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These Chocolate Banana Muffins will be a new favorite in your home. They are easy to throw together and are melt-in-your-mouth delicious. If you have a wheat sensitivity or are looking to decrease wheat intake, then these are perfect! They are made with oat flour, making them a nutritious, filling, and fiber-rich muffin. Honestly, you would never even know they’re gluten-free because they taste like the real deal. They are light, fluffy, and moist. Truly the best oat flour muffins you’ll try!
Ingredients
Oat flour – We are only using oat flour for this recipe. No need to combine it with other flours!
Cacao powder – For the chocolatey goodness. Keep in mind, cacao is very different from cocoa. Cacao is less processed and super nutrient dense; it’s also more absorbent and more bitter. Cocoa (or baking cocoa) is the processed version of cacao, where they roast it at a high temperature, making it sweeter, more alkaline, and less absorbent. If subbing cocoa for cacao, then read the notes section on the recipe card.
Baking soda – to leaven the muffins. Be sure to use fresh baking soda for all of your baking.
Salt – for flavor
Bananas – For moisture and banana flavor. It also adds bulk to the muffins.
Eggs – for rise and moisture.
Honey – for sweetness.
Avocado oil – for moisture.
Vanilla extract – for flavor.
Method
- Preheat the oven to 350ºF and line a muffin tray with paper liners.
- Mix together the wet ingredients then the dry ingredients in a separate bowl. Add the dry to the wet and stir to combine. Add half of the chocolate chips and stir together.
- Distribute the batter between 10 muffin cups then top with the rest of the chocolate chips.
- Bake for 17-20 minutes until a toothpick comes out clean. Be sure you don’t accidentally poke a melted chocolate chip in the muffin by testing a couple spots if needed.
- Transfer to a wire rack to cool down then enjoy! Please be sure to leave a review and a comment!!
Why is fresh baking soda so important?
For optimal results in baking, you should replace baking soda every 30 days once opened. It’s super helpful to always have a wonderful rise and texture in baked goods, as baking soda loses it’s effectiveness quickly after being opened. Instead of throwing away the old baking soda, simply use it for cleaning or put the container in your refrigerator as a natural deodorizer.
A trick for the chocolate chips
For the chocolate chips, you’ll stir some into the batter, but then you’ll also place some on top of the batter after you divide it up between the muffin cups. For the chocolate chips that you place on top, concentrate on the middle of the muffin. Muffins expand outwards as they cook in the oven so putting most of the chocolate chips in the center will prevent the end result from having most of the chocolate chips on the edges of the muffin. This applies to anything that you top muffins with, whether it’s chocolate chips, or nuts, or a streusel, etc. It doesn’t affect the taste of the muffins at all, just how it looks 🙂 The photos I have posted for this recipe show what I mean by the chocolate chips being stuck on the edges of the muffin rather than sitting on top.
Modifications
- Use melted butter instead of avocado oil. Or sub with melted coconut oil if you would like to add a coconut flavor (super delicious!!).
- Add chopped nuts – you can add it to the batter or top the muffins with it. Pecans or walnuts would be delicious.
- Sub maple syrup for the honey if desired.
- You can sub applesauce or pumpkin puree for the mashed banana if desired. I have not tried these versions yet, so I cannot guarantee the outcome. However, they are generally known to sub 1:1, although the texture will be slightly different.
Can you make it into a loaf instead of muffins?
Absolutely! If you want to make a chocolate banana bread, then just put all the batter into a greased 8×4 bread pan and cook at 350ºF for 50-60 minutes. A toothpick should come out with a few moist crumbs, but not wet batter. Be sure to check another spot if you accidentally poked a melted chocolate chip.
How to measure the oat flour
The method with which you measure flour is SUPER important for baking. If you scoop flour out of the container with the measuring cup then you will end up using quite a bit more flour because it becomes slightly compacted. This results in drier baked goods. Also, do not tap the measurer on the counter to create more room for flour.
