Banana & Chocolate Muffins

Banana & Chocolate Muffins are light, fluffy, packed with banana flavour, chocolate pieces and a hint of cinnamon. Perfect for using up those very ripe bananas in your fruit bowl, these delicious cakes are easy to make and bake in less than 20 minutes. Best served warm, or even as a hot pudding with custard.

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MUFFINS: QUICK & EASY

There’s a certain Banana & Chocolate Cake I’ve been making for years. The layers are full of banana flavour and pieces of chocolate, have a hint of cinnamon, and are sandwiched together with a rich buttercream filling.

However, the large cake does a while to bake, cool, and fill. So, when I want a quicker sweet treat with that same winning flavour combination, I turn to Banana & Chocolate Muffins.

One of the reasons that muffins are so quick is that, unlike regular cakes, there’s no softening of the butter then creaming it with sugar before gradually adding the eggs. All you do is beat together the wet ingredients and sugar, then fold in the dry ingredients plus your chosen add-ins and flavourings.

Also, being relatively small, muffins don’t take long to bake; usually under twenty minutes.

TIPS FOR MAKING MUFFINS

For the very best, light and fluffy muffins, there’s just a few general tips to follow.

• Prepping the muffin mix is quick, so gather and weigh all your ingredients first and preheat your oven.
• Don’t over-mix. To get a light muffin, fold the mixture just enough to combine the ingredients.
• Use a skewer or cocktail stick to check if fully cooked: it should come out clean when they’re done. If not, cook for two more minutes and check again. Try not to overcook though, or they won’t be as light.

BANANA & CHOCOLATE MUFFINS

You’ll find ingredient amounts and full instructions for making 12 Banana & Chocolate Muffins in the recipe card at the end. But I recommend you read on for extra tips and step-by-step images to guide you.

EQUIPMENT & INGREDIENTS

For accuracy when baking, I always recommend you use digital scales (paid link) and follow metric measurements. This is the way I create and test my recipes, so can’t vouch for the results if you attempt to convert them e.g. to American cups. You’ll need a deep, 12-hole muffin tin (paid link) and paper cases.

I think you need really ripe bananas for making cakes, muffins and breads. While unripe bananas can contain around eighty percent starch, during ripening that starch turns to sugar and more flavour. I recommend 2 large or 3 medium for these muffins, peeled and mashed with a fork. If I have bananas that are ripening very quickly before I can use them, I put them in the freezer. Defrosted, their texture is lost, but they’re absolutely fine for baking.

Traditionally, many muffin recipes contain buttermilk.  But I use full-fat plain yogurt, and in all my sweet and savoury scones too. Not only is yogurt more widely available, but I think it gives a light and fluffy texture.

I’ve used milk chocolate in my Banana & Chocolate Muffins as the creaminess goes well with the banana flavour. But feel free to use dark chocolate. I think having some small and some larger pieces is best, so always buy bars rather than chocolate chips and roughly chop them.

I like a slightly crunchy topping on these soft and moist muffins. On this batch I sprinkled over sugar nibs just before baking. You can buy them online here (paid link), use Demerara sugar instead, or just leave off.

If you want to decorate baked muffins as I’ve done, you’ll need a little extra chocolate to melt and drizzle over. In the recipe card, I tell you how to melt chocolate in a microwave or on top of the stove.

THE REMAINING INGREDIENTS ARE:

• Self-raising flour. This is what the recipe has been tested with, although plain/all-purpose flour + 3 level teaspoons of baking powder should work too.
• Baking powder. While self-raising flour already contains raising agents (the clue is in the name), I like to give it an extra boost.
• Ground cinnamon. Leave out if you’re not a fan, but it’s a classic with banana and chocolate.
• Salt. Enhances all the flavours.
• Eggs. For binding and lightness.
• Caster sugar.
• Butter (melted). For binding and flavour.
• Vanilla extract. Adds subtle background flavour, but leave out if you don’t have it.

HOW TO MAKE BANANA & CHOCOLATE MUFFINS

Start by sifting together the self-raising flour, baking powder, ground cinnamon, and salt, then set aside. Now get yourself a large mixing bowl and put in the yogurt, crack in the eggs, add the sugar, melted butter, and vanilla extract. Beat these together, preferably using electric beaters (paid link), until thoroughly combined and the sugar dissolved.

Next, tip the spiced flour mixture into the beaten wet ingredients and start folding it in. When most of the flour has been incorporated, tip in the chopped chocolate and continue folding until it’s evenly distributed.

