Overripe bananas on hand?! Perfect!
Get ready to fill your home with a mouthwatering aroma and better yet, sink your teeth into the most delicious grain-free Banana Chocolate Chip Mini Muffins.
There are no added sugars other than what the chocolate chips contain! Not even honey or maple syrup. The overripe bananas and mini-chocolate chips provide all the sweetness you need in these muffins. Cinnamon and nutmeg add a nice spice of flavors and who doesn’t love the addition of chocolate chips?! This recipe is grain-free, gluten-free, dairy-free {if using dairy-free chocolate chips such as Enjoy Life} and paleo-friendly.
These Banana Chocolate Chip Mini Muffins will cure any sweet tooth and are perfect for adding to lunch boxes or freezing in individual portions for later. Baked goods are a food I sure do enjoy. I like the challenge of creating recipes that are made with wholesome ingredients and that are lower in sugar. And lucky you, because I share all of my favorite recipes with you so that you can enjoy them too! Now this doesn’t mean you should go hog-wild and eat 10 mini-muffins in one sitting. What it does mean, is that having a little treat, even every day, is totally OKAY! In fact, doing so has really help me to find balance with my eats and to avoid the feeling of being restricted from foods I love or feeling guilty after I indulge in a treat – these are the kinds of feelings I’ve struggled with in the past and I’m not going back. No way!
So what causes bananas to turn brown/ripen?
According to scienceline.ucsb.edu:
Bananas, like other fruits, are ripened due to a hormone called ethylene. Ethylene breaks down complex sugars into simple sugars and breaks down pectin, a substance which keeps bananas hard. This is also the reason why overripe bananas are sweeter and perfect for baking.
In addition there are hormones that break down green pigments which you see in un-ripe bananas and replace them with yellow pigments. However as the banana continues to ripen these yellow pigments are broken down and not replaced at all producing the brown color.
Using overripe bananas in baked goods is a great way to replace added sugars and will reduce the overall grams of sugar in recipes.
There is no need to add any form of sugar to this recipe because of the delightful and natural sweetness the overripe bananas provide. In fact, you can even eliminate the chocolate chips and still end up with a perfectly sweetened, but not too sweet, banana muffin!
If chocolate isn’t your thing, you’ve got options!
I know not everyone is as crazy for chocolate, so here are some options for you.
- Omit the chocolate chips (you’ll still end-up with a delicious banana mini-muffin). I make them all the time without chocolate chips.
- Replace chocolate chips with chopped nuts of choice
- Replace chocolate chips with no-sugar added dried fruit
- Replace chocolate chips with fresh blueberries or chopped strawberries
- Replace chocolate chips with a 2 Tbsp. chia seeds
These options would also transform this recipe into a less sweet and delicious breakfast muffin. I also love a slathering of almond butter on top of these muffins!
Making mini-muffins is a great way to quicken the baking time when compared to regular sized muffins and breads.
One of our goals is to create recipes with less than 10-ingredients and that do not require hours upon hours in the kitchen. We’d rather spend our time with our family, with friends, outdoors, etc. So one way to quicken baking time with muffins and breads is simply by using a mini-muffin pan rather than a bread/loaf or regular muffin pan. Making this Banana Chocolate Chip Mini Muffins recipe into bread, would require 40-50 minutes of baking vs. 10-12 minutes. Plus, the shorter the baking time the faster you’ll be able to pop one of these crazy delicious muffins into your mouth!
Holy Bananas! Is your mouth watering yet?!
Are you ready to give this recipe a try? Good thing is, it only takes about 25 minutes to make so you’ll be able to enjoy these muffins in no time! However, if you’re not planning to make this recipe at this absolute very moment – feel free to pin the image below on your “recipes to try” Pinterest board! We love Pinterest – you can check out what we’re pinning here!
Grab your overripe bananas, a mixing bowl, a mixing spoon, measuring utensils and a mini-muffin tin and give this recipe a try!
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Banana Chocolate Chip Mini Muffins
Overripe bananas on hand?! Perfect. Here is a mouthwatering grain-free Banana Chocolate Chip Mini Muffin recipe. No added sweeteners in this recipe, the ripe bananas and chocolate chips provide plenty of sweetness!
