These flourless peanut butter banana chocolate muffins are rich and decadent, and you’d never know they’re naturally sweetened with banana & a touch of honey. They’re also free of oil/butter, naturally gluten-free, and dairy-free if you use almond milk!
I’ve made these muffins six or seven times already, and it’s taken me way too long to share the recipe with you all. Law school has been more time-consuming than I thought it’d be, so I haven’t blogged quite as often as I’d hoped, but I still plan to keep sharing recipes and other posts as I can!
These peanut butter banana chocolate muffins are one of my favorite muffin recipes EVER, of all of the healthy muffins I’ve tried AND all of the more traditional, super sugary ones.
Grain-free, gluten-free, dairy-free, and naturally sweetened
These muffins have no dairy or gluten, so they’ll fit most people’s dietary needs. You could even sub almond butter for the peanut butter in case of a peanut butter allergy. There’s also no regular flour or specialty flour like almond or coconut flour, so I bet you have most of the ingredients on hand already!
They’re lightly sweetened with honey, but most of the sweetness comes from just banana. Somehow, though, the banana taste isn’t super strong (which is a big plus for me). You can taste the banana only slightly if you use ripe bananas that aren’t way too ripe. Just a bit speckled is the best!
The peanut butter taste is also surprisingly mild, so the chocolate really does shine through most.
These peanut butter banana chocolate muffins have a perfect texture, which is hard to find in a healthy baking recipe! They’re perfectly moist–not too dry and not too wet (ick) and they’re super chocolate-y. I’m convinced these muffins have some kind of magic, because it doesn’t make sense that they taste this great and are so healthy!
Dark chocolate cocoa powder
I love using DARK chocolate cocoa powder for these muffins instead of regular cocoa powder. I tested these with both dark chocolate cocoa powder and regular cocoa powder and far preferred the dark cocoa powder. Either will work, but I can’t recommend dark chocolate cocoa powder enough. I think it tastes better in just about every recipe!
I use Hershey’s Special Dark Cocoa Powder, which you can find at most grocery stores beside the regular cocoa powder, or on Amazon.
When I calculated the nutrition facts for these muffins to add to this post, I’d already made them several times and fallen in love with them. So, I was blown away to discover that they only have 9 grams of sugar each. You’d never know it– they’re perfectly sweet!
Since I have a major sweet tooth and naturally gravitate toward sweet snacks rather than savory, I’ve started trying to be conscious of how much sugar I actually eat because I could easily go way overboard with sugar every single day. But muffins with 9 grams of sugar? Almost too good to be true. 😍
Compared to a typical chocolate muffin like Starbucks Chocolate Chunk muffin with 39g of sugar and 440 calories, these muffins are an awesome option (and I think they taste better, too– for 30g of sugar less and 240 calories less!).
2020 Update: I’ve further reduced the sugar by using less honey (see the recipe notes) and they’re still amazing!!
Substitutions in this peanut butter banana chocolate muffins recipe
There are lots of options here to make this recipe work best for you!
• Sub regular dairy milk for the almond milk.
• Sub almond butter for the peanut butter.
• Sub peanut butter chips for the dark chocolate or semi-sweet chocolate chips on top.
I hope you love these muffins as much as I do! They’re an amazing healthy after-dinner treat!
If you try these peanut butter banana chocolate muffins, feel free to let me know in a comment (and leave a star rating) or take a photo and tag me @livbane on Instagram! I’d love to see!
