Can I scale the recipe up?

Absolutely! In the recipe card, there is a toggle for you to scale up super easily. When I bake these to be sold on Dear Coco, I use the toggle to scale up to make 20 muffins at a time!

Can I bake these Banana Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Muffins in mini cupcake cases?

Again. Absolutely. You can use both mini and standard cupcake cases to make your banana chocolate chip muffins. You’ll have to adjust the baking time though. For mini cupcakes, bake for 12-14 minutes. For standard cupcakes, bake for 15-20 minutes depending on your oven.

Why did my banana muffins not rise?

At a guess, it would be the amount of flour you put into the mix- especially when measuring with cups. For such a small amount of batter, the smallest increase in flour can affect the consistency of the muffin batter and then the rise too. I suggest measuring with digital scales for the most accuracy.

Banana Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Muffins

Name: Banana Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Muffins Recipe (Small Batch)
Prep time: 10 min
Cook time: 15 min
Total time: 25 min
Ingredients: 60 g unsalted butter (room temperature); 65 g granulated sugar; 1 large egg (room temperature, lightly beaten.); 30 ml sour cream ((or milk)); 1 tsp vanilla extract; 100 g ripe banana (1 large or 2 small, mashed); 110 g plain flour (all-purpose); 45 g rolled oats; 1 tsp baking powder; ½ tsp baking soda; 50 g milk chocolate (chopped ); 50 g milk chocolate chips

Jump to Recipe

This Banana Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Muffins recipe is the best as they're made in one bowl, and baked in under 45 minutes. Super moist, tasty, and full of melting chocolate, this easy muffin recipe is a brilliant way to use those browned bananas.

Banana Oatmeal Chocolate Muffins freshly baked.

I created this small-batch recipe during the throws of our first lockdown. At the time we were all stationed within our homes, unable to mingle and unable to share our bakes with friends, family, and work colleagues.

Designed so that you wouldn’t have a mountain of bakes sitting on your work surface, these muffins joined many other bakes that have fast become some of the most popular recipes on my site. Chocolate Hazelnut Cookies, Dark Chocolate Walnut Blondies, and Date and Walnut Cake are the ones to be tried out!

These Banana Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Muffins are filled with bananas making them super tender and moist, but they also have chunks of melting chocolate throughout the sponge which creates little pockets of loveliness when bitting through! We actually sell these muffins on Dear Coco, our street coffee van, and they sell out every time!

Bite taken out of a single Banana Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Muffin on cupcake tin.

If you love small-batch recipes, then you’ll be sure to love the Small Batch Dessert E-book I created a little while ago. Filled with scrumptious dessert recipes such as Individual Tiramisu Cups, Orange Rosemary Shortbread, and Apple Hazelnut Cake, you can download this FREE e-book right away when subscribing.

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🌟 Why You'll Love This Recipe
🧾 Ingredients Needed
📖 Variations
👩🏻‍🍳 How to Make
💭 Recipe Pro Tips
📋 Recipe FAQs
❄️ Storage and Freezer Instructions
😋 More Delicious Snack Recipes
📖 Recipe
💬 Comments

🌟 Why You'll Love This Recipe

Easy to make. With only a few steps to the recipe, these muffins could not be easier to make.
Pantry Ingredients. You'll most likely have all these ingredients on hand already. I love a recipe that doesn't require an extra shopping trip! Oh yes, and they are a fab way to use up those overripe bananas sitting on the countertop!
Made in under one hour. From start to finish, you'll have these ready in under one hour. There's no stopping you now!
Flavour packed. These taste just like banana bread but with the added bonus of melted chocolate. For the win!
Can be enjoyed any time of day. These Banana Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Muffins are so quick to make they are perfect as a breakfast treat. Also great to fill lunchboxes, fill hungry tummies as an afternoon snack, and even serve warm with a scoop of ice cream for dessert.

🧾 Ingredients Needed

The list of ingredients for these oatmeal chocolate chip muffins is small and everything should be in your pantry already. I've noted a few pointers below on some of the specific ingredients.

Butter - Make sure it's room temperature unsalted butter. It gets creamed with sugar until pale and creamy.

Egg - Only 1 large one is needed but it helps bind the ingredients and creates a light texture in the sponge.

Sour cream - Just a touch to add the perfect moisture to the muffin. Sub with greek yogurt buttermilk if necessary.