- Prep Time: 10 mins
- Cook Time: 12 mins
- Total Time: 22 mins
- Yield: 24 muffins (12 servings)
- Category: Paleo | Grain-free | Gluten-free | Dairy-free
Ingredients
- ¼ cup almond flour
- ¼ cup coconut flour
- 1 tsp. ground cinnamon
- ¼ tsp. ground nutmeg
- ½ tsp. baking soda
- ¼ tsp. sea salt
- 2 bananas, mashed (~¾-1 cup)
- 3 eggs, whisked
- ¼ cup coconut oil, melted
- 2 tsp. pure vanilla extract
- 1/3 cup dairy-free mini-chocolate chips
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Grease mini-muffin pan with olive oil or coconut oil well or use mini-muffin liners.
- In a medium bowl, combine all of the ingredients.
- Mix until just combined.
- Fill each well about 1/2-3/4 full with batter.
- Bake for 10-12 minutes or until center of muffins are firm and spring back when gently pressed in the middle.
- Remove from oven and allow to cool for 5 minutes before removing from pan.
Notes
All photos and content are copyright protected. Please do not use our photos without prior written permission. If you wish to republish this recipe, please rewrite the recipe in your own unique words and link back to the source recipe here on The Real Food Dietitians so credit is given where credit is due. Thank you!
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 2 muffins
- Calories: 143
- Sugar: 6 g
- Sodium: 125 mg
- Fat: 10 g
- Carbohydrates: 11 g
- Fiber: 2 g
- Protein: 3 g
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I love mini muffins!! Plus banana and chocolate is probably one of the best combinations out there…sounds like I’ll be making these this week 🙂
Thanks Dana!
I too love banana and chocolate like no other! Have such a good week!
Make sure you spray the pan really well, mine stuck to the bottom. Also, be sure to cook them long enough. Mine weren’t nearly done at 12 minutes.
Hi Meredith!
Thanks for the reminder to spray or grease the pan well. I set my pan on wire rack to cool for 5 minutes before removing the muffins from the pan – this allows them to steam a little bit which helps loosen them from the pan (and they will continue to cook a bit as well).
My 2 year old approves! I followed this recipe exactly and they turned out better than expected. Thanks so much for perfecting this recipe:-)
Bravo!
Yes! Toddler-approved is always a great sign. Thanks for sharing!
Thank you! The mini muffins turned out perfectly!
So great to hear that you enjoyed them as much as we do! 🙂
This feels like a silly question, but is the 1/4 coconut oil to add to the batter or for greasing the pan? 🙂 Thanks!
Hey Katie! You’ll want to add the coconut oil to the batter. You can grease the pan with additional coconut oil or a coconut oil spray works well too. Enjoy!
Being on a paleo diet for 8 months now, these are the best muffins I’ve made. And I love the fact that there is not a lot of almond flour because it is very expensive (in Canada at least).
I always bake in silicone pan, so no need to put oil, it never stick and muffins are sooooo perfect! My guest Just loved them!
★★★★
This is great, Johanne! So happy to hear that you and your guests loved them. I used silicone muffin liners too and they make things so easy – especially egg muffins which are notorious for sticking to the pan.
Me too!! I Lon love my silicone liners! They make getting my egg cups out a breeze!
I just made these this morning and we all loved them! My bananas weren’t super over-ripe so I added a couple of tablespoons of maple syrup and they were so yummy. I think next time I’ll wait on the bananas a little longer and try to leave out the syrup. Thanks so much for such a great recipe!!!
★★★★★
Hi Cheri,
Great to hear that you loved these muffins. I often have a hard time waiting for my bananas to get really ripe too – it seems that someone always comes by and swipes the last 2 in the bowl that I’m planning to use for these muffins! Lately though, I’ve been buying a few extra each week and setting them in a bowl on top of the fridge so that I know I’ll have a some overripe bananas on hand.
I would love to make these in the regular size (vs the mini) can somebody help me out?? 🙂
Hi Lindsay,
I’m happy to help! Just divide the batter among the wells of a standard size muffin tin and add 5-8 minutes to baking time – muffins are done when a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
Hope that helps!
looks great but my daughter is highly allergic to coconut, but I want to stay low carb. what can I substitute, more almond flour or regular or something else. thanks
Hi Madeline,
Unfortunately, give the VERY unique properties of coconut flour (and tiny bit goes a long way) there isn’t a substitute for it. However, if you’re not looking for a grain-free recipe I recommend this one: http://minimalistbaker.com/one-bowl-gluten-free-banana-bread/#
You can add cinnamon and chocolate chips and bake in a muffin pan, if desired.