Two things I use for these muffins:
Usually these natural (unbleached) baking cups + ALWAYS Hershey’s Special Dark Cocoa Powder
Flourless Peanut Butter Banana Chocolate Muffins
Ingredients
Liquid Ingredients
- 2 medium-large ripe bananas (approx. 6.5-7 oz. each, weighed with peel) (speckled bananas are best)
- 2 eggs
- 1 cup smooth natural peanut butter
- 3 Tbsp. honey*
- 1/4 cup almond milk
Dry Ingredients
- 1/2 cup DARK chocolate cocoa powder (I've also tried regular cocoa powder, but I highly recommend Hershey's Special Dark Cocoa Powder)
- 1/2 tsp. baking soda
- 1/4 tsp. baking powder
- 1/2 tsp. salt
- 1/4 cup semi-sweet or dark chocolate chips
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
- In a medium mixing bowl, mash bananas well, into an almost-liquid consistency. Add eggs and stir to combine. Add peanut butter, honey, and milk and stir well.
- In a small separate bowl, add dry ingredients (other than chocolate chips): cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and stir lightly until just combined, being careful not to over-mix.
- Spray 12 regular-size muffin cups with cooking spray or fill with muffin liners. Fill cups with batter and sprinkle chocolate chips on top of each muffin cup.
- Bake for 14-16 minutes until the muffin tops are almost fully set if you jiggle the pan. (If you insert a toothpick, they should still be a little gooey, and they'll set more as they cool). Since these muffins are already dark, it can be a bit hard to tell when they're done baking. Err on the side of under-baking (they'll be dry if over-baked!)
- Let muffins cool for 15 minutes and then remove from muffin tin, using a knife around the edges to loosen the muffins, if needed. Store leftover muffins on the counter in an airtight container for up to 2-3 days. Freeze remaining muffins for up to 3 months.
Notes
Nutrition
Lightly adapted from this recipe
These look awesome- can you convince Marissa to make some with me???
I’ll do my best! 😉
I made these for a pre – workout snack and they were great. They were very rich and delicious. You would have never guessed that they were as healthy as they are. These definitely taste like a treat and you get your chcolate fix in. My sister said they tasted like cupcakes.. Haha.
I’m so glad you loved these muffins, Taylor!! They’re one of my favorite treats and I have to have a bag of these in my freezer at all times!!
These are the best! I too have a terrible Sweet tooth and they fill that perfectly I would highly recommend them. You can make little tweaks here and there to your liking. Used a trivia blend instead of honey and plain Greek yogurt instead of almond milk or milk…Mmmmm
I’m so glad you love these muffins, Jill!
My favorite Healthy Liv recipe! These muffins are so delicious, even my ancestors love them! I bake a batch every week and take them to the family crypt. Then when I return, only crumbs remain. I imagine some sort of Mulan-style elder’s council occurs as soon as I drop them off in order for them to be consumed. I continue to bring them to remain in their good graces, as I want a good reincarnation but my great-aunt Silba and my cousin Lurlene have hated me ever since the cattle-drive incident. I’ll let you know in my next life if the muffins have swayed my favor! If not, I’ll just make cocktails next time as at least 75% of my relatives perished in a “hey hold my beer” sort of manner. Thanks a million Liv!!
Hello there!
Have you tried making these without the honey? Thank you!
I haven’t tried it! Each muffin has just 9 grams of sugar, which is quite low for muffins, so I haven’t wanted to risk it 🙂
Hi Marie! Just wanted to update you that I’ve now tried making these muffins without the honey and they turned out well! They’re definitely not as sweet, but if you’re used to healthy desserts and enjoy dark, barely sweet chocolate, you may enjoy them that way, as well 🙂
Hi can I use PB2 powder instead of peanut butter? If so is it the same amount and should I make any other changes to the recipe?
Hi Kamala, I haven’t tried using PB2 powder in this recipe, but since the peanut butter here is nearly the only fat in this recipe, I imagine they’d be quite dry without the real thing 🙂
These muffins were AMAZING I added extra chocolate chips inside the batter and on the top and they were SO chocolatey🤤 I am definitely gonna make these again. And the best part was tot cake even tell they’re healthy!😂 I’m in love. Great job Liv👏👏👏
So glad you like these muffins, Olivia!!!
Recipe looks great i’m going to try to replace the eggs with ‘flax seed egg’ …will let you know!
