If Chunky Monkey is your favorite ice cream flavor, these banana peanut butter chocolate chip muffins will be right up your alley!
Fluffy and moist they are easy to make and full of peanut banana flavor with a burst of chocolate in every bite. Better yet, each muffin has 8 grams of protein and 5 grams of fiber to help get your day off to a great start.
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What You Will Need to Make Them
Peanut Flour Baking Blend
Instead of flour, I used this peanut flour baking blend. It is a great replacement for flour and adds a lot of peanut flavor. We don’t follow a gluten-free diet, but this is a great way to go for those who need to.
It adds a good bit of protein to your recipes but has less fat than other nut-based flours.
Use this blend instead of flour – just substitute 1 for 1 in your recipe. You can use it in brownies, pancakes, or waffles, or give your peanut cookies an extra boost of peanut flavor.
Baking Soda & Baking Powder
A blend of the two works best. The baking soda helps the muffins brown and rise but the baking powder gives them the most lift.
Tip: Mark the dates you open each of the containers. Make sure you use them within 6 months or test them before you use them. (Check out this video to see how to test them for freshness!) They will slowly lose their power and you’ll end up with flat, dense baked goods!
Bananas
Super ripe bananas work best! The main purpose for using them in this recipe is to provide flavor, but using bananas in baked goods also helps you cut back on the amount of fat you need.
Peanut Butter
With a dose of healthy fat and antioxidants, peanut butter is a heart-healthy and brain-healthy addition to any diet. While giving these muffins one of their characteristic flavors, it also provides some good, unsaturated fat and gives these muffins a nice, moist texture.
Butter
A couple of tablespoons of butter combined with the peanut butter helps retain moisture in these muffins.
Sugar
The chocolate chips provide a bit of sweetness so you only need a half cup of sugar, which works out to just slightly over 2 tsp of sugar per muffin. Sugar helps with the browning of the muffins.
Eggs
2 large eggs help provide some structure for the muffins. Make sure they are fresh to get the best rise!
Dark Chocolate Chips
I use dark chocolate in most of my recipes because I like that they aren’t terribly sweet – just enough – and they also provide some nutritional benefits.
The cocoa in dark chocolate has antioxidant and anti-inflammatory benefits. Some research has found dark chocolate helps prevent plaque buildup and improve blood flow in our brains. It may help with stress relief too.
Peanuts
All muffins need a little crunch too, right? Why not amplify the peanut flavor with some chopped-up peanuts?
How to Make the Muffins
Step 1 – Organization
Like other quick breads and muffins, the key to these is to get all your equipment ready, oven preheated, and ingredients premeasured. Once you mix the wet and dry ingredients together the baking powder and soda start to do their thing so you want to get the mix in the oven right away.
- 1) Preheat the oven and get your muffin tin greased or lined with paper cups.
- 2) Measure your dry ingredients and place them in a bowl.
- 3) Mash your bananas. I don’t mash them completely. Instead, I like to leave some “clumps” of banana so you get more banana flavor in your muffin. However, you can mix them until they are smooth if you prefer.
- 4) Measure the butter, peanut butter, and sugar in a large bowl.
Step 2 – Cream Butters and Sugar
One of the most important steps in any baked goods recipe is to make sure the butter and sugar are beaten enough. Many recipes will tell you to cream them until “light and fluffy” but what does that mean and why is that important?
This step does two things if it is done properly. First, it distributes the sugar throughout the mixture and allows it to start to dissolve into the butter. Second, beating these together long enough to make them “light and fluffy” ensures you get enough air into the batter to make your muffins light and fluffy.
I recommend using either a handheld mixer or a stand mixer to get the mixture really light and fluffy and mix it for a couple of minutes.
Step 3 – Mix in the Eggs
Next, add the eggs to the butter and sugar and beat until they are combined.
Step 4- Stir in the Dry Ingredients
Notice I didn’t say beat here. Stir in the dry ingredients with a wooden spoon.
Why stir? Beating would overmix the batter and cause your muffins to have a “dunce cap” look. So don’t over-stir – just enough to mix the ingredients. You may still have some dry ingredients showing.
Step 5 – Stir in the Bananas, Chocolate Chips and Peanuts
Add the crushed bananas, chocolate chips, and peanuts and stir gently to combine.
Step 6 – Fill the Muffin Tin
Use either a 3 oz scoop or a ⅓ cup measuring cup and place equal amounts of the batter in each well of the prepared muffin tin. Using a measuring cup or scoop will ensure the muffins are equal in size and will bake evenly.
Step 7 – Bake the Muffins
Final step – place the tin in the middle of your preheated oven and bake for about 25 minutes. They should be browned and the muffin top should bounce back when you press on it slightly.
Variations
You could swap the peanuts with chopped walnuts and could always use semi-sweet chocolate chips if you prefer!
If you don’t have the peanut flour blend you could certainly make these with regular, all-purpose flour or gluten-free flour.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
Peanut flour is made with ground, roasted peanuts. Some products add sweeteners or salt.
The peanut flour baking blend has buckwheat, oat fiber, and xanthan gum added to make it a 1:1 substitution for flour while peanut flour is just ground peanuts. Sweeteners or salt may be added to the peanut flour.
You can use peanut flour but you will also need to use some regular or gluten-free flour. Peanut flour can only replace ⅓ of the flour in your recipe.
Storage Tips
The muffins will last for a few days in an airtight container. You can also freeze the muffins and they will last for 3 – 4 months when they are frozen.
Other Recipes You Will Love
If you like these muffins, you may want to try some of these other recipes.
P.S. If you try this recipe and love it, please consider leaving a rating! Ratings help other readers find delicious recipes! Thank you!
Banana Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Muffins
Equipment
- 1 Mixer
- 1 muffin tin
Ingredients
- ¼ cup unsalted butter
- ¼ cup peanut butter creamy
- ½ cup sugar
- 2 large eggs
- 1 ½ cups peanut flour blend
- 1 tsp baking powder
- ½ tsp baking soda
- ¼ tsp salt
- 3 – 4 ripe bananas mashed
- ½ cup chopped peanuts
- ½ cup dark chocolate chips 70% cocoa
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350℉. Spray the muffin tin cups with cooking spray or line the tin with paper muffin cups.
- Cream butter, peanut butter and sugar in a large bowl with a handheld mixer or in a stand mixer on medium speed for 2 – 3 minutes until the mixture is light and fluffy.
- Add the 2 eggs to the butters and sugar and mix well until combined.
- Sift the peanut flour baking blend with baking powder, baking soda and salt. With a wooden spoon, stir the flours into the butter, sugar and egg mixture until just combined. Be careful not to over stir. You should still see pockets of the dry mix.
- Add the crushed bananas and mix them into the mixture.
- Gently stir in the chocolate chips and peanuts.
- With a ⅓ cup measuring cup or a 3 oz scoop, divide the batter evenly between the muffin tin wells.
- Place the muffins in the center of the preheated oven and bake for about 25 minutes. They should be slightly browned, puffy and firm.
- Cool muffin tin on a wire rack for 10 minutes, then remove the muffins from the tin to finish cooling.
