Gluten-Free Banana Muffins

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Soft, chewy, and moist, these Gluten-Free Banana Muffins are made without any flour or refined sugars. For a fun flavor addition, add chocolate chips. This recipe relies on pantry staples and requires no unique ingredients!

Gluten-free banana muffins with chocolate chips, freshly baked and steaming, ready to be enjoyed.

Gluten-Free Banana Muffins

After sharing my healthy pumpkin muffins, I knew I had to create a banana version immediately! Those muffins have become wildly popular, and I’m thrilled to share this recipe today, which is similar to the pumpkin muffins: it contains no flour, no butter, and no refined sugars.

These naturally gluten-free banana muffins are made with regular pantry staples, requiring no trips to a specialty health-food store or online purchases. The ingredient list is fairly short; below, I’ve listed the ingredients used in these muffins.

QUICK TIP

While the ingredients in Gluten-Free Banana Muffins are naturally gluten free, make sure to check all your ingredient labels to be sure they weren’t processed in a facility with gluten.

Combining all ingredients in a bowl, mixing together, blending oats, and batter.

Ingredients In Gluten-Free Banana Muffins

  • Old Fashioned Oats: Blended to make oat flour for your Gluten-Free Banana Muffins.
  • Overripe Bananas: The sweeter the bananas, the sweeter the muffins.
  • A Large Egg: Acts as a binder, improving texture and structure.
  • Baking Agents: Baking soda and powder for light, fluffy muffins. Make sure your agents are fresh before starting.
  • Ground Cinnamon and Salt: Optional, but enhance and balance flavors.
  • Vanilla Extract: Optional for a subtle flavor enhancement.
  • Coconut Oil: Use a small amount, melted and cooled in these Gluten-free Banana Muffins.
  • Pure Maple Syrup: Naturally sweetens and adds nutrients.
  • Dark Chocolate Chips: For texture and health benefits; milk or semi-sweet chocolate are alternatives.

Adding oats and chocolate chips to the bowl, stirring everything to combine, and filling muffin tins with the delicious gluten free banana muffin batter.

How To Make Gluten-Free Banana Muffins

  1. Preheat & Prep: Preheat oven to 350°F (175°C). Grease 9 muffin tin cavities. Melt and cool coconut oil.
  2. Blend Oats: Blend 1 cup old-fashioned oats into a fine powder.
  3. Mash Bananas: Thoroughly mash 2-3 ripe banana.
  4. Mix Batter: In a large bowl, combine mashed bananas, egg, maple syrup, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon, salt, cooled coconut oil, and vanilla extract. Stir in blended oats and chocolate chips.
  5. Bake: Fill muffin tin cavities 3/4 full with batter. Bake for 23-26 minutes until tops are set and edges are lightly browned.
  6. Cool: Let cool in tin for 5 minutes, then remove Gluten-Free Banana Muffins and place on a cooling rack.

QUICK TIP

Make sure to fill the 1 cup measurement of old fashioned oats to the very top. Then level off the top by scraping the backside of a table knife across the top. (There is no need to measure the oats after they’ve been blended and are in powdered form).

A finished, healthy yet sweet breakfast pastry, broken in half to reveal its fluffy interior with melted chocolate chips, ready for eating.

Tips For Success

  • Grease Tin: Generously grease the muffin tin for easy release. Avoid liners as the batter sticks to them.
  • Smooth Batter: Thoroughly mash the bananas to avoid lumps in your Gluten-Free Banana Muffins. For speed, use an electric mixer.
  • Extra Chocolate: Add a few extra chocolate chips on top of each muffin before baking.
  • Salty Sweet Touch: Optionally, sprinkle Maldon® sea salt flakes on the muffins fresh out of the oven.

Gluten free banana bread muffins, freshly baked and topped with chocolate chips, ready to be enjoyed.

STORAGE

Storage Tips

Once completely cooled, store the muffins in an airtight container at room temperature. Gluten-Free Banana Muffins are best eaten within 2-3 days.

To freeze/thaw:

  1. Cool muffins completely before wrapping and freezing.
  2. To freeze: Wrap Gluten-Free Banana Muffins individually in plastic wrap and then place in large freezer bags.
  3. To thaw: Set out at room temperature, or heat frozen muffins in the microwave.