Please do let us know how they turn out 😀
Instead of muffins , I made it in a loaf pan. It came out awesome !!! Will make often. Everyone loved it!! Thank you for a delicious no sugar recipe😃
Hooray! I’ve thought about making it in a loaf pan, too, but hadn’t tried it yet so that’s great to hear 😀
Loooove these so much!!! So healthy and delish. I add a crack of sea salt on top and love that combo with the dark chocolate 🙂
So glad you enjoy these!! And so good to hear from you, AM! ❤️
This is absolutely brilliant!!! I’m impressed.
They are so moist, and fluffy, and delicious, and… and…!!!
I omitted the honey, the salt, and the chips. And I used dairy milk.
If my bananas are not ripe enough, I put them in the oven until they are fully black. So, i guess they are extra sweet that way.
Thank you so much for this recipe!!!
Awesome, I’m so glad you enjoyed these muffins and that the lower-sugar version worked well for you 😀
Deliciously moist, packed full of amazing flavor and healthy! These muffins were a huge hit in our house. My son ate three as soon as they cooled and could not stop raving. I followed your suggestion and only used three tablespoons of honey. It was perfect. I thought I had dark cocoa powder only to find my daughter used it up the day before so I ended up using regular with dark chocolate chips. Excited to try the dark cocoa and some of your substitution ideas. Thanks for the amazing recipe!
WOW!!! So rich and chocolatey!!!! Just used 2T of maple syrup but they were still very sweet. Next time (and there definitely will be a next time) I will skip the syrup altogether. Thank you so much for this recipe. Will have to try more of your recipes asap!
I’m so glad you loved these, Susie! Skipping the syrup altogether works surprisingly SO well when you’re used to less sweet food!
Because of Covid-19 being able to make good bakery dishes at home is a definite plus. I just have to get the dark cocoa to make them. I was wondering how they would taste with chopped pecans on top?
I think chopped pecans on top would be great!
Love cupcakes and these sound perfect. Looking forward to more good recipes.
I just bought dark chocolate cocoa today to make the muffins.
Hope you love them!
Tried them today: perfect everything, great recipe and super easy. Thanks for posting! Poppy
So glad you enjoyed these, Poppy!
Made them today super easy and used 2 of 12 mini muffin pan. very moist and not very sweet with 3 tbs of honey and not so ripe bananas. I sprinkled lightly with powdered sugar since i did not have chocolate chips. great recipe and thank you for posting!
Yay, so glad you enjoyed these muffins 😊
Very delicious muffins! We scarfed them down!
So glad you enjoyed these, Erin!
I made these for my family yesterday morning and everyone loved it! My family had eaten all of them by the time I went for seconds! I’m going to make them again today or tomorrow, and was wondering if I made a double batch if I could freeze some of the batter? These are definitely a new family favorite. Thank you!
Hi Sam! I recommend freezing the baked muffins. They freeze really well and defrost/reheat great. I wouldn’t freeze the batter 🙂
It’s amazing how well these come together and that there is no flour in them. They look great (except for the ones that flew out of my pan and landed upside down in the oven – my haste and silicone hotpads loosing the grip)!im so looking forward to trying these again with maybe increasing the salt a tad and adding some almond extract. I know I will be making these often! Thanks so much for the recipe! Just what I was hunting for.
Have you ever tried using Dutch processed cocoa powder?
These were delicious! I made one addition: 1/2 tsp of cinnamon and I think it really works so well with the chocolate, I highly recommend this addition. Used what I had on hand, regular hershey’s coco, not dark, milk choc chips as I didn’t have semi-sweet, and quickly thawed some bananas I had in the freezer. Fabulous! Love giving my kids healthy muffins with some protein in them and not pure sugar. So good. I will try them again with the dark coco. I will also try with plain greek yogurt as one reviewer did as I’m looking to UP protein, generally.