Mini food is so poppable. One after the other, down they go.
That darn mini food. But it’s so small that the calories don’t even count. Exactly.
I’m so happy with how these little puffballs turned out. They’re soft, springy, bouncy like little trampolines, and they’re vegan.
Sometimes vegan baked goods, especially muffins or cakes, are terribly dense. Lead balloons come to mind. When removing eggs, it’s easy to also remove lightness and fluffiness. However, no eggs here, and they’re as soft and fluffy as any traditional muffin.
Making them is literally a 5 minute job and because they’re mini, they bake very fast. You’re looking at 15 minutes from start to finish. Gotta love speedy muffins and recipes that don’t dirty every dish in your kitchen.
They freeze beautifully so you might want to make a double batch and freeze half for snacks and grab-and-go breakfasts.
The whisk-together batter comes together so quickly and easily in one bowl. No mixer, no hassle. It’s a great vegan ‘master batter’ and you can adapt it by switching up the chocolate chips for diced dried fruit or nuts. Glaze them or brush them with (vegan) melted butter and dip them in cinnamon-sugar like these.
To make the batter, simply mash one banana, then add sugar, coconut oil, almond milk, vanilla, and cinnamon before stirring in the dry ingredients and the mini chocolate chips.
The banana behaves like an egg to both fluff the batter and bind the ingredients, while keeping the muffins light and fluffy.
The muffins don’t taste like banana. I couldn’t taste it at all, and I was looking for it. I used a fairly non-ripe banana. Pale yellow, and no black freckles. The riper bananas get, the sweeter they become, and also the more distinctively banana-ey they are, and it’s harder to mask. Many people only bake with very ripe bananas, but in recipes that I don’t want to taste overly banana-ey, I’ll use under to averagely-ripe bananas.
I used coconut oil as the fat source and I’m no stranger to using it in muffins, cakes, bread, cookies and more. I love baking with it, and replace it 1:1 with butter or other oil. While I usually say that you can’t taste it, you definitely can taste it here. There’s no strong spices, pumpkin puree, or anything else to make the flavor, and it’s noticeable.
For anyone who likes coconut oil, you’ll love these. It gently perfumes the muffins and adds a faintly sweet under-current of tropical flavor. It’s not overwhelming and I love it, but in full disclosure, you can taste it. If you absolutely don’t want to use coconut oil, I’m sure that you could sub with vegetable or canola oil.
I used Nutiva Coconut Oil from iHerb.com. Code AVE630 at checkout saves you $10 off your order. I love iHerb for everything like probiotics, bulk cinnamon, pumpkin pie spice, liquid vanilla stevia drops, bulk white stevia powder, medicinal fancy-grade honey, chia seeds, face cleanser, and nutritional yeast.
I used mini chocolate chips because full-size chocolate chips could overwhelm these little one-bite wonders. If all you have is regular chips, run a knife over them and give them a coarse chop so the big chips don’t sink to the bottom of the mini pans.
I used two Non-Stick Mini Muffin Pans. I filled the cavities to 3/4 full. It’s a little tricky filling mini muffin pans because small amounts of batter can dramatically alter results. Underfilling and the already small muffins become a skimpy joke, while overfilling can cause mushroom top where the tops bake together on top of the pan and your muffins look like conjoined mushrooms. Admit it, you’ve done it. Just do your best here.
If you’re baking in a full size pan, you’ll need to extend the baking time by a few minutes and bake until they’re done, whatever that means in your oven and your chosen pan.
Before baking I sprinkled all the tops with chocolate chips because I wanted the visual pop of chocolate. We eat first with our eyes and my eyes liked seeing all those glistening mini chips on top of the fluffy muffins.
They’re ridiculously moist, springy, tender, delicate and light, without being airy, and as good as any traditional muffin with eggs and butter. They’re sweet, satisfying, and with the undercurrent of coconut oil flavor, I couldn’t resist them.
24 mini muffins did not even last 24 hours.
Pin This Recipe
Enjoy AverieCooks.com Without Ads! 🆕
Go Ad Free
Vegan Mini-Chocolate Chip Mini-Muffins
Ingredients
- ½ cup mashed ripe banana, about 1 large
- ¾ cup granulated sugar
- ½ cup unsweetened vanilla almond milk, other milks may be substituted including coconut, soy, rice, cow, at room temperature
- ⅓ cup coconut oil
- 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- 1 cup all-purpose flour
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- pinch salt, optional and to taste
- ½ cup mini-chocolate chips, plus more for sprinkling tops
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 400F. Spray two 12-count Non-Stick Mini Muffin Pans very well with floured cooking spray or grease and flour the pans; set aside. (I don’t prefer the cosmetic look of muffin liners and I am not sure if the paper will stick to the muffins). Alternatively, the recipe can be made as regular-sized muffins; use a Non-Stick 12-Cup Regular Muffin Pan
- In a large bowl, mash the banana with a fork.
- Add the sugar, milk (room temp milk will prevent coconut oil from re-solidifying; if it does anyway, some small clumps are okay), oil, vanilla, cinnamon, and whisk until combined.
- Add the flour, baking powder, optional salt, and stir until just combined; don’t overmix.
- Fold in 1/2 cup chocolate chips.
- Divide batter equally among the cavities of the prepared pans using approximately one rounded or heaping tablespoon of batter for each muffin. Each cavity will be about 3/4 full. Spraying a medium cookie scoop, with cooking spray so the batter slides right off is handy here.
