Banana Oat Muffins (With Chocolate Chips)

This recipe for healthy banana muffins is a satisfying and nourishing addition to eggs for breakfast or a high fiber snack when you need an energy boost.

I’m so excited to finally share this recipe. I’ve been making them for over a year and haven’t gotten around to taking photos of them to share. They’re Evan and family approved, so if you’re looking a healthier banana muffin alternative, I think you’ll love these.

It’s such a treat to have a banana chocolate chip muffin with breakfast during the week, and even more so knowing it’s nourishing. These pair so well with scrambled eggs or a premade frittata. They’re also easy the day of- you can microwave them for about 30 seconds and it’s like they just came out of the oven, for real.

These banana oatmeal muffins are sweetened only by the overripe bananas, vanilla yogurt and chocolate chips, so they have no added sugar. I think banana breads are often too sweet, so these are well balanced and flavorful. They’re also packed with fiber and have some protein too, about 5-6 grams per muffin. I should add that there’s no oil in these either, which makes them much less of an indulgence but you really can’t tell because they’re so moist (sorry, I had to).

Another thing that makes these banana and oat muffins healthy is the oat flour. They have no refined or all purpose flour, and are made with only oat flour. This means they’re high in fiber, contain important prebiotics (that nourish a healthy gut microbiome) and are more blood sugar friendly.

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Ingredients in this banana and oat muffin

Oat Flour

As mentioned above, oat flour is the only flour in these banana chocolate chip oat muffins. I use the Arrowhead mills brand. I wouldn’t recommend making them yourself from whole oats, as the texture won’t be as fine as store bought, unless your milling your own flours.

Overripe bananas

The bananas that you use need to be overripe or else they won’t add enough sweetness to the muffin. I wait until they’re soft and have a lot of black spots covering the skin. I usually need to plan about a week ahead to make these banana oatmeal muffins to give the bananas plenty of time to ripen.

Chocolate Chips

The chocolate chips make these healthy oatmeal muffins so satisfying and delicious. Without them, they wouldn’t be as sweet or flavorful. I use the brand Guittard, 48% chocolate chips. They’re bigger than traditional chips so I use 5-6 per muffin and find that to be perfect.

Vanilla yogurt

For the yogurt, I’ve only ever used Siggi’s brand of vanilla yogurt. I’d imagine other brands of high protein yogurt would work too, as long as it has simple ingredients.

Eggs

There’s not much to explain about the eggs, though I like using a pasture raised brands like Vital Farms.

Cinnamon

Cinnamon helps to improve blood sugar when eating carbohydrates, and it also adds great flavor to these banana and oatmeal muffins.

Ground Flax

Ground flax is a great source of ALA (plant source of omega 3’s) and fiber. It has a very neutral, slightly nutty flavor. I like to add it to various things to boost the nutrition. They blend really well into baked goods, especially these healthy muffins with oats.

Baking Powder

It might seem like there’s a lot of baking powder in this recipe, but it works and helps give the muffins rise and a great texture.

Nuts

Nuts are optional and I don’t often add them but if you like your banana muffins with walnuts or texture you can add nuts of your choice. Pumpkin seeds (pepitas) would be good too, and add a little protein boost.

Recipe for ‘Banana Oat Muffins with Chocolate Chips’

Prep time: 20 minutes

Cook Time: 20-25 minutes

Yields: 10 muffins

Ingredients

• 2 cups oat flour

• 4 medium sized overripe bananas

• 1 small container (150 g) of Siggi’s vanilla yogurt

• Sprinkles of cinnamon (1/2-1tsp)

• 1 tsp baking soda

• 4 tsp baking powder

• 2 eggs

• 1 tbsp ground flax

• 1/4 cup whole oats 

• 2 tsp vanilla extract

• Chocolate chips

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350F (if your oven runs hotter, set to 325F).

2. In a big bowl, mash the bananas until smooth.

3. Then mix in the eggs, yogurt, vanilla extract and cinnamon until smooth.

4. Mix in the dry ingredients of oat flour, whole oats, ground flax, baking powder and baking soda and stir until combined. Stir in nuts at this point if you’re adding them. If you’re using smaller chocolate chips, you can add them into the batter here too.

5. Get your muffin pan ready, I use a Silpat muffin pan placed on a big sheet pan (don’t need to grease it or use liners!)

6. Fill 10 muffin wells completely with batter and then place 5-6 chocolate chips (more if using smaller chips) and press down with your finger or tooth pick, smoothing batter over top.

7. Place in oven right away and bake for 20-35 minutes, until golden brown on top.