Small Batch Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins with Streusel

To me, these Small Batch Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins with Streusel are THE PERFECT banana muffins! I started messing around with a banana muffin recipe a year ago (!!) and every time I started working on them I didn’t *love* them. Last week I starting futzing around again and was SO excited when I landed on these!

These muffins are light and moist, loaded with banana flavor, lightly dotted with mini chocolate chips (not too many), gently spiced and capped off with the perfectly crunchy streusel lid.

Life doesn’t get any better!

What Makes These Small Batch Banana
Chocolate Chip Muffins So Fabulous, You Ask?

• The banana muffin base is soft, airy and moist
• Aside from a small bowl that you’ll mix the streusel in, you’ll use just one medium bowl to mix up the muffins (so one bowl-ish!) 😉
• They are mixed + baked in 30 minutes — easy peasy!
• Super simple to throw together and they don’t need a mixer
• Recipe includes tips for getting a beautiful puffed crown, including an optional 10 to 20 minute rest time for the batter
• Standard baking ingredients: all-purpose flour, brown sugar, granulated sugar, unsalted butter (less than one stick (113 g)), large egg, 2 ripe bananas, vanilla, nutmeg, cinnamon, fine sea salt, baking powder, baking soda and mini chocolate chips (you can use regular size or omit)

How to Get a Fabulous Muffin Crown

These are my favorite tips for getting a nice muffin crown:

1. Let your muffin batter rest for about 20 minutes. Sometimes I do as little as 10 minutes and other times up to 30 minutes. You can also rest the batter overnight in the fridge (trust me, they’ll bake up fabulous!). However, this particular muffin batter will darken (because of the banana) if it has too much rest time (fyi).
2. Only fill every other muffin well. Filling every other muffin well will let the hot oven air evenly circulate around the muffins giving them as much lift-off as possible from the heat.
3. Don’t use muffin liners. I love muffin liners and I’d rather sacrifice some muffin crown for a convenient, portable muffin with a liner on it. However, I have found that skipping liners yields a highly desirable puffy crown. Just make sure you really grease your muffin tin so they don’t get stuck in there!

Can you ignore all of these tips and still get a beautiful muffin? YES! So if you can’t be bothered, then don’t! The one that I think yields the best results is #1. So if you only do one…

Step-by-Step Instructions for
Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins

Below are step-by-step photos (with captions) to make your Small Batch Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins with Streusel perfect every time! My biggest tips are:

1. Use Ripe Bananas: As I mention in the section below on what bananas to use, look for bananas that are soft (not mushy) to the touch and covered in brown sugar spots (not fully black or brown). These bananas have the best flavor and texture!
2. Let Your Batter Rest: It’s just a short 20 minute rest while your oven preheats. This rest time lets the flour absorb some moisture and results in a puffier crown (LOVE).
3. Don’t Overmix Your Batter: Use a light hand when mixing your muffin batter, mixing the flour and water until *just* combined. This will yield a light, tender crumb.

For the Streusel

For the Banana Muffin Base

Using The Perfect Bananas for Your Muffins

A quick note on the perfect bananas for your muffins!

I don’t love black bananas. I know some recipes suggest that they should be dark brown or black before using for baking and I could not disagree more lol. The flavors go off when they get to that point (and not in a good way).

DH Hot Tip
I recommend using bananas that are sugar spotted. Those brown spots on your bananas are called ‘sugar spots.’ As your bananas ripen and get more of those spots, your bananas get sweeter (love). Thus making them perfect for banana bread, muffins and other baked goods.

When your bananas are speckled with sugar spots and yield to the touch (and are no longer firm), that’s when they are perfect for baking. If they are completely dark (the spots have blended together) and your bananas are mushy, then they are no longer ideal to bake with, in my humble opinion.

To expedite ripening bananas (if yours are green-ish and firm), you can roast them in a 300°F (149°C) oven on a parchment-lined baking sheet for one hour. I’ve tried this before and I loved it. Whilst the bananas will turn black, they don’t have the off flavor that naturally over-ripe bananas have (again, in my humble opinion). See more details here!

If you’ve been using black or dark brown bananas for years and love it, then you do you! This is just my preference from recipe testing! :)

Recipe Q&A

Can I use brown butter instead of melted butter in the muffin batter?

Yes, absolutely, that would be delicious! I would start with 6 tablespoons (84 g) of unsalted butter pre-browning and that should yield the perfect amount of brown butter for the recipe. You can read more about substituting brown butter, as well as brown butter tips, here!

Do I have to rest the muffin batter?

Nope! Resting your muffin batter is another way to get a higher crown. For the photos I rested the muffin batter between 10 and 20 minutes (I did two photo shoots). The longer you rest your batter, the higher the crown. However, if you don’t have the time or cannot be bothered, then bake these straightaway and they will be utterly fabulous!

Can I fill up all of the muffin wells in my muffin tin? Or do I have to leave some empty?

You don’t have to leave any empty! When you leave some of the muffin wells empty it helps the heat circulate around the muffins. This results in a nice, evenly cooked muffin as well as a slightly higher crown (see my notes above on how to achieve that high crown!).

Baking Tools for This Muffin Recipe

My favorite heat-safe, glass, stackable bowls, my favorite whisk, my favorite spoonula, my fav microplane (for fresh nutmeg!), 2 tbsp cookie scoop (because we can’t live without them!), a practical muffin tin (not the one in the photos).

This is everything I use at home when recipe testing and making these muffins! It’s also what you’ll see in the photos and video. If I’ve left anything out, drop a note in the comments and I’ll add it.

More Breakfast Treats!

I absolutely love my Favorite Blueberry Muffins, Cherry Jam Streusel Muffins, Chocolate Espresso Muffins *AND* my Crispy Buttermilk Waffles that have been my go-to since we lived in Beijing. A quick note on these…you can use all-purpose flour for all of the flour if that’s what you have on hand!

What These
Small Batch Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins
with Streusel Taste Like!

I always want your expectations to match the final result of a recipe. You went to all this trouble to make something delicious and I want it to knock your socks off! That is why I’ve started adding this section to my blog posts so you know what you’re getting.

The taste of these banana chocolate chip muffins is like your favorite banana bread, but with a bit of a lighter crumb. They are soft, tender and springy on the inside. I was conservative with the chocolate chips because chocolate can sometimes overpower banana, and I didn’t want to lose all of that delicious banana flavor.

The streusel adds a delicious crunchy lid over the top, that’s a nice contrast to the soft muffin base. They are lightly scented with spices, but it’s not too overpowering.

I hope you love them as much as we do!