We love these banana oat muffins studded with plenty of dark chocolate! Moist, chewy, simple to make, and full of yummy caramel notes. I bet you can’t eat just one since know they disappear in a flash around here.
Hello, all.
Recently I had some old bananas on the counter and I wanted to make some muffins with them and I thought oatmeal would be a great addition to the party. So I did a little search, and I found A LOT of super healthy whole grain, no whatever recipes out there. Yeah, no. No shade, but that just wasn’t what I wanted.
Banana + Oatmeal = Yummy
Then I found this recipe: Blueberry Oatmeal Muffins from Sally’s Baking Addiction, and I thought SCORE, here’s a recipe I can use as inspiration! I admit I was a little skeptical at how wet the batter was when I made it the first time, but it worked perfectly.
Even with my various changes and additions to her version – brown sugar instead of honey, bananas instead of blueberries, oil instead of butter, chocolate instead of no chocolate, and I chop the oats instead of leaving them whole – it was ALL good. š
In fact it was exactly what I wanted in a muffin: a little healthy and all tasty.
What do you need?
- Oats/Milk – The oats soak in the milk and make everything better!
- Dry Ingredients – Flour and so on.
- Bananas – Rather important! Make sure they are spotty but they don’t have to be black. (Though they can be black!)
- Dark Chocolate – I use a bittersweet chocolate bar all chopped up to make large and small chunks.
- Brown Sugar/Oil – Both of these ingredients make for a moister baked good and the brown sugar amps up the caramel flavors.
- Egg/Vanilla – A little structure from one and a little flavor from the other.
Can this recipe be made vegan?
Yes, it can! Switch the dairy milk to your favorite nondairy version and use a ‘flax egg‘ in place of the chicken egg. These are also good subs if you are serving these to anyone with an egg or dairy allergy.
How to make this
To make chocolate banana oat muffins, first chop the oats and soak them in milk. Then mix the oats, banana, sugar, wet ingredients, dry ingredients, chopped chocolate together. Divide evenly into a muffin tin and bake until cooked through and golden brown.
1. Prep the Oats
Give the oats a quick chop – pulsed in the food processor or blender or go old school with a knife – and then soak them in the milk. Done!
This does take 20-30 minutes but that’s all soak time once you’ve chopped them up. I use this time to get out the rest of the ingredients, measure, and get organized.
2. Chop the chocolate
Skip this if you are using chips. I like using a bar since the chocolate melts more into the muffins and you get different sizes of chunks.
3. Get to Mixing
Mix the dry ingredients. Mix the wet ingredients (and mash the bananas). Then mix them together while adding in the oats and the chocolate. When you are done you’ll have something that looks like oat soup with chocolate chunks. Don’t worry! This how it is supposed to look. š
4. Time to Bake
Now take your oat soup and ladle it into the wells of a standard muffin tin so you have even amounts in each well. Top with a little more chocolate and then bake until they are all puffed up and cooked through.
Take them out and let them cool a bit then pop them out of the tin onto a cooling rack. Try very hard to wait until they are cooled at least to near room temperature so they have a chance to fully set. Then eat! (Note: I will not tell on you if you can’t wait.)
Can you freeze these?
Yes, banana oat muffins freeze quite well! I like to freeze them on a plate or tray and then move them to a freezer bag for easy snacking.
How do you store them?
Once they have fully cooled, I keep these muffins in a lidded container on the counter for up to 2-3 days.
More Banana Baking Ideas
- Banana bread is perennial favorite and you can’t go wrong with my Double Chocolate Banana Bread! This one of my top recipes.
- If you want to branch out a little from bread, you’ll love this Moist Banana Crumb Cake. Perfect for a crowd!
- And I love these Chocolate Banana Scones with peanut butter topping when I’m going all out for a brunch.
If you try my recipe for Banana Oat Muffins, I would love to hear from you in the comments with your experience and rating! And Iām happy to answer any questions you might have.
– Stay Safe, Annemarie
Chocolate Chip Banana Oat Muffins
Ingredients
- 1 cup (3 1/4 oz) old fashioned rolled oats
- 1 cup whole milk, or 2%
- 1 cup (5 oz) all-purpose flour
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 1/2 tsp table salt
- 1/2 cup vegetable oil
- 1/2 cup (3 1/2 oz) packed light brown sugar
- 1 large egg
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 cup mashed bananas, about 3 medium
- 3/4 cup (4 1/2 oz) chopped bittersweet chocolate
Instructions
- Heat oven to 425F. Grease a 12 well muffin tin and set aside.
- In a food processor or blender, pulse the oats until they are partially chopped. They should be mostly oat pieces (not flour) with few whole oats left.
- Pour the milk into a 2 cup container. Add the oats and let them soak for 20-30 minutes.
- In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.
- In a large bowl whisk together the oil, sugar, egg, vanilla, and bananas.
- Add the dry ingredients to the wet along with 1/2 cup of the chocolate and mix lightly but completely.
- Divide the batter evenly into the prepared muffin tin. The batter will be quite wet.
- Top each muffin with some of the remaining chopped chocolate.
- Bake 5 minutes.
- Reduce heat to 350F. Bake 15-18 minutes more, or until a toothpick comes out with only a few moist crumbs.
- Cool for 10 minutes in the tin. Then turn out the muffins onto a cooling rack and let cool to room temperature.
Notes
- Measurements: All the ingredient measurements in ounces are by weight not volume so you can use a kitchen scale if you wish. To measure the flour by cups use the scoop and sweep method - scoop up flour from the container with your cup and then sweep off the excess.
- Filling the Muffin Tin: As noted, the batter is wet and thin so I use a ladle to divide it up into the wells.
- Chopping the Oats: I do this to improve the texture of the muffins as whole oats tend to be rather chewy.
- Inspiration: Inspired by Blueberry Oatmeal Muffins from Sally's Baking Addiction.
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