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These flourless chocolate peanut butter muffins are unbelievably moist and tender and packed with chocolate and peanut butter flavor. You simply won’t believe this gluten-free and even grain-free recipe, made without added butter or oil!
Why this flourless muffin recipe with peanut butter and chocolate works so well
When I first developed this recipe in 2016, I had been failing off and on for years. And then you loved it as much as I do, so I doubled down on flourless baking recipes, like our classic flourless chocolate cake.
At the start, I tried to make flourless chocolate peanut butter muffins without banana. But banana helps add moisture, plus lots of natural sweetness.
- The structure of the muffin comes from the smooth nut butter and eggs. Even the mashed banana helps.
- The moisture and sweetness from the honey and banana.
- The flavor comes from honey, cocoa powder, and peanut butter.
The result is these amazingly moist, tender and even light grain-free flourless peanut butter breakfast muffins.
They taste great, aren’t very sweet, and are still super filling. A staple of the gluten free breakfast rotation in my house.
What makes this grain free chocolate peanut butter muffin recipe the best—even if you don’t like banana
If you compare this flourless recipe to my recipe for flourless chocolate peanut butter breakfast cookies, you’ll find that the real difference is the addition of mashed banana here.
If you really don’t like the taste of bananas, you don’t even taste them. I do like bananas, but I’m still sensitive to the taste because I only want things like our gluten free banana muffins to taste like them.
If you scroll down, though, I do have some suggestions for replacing the mashed banana. And you can always try our recipe for flourless Paleo muffins, which are much more neutral-tasting.
What makes these chocolate peanut butter muffins healthy?
Most grab-and-go breakfast foods aren’t healthy at all. Even if they fill you up for the moment, you’ll probably crash pretty soon after.
These chocolate peanut butter muffins are healthy because they’re made with smooth peanut butter as a base, and much of the sweetness comes from mashed bananas. If you’ve ever been running low on energy and grabbed a spoonful of peanut butter as a snack, these muffins are a more satisfying alternative.
Ingredients and substitutions
As long as you’re using dairy-free miniature chocolate chips (or simply leaving them out of the recipe), these muffins are naturally dairy-free.
Here are some educated guesses about other allergenic ingredients you may have to eliminate. If none of them suits you, don’t forget there are so many other gluten free breakfast ideas here on the blog.
Egg-free
There are 3 eggs in this recipe, as it’s been scaled up to make more generous muffins, which is generally too many eggs to successfully replace in a recipe.
Before you try replacing each egg with a “chia egg” (1 tablespoon ground white chia seeds + 1 tablespoon lukewarm water, mixed and allowed to gel), I recommend scaling the recipe back down to call for only 2 eggs.
The other ingredients would be as follows:
- 1 cup (256 g) peanut butter
- 2 mashed bananas (200 g)
- 2 “chia eggs”
- 4 tablespoons (84 g) honey
- 1/2 cup (40 g) unsweetened cocoa powder
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1 ounce miniature dark chocolate chips (optional)
Follow the remaining recipe instructions as written. The recipe should only make 8 chocolate peanut butter muffins.
Banana-free
I love bananas, but I know not everyone shares my heart here. I really really believe that you cannot taste the bananas in this recipe.
One more pitch for including them: The banana flavor is completely overshadowed by the chocolate and peanut butter flavors.
But if you simply will not bake with mashed bananas, try replacing them with an equal amount, by weight, of unsweetened smooth (jarred) applesauce.
For a different, but similar recipe, try our flourless quinoa chocolate cupcakes recipe instead.
Honey-free
If you’d like to make vegan chocolate peanut butter flourless muffins, you’ll need to make them egg-free (see above) and without honey.
I don’t usually have success replacing honey in baking with pure maple syrup. Syrup is much thinner than honey.
To match honey’s sweetness and viscosity, try Lyle’s Golden Syrup instead. If you can’t find Lyle’s, I think light corn syrup (which is not at all the same as the dreaded high fructose corn syrup) should work, too.