I hope that helps! Happy baking!!
Mine didn’t come out looking anything like yours, they are all lumpy and didn’t want to cook. What did I do wrong?
★★★
Hi Beverly – sorry to hear the muffins didn’t turn out. I make sure I use really ripe bananas that I have in my freezer and mash them until very smooth. The other thing that may have went wrong is the coconut oil wasn’t warm enough so it solidified when it hit the other ingredients. Typically when I add melted coconut oil in baking, I mix the contents in the bowl while I add in the coconut oil. Hope this helps a little! We’ve had great feedback with this muffin recipe, so don’t give up on them just yet 🙂
Can I use vegetable oil instead of coconut oil
Hi Tina,
Technically, yes, you can substitute vegetable oil for coconut oil in this recipe however due to the highly inflammatory nature of vegetable oils (primarily omega-6 fats and often rancid) we don’t recommend it’s use from a health perspective.
However, that’s our take on it – please feel free to use what works best for your diet, health and budget.
Maybe butter?
Butter would be perfect!
If you use butter, I highly recommend Kerrygold because it is made from grass-fed cows. Paleo approved! Makes all your recipes taste delicious!
Myself, I used coconut oil for this recipe and they turned out perfect. If you are scared you will taste the coconut, don’t worry. All you taste is banana, and I used walnuts instead of chocolate chips. Yummy!
Hi, excited to try these! Is there a substitute for almond flour instead? Tapioca flour perhaps? Or any other substitute?
Hi Sandra,
Though we’ve not tested the recipe using tapioca flour in place of the almond flour, it should work – though you may need to increase your baking time as the muffins may be denser (watch them closely).
We’d love to hear if you make them and how the substitution worked out.
Best muffins I have ever made. I added less than 1/2 cup chocolate chips and they came out perfect!!!! Perfect amount of sweetness and so very moist and delicious! Thank you!
★★★★★
Thanks for the feedback, Aga! So happy to hear you loved them!!
Just made these for the second time! As a fellow Real Food RD, I appreciate the delicious and nutritious recipes you have provided to all! 🙂 Yum!
Forgot to rate – 5 stars!
★★★★★
Thanks so much for sharing your feedback! We appreciate it! 🙂
I baked these an extra 4 minutes and they look beautiful on the outside but are very wet in the inside. Where did I go wrong?
Hmmmm – we’ve made this recipe several times and haven’t had that issue. Sometimes after you allow them to cool the muffins become more bread like. Hope they still tasted good!
These looks delicious. Wondering if I could use buckwheat flour instead of coconut flour and almond flour.
Hi Patti,
We haven’t tested the recipe with buckwheat flour (or any other flours) so we can’t say for sure what the end product would be. However, my hunch is that if you did use buckwheat it wouldn’t be a 1:1 substitution for the coconut flour since coconut flour soaks up a lot of liquid – so you’d have to ‘eyeball’ it until you get a batter-like consistency.
If you try the recipe using buckwheat flour we’d love to hear how it turns out.
Love this recipe! After making it a few times and my whole family devouring them I subbed the banana for 3/4 C of raw pumpkin and they turned out just as great! I decided to omit the chocolate chips and do a couple tbs of maple syrup and also added about 2 extra tbs of the almond flour since I added more liquid – so good thanks for the great recipes!
Hey Megan,
Your version with the pumpkin sounds amazing – thanks for sharing!
Great recipe! I used 1 Tbs of cocoa vs chips and added a TBS of chia seeds and 1/2 c of chopped pecans for crunch. I’m going to try the pumpkin version next with some pumpkin pie spice. Mmmmmmm I love mini muffins!
★★★★★
Hi Mary Kay,
That sounds fantastic! Thanks for sharing!
These are incredible. Have you ever tried converting this to make pancakes? Or do you have any suggestions on how ?
Hi Dee! I have not tried making them into pancakes but I like that idea. You might just need to thin down the batter a little with some almond milk. If you try it, I’d love to hear how they turn out!
Ok these are also incredible as pancakes.
