Healthy Chocolate Peanut Butter Muffins — NO added refined sugar, flour, or oil and only about 100 calories!! Naturally gluten-free! They taste AMAZING, are a reader FAVORITE, and are made in your blender!!
Healthy Chocolate Muffins Recipe
It’s been over 6 months since I made some of my favorite muffins ever. But I couldn’t just leave well enough alone. I had to ‘improve’ them. By making a chocolate version, of course.
These healthy chocolate peanut butter muffins are ridiculously soft, moist, rich, decadent, but only about 100 calories each. That’s a good thing because like all mini food, these babies are so poppable. One after the next, down they go.
Because people ask frequently, I did a detailed breakdown of the stats here. By adding 1/3 cup cocoa powder to this version, the calorie count increases nominally, only about 5 extra calories per muffin.
One unique thing about these blender muffins is that there’s no refined sugar. There’s just 3 tablespoons of honey used for the entire batch. Many recipes use a whopping cup of sugar but we’re talking tablespoons of honey.
The healthy chocolate muffins are sweet enough without being too sweet, and make for a satisfying and comforting snack when you need a chocolate-peanut butter fix. Or have chocolate for breakfast. I won’t judge.
The other unique element is that there’s no flour, ground oats, almond meal, grains, or specialty flours. They’re flourless and naturally gluten-free. They’re also dairy-free and oil-free.
You may be skeptical if the recipe could possibly work, and if you read the comments on the original muffin post, many people admit they were, but said they were happily proven wrong.
The chocolate flavor is enhanced by mini chips mixed into the batter and more sprinkled on top. The peanut butter flavor is present, but it doesn’t overwhelm or dominate.
Depending on how ripe your banana is dictates how banana-ey the muffins taste. The less ripe, the less banana flavor, and also the less sweet the muffins will be. Since there’s only 3 tablespoons honey used, I prefer my banana on the riper side so the muffins are sweeter. Even with a very ripe banana, while you can taste the banana, it’s faint and muted by all the chocolate.
I intended to donate half the batch and for the rest to be tossed into a few days worth of school lunches for my daughter, but we had no willpower around these super soft, springy, bouncy little muffins that just melt in your mouth. The few we had left on day 2 were even softer and tasted better after the flavors married.
Who can resist all those chocolate chips.
What’s in These Healthy Chocolate Muffins?
To make these healthy chocolate peanut butter muffins, you’ll need:
- Banana
- Egg
- Creamy peanut butter
- Unsweetened cocoa powder
- Honey
- Vanilla extract
- Baking soda
- Salt
- Mini chocolate chips
How to Make Chocolate Peanut Butter Muffins
With this chocolate peanut butter chocolate chip muffins recipe, everything you normally do to make muffins with a bowl of wet ingredients, a bowl of dry, and fold gently to combine, goes right out the window.
I made the batter in my Oster® Pro 1200 Blender in one minute. Add everything at once (except fold in the chocolate chips by hand), and whiz until smooth. There’s no harm in overmixing since there’s no gluten that can be developed, so no worries about tough muffins.
The Oster® brand allows you to experiment to create high quality meals and drinks. Oster® Appliances are simply, yet powerfully designed, to help you transform your ingredients into tasty creations.
These healthy chocolate muffins will need to bake for roughly 8 to 12 minutes. See my detailed notes in the recipe card below for figuring out your exact bake time.
Can I Make These Blender Muffins Vegan?
You can experiment to keep the recipe vegan by omitting the egg and replacing the honey with agave or brown rice syrup. I haven’t done it, but many readers wrote on the last post to say they veganized with success.
Can I Substitute Another Type of Nut Butter?
Some readers have reported success using almond butter in place of peanut butter. Just keep in mind that I used a traditional peanut butter for these muffins (i.e. not homemade or natural), and it was fairly thick and creamy. Avoid using nut butters that are oily or runny.
Can I Bake These as Full Size Muffins?
Of course! You’ll need to increase the bake time, though.
Tips for Making Chocolate Peanut Butter Muffins
I recommend using mini chocolate chips since full-size chips can be too big and clunky, and can easily overwhelm the delicate mini muffins. If all you have is full size, I’d chop them a bit.
Watch your mini muffins closely while they bake since they can go from perfectly baked to overdone in seconds. I’ve given detailed tips in the recipe card below on how long to bake your healthy chocolate muffins.
These blender muffins will keep airtight at room temperature for up to 5 days, or in the freezer for up to 6 months. I find the muffins get softer over time and taste better on days 2-3 after the flavors have married.
