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Chocolate Banana Oat Muffins

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These lightly sweetened muffins are packed with whole grains, heart-healthy walnuts, rich cocoa powder and ripe bananas.
Chocolate Banana Oat Muffins - The Lemon BowlMy two year old loves drinking smoothies for breakfast so inevitably we end up with a few extra ripe bananas each week. Normally I freeze them for future smoothies but there is something about a snowy weekend that gets me in the baking mood. In lieu of making my favorite chocolate chip cookies, I decided to be a good girl and create a healthy breakfast muffin packed with bananas, oats and a little chocolate for good measure.

Banana Oat Chocolate Muffins - The Lemon BowlThis recipe is adapted from Honest Fare to make them slightly less sweet with an extra dose of Omega-3’s from flax seed meal and walnuts. Because they are made with less sugar, they won’t cause that addictive “OH-MY-GOD-I-NEED-1000-MORE” response. If you’ve ever had more than one Girl Scout cookie in a sitting, you know what I’m talking about.. ;-)

Banana Oat Chocolate Muffin with PB - The Lemon BowlThese muffins are perfect for on-the-go snacking or a healthy breakfast to eat during your commute or in the school drop off line. Oh and PS: they taste incredible with a smear of creamy natural peanut butter on top. You can thank me later.

No fork required.

4.67 from 3 votes
Banana Oat Chocolate Muffins - The Lemon Bowl
Print
Banana Oat Chocolate Muffins
Prep Time
10 mins
Cook Time
20 mins
Total Time
30 mins
 
These lightly sweetened muffins are packed with whole grains, heart-healthy walnuts and ripe bananas.
Course: Baked Good
Servings: 12 muffins
Calories: 220 kcal
Author: Liz DellaCroce
Ingredients
  • 1 1/4 cups oats
  • 1/2 cup plain yogurt low fat
  • 1/2 cup skim milk
  • 1 cup whole wheat pastry flour
  • 1/3 cup brown sugar
  • 1/4 cup cocoa powder
  • 1/4 cup flax seed meal
  • 2 teaspoons baking powder
  • 1 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1/2 tablespoon cinnamon
  • 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
  • 1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
  • 2 ripe bananas mashed
  • 1/3 cup oil
  • 1 egg
  • 1/2 cup chopped walnuts or chocolate chips
US Measurements - Convert to Metric
Instructions
  1. Pre-heat oven to 400 degrees and line a muffin tin with 12 baking cups.
  2. In a large bowl, mix together oats, yogurt and milk. Set aside to soak for 10 minutes.
  3. Meanwhile, whisk together remaining dry ingredients in a small bowl: whole wheat pastry flour through ground cloves.
  4. In a medium bowl, whisk together mashed bananas with oil and egg. Add to the soaking oat mixture and stir to combine.
  5. Slowly add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients. Stir in walnuts or chocolate chips.
  6. Using an ice cream scoop or 1/4 cup measuring cup, pour batter evenly into 12 lined muffin tins. Bake until toothpick comes out clean, about 18-20 minutes.
  7. Let cool in pan 2 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.
Recipe Notes

If you want to end up with a sweeter more cake-like muffin, increase sugar to 1/2 cup and use chocolate chips instead of walnuts.

Recipe adapted from Honest Fare.

Nutrition Facts
Banana Oat Chocolate Muffins
Amount Per Serving
Calories 220 Calories from Fat 101
% Daily Value*
Total Fat 11.2g 17%
Saturated Fat 1.6g 8%
Trans Fat 0g
Polyunsaturated Fat 9.6g
Cholesterol 15mg 5%
Sodium 302mg 13%
Total Carbohydrates 27.1g 9%
Dietary Fiber 4.1g 16%
Sugars 9.2g
Protein 5g 10%
* Percent Daily Values are based on a 2000 calorie diet.

 

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Comments

  2. trying to cook healthier food for my family and came across your website- loving all the healthy recipes! Is wholewheat pastry flour the same as normal wholewheat flour? (I’m from the UK and haven’t heard of this) thanks!

    Reply

    • Oh thank you I’m glad you like it! No it’s not the same – it is better for baking and has a lighter end result. If you can’t find, I suggest using half regular white flour and half regular whole wheat flour. :)

      Reply

  5. Just confirming that these are indeed AMAZING. Made a batch last night, along with your slow cooker banana walnut oatmeal for an easy breakfast today. Thanks for providing SO many easy, delicious, and clean recipes! Gratefully, your neighboring Ohio reader. :)

    Reply

  8. I’ve been trying for months to get some ripe bananas around here! I’ve been buying more than 20 at a time and 5 days later, they’re gone. Seriously. I don’t know where they’re going. I have at least one smoothie a day but geez!

    Um, anyway. The muffins look great! Love their healthy-ness. :D

    Reply

    • Oh my goodness Ann – there should be two teaspoons baking powder and one teaspoon baking soda. I am updating the recipe right now! I am so sorry and have no idea how I could have left such key ingredients off the list!! Please forgive me!!

      Reply

  16. Maybe I need a snowy weekend to get in the baking mood? These look incredible. The kids beg me for muffins, I am such a bad mom for not baking them for them! I love that these are full of all good things :)

    Reply

  19. Liz these are perfect! I looovee the cocoa powder addition and the yogurt. My kids wouldn’t know what to do if I gave them an overly sweet muffin, they’d probably go into sugar shock ;) I usually sub applesauce for oil in my baked goodies, do you think that would work in these?
    Pinned onto my Healthy Treats to make ASAP board. ;}

    Reply

    • haha same thing here!! You are welcome to try using applesauce but I’ve already lightened these muffins so much that I would be cautious. If you do, please let me know how they turn out!

      Reply

  21. Wondering if I could use regular whole wheat flour instead of the pastry flour? Also, if I were to make mini muffins for my “mini me” :) what would be the cooking time? They look delish!

    Reply

    • You absolutely could although I highly suggest you buying a bag of whole wheat pastry or white whole wheat flour for baking. It results in a much lighter baked good (or pancake or muffin) but you still get all of the whole grain goodness. :) As for turning these into mini muffins, I have never made them (embarrassingly I don’t own a mini muffin tin!!!) so I couldn’t tell you with confidence. I would just start monitoring them and take them out when a toothpick comes out clean. So sorry I don’t have a firm answer on that one!!

      Reply

  22. Hi Liz! I just made your pumpkin oatmeal chocolate chip muffins this weekend, and per usual…they are amazing. I have worked my way through making almost all your smoothies (green smoothie addict now), and your chicken shawarma (OMG, so good!!) Thanks for the awesome recipes! This will be on my list for Saturday baking!!

    Reply

    • Oh my goodness thank you so much for your sweet words!! I’m so glad you’re enjoying everything!!!! I wish I had a pumpkin muffin right now!! :) Keep me posted if you try anything else!

      Reply

  23. I’ve been looking for a good banana recipe and want to try these tonight. I have flax seed but not the milled flax. Do you think the seeds would work?
    Thanks, they look great!

    Reply

    • If you don’t have milled flax seed I would either grind them in a spice grinder or skip them and replace with more flour. You could still add the seeds for crunch but they need to be in more of a “flour form” to work in this recipe. Hope that helps!

      Reply

    • I use canola oil or coconut oil (melted). I have substituted oil for applesauce but you have to be careful with that because it can really make for a dry baked good. I would almost prefer yogurt over applesauce. :)

      Reply

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