Healthy Chocolate Banana Bread Mini Muffins Recipe

What's better than chocolate? Or banana bread? Or muffins?!

I didn't think there was an answer to those questions until I made these delicious little muffins.

After the release of my new book last week, I was definitely in need of a chocolate hit, and these muffins delivered.

Healthy Chocolate Banana Bread Mini Muffins are gluten-free, dairy-free, and so healthy you can eat them for breakfast.

When I set out to develop this recipe, I had more of a simple chocolate muffin idea in my mind. I wanted to keep them low in added sugar and tested it with bananas, and to my pleasant surprise, they came out tasting like delicious chocolate banana bread.

Healthy Chocolate Banana Bread Mini Muffins Ingredient Notes

Almond Flour

Almond flour is obviously more dense than regular grain flour because it's made from nuts. It gives these muffins a delightful bread-like texture. This recipe is specifically written for almond flour and since it's so specific it can't be substituted. Blanched almond flour is the most common type you'll buy at the store for baking, blanched just means the outer skins of the almonds were removed to give the almond flour a uniform texture and color.

Cacao Powder (Raw Chocolate)

Cacao powder is raw chocolate powder. It's high in antioxidants and doesn't contain any added sugar. It's earthy in flavor—I love it—but if you're not ready for this healthy superfood go ahead and use no-sugar-added cocoa powder.

Organic Eggs

Eggs bind these muffins together and make them nice and fluffy. If you don't do eggs you could try to substitute with homemade flax eggs instead, just note they will be more crumbly. I haven't personally tried this, so if you do let us know in the comments. I prefer organic eggs but do what works for you.

Mini Dark Chocolate Chips

Mini dark chocolate chips add a little sweetness and decadence to these mini muffins. Since we use banana and a small amount of natural sweetener here, I think it's absolutely fine to add some dark chocolate chips. Go easy on them, and look for vegan and dark chocolate to keep them healthy. You can skip them altogether if you prefer.

This recipe makes about 36 mini muffins or 12 regular muffins. Be sure to use paper muffin liners in your muffin tin as the almond flour is dense and will stick even if you spray a pan.

Healthy Mini Chocolate Chip Muffins Recipe

• Author: Elizabeth Rider
• Prep Time: 15 mins
• Cook Time: 20 mins
• Total Time: 35 mins
• Yield: 36 1x

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Ingredients

Scale 1x2x3x

• Wet ingredients:
• ¼ cup extra virgin olive oil
• ¼ cup raw honey or real maple syrup
• 3 eggs
• 1 cup mashed ripe bananas (that’s about 2 medium bananas)
• 1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract
• 1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar
• Dry ingredients:
• ¾ teaspoon fine sea salt
• ¾ teaspoon baking soda
• 3 cups blanched almond flour
• ½ cup cacao powder (raw chocolate powder)
• 2 tablespoons ground flax seeds
• ⅓ cup vegan mini dark chocolate chips

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Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 350 F. Line a mini muffin tin with paper muffin liners.
2. Combine the wet ingredients in the food processor until well mixed, about 30 seconds. You can also mash and combine by hand if you prefer.
3. Gently combine the dry ingredients, minus the chocolate chips, in a mixing bowl.
4. Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and pulse 3-4 times (or stir) to create the batter. Be careful not to overmix. The batter should be well incorporated but not overmixed.
5. Unplug the food processor and remove the blade, then gently fold in the chocolate chips.
6. Add 1 tablespoon of the batter to each mini muffin cup (use 3 tablespoons if using regular size muffin cups).
7. Bake for 15-20 minutes until the muffins are cooked through. Use a toothpick through the middle of a muffin at 15 minutes to test if they are baked through. The toothpick should come out clean.
8. Let the muffins cool completely before eating to allow them to set.
9. Store in an airtight container on the counter up to 3 days, in the refrigerator up to a week or in the freezer up to 3 months.

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Notes

Almond flour is obviously more dense than regular grain flour because it's made from nuts. It gives these muffins a delightful bread-like texture. This recipe is specifically written for almond flour and since it's so specific it can't be substituted.

Cacao powder is raw chocolate powder. It's high in antioxidants and doesn't contain any added sugar. It's earthy in flavor—I love it—but if you're not ready for this healthy superfood go ahead and use no-sugar-added cocoa powder.

Eggs bind these muffins together and make them nice and fluffy. If you don't do eggs you could try to substitute with homemade flax eggs instead, just note they will be more crumbly. I haven't personally tried this, so if you do let us know in the comments!

Mini dark chocolate chips add a little sweetness and decadence to these mini muffins. Since we use banana and a small amount of natural sweetener here, I think it's absolutely fine to add some dark chocolate chips. Go easy on them, and look for vegan and dark chocolate to keep them healthy. You can skip them altogether if you prefer.

This recipe makes about 36 mini muffins or 12 regular muffins. Be sure to use paper muffin liners in your muffin tin as the almond flour is dense and will stick even if you spray a pan.