Peanut butter banana muffins are made in one bowl, packed with flavor and filling oat flour for an easy breakfast or snack you can feel good about! They’re naturally gluten free, dairy free, and refined sugar free and full of protein too. Serve them as they are, or add a sprinkle of chocolate chips!
Is there anything better than the classic combination of peanut butter and banana? Although I’m not sure about the addition of bacon, it turns out Elvis was onto something with his ever-famous peanut butter banana sandwiches. I mean, helloooo deliciousness!
Made famous by the rock star, the combo has been a classic ever since, and for good reason. Or if you’re just in it for the peanut butter and looking for something peanut flavored and savory, this African peanut soup is divine and I could slather this peanut sauce on just about anything.
That said, these gluten free peanut butter banana muffins are pretty darn delightful. Naturally gluten free, they’re made with a base of ground-up oats and simple, all-natural ingredients. That means they’re easy to make, and good for you, too. Just the way I like it!
They’re like a mash up of banana bread and rich peanut butter flavor. For good measure, I also usually include a helping of chocolate chips. This step is totally optional but highly recommended and good for the soul. Either way, these peanut butter muffins are one recipe you’ll find yourself making again, and again.
Featured Review:
“These muffins are soooo good. I didn’t even add chocolate chips but they were still delicious. Been trying out different recipes for my one year old and so far this is our favorite. I am not a fan of peanut butter but I can eat 4 of these muffins in one sitting I swear hahahaha!” – Ella Champion
Are These Muffins Healthy?
Yes! As mentioned, these muffins are made with simple, all natural ingredients. Less than 10 to be exact. They’re made with oat flour instead of all purpose flour too making them gluten free as long as you use gluten free oats (see my guide on types of oats if you’re new to this).
As a result, they’re loaded with all the good stuff. Plus, they’re super versatile to fit a variety of dietary needs making them an excellent quick breakfast option!
Gluten Free Ingredients and Substitutions
These healthy muffins call for simple ingredients:
- Bananas – The moisture from the bananas eliminates the need for extra fat, making these banana muffins even more nutrient dense. Be sure to use super ripe bananas with lots of brown spots for a sweeter taste.
- Peanut butter – Creamy peanut butter works best in my opinion. Just make sure it’s a natural version made with nothing more than peanuts and salt. While smooth peanut butter is what I prefer, chunky can add texture if you think you’d prefer a little crunch! You can also swap with another nut or seed butter such as almond butter, cashew butter, or sunflower seed butter you prefer. Just keep in mind that the taste of your muffins will vary depending on what you use.
- Honey – To sweeten the muffins without the need refined sugar. If needed, you could use pure maple syrup or agave syrup instead. You may be able to substitute coconut sugar or brown sugar but I haven’t tested it.
- Vanilla extract – Crucial in baked goods to enhance the flavor. Make sure to use a high-quality option. Trust me, it’s worth it.
- Cinnamon – Perfect for adding a little extra depth and balancing out the sweetness.
- Salt – I typically use Himalayan pink salt, but whatever you have on hand will do.
- Baking soda and baking powder – To help the muffins rise and create a soft, tender, drool-worthy texture.
- Oat flour – While oats are naturally gluten free, they are often cross contaminated from other grains so make sure you buy oats that are labeled “gluten-free” if you need this. You can buy it pre-made in stores, but it’s so easy and inexpensive to make your own oat flour at home! Just toss some whole oats (rolled / old fashioned oats work best) in a blender, and pulse until a fine flour-like consistency is formed.
- Mini chocolate chips – These are technically optional, but are they really? Let’s be honest, everything is better with chocolate. I prefer semi-sweet chocolate chips from Ghiradelli, but you could easily keep this recipe dairy free with options from brands like, Enjoy Life and Hu!
Flavor Variations
Clearly, I’m all for the addition of chocolate. However, there are endless other ways you can make these peanut butter muffins your own! For instance, some of my favorite mix-ins include:
- Peanut butter chips
- Chopped nuts
- A swirl of Nutella
- Chopped apples
- Dried fruit
I haven’t tested it, but to make the recipe vegan you should be able to replace the eggs with an egg substitute. For vegan chocolate chip peanut butter muffins, you’ll want to replace the chocolate chips with a dairy free option as well.
I don’t recommend using a different flour. However, if you’re looking for muffins using almond flour or other gluten free flour types, I’ve got you covered with recipes like these pistachio muffins or my almond poppy seed muffins with almond flour. Of if you aren’t gluten free, I have a killer white whole wheat flour blueberry muffin recipe.
How to Make Peanut Butter Banana Muffins
This great recipe might be the easiest muffins you’ll ever make! All you’ll need is a large bowl, a hand mixer or other electric mixer, a muffin tin, and 10 minutes to throw all the ingredients together.
