Quick Blender Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins {Gluten-Free}
These quick and delicious banana chocolate chip muffins are gluten-free AND the batter is made in the blender. Sweet!
If you are the type that can’t imagine life without muffins, then you might want to take today’s post very seriously.
Light and fluffy, these quick blender muffins are healthy enough for breakfast but tasty enough to easily enjoy the other 23 1/2 hours of the day. A perfect little snitch of chocolate chip banana bread – just a bit healthier and non-loafed.

I’ve seen blender muffin recipes like this one floating around the internet for a while but was a leeetle bit hesitant to try them. I mean, after all, I just did a tutorial on how overmixing muffin batter is cruel and unkind to muffins everywhere.
I wasn’t sure a blended muffin batter (talk about overmixing on steroids) could really work.
But somehow these do. Please don’t take this as an endorsement to blend the batter for every muffin recipe ever, ever. Let’s not go that far.
This muffin recipe is special because there isn’t any flour – the base of the muffin batter is made up of bananas, oats, eggs and sour cream (or yogurt). Perhaps the non-flour aspect means you can blend the guts out of it.
Future science fair project methinks?
Either way, these muffins are quick and simple and pretty darn tasty.
One Year Ago: Foolproof No-Stir Homemade Caramels {With Step-by-Step Tutorial}
Two Years Ago: Loaded Broccoli Cheese and Bacon Soup
Three Years Ago: Caramel Apple Bundt Cake
Quick Blender Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins {Gluten-Free}
Ingredients
- 2 medium-size (about 226 g) ripe bananas, lightly mashed (about 1 cup)
- ½ cup (113 g) sour cream or Greek yogurt
- 2 large eggs
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- ⅓ cup (71 g) granulated sugar (can substitute honey)
- 2 ¼ cups (225 g) old-fashioned rolled oats (see note)
- 1 ½ teaspoons baking powder
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- ½ cup (85 g) semisweet chocolate chips + more for sprinkling
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line a 12-cup standard muffin tin with paper liners and lightly coat the liners with nonstick cooking spray (or omit the liners and grease the muffin tin).
- Add the bananas, sour cream, eggs, vanilla, sugar, oats, baking powder, baking soda and salt to a blender or food processor (a blender will get the mixture slightly smoother). Process until well-blended.
- Stir in the 1/2 cup of chocolate chips to the batter with a spoon or spatula.
- Pour the batter evenly into the muffin cups; the tins will be fairly full. If you want a pop of chocolate on top, sprinkle a few chocolate chips on each muffin.
- Bake for 15-18 minutes until the muffins spring back to the touch and are baked through.
Notes
Recommended Products
Recipe Source: very slightly adapted from my friend Nicole at Gluten Free on a Shoestring
Hi Mel! I just wanted to extend a huge thank you to you for posting this recipe! I made it twice, and the second time around, it tasted the best! The first time, I substituted the greek yogurt for apple sauce- but the muffins didn’t come out very soft. I tried making these muffins again yesterday, this time adding in homemade almond milk, butter, and apple sauce [I didn’t have greek Yogurt], and the recipe came out super gooey soft! They are SO good! I bought the latest Vitamix model [the Ascent series 3500] about a month ago, and have been excited to use it to make dessert mixes- and this recipe was the first one I tried in the blender! It was certainly a worthy first time choice! This is quickly going to become a dessert staple in my household! Have a wonderful day, and God bless! <3 Aysar
Thank you! Glad you loved this recipe. 🙂
Thanks for this recipe, Mel! My kids and I love muffins but my husband- not so much. He tried these hot out of the oven and actually liked them and said these would be the one kind of muffins he will eat.
Any suggestions of what to substitute for the yogurt? Would like to make them dairy free.
I don’t really know, Laura – I haven’t tried them dairy free. Sorry! Maybe an extra banana is a good place to start?
Hey Laura! I typically am dairy free as well [thought not for this particular recipe, I wasn’t!] However, there are coconut milk yogurts out there, and can be found at most health food markets, such as Whole Foods, etc. For this recipe, I used apple sauce, but I did also use butter and almond milk. For your situation, I would recommend using homemade almond or coconut milk, apple sauce, and coconut milk yogurt- look for the brand called SoDelicious- they make dairy free milks and yogurts! Wishing you the best, and happy baking! <3 Aysar
Great, fast breakfast. I decided to switch it up a little today and replaced the chocolate chips with about 1/3 C of nutella. I blended it into the mix in the blender and they turned out great! My kids and husband loved them. Thanks Mel for being resonsible for so many of our meals! We never go wrong when it comes from Mel. I was just so sad that I missed seeing you at BYU this last week- I saw your post the next morning and so wished I had been able to come. You are amazing!