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Gluten-Free Banana Muffins

4.73 from 22 votes
Soft, chewy, and moist, these Gluten-Free Banana Muffins are made without any flour or refined sugars. For a fun flavor addition, add chocolate chips. This recipe relies on pantry staples and requires no unique ingredients!
Gluten-free banana muffins with chocolate chips, freshly baked and steaming, ready to be enjoyed.
Print Recipe

Gluten-Free Banana Muffins

Gluten-free banana muffins with chocolate chips, freshly baked and steaming, ready to be enjoyed.
4.73 from 22 votes
Soft, chewy, and moist, these Gluten-Free Banana Muffins are made without any flour or refined sugars. For a fun flavor addition, add chocolate chips. This recipe relies on pantry staples and requires no unique ingredients!
Course Breakfast, Snack, Vegetarian
Cuisine American, Vegan, Vegetarian
Keyword gluten-free banana muffins
Prep Time 15 minutes
Cook Time 25 minutes
Total Time 40 minutes
Servings 9 muffins
Chelsea Lords
Calories 178kcal

Ingredients

  • 1 cup old-fashioned oats (not steel cut or quick oats)
  • 1 cup very ripe mashed bananas (~2-3 large bananas)
  • 1 large egg
  • 1/4 cup + 2 tablespoons pure maple syrup
  • 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
  • 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt
  • 2 tablespoons melted coconut oil
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 1/4 cup dark chocolate chips
  • 1/4 cup mini chocolate chips (See Note 1)

Instructions

  • PREP: Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Generously grease 9 cavities of a muffin tin. Melt the coconut oil and set aside so it can come back to room temperature (we don't want to add hot oil to the batter).
  • BLEND OATS: Fill the 1 cup measure of oats to the very top. Then level off the top by scraping the backside of a table knife across the top. Add the cup of oats to a blender or food processor and blend until the oats resemble flour -- a fine powder. If needed, stir and re-blend to break up larger chunks of oats. Set aside.
  • BANANA: Mash 2-3 very ripe bananas in a small bowl with the back of a fork. Mash thoroughly.
  • BATTER: Add the mashed banana, egg, maple syrup, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon, salt, melted coconut oil, and vanilla extract to a large bowl. Stir until well combined. Add in the blended oats and stir until combined. Add in the dark chocolate chips and mini chocolate chips and stir again.
  • BAKE: Transfer the batter into the prepared muffin tin, adding equal amounts to the 9 cavities; cavities should be about 3/4 filled. If desired, add a few more chocolate chips on top. Bake for 23-26 minutes or until no longer gooey/wet looking on top and lightly browned around the edges (if you lightly touch the muffin, it should spring back). Remove from the oven and let stand for 5 minutes before using the tines of a fork to coax the muffins out onto a cooling rack.

Video

Recipe Notes

Note 1: Chocolate: Dark chocolate offers health benefits and a fun textural addition to these muffins. Milk or semi-sweet chocolate can be used instead, but it does make these muffins slightly less nutritious. You can use all miniature chocolate chips or all dark chocolate chips if preferred; just keep the amount to 1/2 cup total. Chocolate doesn't contain gluten, but check the label to be sure.

Nutrition Facts

Serving: 9muffins | Calories: 178kcal | Carbohydrates: 27g | Protein: 3g | Fat: 7g | Saturated Fat: 5g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 0.4g | Monounsaturated Fat: 1g | Trans Fat: 0.01g | Cholesterol: 21mg | Sodium: 156mg | Potassium: 191mg | Fiber: 2g | Sugar: 16g | Vitamin A: 58IU | Vitamin C: 2mg | Calcium: 51mg | Iron: 1mg

We do our best to provide accurate nutritional analysis for our recipes. Our nutritional data is calculated using a third-party algorithm and may vary, based on individual cooking styles, measurements, and ingredient sizes. Please use this information for comparison purposes and consult a health professional for nutrition guidance as needed.

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Recipe Rating




68 Comments

  1. I love this recipe, I made something similar, but I actually used a little flour, and blueberries, but I love all that chocolate, may have to try it your way!

  2. Ohhh I LOVE those big chunks of chocolate chips inside these cute lil’ muffins! And because they’re on the healthier side, you can have 3 or 4, right ;).

