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Hi friends, here is the recipe you’ve all been waiting for: Banana Oat Chocolate Chunk Muffins! I am just so excited to FINALLY be posting this recipe–mostly because I’ve baked these muffins like a hundred times and the recipe is too good not to be shared with the people I love!
Why This Recipe is Amazing:
It’s made with ingredients you already have.
Besides the fact that these Banana Oat Chocolate Chunk Muffins are amazingly moist and delicious, one of the best things about this recipe is that it’s made with ingredients you probably have sitting in your pantry.
Bananas? Check.
Flour? Check.
Oats? Check.
Chocolate Chips? Yup. (Um…always!)
If you live in the beautiful continent of North America, there’s nothing foreign about this recipe.
It’s the perfect way to use up your overripe bananas!
I used to think that a brown banana was no good, that it was rotten and past its prime. NO NO NO! Don’t even think about throwing those weird lookin’ long brown things away. If you didn’t get a chance to eat up your bananas while they were ripe and don’t have the time to bake with them at this very moment, just toss them in the freezer!
(I mean…some people are a little more organized, but I literally find myself tossing them in my freezer, Ha!)
Overripe bananas freeze so well! And when you’re ready to use them, place them on a plate and let them thaw to room temperature for a couple of hours. Because you are gonna want to use them for this recipe–overripe bananas give the best flavour!
And honestly, how many of us have like 20 bananas sitting in our freezers right now? Haha! We need to do some baking with those babies!
No electric mixer required!
All you need to whip up a batch of these Banana Oat Chocolate Chunk Muffins is a couple of bowls and a wooden spoon (and a plate and fork to mash your bananas). This is a major reason why I LOVE to bake muffins because they’re super fast, easy, and of course the clean-up is quick too.
They freeze really well.
I love having muffins stocked away in my freezer because they make the perfect quick breakfast. You’ll find me almost always doubling a recipe for this very reason, so that I can have extras to keep in the freezer!
For uber-quick thawing, just unwrap them, place them on a paper towel and let them go in the microwave for a few seconds. Breakfast is served, my friends!
Baking these Banana Oat Chocolate Chunk Muffins
Mash those bananas!
The first thing you want to make sure of is that your overripe bananas are thawed and ready to be mashed. It really depends on the size of your bananas, but for this recipe I can use anywhere between 2 and 3 bananas. Just mash ’em on a plate with a fork and fill a 1-cup measuring cup as you go. And why not go ahead and make yourself a smoothie with any leftovers you may have? 😉
To bake standard size muffins or mini muffins…
THAT is the question and just another reason why I love this recipe–you can bake regular size muffins or MINI muffins (mini muffins are so fun)!! I actually like to do half and half: bake 6 standard size muffins, and 24 mini muffins. It’s the best of both worlds.
I find that standard size muffins are perfect for eating in the comfort of your own home, for when you need a substantial breakfast. Whereas the mini muffins are perfect to just pop in your mouth for breakfast’ and snacks on the go.
Mini muffins are also great to bring to special events like potlucks at church, or bridal showers/baby showers–where guests just need a tiny little taste of something dainty-er.
Because of their obvious size difference these different sized Banana Oat Chocolate Chunk Muffins require different baking times (which is all in the recipe below, no worries). If you decide to bake both mini and standard size, because the baking temperature is the same you can bake them in the oven together on the same rack; just take the mini muffins out after 10 minutes of baking, and leave the regular muffins in longer.
The secret to beautiful looking muffins:
So, after you’ve gently folded your muffin batter together, I say folded because you never want to overmix your muffins (this results in a dense and tough texture), divide your batter into the greased muffin tins. I don’t use paper baking cups for this recipe, as I find that these muffins come off really easily from the tin itself, but feel free to use them!
Unlike cupcake batter, you’ll want to fill your muffin tins right to the top. These muffins just rise and take shape so beautifully!
You guys, this is the secret to beautiful looking muffins: sprinkle reserved (or extra) oats, chopped nuts, and chopped chocolate chunks on top of the muffin batter. And then bake! You’ll be surprised at how much better muffins look when you can see the ingredients that make these muffins taste so good, sitting right on top!
I almost always do this fancy trick with any cookies that I bake, such as my Peanut Butter Oatmeal Cookies with chocolate chunks and M&Ms! Seriously guys, do this and take pictures so I can see your beautiful creations! 🙂
The Recipe for Banana Oat Chocolate Chunk Muffins:
And there you have it! It’s time to start thawing those brown bananas from your freezer and bake something amazing with them like these Banana Oat Chocolate Chunk Muffins!
I hope you love these muffins as much as I do, and if you end up baking these, TAG me in your photos on Instagram by tagging Flour & Floral and using the hashtag: #flourandfloral.
You guys are awesome, thank you!! And happy baking!
The Products I Used To Make This Recipe Happen:
Banana Oat Chocolate Chunk Muffins
Ingredients
Flour Mixture
- 1 1/2 cups All-Purpose Flour
- 1/2 cup Sugar I used Cane Sugar
- 1 cup Rolled Oats
- 1 tsp Baking Soda
- 2 tsp Baking Powder
- 3/4 tsp Salt
Banana Mixture
- 1 Egg
- 3/4 cup Milk Dairy or Almond is fine
- 1 tsp Pure Vanilla Extract/Paste
- 1/3 cup Vegetable Oil I used Avocado Oil
- 1 cup mashed Bananas 2-3 overripe bananas, depending on their size
- 3/4 cup chopped Walnuts or Pecans, or none at all!
- 3/4 cup Semi-Sweet Chocolate Chunks a bar that's been chopped into chunks, or Mini Chocolate Chips which are great for the mini muffins
Instructions
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Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Grease your 12-cup standard muffin tin or your 24-cup mini muffin tin.
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In a medium bowl combine flour, sugar, oats, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. Set aside.
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In a large bowl beat the egg with a fork. Stir in the milk, vanilla extract, and oil. Place peeled ripe bananas on a large plate and using a fork mash until smooth. Add this to the egg mixture and stir to combine.
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Using a wooden spoon, gently fold in the flour mixture into the banana mixture. Once combined, gently fold in the chocolate and chopped nuts. (optional: reserve some to top the muffin batter)
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If making standard size muffins, divide the batter evenly among the tin, (optional: top each muffin with a sprinkle of oats, nuts, and chocolate), and bake at 400 degrees F for 15-20 minutes until toothpick comes out clean.
If making mini muffins, fill the batter right to the tops. (optional: top each muffin with a sprinkle of oats, nuts, and chocolate), and bake at 400 degrees F for 10 minutes until toothpick comes out clean.
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Set on cooling rack and enjoy!
Notes
Storage: After completely cooled down to room temperature, store in ziplock bags or sealed tupperware container on counter up to 4 days.
Freezing: These muffins freeze really well! After they're completely cooled down to room temperature, wrap each muffin in plastic wrap, place in ziplock bag or tupperware container and place in freezer for up to 3 months.
Thawing: These can be slowly thawed at room temperature, or microwaved unwrapped, or wrapped in foil in the oven and baked at 350 degrees F for 10-15 minutes.
Fellow Bakers and Food Photographers:
If you’re wondering how I styled these Banana Oat Chocolate Chunk Muffins to be photographed, I wrote a blog post all about it here:
How to Style Food for Food Photography
I am not exaggerating when I say I was in heaven while eating these. I followed everything to a T and they could not have been more perfect. Not overly sweet, which I am all for. This is so great! Quick little pick-me up for the week. Thank you so much for this!!! I will be making this again very soon.