Banana Zucchini Muffins

Banana Zucchini Muffins made healthy with whole wheat flour, maple syrup and chocolate bar chunks. Shredded zucchini keeps muffins moist and tasty with very little oil. Ripe banana adds sweetness and dark chocolate decadence. Freezer-friendly healthy muffins are perfect for a make ahead snack and on-the-go mornings.

Muffins like these plus healthy banana muffins, healthy blueberry muffins and healthy chocolate muffins are on a regular rotation in our house because “kids” and if we are honest, adults are eating them fresh out of the oven, too!

Banana Zucchini Muffins

Banana zucchini muffins are a good reason to turn on your oven this summer. So are lemon zucchini muffins and healthy zucchini bread.

Healthy zucchini banana bread muffins with whole wheat flour, maple syrup and dark chocolate chunks. The world’s fluffiest and most delicious zucchini banana muffins. I know there are many muffins out there but mine are the best! I swear, just check the reviews!

These healthy muffins turned out so fluffy and moist. The ratio of everything was spot on. I promise – you just need to turn on the oven and make them.

Why This Recipe for Healthy Zucchini Banana Muffins Works?

• Easy: Normal baking ingredients that you probably already have on hand.
• Healthy: No refined sugar, whole grain, low oil plus filled with fruits and veggies, sign me up for a double batch!
• Less kitchen fresh food waste: By using overripe bananas or your ‘grew too large’ garden zucchini, there is no need for food to go to waste!
• Versatile: Use either whole wheat or spelt flour, sub nuts or blueberries for the chocolate, use honey instead of maple syrup and even make vegan muffins by learning how to make a flax egg or chia egg!
• Make Ahead: Zucchini and banana make these muffins moist, they freeze well without fear of drying out upon thawing!

Ingredients for Zucchini Banana Muffins

• Bananas: Make sure bananas are very ripe. The uglier bananas, the sweeter the muffins, just like in healthy banana pancakes.
• Zucchini: Shred on medium size hole grater and pack in the measuring cup. Do not squeeze. All out of zucchini? Make healthy banana chocolate chip muffins, instead!

• Dark chocolate bar: Your favorite. I will cover the options below.
• Whole wheat or spelt flour: These are only 2 flours I would recommend to use because other flours act differently. Baking is a science and it is best to follow the recipe for favorable results. If you need gluten free, try these almond flour banana muffins
• Maple syrup: Any liquid sweetener like honey, agave or brown rice syrup works. As long as it’s not sugar. Dry sweetener will offset the ratios and batter won’t work.
• Egg: You can replace with flax egg if you wish.
• Oil: Any mild tasting oil works.

Chocolate Recommendations

This banana muffins recipe is often called ‘chunky monkey’ because of the chocolate bar chunks in them! You can use any of the following type of chocolate:

• Chocolate bar: 100 grams or 3.5 oz dark chocolate bar. My favorite!!!
• How dark: 70%, 85% or 90%. My kids loved muffins with 70%, I found them a bit too sweet.
• Baker’s chocolate: That is unsweetened chocolate you can use – if you eat 90% dark chocolate no problem. That’s me.
• Chocolate chips: You can replace chocolate chunks with 1/2 cup dark or semi-sweet chocolate chips. I often use mini chocolate chips so I can some in each bite just like with chocolate chip muffins and cookie dough.
• Milk chocolate bar: You can use it but muffins will be very sweet. Up to you.

Swap chocolate for blueberries and make healthy blueberry banana muffins!

How to Make Banana Zucchini Muffins

• Prep: Preheat oven to 375F degrees and line muffin tin with parchment paper liners. Chop chocolate bar.
• Batter: Mash bananas, add liquids and whisk in dry ingredients. Don’t forget to stir in chocolate chunks.

• Bake: For 22 minutes with a toothpick test. And then cool for 5 minutes in the tin and as long as you can resist on a rack. 🙂

FAQs

Serving Recommendations

You might be wondering what is good to eat with muffins and in that case, there are so many options for serving your breakfast or snack muffins.

• Assorted muffin basket: Love to bake? Make a healthy muffin assortment with healthy morning glory muffins, almond flour muffins, and chocolate quinoa muffins. You could even add some sliced quick breads like coconut flour banana, cinnamon bread and pumpkin chocolate chip.
• Part of a healthy breakfast: Serve with strawberry yogurt and eggs for those days when you are really hungry (or your feeding hungry boys like mine!)
• Brunch spread: Along with breakfast casserole, vegetable frittata, poached eggs, smoked salmon salad and Ukrainian breakfast potatoes for a special mid morning breakfast/lunch.
• Snack platter: Raw vegetables with veggie dip, crackers with garlic hummus and a few muffins satisfy hungry after school appetites!
• Favorite beverage: Sip on healthy iced coffee or healthy iced tea while enjoying a muffin and quiet time.

Making Muffins in Advance

Serving: I loved these muffins cold the best. Why? Because to me that is when chocolate chunks taste the best. Even when they are 100% cacao. With every soft and moist bite of bread you get a slight crunch of creamy rich chocolate. I specifically ate one muffin right now to make sure I described my experience precisely.

Storing: I like to store muffins covered with a towel on a kitchen counter for the first 2 days. Since these are healthy muffins and they do not contain oil or sugar, I transfer muffins to an airtight container and refrigerate for another 3 days. Refrigeration helps muffins to retain moisture. If there are any leftovers, of course.

Freezing: Place cooled muffins in a gallon size Ziploc bag, let as much air as possible and freeze for up to 3 months. Mini quick breads take about 3 hours to thaw on a counter.

Enjoy!

More Healthy Muffins to Try

• Healthy carrot muffins
• Healthy pumpkin muffins
• Healthy apple muffins
• Healthy zucchini muffins
• Healthy chocolate chip muffins

You may also love these zucchini recipes!