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Flourless Double Chocolate Peanut Butter Mini Blender Muffins
Ingredients
- 1 medium/large ripe banana, peeled
- 1 large egg
- heaping 1/2 cup creamy peanut butter, I recommend using classic storebought peanut butter, and not natural or homemade because it can be oily or separate
- ⅓ cup unsweetened natural cocoa powder
- 3 tablespoons honey, agave, brown rice syrup, or maple syrup may be substituted
- 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
- ¼ teaspoon baking soda
- pinch salt, optional and to taste
- heaping 1/2 cup mini semi-sweet chocolate chips + more for sprinkling muffin tops
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 400F. Prepare mini muffin pans by spraying very well with cooking spray or grease the pans; set aside.
- To the canister of an Oster® Pro 1200 Blender, add first 8 ingredients, through optional salt, and blend on high speed until smooth and creamy, about 1 minute.
- Add heaping 1/2 cup chocolate chips and stir in by hand; don’t use the blender because it will pulverize them.
- Using a tablespoon or small cookie scoop, drop rounded 1 tablespoon mounds into prepared pans. Each cavity should be filled to a solid 3/4 full.
- Sprinkle each muffin with a generous pinch of chocolate chips.
- Bake for 8 to 12 minutes, or until the tops are set, domed, springy to the touch, and a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean, or with a few moist crumbs, but no batter. ** (see note)
- Allow muffins to cool in pans for about 10 to 15 minutes, or until they’ve firmed up and are cool enough to handle. It’s normal for muffin tops to be quite domed in oven but flatten as they cool.
- Muffins will keep airtight at room temperature for up to 5 days, or in the freezer for up to 6 months. I find the muffins get softer over time and taste better on days 2-3 after the flavors have married.
Notes
- *I recommend using classic storebought peanut butter, and not natural or homemade because it can be oily or separate.
- **That’s a large range with baking time and I find with medium bananas, there’s less batter, the cavities are less full, and 8-9 minutes is about right. With a larger banana or slightly more batter in each muffin cavity, 11-12 minutes is right. For these, I used a large banana and baked 11:30. Due to the mini size and oven variance, watch your muffins closely, and bake until done.
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More Healthy Muffin Recipes:
Flourless Peanut Butter Muffins — These gluten-free peanut butter muffins are made in a blender and come together in mere minutes. You’d never guess that these mini muffins are gluten-free, dairy-free, refined sugar-free, and oil-free!
Vegan Mini-Chocolate Chip Mini-Muffins — Ridiculously moist, tender, delicate and light, without being airy, and as good as any traditional muffin with eggs and butter!
Oatmeal and Chocolate Chip Trail Mix Vegan Muffins — Fast, easy, healthy & made with your favorite trail mix ingredients
Vegan Banana Muffins — Extra fluffy and moist thanks to the combination of coconut oil and ripe bananas in the batter. This is a quick and easy muffin recipe you’re bound to love!
Healthy Blueberry Muffins — These easy blueberry muffins are made with Greek yogurt instead of butter, and there’s only a little vegetable oil and sugar in these. Don’t worry, these don’t taste healthy at all!
Mini Flourless Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Blender Muffins – The EASIEST pumpkin muffins ever!! Everything is mixed together in your blender! Super soft, moist, brimming with bold pumpkin flavor, and chocolate chips in every bite!!
Healthy Oatmeal Muffins— These healthy oatmeal muffins won’t jeopardize your New Year’s resolutions and are skinny jeans-friendly. No oil, no dairy, and just 1/4 cup of brown sugar!
Post is brought to you by Oster®. The recipe, images, text, and opinions expressed are my own.
I’ve been making the peanut butter version of these non-stop since I discovered it a year and a half ago. Figured I should try these – YUM! Me and the ones I share with have been very pleased with everything I’ve made on your site. I’m making your sweet potatoes with honey cinnamon dip tomorrow!
Thanks for trying the recipe and I’m glad it came out great for you and that you’ve been pleased with all my recipes you’ve tried! Thanks for being a loyal reader for the past year and a half!
I was desperate for a sweet last night, but am not eating granulated sugar…I made these and neither my husband or I could believe how good they were. I’m still kinda surprised! Ha! I’m not a huge banana fan, but following your post I used a NOT ripe banana, and you can barely taste the banana at all once they are cooked! I’m super impressed with this recipe. It was the first of many I will make off of your site! Thank you!