  3. These look great– and I happen to have two sad looking bananas on my counter. Still love your flourless oat pumpkin muffins- made a batch or two of them this week and froze some extras. Can’t wait to try these. Thanks!

  4. These look insanely good! I love baking with oat flour. I am going to have to let my bananas go brown so that I can make these ASAP.

  5. 5 stars
    WOW-these muffins are gorgeous! the texture is perfect, I love all those chocolate chips, and the fact that they’re so healthified is amazing! YUM YUM YUMMERS

  6. So I am a huge muffin person but never make them! Obviously I needed this recipe. Love that they are flourless! Genius, Chelsea!!

  7. Just saw these on FG and they look great! I just posted banana oatmeal choc chip cookies today with very little butter. But they do have flour 🙂 Your muffins look awesome! Need to try!

  8. I love the oat flour in these! I have never tried oat flour before so I want to try it! These look amazing, love the melted chocolate in the pictures, so pretty 🙂

  9. Found your recipe on Pinterest yesterday. It was the first time visiting your blog. I wasted no time and made these last night! HUGE hit in our household this morning. Yup, I let my boys have them for breakfast! My 6 year old requested one for his lunch box today. Thank you for sharing. Can’t wait to try more of your recipes!!

  10. My daughter doesn’t like bananas and she can detect them anywhere. What can I use to substitute banana in this muffin?

  11. I love these muffins but do you think I could make them into a loaf? I know you have other banana loaf recipes but I was looking for one that was flour less and had yoghurt.

  12. 5 stars
    loveeeeee this!!! i made these twice! the first time was MUCH BETTER DEN THE FIRST, and i did not use any chocolate chips. The second time i made these the inside was wet, if you know what i mean.. why is that?? they tasted awesome though!

    1. Hmm not sure why you had different results the first from the second time, did you perhaps change anything on the recipe or measuring anything differently? The only other thing I can think since you said the inside was wet the second time is that maybe you didn’t cook them long enough or on the right oven temperature the second time you made them? And are your baking agents fresh?

  13. 4 stars
    So I follow a kinda weird diet. I should be on the Candida diet but it’s very restrictive and I find I need many more carbs than it allows, so I follow it to some extent. With that said, I try to avoid most sugars, which include natural sugars in fruits, and bananas have a lot of fruit in them. I also have a friend who has a latex allergy, so she can’t have bananas but uses pumpkin instead for things like smoothies. So I thought, what if I used the same amount of pumpkin in this recipe instead?
    Holy cow. The muffins turned out amazing.
    So I did make a couple adjustments to the recipe:
    Instead of sugar, I used 1/4 cup stevia and 1 tbs of honey.
    Instead of banana, I used pumpkin.
    Instead of chocolate chips, I used carob chips.
    This recipe turned out amazing even with my adjustments. I can truly say I’ve been very frustrated as of recently trying to find things that taste good on such a restrictive diet, but these are the BOMB.

    1. That is SO great to hear!! Thank you so much for leaving a comment and sharing how you changed this recipe, I appreciate it as I’m sure many other readers do too! 🙂 Thank you!

  14. 5 stars
    Your Banana muffins are delicious.

    I made a change to the recipe. Instead of brown sugar, I used honey. They turned out great.

    I used the food processor to grind the oats into a coarse flour which I used for both the flour/quick oats quantities.

    I heated a tablespoon of extra honey in the microwave for 10 seconds to make a syrup and brushed it on top of the muffins then sprinkled some crushed pecans on top. Keeps them moist and adds flavour.

    After I finished, I had plenty of banana and oat flour left over so I just made overnight oats with them – added milk and honey then stuck them in the fridge. Two birds, One stone.

    This is now my go-to recipe. I’ve been eager to find a homemade recipe that was easy and uses Oat flour to suit my daughter and I. Thank you very much. perfect for a healthy pre-school treat!

    1. Thank you so much for the comment!! So glad you enjoyed these muffins 🙂 And those overnight oats sound delicious! Such a smart idea!!

  15. 5 stars
    Best healthy muffins i have come across, i only use 2 tablespoons of sugar and they’re still amazing. My kids absolutely love them and i make a batch every couple of days

    1. Great! I hope you love it! I wouldn’t make the batter ahead of time. It’s important for the baking agents to hit the heat of the oven soon after being added to the other ingredients.

