°F for 18-20 minutes, or until toothpick inserted into the center, comes out clean.

*For perfectly round muffins, fill muffin cups 3/4 to the top. Overfilling muffin cups will spread muffins outside and over the muffin liners.

Chocolate Banana Muffins – 5 Extra Tips:

Before you preheat your oven, let me note these 5 extra tips.

1. Room Temperature Ingredients:Bring your cold ingredients like the egg and Greek yogurt to room temperature before you get started. Room temperature ingredients bond together easily since they’re warmer, creating a seamless and evenly textured batter. A smooth batter means a uniformly textured baked good.
2. Amount of Sugar:1/2 cup of sugar produces wonderfully sweet muffins. If you’re looking for something not quite as sweet, reduce sugar to 1/3 cup or even 1/4 cup. Remember, you still get sweetness from bananas and chocolate chips.
3. Measuring Flour: To measure flour, spoon flour into a measuring cup and scrape off the top with the back of a knife. Pushing your measuring cup into the flour bin, will result in up to 25% more compacted flour.
4. Sift Dry Ingredients: I always recommend sifting the dry ingredients especially if mixer is not used in a recipe (like here). Sifted dry ingredients provide fluffy texture of the baked good.
5. More Banana Flavor:The chocolate flavor overpowers the banana, so don’t expect tons of banana flavor. You can add additional banana for slightly more banana flavor, but the texture will be moister and expect to have more than 12 standard muffins. Keep in mind that bananas must be very ripe and resemble applesauce consistency once mashed. Look at it this way: very ripe bananas = more liquid = perfectly moist banana muffins.

Make-Ahead:

Just like all homemade baked goods, these easy banana chocolate chip muffins taste their very best fresh. However, they will still taste great 2 days at room temperature. We like to heat them in the microwave for few seconds next day (if there are any left from previous day).

• Room Temperature: Cover muffins with plastic food wrap at room temperature for up to 3 days.
• To Refrigerate: Cover muffins and store in the refrigerator for up to 7 days. To use, heat muffin in a microwave for 10-15 seconds to warm up.
• Freezing: Cool the muffins completely, then wrap each muffin tightly in a plastic wrap, one by one. Place in a freezer bag and remove as much air as possible. They freeze well for up to 3 months. Thaw overnight in the refrigerator or unwrap and place them on the kitchen counter. They need 1-2 hours to come to room temperature. Heat up (if desired) before enjoying.

How to Make Muffins Rise More?

Use the initial high oven temperature method by baking muffins at 425 degrees Fahrenheit for the first 5 minutes. Then, keeping the muffins in the oven, reduce to 350 degrees Fahrenheit for the remaining bake time. The initial high temperature will quickly lift the muffin tops so they are extra high, then the centers will bake during the reduced temperature bake time. I’m personally not a fan of this method and here’s why:

• Constant 350 degrees Fahrenheit – smooth muffin tops, all muffins look equally the same in size and shape and perfectly moist on the inside.
• Initial high temperature– muffin tops explode with different-sized large cracks on each muffin, they are not perfectly round or equally the same. Most importantly, the high temperature tends to reduce moisture in muffins and they turn out less moist and taste more dry hours later.

More Banana Recipes:

• Moist Banana Bread Recipe – loaded with nuts and bananas
• Cranberry Banana Bread – moist and fluffy; can be made with or without cranberries
• Banana Cake Roll – the easiest dessert with delicious cream cheese frosting
• Banana Berries Bread – loaded with flavor and fresh berries