Super satisfying, insanely delicious, Vegan Chocolate Banana Muffins. Fudgy, perfectly sweet, easy to make with no mixer required!
Vegan Chocolate Banana Bread? I see you. And I adapted your very popular self into Vegan Chocolate Banana Muffin form. We're talking rich and fudgy muffins that are super easy to make with no mixer required. Just perfect for breakfast, lunch boxes, snacks or dessert!
Recipe video
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Ingredients
(For detailed measurements and instructions, see the printable recipe card).
Here are the ingredients you will be needing to make these vegan chocolate banana muffins:
Here's a quick rundown on each one:
- Bananas - These must be really ripe and spotty. If they aren't it will make the batter difficult to mix and affect the texture and sweetness of the muffins.
- Flour - You can use all-purpose flour (plain flour in the UK), spelt flour or wholewheat flour in this recipe. Make your muffins wholegrain by using spelt or wholewheat flour. Spelt is an amazing flour when you want a light fluffy texture and the nutrients of a wholegrain flour. It gives a much better result than wholewheat.
- Nut/seed butter - The source of fat in the recipe. Fat is necessary for a good texture and in this recipe it helps with the fudginess and richness. That's why I use it instead of oil or vegan butter. It also helps the muffins stay fresh longer (not that that will be much of an issue ;O)
- Sugar & maple syrup - We are using a mix of both. Both sweeten, the sugar gives structure and the maple syrup adds more fudginess. You can use any sugar you like. White sugar, cane sugar, brown sugar, coconut sugar are all fine. Keep your muffins refined sugar-free by using coconut sugar.
- Chocolate chips - I like to use semi-sweet chocolate chips in my baking. Most dark chocololate chips are naturally vegan but be sure to check the label when shopping just in case. You can also use the same amount of chopped up dairy-free free chocolate bar if you prefer but it will melt into the batter. Chocolate chips are designed not to melt and so will hold their form better.
- Cocoa,baking powder and baking soda - Cocoa to make the muffins chocolate flavour and also to add acidity. Baking powder and baking soda are necessary to leaven the muffins. Baking powder as per usual in baked goods, and baking soda too because it reacts with the acidic cocoa creating extra bubbles and lift. This provides the extra leavening that eggs would in a non-vegan recipe.
- Salt & vanilla - For flavour. Salt is just as important for enhancing flavours in sweet recipes as it is savoury. Use good quality sea salt and not table salt. Vanilla adds another flavour layer.
As for equipment, all you need is a muffin pan. I can't recommend USA Pan Muffin Pans highly enough. I absolutely love mine and nothing ever sticks in it. You don't even need to use liners. I will never use another brand.
How to make Vegan Chocolate Banana Muffins
These Healthy Chocolate Banana Muffins are really quick and easy to make.
Here's how:
- Mash the bananas up with a fork.
- Add all of the other wet ingredients and mix together well.
- Add the dry ingredients and mix, then in go the chocolate chips. Fold them through gently.
- Spoon into the wells of your muffin pan, decorate with more chocolate chips then bake.
Success tips
For the very best results when making this recipe follow these tips:
- As with all of my baking recipes where precision is key to excellent results, I highly recommend using a kitchen scale to measure your ingredients, rather than using cup measurements. This one is cheap (under $20) and works brilliantly.
- Use really ripe and spotty bananas.
- Don't add more or less banana than is called for. It will affect the texture of the batter/muffins.
- Don't overmix your batter. This is so important. Overmixing will affect the texture and the rise of your muffins.
- Sprinkle some extra chocolate chips on the top for decoration once the batter is in the muffin pan.
- Bake the muffins on the center oven rack.
- Don't skip my oven temperature hack! The trick to a perfectly domed muffin top is a good recipe and oven temperature. They need an initial, very hot blast, which creates steam that will raise those muffin tops right up from the inside out. Then you need to turn them down after 5 minutes so that the insides cook through more gently.
- Don't overbake them. It's better for the muffins to be very slightly underbaked (hello extra fudginess!) than overbaked and risk them getting dry.
Variations
I don't recommend you make any major changes to this recipe, except for the ones I have suggested, like using certain other flours, sugars or nut/seed butter, but you can add mix-ins of choice without affecting the chemistry of the recipe. Nuts, seeds or dried fruit would all work well. Add no more than 1 cup total. I think some walnuts would be really great!
If you love pumpkin, be sure to check out my Chocolate Pumpkin Muffins. They are a spin-off of this recipe that you are sure to enjoy!