Flourless Chocolate Muffins Recipe
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Ingredients
- 1 ½ cups (384 g) no stir smooth peanut butter
- 3 (300 g) peeled ripe bananas, mashed
- 3 (150 g (weighed out of shell)) eggs, at room temperature, beaten
- 6 tablespoons (126 g) honey
- ¾ cup (60 g) unsweetened cocoa powder, (natural or Dutch processed will work just fine)
- ¾ teaspoon baking soda
- ¼ teaspoon baking powder
- ¼ teaspoon kosher salt
- 1 ½ ounces miniature dark chocolate chips (optional)
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 350°F. Line the wells of a standard 12-cup muffin tin and set it aside.
- In a large bowl, place the peanut butter, bananas, eggs and honey, and beat with a handheld mixer until very well-combined.
- Add the cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder and salt, and mix with a spatula until just combined.
- Beat the mixture again with a handheld mixer until very well-combined. The batter should be thick but soft and as smooth as possible.
- Divide the batter evenly among the prepared wells of the muffin tin, and shake the tin back and forth to distribute the batter in an even layer in each well.
- Sprinkle the optional miniature chocolate chips evenly on top of the batter in each well.
- Place the tin in the center of the preheated oven and bake until the tops of the muffins are puffed and spring back and feel relatively firm when pressed gently in the center (about 25 minutes).
- Remove from the oven and allow to cool for 10 minutes in the tin before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.
- They freeze exceptionally well when placed in a well-sealed freezer-safe container.
- Defrost at room temperature or in the microwave.
Video
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
These muffins are a treat – especially for being flourless, honey sweetened, and dairy free! I made the first batch as written, stored them frozen, and defrosted/warmed in the microwave. I enjoyed them as a treat with some dairy free ice cream and chocolate sauce.
I recently made them as 36 mini muffins and stirred the chocolate chips into the batter, baking for about 15 minutes, and they were a great breakfast. Next up is trying them with no-stir smooth almond butter. Thanks for the recipe!
Another successful bake for an appreciative GF/DF grandson!! I’m really starting to enjoy treating him with baked goods when he comes to help Grandpa and Grandma around the farm. His non-GF brothers and sisters are complementing the baking, too! Thank you, Nicole for making this so much easier for me!
These muffins were superb!! Could hardly believe how quickly they came together with moist and rich tasting results!!
Followed the recipe and the muffins are delicious!
So glad you loved these magical muffins that don’t seem like they’ll turn out but do, Gena!
My husband was amazed! He couldn’t believe it was flourless. Definitely a win!
So glad you enjoyed the muffins, Loree. It is hard to believe. I’m with your husband!
Loved them, served with mixed fruit as dessert for a brunch. Question….could these be made in the mini muffin pans?
So glad you enjoyed them, Glenna! I’ve never tried this recipe as mini muffins, but I think it would work well. You’ll have to reduce the baking time pretty significantly. I’d try baking them at 350°F for maybe 15 minutes, but it may take more or less time than that. I’m afraid you’ll have to experiment!
BETTER AFTER FREEZING. Love by all the chocolate lovers at the birthday celebration
So glad you enjoyed them, Mary, and that they kept so well.
Would flax eggs work?
To see my opinion on an egg-free version, please see the section titled “Egg-free chocolate peanut butter muffins”
I used 2 flax eggs…2T. Flax + 5T. Water. ????
Thank you so much for letting us know, Cynthia. So glad it worked out!
Easy, nutritious and delicious, these have a cake-like taste and texture. I also serve them for dessert. Could the batter be baked in a small cake pan instead of individual muffins?
Hi, Barb, so glad you loved them as much as we do. You described them perfectly! I’m afraid I don’t think this recipe has the proper support to be made as a cake, no. If you’re willing to experiment, it might be worth a try but I don’t expect that it would hold up.
Sounds absolutely delicious. I have some frozen bananas in the freezer I usually use for muffins, will these be alright to use or will they be too wet? I’m so glad I found your web page it’s made my life much easier baking for my husband. Thank you.
Could I use milk chocolate chips instead of dark? My kids are not fan of dark chocolate . Thanks
Of course, Erika! If you can have dairy, you can always use milk chocolate chips—or any other chip you prefer.