Thank you so much for this recipe! My toddler was recently diagnosed with gluten intolerance and bread is her favorite… these have made her very happy thank you thank you!
Hi Mel, I tried making these muffins the taste was great but the texture was off… They were super spongey
I used Greek yogurt instead of sour cream, everything else used in the recipe was the same. Do you know what could have caused this?
Hmmm, it sounds to me like it was too much banana. Were your bananas on the large side?
I love this recipe and make it all the time! I have a lot of zucchini from my garden. Do you think I could substitute zucchini for the banana?Or part of it?
Hi Kin – probably but I haven’t tried it myself to tell you exactly how much. Here’s a recipe I posted a week or so ago using zucchini in muffins: http://www.melskitchencafe.com/chocolate-chip-zucchini-muffins/
I made them with quick oats, and they seemed fine. My Oster 6-cup blender had some difficulty mixing all the ingredients, so I had to do lots of scraping and I might put the oats in by themselves next time for a little bit and/or try my food processor. They were a little dense, but pretty tasty.
Made these muffins today and the kids loved them! Read my full recipe review over at http://www.trinamichellehouse.com
I modified it a bit but tasty and easy.
I have been making a very similar recipe for years and it is the family favorite. The oats make them so filling.
2.5 cups oats
1 cup plain greek yogurt
2 eggs
1/3 cup honey
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
2 TBSP gr. flax seed
1 tsp vanilla
2 ripe bananas
optional: chocolate chips, walnuts, pecans (I like to add all of them)
These were unbelievably easy and delicious. You have no idea what this means for my family! My daughter is gluten-intolerant and we live in a place where gluten free ingredients are hard to find and incredibly expensive. What is more as a full-time working mom I never have time to plough through difficult recipes – this is the easiest muffin I’ve ever made and maybe also the heartiest. We are in heaven! Thank you Mel!
It is interesting that it’s better to keep bananas at room temperature in the kitchen than in the fridge. In the fridge they are quickly becoming darker.
Riper bananas are sweeter and great for cakes, cookies, desserts and are often cheaper. If you want to make banana smoothie you can add lemon juice, it will be still tasty and bright coloured as banana won’t darken so quickly.
Made these one day when I happened to have some riper bananas to use up. (I don’t typically have riper bananas because my husband and kids eat them so fast.) Anyway they were fabulous and so after that I tried to buy extra bananas to have some for these but my husband would always polish them off. Then in end of December the Target here had bananas for 5 cents each – so for a $1.60 I got 32 bananas!!! I made 3 batches of muffins and froze them and then froze several 1 cup portions of bananas to make more later. It’s a good thing because I made a batch this morning and have had them for breakfast, snack and lunch. The even better thing is that my kids don’t really like them (for SHAME!!!) so all the more for me! Anyway long story to say thanks for the great recipe!!
Yum! Just made these and they were the perfect Sunday afternoon snack for us! I used mini chocolate chips and baked them in a mini muffin tin for about 10 min. I don’t have a super powerful blender, so next time I think I’ll blend the oats to powder first. Thanks always for your awesome recipes!
I have some frozen bananas and wonder if the results would be the same since they seem more mushy than ones left on the counter? I’m going to try it and see, but please let me know if you have done this before. Looks like a great recipe..
Heather
I haven’t tried it with frozen bananas – good luck!
I have tried it with frozen bananas and it works perfectly fine! I also used quick oats and couldn’t tell a difference.
I had low expectations because the texture of gluten-free stuff isn’t usually very good, but these were surprisingly good. Not anyyhing fancy, but some of the best gluten-free muffins I’ve had. They’re tasty and super fast to make. I’ll make them again when I need muffins in a hurry or when I have over ripe bananas hanging around. I made some with pecans and we especially liked those. Thanks for a great GF recipe!
These muffins are delish!…thank you
These are so yummy! Just made them. Thanks!
I just made a pumpkin version of these this morning. So yummy! I topped with pumpkin seeds and coarse sugar instead of chocolate chips. Thank you for continually changing my life with your recipes 🙂
Yum, Danielle!
