Chocolate Banana Muffins
Chocolate Banana Muffins
Ingredients
- ⅔ cups coconut sugar
- 1 large egg
- ½ cup applesauce unsweetened
- ½ cup wheat flour
- ½ cup cocoa powder unsweetened
- ½ tsp salt
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 6 oz dark chocolate chips 60-69% cacao
- 2 bananas large, 8″ to 8-7/8″ long
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 375°F. Line a 12-cup muffin tin with paper or silicone liners and set aside.
- Peel the bananas and add them to a large mixing bowl. Mash thoroughly with a fork until smooth with no large lumps remaining. The riper the bananas the easier this step will be and the sweeter the finished muffins will taste.
- Add the coconut sugar, egg, and unsweetened applesauce to the mashed banana. Stir until fully combined.
- In a separate bowl whisk together the wheat flour, unsweetened cocoa powder, salt, baking soda, and baking powder until evenly combined.
- Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and stir gently until just combined. Do not overmix. A few small lumps are fine and overmixing will make the muffins dense rather than tender.
- Fold in the dark chocolate chips until evenly distributed throughout the batter.
- Divide the batter evenly among the 12 lined muffin cups filling each one about two thirds full.
- Bake for 18 to 20 minutes until a toothpick inserted into the center of a muffin comes out with just a few moist crumbs. The tops should look set and the edges will just begin to pull away from the liners.
- Allow to cool in the pan for 5 minutes then transfer to a wire rack to cool for another 5 minutes before serving.
Nutrition
Rich, fudgy, deeply chocolatey, and made without any butter or oil in the batter. The applesauce and ripe banana do all the work that fat would normally do, keeping everything tender while the cocoa powder and dark chocolate chips make sure the chocolate flavor is front and center.
At 160 calories each these are the kind of thing you can have with your morning coffee and feel good about.
Twelve muffins per batch means you are covered for the week. They hold up well in the fridge and taste just as good on day four as they do fresh out of the oven, which makes them one of the better meal prep breakfast options on the blog.
What Makes These Work
Coconut sugar is worth using here specifically rather than swapping for regular granulated sugar. It has a slightly deeper, more caramel-like sweetness that pairs really well with the cocoa and dark chocolate and gives the muffins a more complex flavor than you would get from regular sugar at the same amount. It also has a slightly lower glycemic index which is a nice bonus.
The combination of baking soda and baking powder together is what gives these their lift. Cocoa powder is acidic and the baking soda reacts with it to help the muffins rise, while the baking powder provides additional leavening that keeps them light rather than dense. Do not substitute one for the other or leave either one out.
Using 60 to 69 percent cacao dark chocolate chips is worth paying attention to. At that cacao percentage you get a chocolate chip that is rich and slightly bitter in a way that balances the sweetness of the banana and coconut sugar perfectly. A sweeter chip would make these feel cloying rather than balanced.
A Few Things Worth Knowing Before You Start
The riper your bananas are the better this recipe will be on every level. Very ripe, spotted bananas mash more smoothly, add more natural sweetness, and contribute more moisture to the batter. If your bananas are not quite ripe enough, place them unpeeled on a baking sheet in a 300°F oven for about 15 minutes until the skins are dark and the bananas are soft.
Do not overmix once the dry ingredients go into the wet. This is the step that makes or breaks the texture of the finished muffin. Stir until just combined, fold in the chocolate chips, and stop there. The batter will look slightly lumpy and that is exactly right.
Fill each muffin cup only about two thirds full. These muffins rise as they bake and overfilling leads to tops that spill over the edges and bake together rather than forming clean individual domes.
Check them at 18 minutes before going to 20. A toothpick inserted into the center should come out with just a few moist crumbs, not wet batter. Overbaking is how you lose the fudgy texture that makes these worth making.
Store in an airtight container at room temperature for up to two days or in the fridge for up to five days. They also freeze well for up to two months. Wrap individually and microwave from frozen for about 45 seconds.