Divide the thick batter between the paper cases in your muffin tin. If using, sprinkle over a small amount of nibbed or Demerara sugar.

NOTE: If your bananas were very large, the cases may be quite full. That’s fine, so long as you don’t mind the possibility of a wider, flatter muffin top rather than a uniformly round one.  To make this less likely, you can use a smaller amount of yogurt: I explain more in the recipe card. Of course, if you have a second muffin tin, then you can just make more muffins!

In an oven preheated to the temperature shown in the recipe card, Banana & Chocolate Muffins should take between 17 – 19 minutes to bake. Ovens will vary though, so be sure to test with a cocktail stick or skewer as per the tip above.

When done, set the muffin tin aside for about 5 minutes. Then carefully transfer the individual muffins to a wire cooling rack.

SERVING & STORING BANANA & CHOCOLATE MUFFINS

For the best flavour, aroma and texture, serve these muffins lightly warm. However, if you want to decorate with melted chocolate, you’ll need wait until they’re completely cold so the chocolate doesn’t sink in. But that’s not a problem because Banana & Chocolate Muffins reheat beautifully in a microwave. They’ll go wonderfully fluffy again with the chocolate temptingly melting a little.

Don’t just think of muffins as a sweet snack or cake though. I also love them served as a hot pudding with Homemade Custard poured over. And I think these flavoursome muffins are particularly delicious eaten that way.

Assuming you are going to reheat them, Banana & Chocolate Muffins should keep for 4 – 5 days in an airtight container. I store mine in the fridge, but they’ll be fine at room temperature so long as it’s not too warm. They also freeze well too.

If you’ve tried this simple but delicious recipe, do let me know what you thought by leaving a comment and rating.

5 from 1 vote

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Banana Chocolate Muffins

Light, fluffy and packed with banana flavour, pieces of milk chocolate and a hint of cinnamon. Perfect for using up very ripe bananas, these delicious cakes are easy to make and bake in less than 20 minutes. Best served warm, or even as a hot pudding with custard.

It's recommended that you read the accompanying blog post before starting the recipe and use digital scales and metric measurements.

Course Dessert, Snack, Cake

Cuisine European, World

Keyword easy

Prep Time 20 minutes

Cook Time 19 minutes

Total Time 39 minutes

Servings 12 muffins

Author Moorlands Eater

Ingredients

• 325 g self-raising flour
• 1 rounded tsp ground cinnamon
• 1 level tsp baking powder
• 0.5 tsp salt
• 2 - 3 large - medium ripe bananas (peeled and mashed with a fork)
• 2 large eggs
• 240 ml plain yogurt (if your bananas are particularly large, start with 200ml and only add more if the mixture looks dry)
• 200 g caster sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 120 g butter (melted)
• 125 g milk or dark chocolate (roughly chopped)
• sugar nibs or demerara sugar (optional: for sprinkling)
• 50 g milk or dark chocolate (melted, for decoration)

Instructions

1. Preheat your oven to 200° C / 180° Fan /Gas 6 /400° F with a shelf just above the middle.

   Put a paper case into each hole of a 12-hole deep muffin tin.

2. Sift together the flour, cinnamon, baking powder and salt then set aside.

3. Take a large bowl and put in the mashed bananas, eggs, yogurt (if your bananas are very large, start with 200ml), sugar, vanilla extract and melted butter. Beat, preferably with electric beaters, until well combined and the sugar is dissolved.

4. Tip the flour mixture into the beaten wet ingredients and start folding in (if you used the lower amount of yogurt, you can add a little more if it seems dry). When most of the flour has been incorporated, fold in the chocolate pieces until they're evenly distributed. For the lightest muffins, try not to stir more than you need to.

5. Divide the mixture between the muffin cases and, if using, sprinkle the top of each one with sugar nibs or Demerara sugar before putting in the oven.

6. Bake until the muffins are risen, golden, and a cocktail stick or skewer comes out clean (approx. 17 - 19 minutes).

   Transfer to a cooling rack until cold.

7. Melt the chocolate in a microwave using 10 - 20 second bursts, stirring after each burst. Alternative: heat in a bowl over a saucepan of simmering water, stirring constantly. Don't let the water touch the bottom of the bowl.

   Drizzle over the muffins: either off the end of a spoon or from a small piping bag.

8. The muffins are best served warm by reheating in a microwave.

   Can be stored in an airtight container (in the fridge if the weather is warm) for 4 - 5 days or frozen.

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