These gluten free banana chocolate chip muffins are so delicious. You’ll love both the flavor and texture of these tender muffins! This is an easy recipe that’s perfect for those new to gluten free baking.
Banana muffins or banana bread is a favorite at our house – I’m always in need of a way to use up over ripe bananas.
I grew up using my grandma’s recipe for banana bread and muffins, which was so delicious. It was traditional, meaning it included eggs, all purpose flour, and walnuts. Those ingredients aren’t what I bake with now, so I needed to figure out a way to make delicious gluten free and vegan banana muffins for our family.
When you’re trying to bake an allergy friendly recipe for the first time, it’s really rewarding when it turns out well! The great thing about this recipe is that it’s pretty straightforward, making it a good choice for those who are new to gluten free and vegan baking.
I started making muffins this way almost 8 years ago now, and it was an easy recipe for me as a new gluten free baker.
I just love these warm out of the oven for breakfast. Topped with some vegan buttery spread…so delicious. They would even be great as a dessert with some vanilla ice cream.
Ingredient Notes
- Bananas – You’ll want to use ripe bananas – ones that have a few brown spots, but not necessarily ones that are totally brown (like from your freezer). Those kind of ripe bananas provide excellent flavor, but in this recipe, they might add too much moisture, resulting in a gummy texture.
- Gluten Free Flour Blend – I make these most often with Namaste Perfect Flour Blend. It works really well for cookies and muffins. Even though this recipe doesn’t use eggs, I find that the texture is still really good with the Namaste flour. You can also my own homemade gluten free flour blend in this recipe.
- Dairy Free Chocolate Chips – We like Enjoy Life Chocolate Chips or Chunks in this recipe. Feel free to use any variety that works for your dietary needs.
Substitutions
- If you want to use oat flour, you can use up to a cup in this recipe. If you use only oat flour, it might work out okay, or it might result in crumbly muffins.
- If you are able to eat eggs, go ahead and use two regular eggs instead of the flax seed eggs. The cooking time should be the same.
- If you can’t eat bananas, you could try substituting pumpkin puree, but if you’re going to do that, you should probably just use my gluten free pumpkin muffin recipe.
Tips for Success
- Don’t use frozen ripe bananas – they will be too wet.
- Don’t over bake these – 22-25 minutes should be about right.
- Use parchment paper liners to avoid the muffins sticking to the pan.
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Recipe
Gluten Free Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins.
Ingredients
- 2 cups gluten free flour blend or regular flour if you don’t need to be gluten free
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- ⅛ teaspoon salt
- ½ cup melted vegan buttery spread or regular butter, or coconut oil
- ¾ cup organic cane sugar
- 2 Tablespoons ground flax seed
- 6 Tablespoons water
- 2 ripe bananas mashed
- ½ teaspoon vanilla
- 1 cup dairy free chocolate chips
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Line a muffin tin with parchment paper liners.
- Make the flax eggs: combine the ground flax seed and water in a small jar or cup and set aside.
- In a large bowl, mix together the melted vegan buttery spread or coconut oil and sugar. Add the flax eggs, mashed bananas and vanilla, stirring until well blended.
- Add the dry ingredients and stir until combined. Add the chocolate chips, then stir again.
- Spoon the batter into the muffin tin, filling the cups ¾ full. Bake at 350 degrees F for approximately 22-25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center of a muffin comes out clean.
- Let the muffins cool in the pan for a few minutes before moving to a wire rack to cool completely.
- This recipe usually makes about 14 muffins, so if you have leftover batter, just repeat steps 5 and 6. Sometimes I just bake a few mini muffins at the same time to use up any excess batter. Mini muffins will need to bake for 16 minutes.
Richard Tunner
I used regular flour and regular brown sugar because that’s what I had and I wanted to use my ripe bananas this morning. Thanks for the easy recipe! It’s delicious!
Mary W
I made these the other day and my kids and husband LOVED them. I made them again this morning for my church group. They didn’t even know they were vegan! I used regular flour since no one had allergies and i wasn’t about to waste my expensive GF flour. haha I have really enjoyed every recipe of yours that I have tried. Thank you!
Kelly Roenicke
Yay, so glad they were a hit! Thanks for telling me!
Happy Vegan
I made these, by substituting 7 oz of banana based babyfood puree [banana,pear, mango, orange] (in the end, I could have used 3 of them) – 1/2 cup of nuts buzzed really fine. I didn’t have any choc chips left, so didn’t put any in.
I also mixed the flax seed in 3 tbs of apple juice, and split the sugar, 1/4th white, 1/4th brown & 1/4th maple syrup.
I also added 1 tsp of baking POWDER, along with the called for 1 tsp of baking SODA.
The batter came out like thick cookie dough, so I added 1/2 a cup of orange juice, but the batter was still thick, so I added 1/4th a cup of vanilla oat beverage.
I cooked them exactly 22 minutes, and they came out perfectly!
They were cake like, and dome shaped.
Thanks for the recipe!
Happy Vegan
I also used sunflower seed oil, instead of canola.
Kelly Roenicke
Sounds good! Glad it worked out!
Maria Dexter
Can you use regular eggs in place of flax? What would ratio be?
Kelly
Yup, use 2 regular eggs.
Sarah
Have you tried this recipe with coconut oil in place of canola oil?
Kelly
I have not, but it should work just fine! Just make sure you measure the coconut oil when it is liquid, not solid.
Laura
I just wanted to say that I’ve been using this recipe for several years now and it’s my go-to for gf banana bread! Today, I had to modify it because we didn’t have any chocolate chips in the house. I used a stick of butter, a quarter cup of cocoa and 1/4 cup sugar to replace the chips. Still so good!
Kelly
I’m so glad you like them, Laura! Love that idea for a substitution for the chocolate chips! :)
Meeling
Those sound fantastic! I have a bunch of overripe bananas that I put in the freezer for future baking. Now I know what I’m making!!