Vegan Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins

If you love banana bread, I am sure you will love these vegan banana muffins. Maybe you have a couple of overripe bananas and don’t know what to do with them? Please don’t throw them away, no matter how mushy they are! Overripe bananas are the BEST for banana bread muffins.

I love making muffins because they have the perfect size to satisfy my cravings for a sweet treat in the afternoon. They bake quicker than a cake and are simply convenient. Kids love muffins too and often want to get involved in making them. So, let’s start baking!

The Ingredients for Vegan Banana Muffins

The recipe has only 8 simple ingredients (baking powder, baking soda, and salt not counted) and you probably have all ingredients in your pantry already.

Dry ingredients

Oats or oat flour – You can use store-bought oat flour (regular or gluten-free). If you have a bag of oats, simply process them in an electric coffee/spice grinder or a blender to make oat flour. Blend for some seconds and your oat flour is ready (I always do that).

Even though oat flour is naturally gluten-free, people who have a gluten allergy (celiac disease) need to buy certified gluten-free oats/oat flour. Oats are often processed in facilities that also process regular wheat flour, therefore, contamination can occur!

Coconut sugar – You can use brown sugar, white sugar, date sugar, cane sugar or any other granulated sweetener. For me, 1/3 of a cup is sweet enough, however, if you want the banana muffins to be sweeter (simply taste the batter), you can add 1/2 cup of sugar. Dairy-free chocolate chips – I often use these vegan mini chocolate chips, but you can use regular-sized chocolate chips.

Wet ingredients

Plant-based milk – Any dairy-free milk is fine. Some examples are almond milk, cashew milk, coconut milk, oat milk, etc. I prefer canned or homemade coconut milk because it’s higher in fat and make the vegan banana muffins moist. Bananas – They must be super ripe, yellow with many dark spots. Please don’t use green, unripe bananas! Nut butter – I used peanut butter because that’s what I always have in my pantry. You can also use almond butter or cashew butter, etc. Choose coconut butter for a nut-free version! If you don’t have nut butter at home, you can use coconut oil or canola oil. Apple cider vinegar – In combination with the baking soda and baking powder, it helps the banana chocolate chip muffins to rise. You can use white vinegar or lemon juice instead.

All ingredients AND measurements, including the nutrition facts, are listed in the recipe card BELOW!

How To Make Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins?

You don’t need a blender or food processor to make these healthy banana muffins! All you need is two bowls, one whisk, and the plant-based ingredients that I just mentioned. STEP 1: First, you should line a muffin pan with paper liners (or grease the pan with vegan butter or oil). Preheat oven to 360 degrees Fahrenheit (ca. 182 °C). STEP 2: Add all dry ingredients (except the chocolate chips) to a large mixing bowl. Stir with a whisk. STEP 3: Mash the bananas in a medium-sized bowl and add the other wet ingredients (you can also blend all wet ingredients in a blender).

STEP 4: Add the wet ingredients to the large mixing bowl and stir with a whisk or a hand mixer. Stir in the chocolate chips.

STEP 5: Divide the batter among the wells of the muffin pan. There is enough batter for 8 muffins. STEP 6: Bake for approximately 25 minutes, or until you spot cracks on top of the muffins. Insert a toothpick into the center of a muffin. It should come out almost clean (it’s fine if the toothpick comes out crumbly/slightly sticky, but it shouldn’t come out wet). STEP 7: Let the banana oatmeal muffins cool and enjoy!

Tips & Variations

How to store banana muffins? You can double the recipe and store leftover muffins in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 5 days, or freeze in zip-lock bags for up to 3 months. These muffins are also great for meal-prep! Make them refined sugar-free! Simply, leave out the chocolate chips to make these banana muffins healthier and refined sugar-free. You can replace the chocolate chips with nuts, raisins or possibly even blueberries, raspberries, cranberries, etc. Not a fan of bananas? Even though these are banana chocolate chip muffins, you can use applesauce instead of bananas. I know it’s quite funny, but I often get asked if my banana desserts can be made without bananas. Go figure! Regular flour – Most of my readers appreciate my gluten-free vegan recipes, and thank me for it. However, I often get asked if specific desserts can be made with regular all-purpose flour because it’s easier to get. And yes, that’s often possible and most of the time baked goods turn out fluffier with wheat flour because of the gluten. Also, for these banana muffins, you can use regular flour or spelt flour instead of oat flour. On the left you can see the banana chocolate chip muffins made with oat flour and on the right are the exact same muffins with all-purpose flour. Btw. I prefer the ones with oat flour!

These Vegan Banana Muffins Are:

Vegan (dairy-free, egg-free) Gluten-free (if using oat flour) Can be made nut-free Can be made refined sugar-free Moist Delicious Easy to make with simple ingredients Healthier than most banana muffins

If you love muffins, make sure to check out my other delicious vegan & gluten-free muffin recipes:

Vegan Chocolate Muffins Sweet Potato Muffins Apple Crumble Muffins Savory Vegetable Muffins Matcha Muffins (Cupcakes) Vegan Blueberry Muffins

You can also make mini banana muffins! How cute is this little guy:

Should you give these vegan banana chocolate chip muffins a try, please leave a comment and rating below and tag me in your Instagram or Facebook post with #elavegan and @elavegan.