  16. Hello, did you change this recipe? I had this saved on pinterest and just made them last week. The ones I made used honey and there was no sugar in the recipe. The pictures were different too. I LOVED the sugarless recipe so I’m hoping I’m just looking in the wrong spot. Thanks!

    1. Hi Heidi, I did not change this recipe. A few other readers have told me about this; apparently my recipe got linked on Pinterest to someone else’s photo which has caused a mix-up. I’m not sure which recipe you are looking for either. I apologize!

    2. Never mind – I found it. For some reason my pinterest link is sending me to your website and not to the website I originally pinned.

      1. Hey! Did you find the other recipe? The same thing happened to me and I’m trying to track down the other recipe that doesn’t use sugar but honey instead. If you’d link it or tag me I’d so appreciate it!

  17. Made them yesterday and am looking forward to eating them all week!

    Funny story – I didn’t notice the part about instant oats ahead of time. The only instant oats I had were honey and almond flavored, but I was already halfway through the recipe, so decided….why not? They came out great! I’ve been working through several of your recipes in the past week and have enjoyed them all.

  18. 5 stars
    These were great! I did change a few things: I used old-fashioned oats and did not pulse the whole ones. They worked great for my taste; added a little chew. I used blueberries instead of chocolate chips, and only used 2 tablespoons of brown sugar. I think they were plenty sweet enough 🙂 thanks for sharing

    1. I haven’t tried that substitution in these muffins, so I’m not sure how it would work. Oat flour absorbs a lot more liquid than whole wheat flour so it wouldn’t be a 1:1 substitution. Wish I could be of more help!

      1. I tried it and they worked out! My 2 year old loved eating them for breakfast 🙂 Thanks for all the great recipes!

  19. 5 stars
    These were so delicious! Subbed blueberries for the choc chips and added a little bit of vanilla protein powder and a little less maple syrup YUM!

  20. 5 stars
    Lovely recipe! Just made these on a rainy day and they are just what I needed. Perfect amount of sweetness, choc chips & cinnamon flavour.

    1. I’m so happy to hear this! These are perfect for a rainy day! Thanks so much for your comment Amy! 🙂

  21. 5 stars
    This recipe is now made on repeat in my house. I love how easy it is to make & how yummy and moist the muffins are! I usually make 1 1/2 of the recipe at a time to fill a whole 12 pan of muffins.

  22. 5 stars
    These are incredible! I took a chance and used instant oats, and sprinkled a tad bit of walnut on top of each one. Too good to be true!

    1. I’ve never used an immersion blender but if it blends it down enough that it’s the same consistency as regular flour it’s great! 🙂

  23. 5 stars
    Just made these today and they are scrumptious! Don’t like dark chocolate, so used milk chocolate chips instead. This is a recipe I will use often! Yum!

  24. 5 stars
    My kids love these!! I have to make a double batch because my son eats 4-5 in one sitting! I use only mini chocolate chips and use half the amount the recipe calls for and find that it’s PLENTY! I sprinkle a few more on top of each muffin for looks. I also stir in a few teaspoons each of ground flax and hemp seeds for an omega boost. Great recipe! Thank you!!

  25. I made these and they are perfect for breakfast along side a bowl of cereal. Or they would make the perfect snack…so good!

  26. 5 stars
    I love this recipe. I don’t see Greek yogurt in the list of ingredients? Is it needed for this recipe?

    Thank you –
    Debbie

  27. 4 stars
    The flavor of these muffins were great and I
    love the fact that there is no added sugar (I’m not sure what recipe others are reviewing,
    that mention brown sugar).
    I had to cook longer, as they were very
    mushy (Not sure why. My ingredients are all
    fresh).
    I wish that people would not rate or review a
    recipe that they did not make. We are all on
    here to find recipes that we would like to try
    and it’s nice to see reviews from people who
    have actually made the recipe, not those
    who give 5 stars for something that looks
    good and they can’t wait to make.

    1. Thanks so much Deanna, I’m thrilled you enjoyed it! We’ve updated the recipe and some previous reviews are on it! So sorry for the trouble!

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