How much pumpkin did you use?
these are great. super easy, and small number of ingredients. I love that its just bananas, oats, and greek yogert, I used even a little less sugar than called for and also subbed walnuts instead of choc chips. Healthy little breakfast!
I finally made these today and they were delicious. Somehow I only got 10 muffins. Guess I overfilled, but they were nicely mounded and very moist. I did have some trouble using my Waring Pro blender (has a high and a low speed). It was packed full and I had to scrape and incorporate the batter in a lot with a spatula. I was worried that it wasn’t really smooth since my blender must not be strong enough, but they were fabulous.
These were good! I’m not usually a banana person. (I like them fresh, on their own. That’s about it.) Even though I dropped the pan upside down when I pulled them out of the oven, resulting in many smooshed muffins and lost chocolate chips (oh, the humanity!) they still were delicious! definitely making these again and freezing for quick breakfasts.
I made these yesterday, and only have 2 left. These are really, really good. I used my Vitamix to blend them, but was unsure how much to mix, so did it until they were smooth. Was that too much?? They took 25 minutes vs the max 18 to bake. Would that because I mixed too long? I used sour cream, because my yogurt was 0 fat. I really wanted to use ripe banana’s, but couldn’t wait that long, and I think they still came out pretty tasty. I’d like to try using brown sugar vs the white next time…..I hope it works. These really are super tasty. Can’t wait to make them again.
Thanks Mel….
I don’t think the baking time would be changed because of how long they were mixed – my guess is that it might just be a difference in oven type/temperature. Glad you liked them!
Thanks Mel. I’ve since made another batch and we just can’t stop eating them. Getting the cupcake papers off them is a little tricky, so next batch goes right into a greased tin. Hopefully they come out nice and easy.
I made these muffins today for an after school snack and my kids give them 2 big thumbs up! I love the oatmeal blender muffin recipes–and this is by far my favorite one. Thanks!
Just made these. Excellent! I added a handful of chopped pecans. I didn’t have chocolate chips so I chopped up a dark chocolate with sea salt bar. Delish. A “make again” for sure.
These look yummy! I’m curious if there is a reason your recipe calls for granulated sugar and not brown sugar. Are the two sugars interchangeable when making muffins? I was fascinated when you posted the science behind different amounts/types of sugar when making chocolate chip cookies and wonder if the same principle applies here?
Brown sugar and white sugar aren’t always interchangeable (they’ll give different results in cookies, particularly) but for this recipe it seems they do well subbed for each other since the muffins turn out great with granulated or honey (and the original recipe with apparently good results uses brown sugar). I, too, like the science behind cooking – in this case, I don’t think it really matters. 🙂
Just made these with non-fat greek yogurt and they were fantastic. In this season of sugar overload, thank you for a great snack I can give my kids without feeling bad. Who needs to feel bad about snacks? Not me. Not when I use your recipes. Just love you, Mel!
I second Lenn. I also made them with fat-free Greek yogurt (it’s what we had in the fridge), and they were wonderful. I made them as written except for using mini chips (again, what we had on hand). They make a fantastic snack with just a hint of sweetness. High-five on this one!
I agree! No guilt in snacking! So glad you loved these. 🙂
Lily beat me about how gluten affects quick breads vs yeast breads, but I have a question for you (or any other American). How can oats NOT be gluten free?? Being in Australia, I’ve never come across any oats packaged as containing gluten. And that’s because oats do not contain any gluten! None! What is being added to these poor oats? 😉 The only grain that creates gluten is wheat, so I’m a bit perplexed by this. Help a poor Aussie out!
Oh, and don’t be fooled by some packaging that scream gluten free; many items naturally free of gluten are advertised this way. I once saw an egg carton that said gluten free. When queried, I was told the chickens were fed a gluten free diet!! LOL!!
Hi Laura – it’s more an issue of cross-contamination. Many of the oats processed here are done so in facilities that also process wheat, barley and rye. So you have to look for oats that come from gluten-free facilities. 🙂
Mel you hit the nail right on the head! It’s cross-contamination in both the processing and in the fields, if they’re not certified gluten free oats. And, Laura, I hope you’ll spread the word in Australia as so many of my Australian readers get very upset whenever I post a gluten free recipe containing gluten free oats, as they say there’s no such thing as gluten free oats (which, of course, isn’t accurate).
xo Nicole (Gluten Free on a Shoestring)
Thanks Mel & Nicole! We have that here as well but all that is required is a note under the ingredient list saying ‘This product has been processed in a plant that also processes wheat products/peanuts/tree nuts, etc’ depending on the allergen. Much easier but it does require the buyer to actually look at the ingredient list-not a bad thing IMHO!!