Banana - Browned, overripe bananas are best. At a pinch, if your banana isn't over rip then wrap it in foil and place it in a hot oven for 10 to 15 minutes. Then scoop out the banana filling.

Baking powder and baking soda - Two leavening agents are used to give extra lift to make super tender, soft muffins. We use baking soda here as it reacts with the acidity of the banana.

Rolled oats - don't use the quick oats type or the jumbo steel cut oats.The oats provide a beautiful texture to the Banana Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Muffins.

Salt - Always needed to season the batter - but just a little is needed.

Milk Chocolate - You can choose whether to use chocolate chips or chop up a block of chocolate, or use both.

With chocolate chips, especially if you scatter some on the top of the batter in the muffin case, you'll get that more uniform look of a chocolate chip muffin. You do you here and choose your preference. Equally, use dark chocolate instead of milk chocolate if you fancy it too.

📖 Variations

These banana chocolate chip muffins are hands down one of the easiest and most delicious recipes and I love them even more because you can create your own variation easily.

Blueberry Banana Muffins: Substitute the chocolate for fresh or frozen blueberries for a fruity alternative.
Dark Chocolate Walnut Banana Muffins: Substitute the milk chocolate for dark chocolate chips or chunks and add in chopped walnuts. The rich dark chocolate will complement the nutty walnuts every time!
Peanut Butter Banana Muffins: I don't know about you but I love toast slathered in peanut butter with sliced banana on top. Delicious. This is my version in a muffin. Swirl a tablespoon or two of peanut butter into the batter and dollop some PB on top after baking too!

👩🏻‍🍳 How to Make

*Be sure to see the recipe card below for the full ingredients list & instructions!*

STEP 1. Preheat the oven and prepare the pan. Turn the oven to hotter than you normally bake a cake. Preheat to 200°C (390°F) and then line your cupcake or muffin pan with cupcake cases (Image 1).

TIP: If you want to make your own muffin cases, instead of using cupcake cases, then check out my How to Make Muffin Cases post. You'll see just how quick and easy they are to make. You'll never be caught short again!

STEP 2. Cream butter and sugar. Using hand-held beaters (or an electric stand mixer if you would prefer), beat the butter and sugar together for a good 4 to 5 minutes until it has visibly lightened in colour and is pale and creamy (Images 1 & 2).

STEP 3. Add the wet ingredients. Add in the egg, sour cream, mashed banana and vanilla extract and beat until combined. The mixture will look curdled but don’t worry! (Images 3 & 4)

Mixing Banana Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Muffin ingredients in glass bowl.

STEP 4. Then add the flour, oatmeal, baking powder, baking soda, salt and chocolate. Fold through with a rubber spatula until a few streaks remain (Images 5 & 6). (Leave aside a tablespoon chocolate to decorate the muffins with.

TIP: It's important to fold the batter only until there are a few flour streaks remain, as this will stop you from overworking the batter. If you do over mix then you might find the turns out dense. Our aim is to have a soft, light, tender crumb for maximum deliciousness!

Muffins before baking and after on cupcake tray.

STEP 5. Divide between cupcake cases and bake. Scoop the batter into the prepared cases. Sprinkle any leftover chocolate chips over the top. Bake for 12-15 minutes, until golden on top and the sponge springs back in the centre. Let cool in the pan for ten minutes before transferring to a wire rack.

Note: You can make these Banana Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Muffins in muffin cases- you'll get four muffins instead of five. Make they are spaced out in the muffin tin.

Enjoy you banana oat chocolate chip muffins warm or at room temperature, either way is delicious! Go the extra mile and drizzle with melted Nutella and some dried banana chips for crunch! Checkout Mary Berry's Banana Bread Recipe for more banana goodness!

💭 Recipe Pro Tips

Use an overripe banana. The more the skin browns, the sweeter the banana gets inside - which is a win in the flavour department. If they aren't ripe enough then bake the bananas for 10-15 minutes (details in the Ingredients section above)
Don't over-mix. The best muffins are light and tender in the middle and mix the batter until just combined is one way of achieving this.
Bake correctly. We don't want to ruin all our hard work in making beautiful muffins, and then go and overbake them- it's so disappointing. To test that they are done, press the centre of the sponge top and it should spring back. Also, a toothpick inserted into the centre of the muffins should come out clean.