- Using a hand mixer, combine the wet ingredients in a medium to large bowl. You can mash the banana with a fork, whisk the dry ingredients and stir the rest in by hand if you don’t have a hand mixer.
- Add the dry ingredients, and mix again, scraping the sides as needed. Then, fold in the chocolate chips.
- Spray your muffin tin with cooking spray, or fill it with muffin liners. Spoon the muffin batter into the muffin pan, filling each cup almost all the way up to the top.
- Bake until they are fluffy and a toothpick can be inserted into the center of the muffin and comes out mostly clean. Enjoy!
Baking Tips
Don’t over mix. Stop mixing as soon as the batter is well combined. Otherwise, it will become tough and dry once baked, and nobody wants that!
Avoid over baking. Pull your muffins out of the oven as soon as the center is set. They’ll continue to bake just slightly as they cool, meaning they will be overcooked if left in the oven for too long.
Mash the banana. This recipe calls for mashed bananas, not whole bananas. So, be sure to measure that first. You don’t want to get caught with too much or too little. Trust me, been there, done that. If it isn’t the right amount the texture won’t be right. If you have too little banana you can substitute a little bit more peanut butter or even yogurt in it’s place.
Use really really brown bananas. You want those bananas covered in brown spots. The ones pictured are merely for decor and are not banana muffin ready. The brown spots bring out the banana flavor and make them sweeter meaning you don’t need as much added sugar.
How to Store and Freeze
These chocolate chip peanut butter muffins disappear almost immediately in my house. However, if you can get them to last, they make for great leftovers! Follow the storage tips below to keep them fresh:
Fresh: Place in an airtight container, these muffins can be kept in at room temperature for up to 3 days and in the refrigerator for up to 5 days.
Freezer: Allow your muffins to come to room temperature. Then place them in a freezer-safe container, ideally with extra air removed, where they will stay fresh for 2-3 months. To serve: Thaw frozen muffins in the fridge overnight. When you’re ready to eat, set them out to come to room temperature, or pop them in the microwave for a few seconds to defrost.
More Oat Flour Recipes
Looking for more healthy muffin recipes? I get it, and I’ve got you covered with plenty of great recipes like these:
Peanut Butter Banana Muffins
Ingredients
- 1 cup mashed ripe banana 2 extra large or 3 small
- 1 cup creamy natural peanut butter
- 1/3 cup honey
- 2 tsp. vanilla extract
- 2 eggs
- 1 tsp. cinnamon
- 1/2 tsp. salt
- 1 tsp. baking soda
- 1/2 tsp. baking powder
- 2 cup oat flour* grind 1 3/4 cup rolled oats in food processor or blender
- 1/2 cup mini chocolate chips optional
- Cooking spray or muffin wrappers
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350°F (175°C).
- Mix mashed banana, peanut butter, honey, vanilla, and eggs using a hand mixer in a medium bowl. Make sure that you use a full cup of mashed banana and measure that first.
- Add dry ingredients and blend with hand mixer while scraping the sides of the mixing bowl until just mixed together. Do not overmix! Stir in chocolate chips (optional).
- Spray muffin tin with cooking spray or line with muffin wrappers. Spoon batter into prepared muffin tin, filling each cup almost to the top.
- Bake for 15 to 17 minutes until muffins are cooked through. Don't over bake or they'll be dry! Let cool in the muffin tin for 10 minutes and then remove and let fully cool on a wire rack.
Notes
- You can mash the banana with a fork, whisk the dry ingredients and stir the rest in by hand if you don’t have a hand mixer.
- If needed, you can substitute pure maple syrup or agave instead of honey.
Nutrition
did you make this recipe?
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Originally published August 29, 2015, Updated June 7, 2019 and again January 29, 2023.
Comments & Reviews
Hey there! Quick question that’s completely off topic. Do you know how to make your site mobile friendly? My website looks weird when browsing from my iphone4. I’m trying to find a template or plugin that might be able to correct this problem. If you have any suggestions, please share. Appreciate it!
It’s been so long since I did it, I honestly couldn’t tell you a quick and easy way other than getting a theme that is mobile friendly. The one I use is a child theme called foodie pro that is built on a Genesis framework but I had a developer customize it for me since I’m not too savvy with the IT side. That was a long time ago though and I bet wordpress has some decent free options now. Hope that helps and good luck to you! 🙂
I am wondering if you can use flax eggs (but substitute the water with almond milk) for the eggs with the same results.
I’m not sure, I haven’t tried it. Since oat flour is so absorbent the end product just falls apart without eggs and I haven’t had good results subbing out with flax eggs on other oat flour recipes. If you give it a try report back and let us know! 🙂
Delicious! Thanks for the recipe!