To avoid this, it’s important to follow the scoop and level method: Place the cup measurer on a plate. Then scoop the flour with a spoon and gently dump it into the cup measurer. Repeat this until the cup measurer is overflowing, then scrape off the top with the back of a knife to level it with the top of the measurer. This method is effective because you typically get a more precise result where you don’t accidentally compact the flour. After you’re finished, it’s easy to put the flour that you scraped off onto the plate back into the flour container.
Wanna know an even better method for measuring?
Measuring by the gram! This is the easiest way to always get the most accurate result. Kitchen scales are inexpensive and easy to use, so I recommend keeping one in your kitchen – it will become your most used kitchen tool! Most of my recipes show the weight measurement to give you an easier measuring method.
Other recipes you’ll love
I hope you love these Chocolate Banana Muffins made with oat flour! Please be sure to leave a comment and a review. It helps my website more than you know. Your support, small and big, allows me to keep creating content for you. I appreciate every minute of your time!
PrintChocolate Banana Muffins with Oat Flour
A soon-to-be new favorite recipe for your household. Enjoy as a snack, dessert, or even breakfast with a cup of coffee. Make for friends and family, nobody would know they’re gluten-free!
- Prep Time: 15 minutes
- Cook Time: 17 minutes
- Total Time: 32 minutes
- Yield: 10 muffins 1x
- Category: Breakfast, Snack
- Method: Oven
- Cuisine: American
Ingredients
Wet
3/4 cup mashed bananas (170g, 2 small), mashed very well
2 Tbsp avocado oil
2 large eggs
1/3 cup honey (80mL)
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
Dry
150 g oat flour (1 1/2 cups spooned and leveled)
1/3 cup cacao powder (25 g) *see notes if using cocoa instead
1 tsp baking soda (6g) **make sure it’s fresh, see notes
1/4 tsp salt
Extra
2/3 cup chocolate chips, divided
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350ºF and line a muffin pan with 10 paper liners.
- In a large bowl, combine the wet ingredients. Make sure there are no large chunks of banana – mash them if so.
- In a separate bowl, combine the dry ingredients.
- Add the dry ingredients to the wet and stir to combine.
- Fold in half of the chocolate chips. Save the rest for later.
- Evenly distribute the batter among the 10 muffin cups. They will be almost full.
- Distribute the remaining chocolate chips on top of each.
- Bake for 17-20 minutes, until a toothpick comes out clean or with a moist crumb or two. Keep in mind you may accidentally poke a chocolate chip, so test a different spot if the toothpick has melted chocolate on it.
- Transfer muffins to a wire rack to cool then enjoy!
- Please be sure to leave a review and a comment on the post. It helps me significantly and allows me to keep creating content for you!
Equipment
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Covered Stainless Steel Mixing Bowls
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Tulip Muffin Liners (unbleached)
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*Cacao powder is different from cocoa powder. Cocoa is processed at a high temperature, while cacao is considered raw. The processing to create cocoa causes a sweeter, alkaline powder. On the contrary, cacao is more bitter, more absorbent, and more acidic. So if using cocoa instead of cacao, increase the amount to 1/2 cup and add 1 tsp of baking powder to the recipe. With all that said, I highly recommend buying cacao powder because it’s super high in antioxidants, vitamins, minerals, and is unprocessed compared to cocoa.
**It’s very important to use fresh baking soda. Once opened, use baking soda within 30 days (write the date you opened it to keep track). Replace after the 30 days. This is important for the muffins to rise properly. Instead of throwing my baking soda out, I just put it in my refrigerator because it helps keep the refrigerator smelling fresh.
If you want to make a loaf instead of muffins, simply put the batter into a greased 8×4 bread pan and bake for 45-55 minutes until a toothpick comes out with a few moist crumbs, but not raw batter. Remember to test another spot if you accidentally poked melted chocolate.
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