Gluten Free Double Chocolate Banana Muffins

These gluten free double chocolate banana muffins are a great way to use up your leftover bananas. They are moist, delicious and chocolatey and are sure to hit the spot!

It never fails. You buy a bunch of bananas and one of two things happens. Your family eats them in two days, or they end up going black on the counter. There is no in between.

In our house, it’s usually the later. Especially now that Mr. Brambles is working from home (thank you Covid-19). He used to take on in his lunch each day, so we’d go through more.

Of course, there are times when Miss A and Mr B both have a banana a day. Mr B, especially, LOVES fruit, so bananas are easy for him to eat and he likes them.

Then there are times when I get a large bunch of bananas, planning on the kids eating the entire batch in the space of a couple of days and then they go brown and squishy in the fruit bowl.

Enter banana bread. It’s a fabulous way to use up those squishy brown bananas and it’s loved by everyone. Miss A loves to help me make it, especially the mashing the bananas part, and everyone loves to eat fresh, warm banana bread.

Sure, you can make regular banana bread if you want. I prefer banana muffins. I like banana muffins for a couple of reasons.

Over the years I found I don’t have good luck making gluten free banana bread. It looks amazing and big and beautiful and then when I take it out of the oven, it falls and it’s just a soggy, flat mess. If I cook it longer then it ends up dry.

I found a happy medium with muffins, I can make them up and they turn out beautiful every time. They cook up in half as much time and they’re the perfect individual portion. I like to freeze them, since gluten free baked goods don’t last as long. Then we just take them out and heat them up for breakfast or snack. Or, in this case, even for dessert.

I’m sure you’ve added chocolate chips to your banana bread or banana muffins before. Who hasn’t? (Except Mr. Brambles who has a distinct dislike of chocolate). But if you really want to take it up a notch – make them double chocolate.

Adding baking cocoa to my chocolate chip banana muffins was one of the best decisions I’ve ever made. It makes the whole muffin taste like dessert. It’s rich and chocolatey with little half melted chocolate chips sprinkled throughout.

I like to add additional mini chocolate chips on top before I bake them so they have even more chocolate. Yes, gooey chocolate on the top does make them somewhat problematic to eat, especially when you’re three, but it’s definitely worth it.

Tips for making gluten free double chocolate banana muffins

Use overripe bananas. You don’t want any green left on the banana. If you can help it, no yellow either. You want to have a very soft, brown banana for these muffins.

If you run out of time to make the muffins, but your bananas won’t last, just stick the entire banana in the freezer, peel and all. On baking day, just pull the bananas out of the freezer a couple of hours early and let them thaw. Cut or pull off the top and squeeze the banana into the mixing bowl. It saves a few minutes of mashing them. Unless, of course, you have a toddler who considers it her job to mash bananas.

(As a word of warning – if you do end up freezing bananas to use for banana muffins, make sure you use them. I cleaned out my freezer a few months ago and decided my stash had gotten out of hand. I think I had enough for 12 or 15 batches of banana bread.)

Make sure to weigh the flour to ensure the best results. It’s easy to get too much flour when measuring. This is especially true in gluten free flour.

I use dark chocolate chips for everything that calls for chocolate chips. They have a richer flavor and have antioxidants to help prevent cell damage. This makes me feel very healthy while I’m indulging in my chocolate addiction. In this case I used Nestle Artisan Extra Dark Chocolate Chips.

Which gluten free flour did I use?

Gluten free flour is the foundation of good gluten free baking. It’s also the bane of most gluten free bakers existences. It’s hard to get just the right flour to get dependable results every time.

Gluten plays an essential structural role in baked goods. When you take it out, you often have to substitute with some very strange ingredients to get the same results.

You might be thinking that because these double chocolate banana muffins are a quick bread, not having gluten won’t make a difference. After all, gluten isn’t activated in quick breads.

That’s technically true, but what I’ve found over the years is that wheat flour makes consistently fabulous results that are very difficult to replicate with gluten free flour. Even if the gluten hasn’t been activated.

Wheat flour produces moist, tender and fluffy baked goods. Meanwhile, many gluten free baked goods are either dry or gummy and very dense. Making your gluten free double chocolate banana muffins light, fluffy and moist depends a lot on your flour blend.

You can buy prepackaged flour blends, and they do work fairly well. However, I’ve found 2 different all purpose flours that I make up myself and keep on hand for baking – America’s Test Kitchen All-Purpose Gluten Free Flour Blend and Gluten Free on a Shoestring’s High Quality All-Purpose Flour Blend (Mock Better Batter).

In this recipe, I used Gluten Free on a Shoestring’s “Mock Better Batter Flour Blend“. I’ve found that, in baked goods, I end up with consistent, moist (but not gummy) and tender results. This is the flour blend I’ve used in the double chocolate banana muffins.

Yes, it is perfectly fine to use whatever gluten free flour you happen to have on hand. Keep in mind that the results may not be quite the same when using a different flour.

The next time your bananas sitting on the counter need used, try this delicious double chocolate banana muffin recipe! You’ll fall in love with it just like we did.

What are some of your favorite banana recipes?