For years I’ve made these muffins as they are delicious & my family loves them!
4/17/21 Update
Today I substituted peanut butter fit peanut butter powder mixed with water as per the package and doubled the recipe and they turned out wonderful which provides 87% less fat and about a third of the calories of regular peanut butter! Win win!
I love that idea! Going to have to try it soon!
Wow! Just finished baking these and they are insanely delicious! I already ate 3 muffins and it’s only been a couple of hours since I made them :D. I used almond butter instead of peanut and less of it, maybe half a cup. Also I added a handful of fresh blueberries instead of the chocolate chips. This recipe is a keeper and I can see me making this over and over again! 🙂 Thank you Christy!
That’s awesome! Love the blueberry addition too! 🙂
These are so moist and yummy! But mine taste so strongly of just peanut butter. No banana flavor at all. I used very very ripe bananas too. Am I doing something wrong? Although delicious, it’s very much like eating just peanut butter, from the flavor and that chewy need to drink something in between each bite type of peanut butter texture/consistency. Help! I love how easy these are but would love more of a banana flavor. Thanks!
The peanut butter is the more dominant flavor here for sure. It just has such a strong taste that it overpowers the banana. I really like that in this recipe but if you don’t, a classic banana bread might be a better fit for you. I’m not sure about what you said about the texture though. It is definitely grainier than plain white flour and can be a little gummy but the fat content in the peanut butter usually makes that less of an issue in this recipe. Is there any chance the batter got over mixed?
I’ve actually learned to love the dominant PB flavor! I now always make sure not to overmix. I pretty much always have a batch of these made now. So easy in the mornings when my 9 month is yelling at me to hurry up and eat haha. Thank you!
Oh I know those mornings with a baby yelling all too well! Another bonus – my toddler loves these and I bet your little one will at some point too!
This has literally become a staple breakfast item for our family especially myself (a breastfeeding mama!) they are absolutely delicious and so easy to make. Both my husband and I are quite particular when it comes to baked goods especially when we are using alternative to flour, and these were incredible! My son also loves them! Can’t believe they are gluten and dairy free too! Amazing!
Thanks for sharing an awesome recipe!
I loved these when I was breastfeeding too! I made a bunch and froze them and then microwaved before eating. Gotta love those one handed snacks. 🙂
Absolutely delicious, easy and even though I haven’t finished eating them, can’t wait to make again! I also shared the recipe with everyone I know. It is the time of Covid and I can’t find flour or yeast so needed to find a recipe with the items I had on hand. Did the recipe exactly as written, other than I added more chocolate chips, which was definitely a good idea. I also used frozen bananas (that I freeze before they go bad). Really impressed with processed oats, really seems like flour muffins. They were delicious when they had just cooled down from the oven (and they rise really well, with only slight collapse after cooling), they were delicious hours later and are even better the next day. I doubt they will last the rest of day. Anyone will like these. My husband and I are very picky and quite the cooks, this went to the top of my baking list. I may try raisins in them next time. Big Thank you! I also never write reviews but people need to know about this recipe so I wanted to help out.
They’re the perfect recipe for quarantine! I finally found some yeast but flour is in short supply. One thing I’ve learned – oat flour is great when you get the liquid/oat/fat ratios right but can get mushy and gross if you don’t so either follow a good recipe or experiment with caution! Just my two cents on oat flour after lots and lots of recipe testing. 😉
Hello! Is it possible to use this recipe to make a banana loaf instead of muffins? And what would be the baking time?
I’m sure it is but haven’t tested it to see how long it takes. If you do make it as a loaf let me know how long it takes you!
Can we use instant oats for this recipe to make the flour?
I’ve never tried but it should work. The end result might be a bit mushier but I think it turn out alright since essentially quick oats are just thinner and a little more processed. Check the muffins early though since they might cook a little more quickly.
has Anyone tried with a mini muffin tray? Curious about bake time, etc.
I can’t remember how long they take in a mini-muffin tray but will test soon and update the recipe with that info!
Soooooo delicious! I could eat them all myself! I did 6 regular size & 24 mini muffins (10 min, 5 min rest in pan) They are on my permanent list now.
The minis are my daughter’s favorite, almost bite sized! 🙂
Just made these and they came out great. Awesome recipe, thanks!
Oh my goodness. This recipe was amazing and the muffins are to die for they were so moist and yummy. I added some raspberries and they worked really well in the muffin. Definitely my favourite muffin recipe
I’m so happy you liked the recipe that much! I love the idea of adding raspberries too and can’t wait to try that soon!
If you add 3 TBSP of pb fit peanut butter powder, it helps the peanut butters flavor come through.
That sounds sooo good! Thanks for the tip!