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These Chocolate Chip Banana Oat Muffins are a delicious snack, dessert, or breakfast. They can easily be made dairy free and contain no white flour. Sweetened with honey instead of sugar!
Banana bread is a must have in my home. I make a few every month and we enjoy it for breakfast or dessert. Or fresh out of the oven at any time of day because let’s be honest it’s just plain yummy.
Given my love for it I knew I needed to create a muffin version that I’d feel good about feeding my family. That means I wanted to eliminate the flour, sugar, and dairy. I still wanted it to feel just as comforting and decadent as the traditional bread. Mission accomplished, friends. These Chocolate Chip Banana Oat Muffins are an absolute home run.
They’re sweet. The banana flavor is pretty strong (as it should be because this is essentially a banana bread after all). The batter contains honey instead of refined sugar. We’re not a completely sugar-free household but I do try to limit how much sugar we have. (It will never cease to amaze me how sugar is sneaked into essentially everything.)
And these muffins are loaded with oats. Have you ever tried an oatmeal muffin recipe before? Sometimes they feel a bit too much like oatmeal for my liking. To rectify that I’ve blended the oats so the batter texture remains completely smooth. In fact everything (except for the chocolate chips) just goes straight in the blender. I’m always in favor of a dish I can make with minimal prep!
Naturally I go heavy on the chocolate chips. Because if you don’t want lots of chocolate chips we can’t be friends.
When my six year old son took his first bite of one he squealed. Literally squealed. That’s how I know it’s a winner. Also I ate three. Another sure sign. Oh and we’ve made these maybe 297 times since I created the recipe. So yeah. We dig them.
For this recipe you’ll need (full list of ingredients and instructions are in the recipe card below):
- Bananas
- Eggs
- Honey
- Vanilla extract
- Milk (unsweetened almond milk or cow’s milk)
- Baking powder
- Cinnamon
- Quick cooking oats
- Chocolate chips
Add all your ingredients except the chocolate chips into a blender. Blend until batter is completely smooth and oats are finely ground. Fill your muffin cups to approximately 2/3 full (or just a bit more) with batter. Add chocolate chips. Bake for 15 minutes.
Are these muffins dairy free?
Yes these muffins can easily be dairy free! Just be sure to use almond milk (instead of cow’s milk) and dairy free chocolate chips. Two yummy dairy free chocolate chip brands I recommend are Enjoy Life and the Simply Delicious line from Nestle Tollhouse. Both have a very short and straight forward ingredient list.
Are these muffins sugar free?
The chocolate chips I purchase do have sugar as ingredient. If you want to 100% avoid sugar here you’ll want to buy sugar free chocolate chips.
Can you use steel cut oats?
No. This recipe has been tested with quick cooking oats. They work best because they blend easily and cook quickly. Steel cut oats will give you a dense gritty texture. I strongly recommend sticking with the quick oats.
Can you use maple syrup instead of honey?
You can. It will have a stronger flavor that you’ll likely notice in the muffins but should work fine.
What chocolate chips are best in these muffins?
Semi-sweet chocolate chips are perfect in here because the honey adds plenty of sweetness to the batter already.
Of course you can absolutely use any chocolate chips you like. Semi-sweet, dark chocolate, and milk chocolate are all delicious. I grab whatever we have on hand!
Are these muffins good for meal prep?
Yes! Make a batch and enjoy them all week for a quick breakfast you can take with you in the car.
Do these muffins freeze well?
They sure do! Feel free to pop them in the freezer and reheat them in the microwave as needed.
More recipes like this:
Healthy Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Bars
Baked Banana Chocolate Chip Oatmeal
Chocolate Chip Banana Oat Muffins
Ingredients
- 2 cups quick cooking oats
- 2 ripe bananas
- 2 eggs
- 1 cup milk, If you can tolerate dairy, whole milk, 2%, 1%, and skim milk all work well. If dairy free, almond milk and oat milk are yummy in these muffins.
- ¼ cup honey
- 1½ tablespoons vanilla extract
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1½ teaspoons cinnamon
- ½ cup chocolate chips, Use dark chocolate, milk chocolate, or semi-sweet.
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
- Add all your ingredients except the chocolate chips into a blender. Blend until batter is completely smooth and oats are finely ground. (The batter will not look at all like it was made from oats at this point.)
- Carefully fold the chocolate chips into the batter (do not blend them).
- Lightly grease a 12-cup muffin pan with olive oil or your favorite spray. You can also use paper muffin cups but I do recommend spraying the inside of those if you go that route.
- Fill your muffin cups to approximately 2/3 full (or just a bit more) with batter. For extra special muffins press a few chocolate chips to the top of each.
- Place in oven and bake for 15 minutes.
- Remove pan from oven and set aside to cool for 5-10 minutes.
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
These look amazing! I love the flavor combo, they sound perfect for breakfast!
Any suggestions for egg substitutes for this specific recipe? Would love to make these, but we are avoiding egg in addition to dairy and gluten! I’ve used flax seed “eggs” if you think that might work! Thank you!!
I haven’t used an egg substitute in this recipe yet but I’d try the flax seed egg!
This recipe is one of my “go-to” recipes when I’m looking for a little treat but keeping the ingredients super clean. I LOVE that you can make them in the blender. Perfect for quick cleanup and the consistency is SO delicious!!! I’ve made these so many times so I had to come back to leave a review.
These look awesome and I’m going to make them with my kids 🙂 Just one question about the nutrition info- it says a serving size is 1 muffin, is that a mini muffin (like the pics in your post) or a regular sized muffin pan? Thanks for all your great recipes!!!
Hi, the photos are not of mini muffins. They’re full sized. Nutrition information is for full sized muffins. 🙂
Can regular oats be used instead of quick?
No it will change the texture. I’d stick with quick.
These banana oat muffins are amazingly delicious. I make them ALL the time and could not love them more!
Can rolled oats be substituted for quick cooking oats?
I wouldn’t recommend it. They change the texture quite a bit!
Just made these…..AMAZING!!
My son packs two of these in place of a sandwich in his lunch. He loves them and it fills him up for the afternoon.
Oh that is so great that he loves them so much!!! Thanks for sharing, Kate!
There is no better treat for an icy, stuck inside kind of day! The recipe is easy enough my kids can help!!! Delicious! Healthy! Definitely a family favorite!
Thank you, Amber! I love that your kids get involved in making these!