Vegan Chocolate Chip Muffins

Biting into a fresh, fluffy chocolate chip banana muffin early in the morning is guaranteed to start your day on the right foot. The combination of gooey chocolate chips and sweet bananas is unbeatable. The smell alone that will fill the kitchen while they bake will instantly lift your spirits.

Banana bread has taken the world by storm in recent years because it’s easy enough for a novice baker to whip up with ease and is made with only basic pantry ingredients. These vegan chocolate chip banana muffins are treats well beyond breakfast too, perfect for dessert, a snack, or anytime sweet cravings strike.

If you want a comforting meal on the go, baking a batch of muffins along with your other meal prep is a great way to save time during the week. Despite making a generous dozen muffins per batch, you can double the recipe to bake for a crowd. Leftover muffins freeze and thaw beautifully, so you’ll never run out.

Why You’ll Love These Vegan Chocolate Chip Muffins

• Quick and easy. If you have 10 minutes, you could have muffins in the oven and ready before the sun rises. In fact, this recipe is so easy that you could probably make it in your sleep!
• Versatile. Prefer nuts over chocolate? Done. Want a serving of whole grains? No problem with spelt flour. This basic formula is highly adaptable based on your needs and taste preferences.
• Affordable. Forget all the fancy, expensive specialty ingredients. A properly stocked pantry probably has everything you need already.
• No refined sugars. You’re already sweet enough; no need to sugar-coat it! Bananas lend natural sweetness into the mix, amplified by pure maple syrup. This combination is lower on the glycemic index than processed white sugar, so it won’t spike your blood sugar, leading to a rush and then crash later.
• Portion control. Individual servings make it a snap to keep portions in check. It’s also great for serving a crowd since there’s no cutting needed for everyone to get their fair share.

Make These Vegan Muffins Mini, Jumbo, or Any Size!

Whether you want just a one-bite pick-me-up or a full loaf, it’s easy to adapt this recipe for any size of baking pan you prefer.

• Mini muffins: lightly grease 36 mini muffin cups and bake for 10 – 13 minutes.
• Jumbo muffins: lightly grease 5 jumbo muffin cups and bake for 30 – 35 minutes.
• Loaf: lightly grease an 8×4-inch loaf pan and bake for 50 – 60 minutes.
• Snacking cake: lightly grease and 8-inch round cake pan and bake for 25 – 30
  minutes.
• Bundt cake: lightly grease a 10-inch bundt pan, double the recipe, and bake for 75 –
  90 minutes.

Essential Vegan Muffin Ingredients

All-purpose or light spelt flour

All-purpose flour is the gold standard for soft, tender, yet sturdy baked goods. If you want to add in a serving of whole grains, light spelt flour is an excellent alternative, containing much more fiber and a subtly nutty wheat flavor. If you want to make gluten-free muffins, you can substitute this with a gluten-free flour mixture that measures the same as conventional flour.

Cinnamon

It’s hard to beat that warm, cozy spice, especially paired with the fruity sweetness of bananas. To really amplify the flavor, try toasting your ground cinnamon in a dry skillet for about 5 minutes. As a bonus, the whole house will smell amazing!

Bananas

The most popular fruit in the entire world, bananas are always in hot demand. The trouble is that they ripen so quickly, it’s easy to end up with a surplus on hand. This recipe is a great way to make use of those super ripe, spotty bananas, so don’t even dream of tossing them out!

Maple Syrup

Offering much more than just straight sweetness, maple syrup has a distinctly woodsy, earthy flavor and gorgeous amber-brown color. It also contains more minerals, nutrients, and vitamins than other common sweeteners.

Non-Dairy Milk

Take your pick from almond, soy, hemp, oat, rice, flax, and beyond! Any non-dairy milk works wonderfully here.

Coconut Oil

Though solid at room temperature, coconut oil melts easily at 77°F (30°C). Virgin coconut oil has a subtle tropical taste, whereas refined coconut oil is completely flavorless.

Vegan Chocolate Chips

Everything is better with a little bit of chocolate, right? Bittersweet or dark chocolate works best in this recipe to balance out the sweetness in the batter, but you can use any vegan variety you’d prefer. For even bigger chunks of chocolate in every mouthful, use a roughly chopped chocolate bar instead.

How to Bake The Best Muffins

Muffins are an easy way to get started if you’re new to vegan baking. You can’t go too far wrong with this fool-proof recipe, but there are a few simple tricks to remember for baking up the best batch yet.

1. Pour the wet ingredients into the bowl of dry ingredients. This is called the “muffin method” specifically because it’s the most efficient way to combine the two mixtures without having flour go everywhere when you start to stir.

2. Don’t overmix the batter. Though it’s tempting to beat out all the lumps, it’s better to leave a few once the rest of the batter is smooth. Avoid creating extra gluten by mixing too much, which makes tougher baked goods.

