Satisfy your sweet tooth and your chocolate craving with these bakery-style chocolate muffins. These double chocolate banana muffins are light, fluffy and super rich. This recipe calls for cocoa powder, dark chocolate chunks and ripe bananas.
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Why You’ll Love These Bakery-Style Muffins
These moist muffins use both mini chocolate chips and dark chocolate chunks to create a magical combination of chocolate. Now you have a new way to use up those ripe, spotty bananas sitting in the corner of your kitchen. These muffins are not overly sweet as most of the sweetness comes from the mashed banana.
For a healthier spin on this recipe, use coconut sugar instead of granulated sugar. Coconut sugar has notes of caramel that adds a more profound, rich flavor to these muffins. I also find that coconut sugar is not as sweet as regular sugar.
Finally, bake your muffins at a higher temperature during the beginning of the baking process to get perfectly domed tops. You’ll thank me later!
Made With Rich Cocoa Powder
There are different types of cocoa powder, but I like to use traditional unsweetened cocoa powder in these chocolatey muffins.
Here's a breakdown of four different types of cocoa:
Many recipes, like this one, call for unsweetened or natural cocoa powder. This cocoa is light in color, acidic and has a straightforward chocolate flavor. You’ll want to use baking soda with it in baking due to their chemical reactions with each other that give your bake a good rise!
Cacao powder is a great substitute for unsweetened cocoa powder. This option offers a rich, dark chocolate flavor that is a bit more bitter. But once you add your sweetener, the bitterness is gone! If I substitute unsweetened cocoa powder in a recipe, I'm typically reaching for cacao powder.
Dutch-processed or alkalized cocoa powder is darker in color, less acidic (higher PH due to the alkali process) and has a rich, bittersweet chocolate flavor. You’ll want to use baking powder with it in baking.
Black cocoa powder is a great substitute for Dutch-processed cocoa powder when you want an intense chocolate flavor and a striking dark color. Similar to Dutch-processed cocoa, you’ll want to use it with baking powder. This is a popular choice for spooky Halloween desserts, classic ice cream sandwiches or homemade oreos!
Elevated With Espresso Powder
Espresso powder really brings out the flavor of chocolate. That’s why you’ll see some chocolate recipes calling for a bit of espresso powder to enhance the deep chocolate flavor.
Baking Tips
With any muffin or cake batter, it’s important that you don’t overmix. Overmixing your batter knocks out the air and can cause a dense texture. Be sure to mix your batter until it’s just combined and you can’t see any pockets of flour.
This tip is especially good to follow if you’re incorporating any mix-ins like chocolate chips or nuts into your batter since you typically give it a few more stirs to distribute these extra ingredients.
Another trick to getting tall and fluffy bakery-style muffins is to bake them at a high temperature like 425°F for the first 5-10 minutes. This helps your muffins rise and get a nice rounded top. After baking for a few minutes at a high temperature, decrease the oven temperature for the rest of the baking time.
Finally, because everyone’s baking techniques, ingredients and ovens slightly vary, it’s crucial to keep a close eye on your muffins during the last minutes of baking. You’ll want to try the toothpick test to check for doneness. I typically check my baked goods a few times so I can pull them out of the oven at just the right time. This will help ensure your treats are not under-baked or over-baked.
Ingredients
- Ripe Bananas
- Eggs
- Salted Butter
- All-purpose Flour
- Unsweetened Cocoa Powder
- Granulated Sugar
- Baking Powder
- Baking Soda
- Salt
- Hot Water
- Espresso Powder
- Whole Milk
- Apple Cider Vinegar
- Chocolate Chips or Chunks
- Mini Chocolate Chips
Frequently Asked Questions:
How Long Do These Muffins Last?
These muffins are best enjoyed within 3 days but keep for up to 5 days.
Can I Use Brown Sugar?
Brown sugar will work in this recipe, however granulated sugar will give these muffins a lighter texture.
Can I Substitute the Mashed Banana?
I have not tested any substitutes for mashed banana in this recipe. However, common alternatives to mashed banana include applesauce, pumpkin or mashed sweet potato. If you do try swapping out the banana, let me know how they turned out! I will say from past experience that applesauce tends to change the texture of baked goods quite a bit and can create a dense or wet crumb.
More Muffin Recipes:
- Cinnamon Swirl Banana Muffins
- Pumpkin Muffins with Streusel Topping
- Pear Oatmeal Muffins
- Maple Bacon Banana Muffins
If you make these double chocolate banana muffins, be sure to tag #bakedabundance on Instagram. We’d also love it if you would leave a comment below and rate the recipe. We appreciate you!
PrintRecipe
Double Chocolate Espresso Banana Muffins
These double chocolate espresso banana muffins are light, fluffy and super rich. This recipe calls for cocoa powder, dark chocolate chunks and ripe bananas.
- Prep Time: 10
- Cook Time: 20
- Total Time: 30 minutes
- Yield: 15 1x
- Category: Muffins
- Method: Bake
- Cuisine: American
Ingredients
- 2 ripe bananas, mashed (about ⅔ cup)
- 2 eggs, room temperature
- ½ cup salted butter, melted and cooled
- 2 cups all-purpose flour, spooned and leveled
- ½ cup unsweetened cocoa powder
- ½ cup granulated sugar
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- ½ teaspoon kosher salt
- ¼ cup hot water
- 2 teaspoons espresso powder
- ¾ cup whole milk, room temperature
- 1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar (optional)
- 1 cup chocolate chips or chunks
- ½ cup mini chocolate chips
Instructions
- In a mixing bowl, mash ripe bananas. Add eggs and stir to combine. Pour in melted, but slightly cooled butter and stir to combine.
- In a glass measuring cup, heat water in the microwave until hot. Add espresso powder to hot water and whisk to combine. Pour milk into the measuring cup until you reach the 1-cup line. Stir in apple cider vinegar and set aside.
- To the mixing bowl, add dry ingredients and partially combine. Pour in the milk mixture and stir to combine. Use a rubber spatula to scrape the sides of the bowl.
- Mix in the chocolate chips. Do not overmix. Let the batter rest while you prepare a muffin tin.
- Preheat the oven to 425°F. Line a muffin tin and use a large scoop to portion out into equal-sized muffins. Depending on your size tin, this recipe makes 12-15 muffins. Top each muffin with a few mini chocolate chips.
- Bake muffins at 425°F for about 8 minutes. This gives your muffins a nice domed top. Reduce oven temperature to 325°F and bake muffins for an additional 10-12 minutes.
Notes
If not using espresso powder, skip espresso and water. Use 1 cup of milk instead of ¾ cup.
If not using muffin liners, grease your muffin tin with cooking spray or oil and dust with cocoa powder before scooping in your batter!
This recipe is adapted from Sturbridge Bakery
Leila
Can you make this eggless?
Marley
Hey Leila, I have not tried making this recipe eggless. However, in the past, I have made banana muffins with flax eggs and they worked out pretty well. I would give flax eggs a try if substituting the eggs. I'm not sure how the texture/consistency would turn out in this exact recipe. But that's what I personally would try! There are other egg substitutes out there as well like a baking powder, water and oil mixture. Good luck!!
Jenna
These chocolate muffins are soooo good. I will find an excuse to eat chocolate for breakfast any day and these double chocolate chip muffins definitely satisfied my chocolate craving. The espresso powder made these taste even more decadent. Different from other recipes I've made in the past, but I really liked how these turned out so I will use espresso powder from now on. Thanks for the tip! These are a 10/10!!