These warm, soft, chocolate banana oatmeal muffins are bursting with hearty oats, bananas, and chocolate! Great with peanut butter!

Honestly, I don't know what's wrong with my kid's taste buds. I don't know if they overfed bananas as infants or what, but they all despise bananas. Like DESPISE them. Mr. Hungry isn't a huge fan either, and unfortunately or fortunately for me, it's my favorite type of muffin. As evidenced by the ample varieties of banana oatmeal muffins I have here on HH (blueberry, chocolate chip, pumpkin, and gluten-free.)

I was craving chocolate and banana muffins, so I decided HH needed yet another variety of these muffins. I made a few batches, and my boujee middle child ate one whenever they came fresh out of the oven, but not after that. My oldest child said, "he could see the notes," and the toddler somehow despises chocolate anything.

You know what, I'm not mad. It's one thing I can eat without someone asking me for one or a bite, and they are delicious! I highly recommend cutting it in half and adding a bit of peanut butter for pure bliss. My sitter loved them, too, and took a batch home with her! Let me know if you try them!

How to Make Chocolate Banana Oatmeal Muffins

Ingredient Swaps and Substitutions

This recipe is vegetarian and dairy-free (if you use dairy-free chocolate chips) as written!

Bananas – Make sure to select ripe (spotted and very yellow) bananas, or your banana bread will not be very sweet! The more yellow the bananas, the sweeter they are! Also, make sure to measure 2 cups of mashed banana. Too much banana can result in a banana bread that seemingly didn’t bake all the way and is too wet/mushy. On the other hand, not having enough bananas can make the bread seem not sweet enough or banana-flavored enough!

Eggs – You can substitute flax eggs here if you'd like to make this recipe egg-free. I haven't tried it though, so let me know if you do!

Maple Syrup – you can substitute any LIQUID sweetener for maple syrup, such as honey or agave. I know someone will ask about using something like monk fruit, erythritol, or other low-calorie options. I don’t use those very often in my baking for various reasons, so I’m not very familiar with them. If you try them, please let us know how it turned out in the comments!

Unsweetened Vanilla Almond Milk - you can substitute any dairy or non-dairy milk here. In a pinch, you could even use water.

Rolled Oats - Old fashion, quick-cooking, or rolled oats will work. Steel-cut will probably not work!

Whole Wheat Pastry Flour or Whole Wheat Flour - I would not substitute this flour out. This recipe was created specifically with whole wheat flour. (Whole wheat pastry flour creates a lighter final product but is hard to find.) If you want to use another flour, I suggest trying my almond flour banana bread or my oat flour banana muffins.

Cocoa Powder - makes them chocolate, you can use dutch process cocoa if that's what you have on hand.

Vanilla - optional.

Baking Powder & Baking Soda – do not omit.

Chocolate chips - I used enjoy life chocolate chips. You could use dark chocolate or milk chocolate, whatever you want! Chocolate chips are optional, if the cocoa powder is enough for you then skip the chocolate chips!

How to Store and Freeze Chocolate Banana Oatmeal Muffins

Storing: You can keep these muffins on the counter for up to three days, but I prefer a closed container in the refrigerator so they don't dry out. They are good in the fridge as long as they aren't molded, which can be hard to tell in a chocolate-baked good. So again, the fridge is best!

Freezing: Let your chocolate banana oatmeal muffins cool COMPLETELY, either overnight on the counter or in the fridge. Be careful, though. If you leave them out too long, they will dry out. You can then wrap your bread with plastic wrap and place it in a gallon-size freezer bag to freeze for up to 3 months.

Thawing and reheating: Defrost under refrigeration or on the counter. If they dry out in the freezer more than you wish, reheat in the microwave!