Thanks for trying the recipe and I’m glad it came out great for you! Glad you’re a believer now, too :) Everyone is surprised the first time! LMK what other recipes you try!
Made these this evening and love them! Really pleased with how they turned out – thankyou!
Thanks for trying the recipe and I’m glad it came out great for you!
I commented on these a few days ago and today tried the other version without the cocoa powder. Wow, as much as I love chocolate I can’t really decide between the two which I like better. I cannot thank you enough for both of these recipes!!! THANK YOU!
Thanks for trying BOTH versions! As much as I love chocolate too, I love the non-chocolate version just as much as the chocolate version! Glad you’re a fan of both versions!
These were so good! My batter was so thick and I couldn’t get the chips worked in well, so I just put the chips on top! I used Kraft whipped peanut butter which is fluffier than regular peanut butter. This is my kind of treat, not overly sweet but just enough. I always know they are good if the hubby likes them, and he did! I only got 12 mini muffins:) Thank you for a great recipe!
Thanks for trying the recipe and I’m glad it’s your kind of treat! Thanks for sharing what products you used and that the Kraft whipped PB worked!
Thank you so much for these! They are excellent. It’s hard to find a really, really good gluten free dessert recipe. Have my second batch in the oven now and wow! These are gonna go fast. Also going to try your other version of this as well. Thank you again!!!!
Thanks for trying the recipe and I’m glad it came out great for you and for the compliments that you think it’s a really really good GF dessert!
If you try the other version, LMK! Would love to see which flavor version you like better!
for the lady in canada who wanted cookie butter it is available in walmart canada. i am in calgary. look for it in international aisle or near lemon butter.
These were absolutely delicious! The only downside is that they are so small I don’t know when to stop eating them!! :)
Thanks for trying the recipe and I’m glad it came out great for you and yes, mini food is SO poppable :)
Oh my god, made this recipe last night and it’s oh so good! AND healthy and low calorie, score!
It tastes like brownie but without the guilt and the bad chemical stuff. I’m in love!
And it doesn’t taste like banana (which I don’t like), I was a bit scared I wouldn’t like them because of that.
Delicious healthy chocolate muffin recipe, check! Now I’m gonna try finding a healthy and low-calorie cookie recipe.
-Elisa
Thanks for trying the recipe and I’m glad it came out great for you and that you can’t even taste the banana since you’re not that into them!
This is a great recipe! I doubled it and put it in an 8×8 pan lined with parchment paper. It took about 20 min to cook, and it came out perfect. Almost in-between chocolate cake and brownies. Soooo good!
Thanks for trying the recipe and I’m glad it came out great for you – even doubled and then baked as an 8×8 cake/brownie!
I just made these with 2 bananas, less peanut butter, and used blueberries instead of chic chips. They have cooked perfectly! Thanks for sharing your recipe, I always have to make my own changes just because I love to experiment haha.
I can never just follow a recipe either, trust me :) I just HAVE to change something, or many things…ha! Glad you loved these and the blueberries would be a fun twist!
I find that if I freeze bananas before using them in my smoothies they don’t have a banana flavor. I would think that would be the same case here. Just have to make sure to let the banana come to room temp first Before blending. These were delish as they are anyway but I used a very ripe banana and I would like to not taste the banana next time.
but I used a very ripe banana and I would like to not taste the banana next time. <--- The riper bananas are, the more you taste them. Use a less ripe one next time and it will likely not be as pronounced. However there IS a banana in the recipe and if you're highly sensitive to bananas, you'll probably taste traces, no matter what.
Not sweet at all. I made tyese chocolate muffins this morning. They look amazing, but they are not sweet. Give me a candy bar any day. Double yuck!
Some bananas and some brands of PB are much sweeter than others. If you didn’t find them sweet enough, you can always add sugar! They won’t be as lite but some people have more of a sweet tooth than others. Also the riper the banana, the sweeter it naturally is.
Can you make these without a blender? In a mixer? My blender is quite small and I don’t think the ingredients would fit
Thanks so much!!
You can use a mixer and I’m sure it will be fine.
I tried these yesterday, immediately after I stumbled upon this recipe! They were delicious! I’m sort of addicted to making black-bean brownies, so trying something new was a bit out of my comfort zone, but I’m definitely glad I made this choice! :) Will be telling my friends at work about this one!
Glad they came out great and thanks for telling your friends, too!
is it possible to use the same recipe for regular sized muffins and not mini muffins?
Yes it is; you’ll just need to bake them slightly longer depending on size.