I used blueberries instead of chocolate chips and thinned down with just about a tablespoon of milk, don’t thin too much. Used about 1/4 cup batter per pancake because you have to be careful flipping them. Makes 10 pancakes.
Dee, you’re a genius!!
Thanks for sharing your muffin to pancake makeover with us. They sound amazing.
These are so good! I have tried so many healthy muffin options and they are always disappointing. Thank you so much for sharing!
★★★★★
Yassssssssss!! (Insert fist pumps)
I hear you about the many muffin fails – I’ve had plenty of them myself. These, however, always turn our perfect for me and my kids just devour them. I also bring them to school for birthday treats since they have no added sugar and they’re free of gluten and dairy.
I just made these and they were delicious! Was searching for a recipe that wasn’t too high in fat and low carb. I doubled the recipe since I had almost 1.5 cups of over ripe bananas and they came out perfect! They even fooled my boyfriend!! He ate them up. Thanks for the recipe will be passing it on for sure!
Hi Kelsey,
So glad you both loved them! Thanks for sharing the love and passing the recipe on.
Any chance you think the almond and coconut flour can be replaced with 1 cup of oat flour? These look delicious! Thank you!
You could sure try! I have not tried this recipe with oat flour. If you do give it a try, we’d love to know how they turn out!
These were great except I found them a little eggy. Is this normal?
If you used larger eggs, you could try one less egg next time. I often use medium sized eggs as they come from a local farmer so they aren’t quite as large as the ones you buy in grocery stores. Happy to hear they were still enjoyed! 🙂
These muffins are a hit. I did add a tsp of apple cider vinegar, as someone mentioned for a better rise, and that made all the difference. I first tried the recipe w/o it and I used a full sized muffin pan. They tasted great but were a bit heavy and kind of oily because of the amount of coconut oil in the recipe. But, I then tried the ACV trick and put them in the mini muffin tin and they are awesome every time. Yay! So happy for a gluten/grain free recipe that is delicious and not too sweet.
★★★★★
Glad to hear these muffins were a hit! Thanks for sharing the tip on the ACV. I’ll have to try that.
I love this recipe!! I was diagnosed with PCOS in January, and was told I can no longer eat bread again…. it was very difficult for me, but this recipe makes me feel better, and a little more normal. I never thought my husband would like these, but he absolutely loves them too! I freeze them once they are cool enough. It makes a great on the go breakfast when reheated in the microwave.
★★★★★
I love these muffins! To my surprise, my husband loves them too!! I was diagnosed with PCOS in January, and being told I couldn’t eat bread again was really hard on me. These muffins make me feel better, and bring a little normalcy back into my life. I freeze them once they are cool enough. It makes a great on the go breakfast when heated in the microwave.
★★★★★
Awwwwee, this is so great to hear Dawn! So glad you found a bread-like recipe that you can enjoy!
CAN I substitute then flours for a gluten free 1:1 flour blend
This recipe has not been tested with 1:1 flour but you could sure try. Coconut flour is a high-abosorbant flour, much different than other flours so you may need to add an additional 1/2 cup or so of the 1:1 flour.
Is there a flour you recommend to replace the almond flour. I can’t use it.
Hi there! If you’re okay with the muffins containing grains, you could use oat flour or a gluten-free flour blend like Bobs Red Mill 1 to 1. I’ve tried both and they work great!
These muffins are absolutely delicious!! I have also added 2 tbsp of cocoa which made them double chocolate!! Co-workers beg for them.
Update my previous comment just to show 5 stars!! Missed adding them and these definitely deserve them!
★★★★★
Wooohoooooo!!
Can you freeze these?
Yes, absolutely you may freeze these.
Looking forward to making these! Do you think I could add a cup of shredded carrot to the recipe?
Hi Meghan,
I don’t see why you couldn’t. Great idea!
Can I substitute flax eggs in this recipe?
Hi Heather,
Unfortunately, no. Because the eggs are necessary for lift and not just as a binder when using coconut flour, flax eggs won’t work. Sorry!
I make these a few times a month and my 7 year old loves them. Thank goodness. We’ve had to go gluten free and it’s been hard to find things we love. Thank you for this recipe.
★★★★★
Hi Cynthia,
So glad you found a recipe your child loves. I know how challenging it can be to switch kids to a new diet.