3. Use the center rack in the oven. Too close to the bottom or the top, and they’ll burn before they’re cooked all the way through. Keep the pan in the middle of the oven for more even cooking.

4. Don’t overcook the muffins. Start checking at the earliest estimate for the baking time range, inserting a toothpick into the center of the muffins. If it pulls out cleanly, with maybe just one or two moist crumbs sticking to it, they’re all done! If it comes out coated in wet batter, they still need a few more minutes.

Vegan Chocolate Chip Muffin Recipe Notes & Pro Tips

If you want to increase the nutrition, feel free to switch out all-purpose flour for something like light spelt flour. You can also add chopped walnuts to the batter, or completely omit the chocolate chips and only use walnuts instead. Also, if you’d like the recipe to be oil-free, you can swap out the coconut oil for unsweetened applesauce.

Make sure to always use super ripe bananas! You might think that a spotty banana with a lot of black marks is bad, but this kind of banana is absolutely perfect for these vegan chocolate chip muffins. A recipe like this is a great way to use bananas that are about to go bad. If you don’t have the time or ingredients to make muffins right away, you can freeze ripe bananas and save them for your next baking day.

More Marvelous Vegan Muffin Recipes to Try

• For something savory, these Vegan Jalapeño Cornbread Muffins are a must-try! They’re the ultimate party-perfect treat or a delightful companion to a comforting bowl of soup!
• Love blueberries? Discover the ultimate delight in every bite with our easy Vegan Blueberry Muffins that combine sweet, plump blueberries and a pillow-soft base for a heavenly treat suitable any time of day!
• Take your muffins up a notch with these Vegan Crumb Muffins! The crumb topping is irresistible!
• Swap bananas and use pureed pumpkin instead to make these incredible Vegan Pumpkin Muffins With Chocolate Chips!
• Give your breakfast routine a makeover with these fantastically fluffy Vegan Crumpets made with super simple ingredients.
• For something healthy and kid-friendly, these Green Toddler Blender Muffins are the perfect snack!
• And if you need something extra sweet and delicious don’t sleep on these Vegan Chocolate Cupcakes! They are crowd-pleasing and foolproof!

Equipment You’ll Need

• Muffin Tin (Cupcake Tin)
• Measuring Spoons
• Measuring Cups
• Potato Masher
• Mixing Bowl
• Rubber Spatula

The Best Vegan Chocolate Chip Muffins

Author: World of Vegan

5 from 9 votes

Want to make your breakfast extra special? Bake up some of these delicious chocolate chip banana muffins! The combination of chocolate chips and banana is unbeatable and offers the perfect pick-me-up for a weekday slump. 

Print Recipe Pin Recipe

Prep Time 15 minutes minutes

Cook Time 25 minutes minutes

Total Time 40 minutes minutes

Servings 12

Ingredients

• 2 cups all-purpose flour, or light spelt flour
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1½ teaspoon cinnamon
• 3 medium very ripe bananas, or 4 small
• ⅔ cup maple syrup
• ⅔ cup non-dairy milk, unsweetened and at room temperature
• ¼ cup coconut oil, melted
• 1½ tsp vanilla extract
• ⅓ cup vegan chocolate chips

Instructions

• Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F. Line a 12 cavity muffin tray with muffin liners.
• Add the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and cinnamon to a large bowl and whisk to combine.
• In a large shallow bowl, mash 3 medium bananas or 4 small bananas very well with a potato masher. Add the maple syrup, milk, coconut oil, and vanilla extract and mix until smooth. There will still be some clumps from the bananas and this is completely normal.
• Combine the wet and the dry ingredients and whisk gently to combine.
• Fold in the chocolate chips. I used mini chocolate chips but you can use larger ones.
• Distribute the batter between the 12 muffin liners. Bake for 22-25 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean. Let the muffins cool in the muffin tray for at least 15 minutes. Remove the muffins from the tray and allow them to cool completely. Enjoy!

Nutrition

Calories: 219kcal | Carbohydrates: 38g | Protein: 3g | Fat: 7g | Saturated Fat: 5g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 0.3g | Monounsaturated Fat: 0.4g | Trans Fat: 0.01g | Sodium: 278mg | Potassium: 169mg | Fiber: 2g | Sugar: 17g | Vitamin A: 19IU | Vitamin C: 3mg | Calcium: 87mg | Iron: 2mg

Course Breakfast, Dessert, Snack

Cuisine American

Keyword dairy-free muffins, vegan banana muffins, vegan chocolate chip muffins, vegan muffin recipe

Vegan Chocolate Chip Muffins photos by Kathy Chrzaszcz for World of Vegan. Recipe and photographs copyright of World of Vegan™, all rights reserved.