Double Chocolate Chip Peanut Butter Banana Muffins

These double chocolate banana muffins are rich and fudgy, topped with mini chocolate chips, and have a swirl of creamy peanut butter inside. Perfect for breakfast, dessert, or snack time.

Why You Should Try This Recipe

This recipe for double chocolate banana muffins with peanut butter filling came about because I wanted a recipe using brown bananas that wasn't my best-ever banana bread.

I started testing plain chocolate banana muffins but the first few batches were missing something. The chocolate was good, the banana was good, but they just weren't great together. It was like eating two different muffins at once instead of one perfectly balanced, harmonious muffin.

Then, one day, Jimmy slathered one of my test muffins with peanut butter. It drives me bananas (lol) when he does this. I firmly believe a good banana bread should be good enough on its own!!!

But in this one case, I had to admit he was completely on to something. Peanut butter was exactly what these muffins needed.

The creamy, nutty flavor paired perfectly with the chocolate and banana flavors. It's like the "accidentally handcuffed together" romcom trope — the peanut butter shows the bananas and chocolate just how well they get along.

I swirled a dollop of peanut butter into the center of the next batch of muffins and, well, not to belabor the metaphor, let's just say these muffins found their happily ever after. They were perfect. No changes needed.

Your Grocery List + My Ingredient Notes

Above are the ingredients you'll need to make my double chocolate banana peanut butter muffins! See recipe card for quantities. Below you'll find some additional notes to make sure you have the right stuff in your kitchen:

• All-purpose flour - Standard all-purpose flour. I use King Arthur, but you can use any brand you like. Gluten free cup-for-cup flour should also work well here!
• Brown sugar - I use light brown sugar, but dark brown works well too.
• Unsweetened cocoa powder - The classic box of Hershey's is just fine for this recipe. I haven't tested these with Dutch process cocoa powder, but that should work fine too!
• Salt - I use Diamond Crystal Kosher Salt which is half as salty as other brands. If you are measuring by volume (e.g. teaspoons) and are using a different brand or type of salt cut the amount of salt in half.
• Brown bananas - Brown spotted bananas that are overripe but not mushy. I used 2 large brown bananas, but have included a weight measurement in the recipe in case you can only have smaller ones.
• Egg - A large egg. Submerge it in a bowl of hot tap water while you get the rest of your ingredients ready (about 5-10 minutes) to bring it to room temperature.
• Whole fat Greek yogurt - I use Greek yogurt to give these muffins a fudgy, moist texture. You won't get the same results with fat-free (0%) Greek yogurt, but 2% or 5% will work fine if that's all you've got.
• Creamy peanut butter - I use JIF Natural Creamy Peanut Butter, but any peanut butter that doesn't separate (e.g. gets that layer of oil on top) will work. You could even use other nut butters as long as they don't separate!

Instructions - Recipe Walkthrough

For these double chocolate banana muffins, the only adjustment to that method is you'll add the dry ingredients in two batches, folding in a dollop of Greek yogurt in between.

Fold the ingredients together gently with a spatula or a dough whisk in as few gentle movements as possible.

Stop mixing as soon as everything is combined. DO NOT OVER MIX. Overmixing leads to tough, dense muffins. Yuck.

"Folding" Muffin Batter and Letting it Rest

Hold the mixing bowl with one hand and your spatula in the other. Use the spatula to draw a line down the center of the bowl, then move it in a clockwise circle. Rotate your wrist away from you when you get to 12 o'clock, folding the mixture over itself. Rotate the bowl and repeat.

Once the muffin batter is mixed together, cover it and let it rest for 30-45 minutes at room temperature before scooping.

When you let the muffin batter rest, it gives the baking powder — this recipe's chemical leavener — a chance to activate before going into the oven.

To get the peanut butter filling in the center of each muffin, first fill each muffin tin about ⅓ of the way full.

Use a toothpick to make sure the muffin batter completely covers the bottom of each tin. Then scoop the peanut butter into the center of each muffin and divide the remaining muffin batter between the tins to cover the peanut butter.

Use another toothpick to quickly swirl the top layer of peanut butter and chocolate muffin batter together. Mostly you're trying to push the top layer of chocolate batter so that it covers the peanut butter, but you can do this with a quick swirl of the toothpick.

If you swirl too much the peanut butter will mix into the batter and you don't want that. So just a quick swirl to hide the peanut butter and then stop swirling.

Finish by topping each muffin generously with mini chocolate chips. You want A LOT of mini chocolate chips on top so that when the muffin rises and the top expands into a beautiful dome there aren't a lot of gaps between them.

Bake for 22-25 minutes at 400°F. Because of the chocolate batter and peanut butter center you can't use browning or the toothpick test to tell when the muffins are done. The best way to be sure is if you insert an instant read thermometer down the side of the muffin, it should read between 190-200°F.

Otherwise, as long as the tops look mostly set and the muffins don't jiggle when you shake the pan, they're done.

How to Store These Muffins

Store these muffins in airtight container so the muffins don't dry out. They are best eaten within 3-5 days of baking.

My Best Practical Tips & Recipe Notes

• I used .75 oz scoop for the muffin batter and 1.5 teaspoon scoop for the peanut butter centers. The top layer of muffin batter you'll just have to eyeball for covering up the peanut butter. Use a toothpick to swirl the peanut butter at the end and hide it under the top layer of chocolate batter.
• I baked these double chocolate banana muffins in my USA Pan standard-sized 12-well muffin tin with these muffin liners.
• If you don't have brown bananas you can quickly brown them by popping them on a sheet pan in the oven at 300F for 20-30 minutes, until the peel turns black. Let cool briefly before peeling.
• How well you mash the bananas can really change the texture and flavor of your chocolate banana muffins! Bigger chunks = more banana flavor. Smaller chunks and a smoother mash = more subtle banana flavor.
• If your muffins turn out dense and tough, that's a sign of over mixed muffin batter. When you're mixing the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients be gentle and stop as soon as there is no dry flour in the bowl or visible streaks of yogurt in the mix.

📖 Recipe