- Optionally, add a pinch of chocolate chips to each muffin top.
- Bake for about 10 to 12 minutes, or until tops are domed, puffed, and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, or with a few moist crumbs dangling but no batter. I baked for 11 minutes, but because pan sizes, climates, and ovens vary, bake until done; watch your muffins and not the clock. If you’re baking as regular-sized muffins, my guess is about 15 to 20 minutes.
- Allow muffins to cool in pan for about 10 to 15 minutes before removing and placing on a rack to cool completely. Muffins will keep airtight at room temperature for up to 5 days, or in the freezer for up to 6 months.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
©averiecooks.com. Content and photographs are copyright protected. Sharing of this recipe is both encouraged and appreciated. Copying and/or pasting full recipes to any social media is strictly prohibited.
Related Recipes:
Fluffy Vegan Coconut Oil Banana Muffins and Mini Muffins
Flourless Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Mini Blender Muffins – Gluten-free, grain-free, soy-free, dairy-free, oil-free, refined sugar-free, and under 100 calories each
Vegan Chunky Apple Cinnamon Muffins
The Best Vegan Blueberry Muffins – My favorite recipe for blueberry muffins, vegan or otherwise
Banana Yogurt Muffins and Little Banana Loaf – Greek yogurt and bananas keep the dozen muffins and little loaf so soft and fluffy
Peanut Butter and Jelly Muffins
Soft Baked Mini Cream Cheese Puffs – Only 4 ingredients. Like 15-minute dinner rolls or biscuits, minus kneading, rolling, cutting out, or hassle
Pineapple Coconut Oil Banana Bread – Like eating a tropical vacation. Soft, moist, tender, and so flavorful
30+ Favorite Banana Bread and Banana Recipes – If you need banana recipe inspiration, these may help
30+ of my favorite Coconut and Coconut Oil Recipes here
Thanks for the entries in the $100 Gift Card Giveaway and in the West Elm $50 Gift Card Giveaway
What’s your favorite muffin recipe?
I just wanna carry a little baggy full of these wherever I go!
You have the best “master” batters and cookie doughs! :D These mini muffins make me want to curl up with a book and forget about all the baking that needs to be done by tomorrow. Beautiful!
Thanks, Val! I love when I (finally) get to the place that I have one great master batter. Makes life so much easier to not reinvent the wheel, each and every recipe!
These are adorable! My four year old is going to love these!
Hi Averie! I’ve been following your blog for a couple months, and absolutely love all your recipes. I have a question: my family loves, and i mean LOVES, your vegan banana mini muffins. Like, they can eat 10 at a time (its actually insane because they don’t even have that big of a sweet tooth!) Anyway, I was comparing this recipe to those muffins and I was just wondering how they differed from the banana ones? Is there a different texture, or are they basically interchangeable? Thank you!
The recipe is the same concept overall but this recipe is a slightly smaller batch. In terms of taste, I don’t know why but I couldn’t taste any banana in this version (it uses less than the other) and I could taste the coconut oil, whereas in the other it’s fainter to me. Probably b/c overall there’s a slightly higher ratio of it. In terms of texture, I would say these are even lighter, softer, fluffier, springier. They’re even closer to real muffins with a delicate crumb and just so soft and bouncey. If you love the other recipe, I know you will love this version, and probably more – I do :) LMK if you try it!
I want to be your neighbor, that way I can come over for breakfast every single day. :)
I wish I could donate my entire pantry and freezer to you or anyone who wants it. You had better find a donation setup given your 2014. I can’t even give stuff to my daughter’s school that much (so strict about sugar, PB, nuts, etc.) and lots of ladies are know are yoga/healthnuts so they don’t want it all…I seriously give it to anyone I can!
These are the cutest mini muffins, and irresistibly poppable!
Chocolate chip muffins totally remind me of my childhood. And these are so cute! The only problem is that I’d probably eat the whole dang batch!
As you know, I am the queen of mini treats – cookies, muffins, and donuts – all get made in mini, ie. bite-szed form. Then I can eat three (or eight, whatever) and no guilt.
These are adorable and perfect for the recipe box when you’re baking for someone with diary/egg allergies or a vegan lifestyle. No need to sacrifice flavor!
These muffins sound totally perfect!! LOVE!
Great job Averie! Those look sooo yummy, perfect treat for this time of year :)
These look so so perfect, I can’t resist mini :)
I totally just did a very ridiculous happy-dance in my office chair; I already have all the ingredients to make these in my pantry! These are so getting baked tonight— and I don’t even have to brave the freezing weather! YES!
Mini, chocolate chip muffins remind me of childhood. They used to sell little bags of four or five muffins in my school cafeteria’s breakfast line. Those were super processed and, most likely, contained a whole slew of artificial flavors and chemicals… so this rocks. I can be nostalgic, and nurture my body. YAY!
I don’t know if you can tell quite how excited I am. ;)
LMK how they turn out!
Gorgeous little muffins. I love how they are so easy to throw together and I can definitely tell from the photos that they are not dense at all! My favourite muffins are always chocolate chocolate chip – pinned!
thanks for pinning and super light and fluffy – yes!
My hubby says mini muffins = mini sin ;) looks delicious as always.
mini muffins = mini sin <--- good one!
These look great, Averie! The only problem with mini muffins is you eat far too many- i’m sure I would do the same with these!
I can totally relate :)