Storage & freezing
You went to the trouble of baking your own chocolate banana muffins, and if you have leftovers it’s important you know how to store them for optimum freshness.
The most important thing is to let them cool completely on a wire rack before storing them. If there is any warmth in them at all, as soon as they go into a sealed container condensation will happen, and that means damp muffins.
Once they are completely cool, you will need an airtight container and some paper towels. As muffins age, the moisture inside them rises to the surface and can make them wet. By packing them up with some paper towels laid out underneath and another layer on top, you can avoid this. Just keep an eye on them and if the paper towels get a little moist, replace them with fresh ones.
How to refresh muffins
In the unlikely event that this is necessary, you can refresh older muffins to fresh from the oven status very easily. Simply place on a baking tray in the oven at 350°F (175 °C) for about 7 minutes. They will come out good as new!
To freeze
Need to store leftover muffins for more than a couple of days? Then the freezer is your best option. These vegan chocolate banana muffins freeze extremely well for up to 3 months. Pop them into a freezer bag or a freezer-safe container and place them carefully in the freezer. When you want them, remove them from the freezer and let them defrost for a couple of hours at room temperature. You can make them taste oven-fresh again by warming them gently in the oven at 350°F (175 °C) for about 7 minutes.
FAQS
I haven't tested the recipe gluten-free but a good GF all-purpose flour like Bob's Red Mill 1 for 1 should work just fine.
Hungry for more?
📖 Recipe
Vegan Chocolate Banana Muffins
Author:Ingredients
- 3 medium ripe and spotty bananas , (choose bananas about 8 inches in length. Once peeled the total weight of the 3 bananas should be about 375g / 13 oz. A few grams either side is ok though. It doesn’t have to be absolutely exact.)
- 6 tablespoons nut or seed butter , it should be drippy and not dry
- ¼ cup maple syrup , (real maple syrup not pancake syrup)
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- ½ cup (100 grams) sugar of choice , any works here, white, brown, cane, turbinado, coconut..just use whatever you have.
- ¾ teaspoon fine sea salt , not table salt
- 1¾ cup (218 grams) all-purpose, spelt or wholewheat flour , (if in the UK plain flour is the equivalent of all-purpose)
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- ¾ teaspoon baking soda
- ½ cup (50 grams) cocoa powder
- ½ cup (85 grams) dairy-free chocolate chips , plus a handful extra for sprinkling the tops
RECOMMENDED EQUIPMENT
INSTRUCTIONS
- Preheat oven to 425°F (218 °C) and place an oven shelf in the center of the oven. The oven temperature is not a mistake. For the best muffins, they need to go in high.
- Grease or line a 12 well or two 6 well muffin pans.
- Mash the bananas really well with a fork or potato masher until they are a slightly lumpy puree.
- Add the nut/seed butter, maple syrup, vanilla extract, sugar and salt to the bananas and whisk together until really well combined.
- Add the flour, baking powder, baking soda and cocoa powder and fold it in gently BY HAND (not with a mixer, food processor or blender) until everything is just combined. Do not over mix because it will affect the texture and rise of the muffins.
- Finally, add the chocolate chips and fold them through just enough to distribute them evenly.
- Spoon the batter into the prepared muffin pan and sprinkle the tops of each with a few more chocolate chips.
- IMPORTANT- Place the muffins in the oven on the middle shelf and set a timer for 5 minutes. Once the 5 minutes has passed, immediately turn the oven down to 375°F (190°C) without peeking or opening the door and cook for a further 13 - 14 minutes. Don't skip this temperature trick. It makes a HUGE difference.
- Check them with a toothpick, skewer or thin knife inserted into the middle of one muffin and if it comes out mostly clean then they are done. You might get some melted chocolate but there should be no visible wet batter. It is important not to over-bake these muffins. If anything they are better very slightly underdone to keep their moist fudginess.
- Remove from the pan and place on a wire rack. Allow to cool, although I do recommend eating one (very carefully) while still hot...Purely for research purposes of course...
NUTRITION
Nutritional information is provided for convenience & as a courtesy. The data is a computer generated estimate so should be used as a guide only.
This recipe was originally published on February 7th, 2019. I've since rewritten the post and now I am republishing it for you. I hope you enjoy it. Thank you for following A Virtual Vegan!
Judy Christenson says
I think I might try this recipe as a cake. Any tips on size of pan and timing if anyone has tried it? Thanks!