Nicole, it’s odd that in this day & age some people still don’t realize that gluten comes from wheat & ONLY wheat! Perhaps your Aussies are are referring to the fact that you can’t buy something packaged as ‘gluten free oats’ here? Old fashioned oats are call rolled oats & steel cut oats have just barely started to be seen on grocery shelves. If we could only get tinned pumpkin here, my life would be complete! 🙂
Had a few overripe bananas hanging out on my counter, so I made this recipe this morning. Easy and delicious! Only thing that I did differently was toss the chocolate chips in a little AP flour to prevent them from sinking to the bottom of the muffin. Thank you for yet another great recipe 🙂
I made these today with my little boys using fat-free yogurt I strained for an hour. (that’s what I had on hand)They turned out great! I think I will try and double the recipe next time because 12 muffins sure goes fast 🙂
these are incredibly delicious. I was kind of surprised by just how yummy these are!
run to the kitchen, & make these~
I’ve seen quite a few recipes for blender muffins but have never tried them before! I’m going to have to finally make these because they look amazing!
Paige
http://thehappyflammily.com
Oh yeah!! This would be a great and easy recipe to experiment with kids. As far as I know, and just had to google to be sure, gluten is formed by mixing water with flour. Too much mixing can cause too much gluten formation. In muffin batter, the exterior proteins bake first, and too much gluten causes the interior of the muffin to continue expanding which creates tunnels on the inside the muffin and a tough texture. Love how easy this will be to use up ripe bananas, too!
Ah, thanks!
These sound great! I wonder if there is a substitute for the eggs? Unfortunately, my daughter is allergic 🙁
Do these freeze well?
Yes!
Mel, these were a family winner this morning! Perfect sweetness and oatmeal texture and probably great made ahead and frozen. (I subbed a half cup homemade kefir for the dairy without any other adjustments.)
The perfect post for me today! Trying to pick a healthy, after school snack and I’m out of flour…how perfect! Wondering about subbing the banana for pumpkin??? What do you think, would it work?
I haven’t tried it Sarah but I think you could definitely experiment. Usually pumpkin subs in quite well for baked goods like these muffins.
Just made these using quick oats and they turned out great! I can’t wait for the kids to come home & try them! 🙂
I’ve made something similar and they were great. I’m excited to try this version. I suspect that you can’t really overblend flourless muffins (within reason) because I *think* it’s the gluten forming when flour mixes with liquid that toughens baked goods. I could be wrong about that. Thanks for the recipe!
Thanks for the recipe, looks tasty! How do you know you can use honey instead of sugar and get the same texture though? Thanks!
Hi Sally – because I’ve made them that way and it works great. 🙂
These look SO yummy! Love that they’re easy to whip up in a blender! 🙂
Dani | http://www.styledvariety.com
They do look yummy. I need to try these for a couple people that eat GF. I would have to omit the choc. chips and maybe add nuts.
How much honey would you need to substitute for the sugar? Thanks!
Same amount, Christina (but add more if you like muffins a bit sweeter – these are just lightly sweet).
Love these muffins, Mel! So glad you tried them and loved them, too.
I know you often use light sour cream. Have you tried the light in this recipe or does it need the full-fat version? I also wonder about fat free yogurt vs. maybe a 1% or 2% yogurt.
Hi Teresa – I haven’t made these with light sour cream but I bet it would work great (not sure I’d go with fat free yogurt, though – probably stick with what you suggested, maybe 1% or so).
These look yummy, Mel! I love that they aren’t excessively sweet!
Yay! I’ve been searching for easy recipes I can make from my hotel suite and these sound perfect. Fast, so I’m not wasting vacation time, and yummy so we will all eat them. Thanks
It is very interesting how cooking methods have evolved these days. I am always so reluctant to try a new method so thank you so much for your bravery in doing so. 🙂 Muffins are our Saturday morning staple and I love the word healthy associated with a recipe.
These look delicious! I just made a double batch of your buttermilk banana bread in muffin-form, so as soon as my family devours those (which won’t be long!),
These are next in the list! Can’t wait to try!