Melanie McDonald says
Make this recipe. It's basically the same but made in a loaf pan: https://avirtualvegan.com/vegan-chocolate-banana-bread/
Lori says
I just made these muffins using white whole wheat flour and coconut sugar and followed all of your directions. They are absolutely amazing! The batter was thick and overfilled the muffin cups and I was worried they might spill over but nope! They came out perfect!
Thank you for the recipe 😁
Karen says
Can you use a gluten free flour?
Melanie McDonald says
I haven't tested the recipe gluten-free but a good GF all-purpose flour with xanathan gum like Bob's Red Mill 1 to 1 baking flour should work just fine.
Jill says
Can you use frozen, defrosted bananas for this recipe or must they be fresh? I always put my very ripe bananas into the freezer for smoothies and wondered if this would work for this recipe
Melanie McDonald says
The only risk is that defrosted frozen bananas have a higher water content than fresh bananas so the batter will be a little wetter. I think as these muffins are supposed to be a bit fudgy anyway you will probably get away with it though.
Anthony says
I used wholemeal flour and then loosened the batter with milk (around 100ml) to get the required consistency. Apart from that I followed the recipe as written above. These are the best looking, most moist, fudge tasting muffins I’ve ever made! Recipe now saved. Thank you.
Kim says
My girls prefer mini muffins. Do you have any idea how to adjust the baking temperature and timing for mini muffins instead of full size?
A Virtual Vegan says
I've never tried it but I'd guess about 350 °F for 10 to 12 minutes? You'd need to check them with a toothpick and make sure it comes out clean to make sure they are cooked through and remove them from the pan immediately because as they are so small if they continue cooking with the heat they will dry out. Hope that helps!
Maureen says
Made a batch this morning to use up 2 large very ripe bananas. I followed the recipe exactly as written. They rose nicely and taste SO yummy! My only issue is a small one. I baked 5 minutes @ 425 then lowered to 375 and baked 12 minutes because my oven tends to run hotter. The outsides are a bit too well done (not drastically) so next time I’ll try 10 minutes @ the 375 temp after the 5 minutes @ 425. These still taste amazing, hence the 5 star rating!! Plus I just love you Mel! ❤️
A Virtual Vegan says
Aaawww thank you ... blushing here ?. Glad they worked out well! It might be worth lowering the hot temp blast a little if your oven runs hot. That wouldn't have helped the well done outsides. Maybe try 400°F for 5 mins and then 350°F for 10 to 12 mins or until done.
Maureen says
Thanks for the tip Mel! I will definitely try that next time. They are delicious!! ?
Marlene says
Very good! at first thought ‘oh no l didn’t add eggs’ but realized the recipe didn’t call for them, very chocolatey & healthy. ?
Sian says
I just tried making these but I think medium bananas in my country must be smaller than in yours, as I needed 6 and still had to use a quarter cup of almond milk to get the mixture vaguely mixed! It was like a bread dough, which doesn’t seem right? Could you tell us how many cups of mashed banana you had from your 3 medium bananas? Thank you!
A Virtual Vegan says
A medium banana is about 8 inches in length and once peeled the total weight of the 3 bananas would be roughly about 375g / 13 oz. A few grams either side is ok though. It doesn’t have to be exact. The batter is thick but with the wet bananas, cashew butter and the maple syrup there should be more than enough moisture to mix it. You can see how it should look in my video.
Did you weigh the flour? Cup measurements aren't accurate enough when it comes to measuring flour, especially if you scoop it in. You can end up with up to 25% more than you should have.
Hope that helps!
Jill says
I am about to make these and wondering about adding a few chopped walnuts. Anyone tried this? Results?
A Virtual Vegan says
Adding some chopped nuts won't affect how the recipe turns out at all so go ahead!
Kate says
Love love these muffins, they are absolutely divine. My new go to recipe!
Brina says
These muffins were an instant hit with my husband!! We ended up freezing them and he would take one to work each morning. Also the tip on how to get the muffin top to rise actually WORKED!!! I’ve never felt more pro in my life. These muffins were amazing and I already had all the ingredients in my pantry. I will definitely be making these again!
Melanie McDonald says
Thank you! I'm really pleased you both enjoyed them. They are a favourite of ours too!
Lies says
These are definitely the most beautiful muffins I have ever made! And delicious too! Thank you for the tip on the temperature. The muffins did rise perfectly. These could easily be sold at Starbucks :)
Melanie McDonald says
I'm really happy you loved them so much! Thank you!
Allie Bontrager says
Delicious!