Chocolate Cherry Banana Muffins (or Loaf)

Take advantage of the freshest cherries this summer and make these delicious Chocolate Cherry Banana Muffins! Made from scratch, they can also be baked into a loaf cake. They’re great for breakfast or snacks.

It’s the last few days of Cherry season here in Michigan. I’d feel quite sad ordinarily ’cause we are huge Cherry fans, but, thankfully, in this lovely state of ours – one fruit season may end, but others continue. Thankfully, we can still satisfy our summer fruit cravings with blueberries and blackberries, which are currently in full swing and will continue until August.

Before fresh Cherries become so expensive again, I thought I’d better make some more yummy recipes using this juicy and flavorful fruit. Have you tried our Cherry Clafoutis yet?

We love muffins and loaf cakes so why not try cherries in them? I have used this recipe successfully with sweet-tart cranberries, and they were so good, so am sure it would work well with Cherries, too. You can use fresh cherries as I did – can you see how yummy the muffins look with the lovely deep bright red (almost like deep violet) color of the fresh cherries? Sweet or tart cherries work fine but perhaps the latter is better because it would provide a delicious contrast with the sweet bananas and chocolate. Dried Cherries would be great, too!

So before the season is finally over, why not grab a cupful of fresh or dried Cherries and try these delicious muffins or bake it into a loaf cake instead! Enjoy the summer!

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Ingredients for Chocolate Cherry Banana Muffins

  • 2 cups flour
  • 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • 1/2 cup banana, mashed (about 1 1/2 bananas – you can use 2 bananas if you prefer)
  • 2 eggs, (room temp)
  • 1 cup plus 3 Tbsp sugar (I use white)
  • 1 cup plain yogurt
  • 1/4 cup light olive oil or vegetable oil
  • 1 tsp vanilla (optional)
  • 1 cup sweet or tart, fresh or dried Cherries (if using fresh – wash, remove pits and then chop)
  • 3/4 cup chocolate chips or broken pieces of one chocolate Bar (dark preferred!)

How to Make Chocolate Cherry Banana Muffins

Preheat oven to 375 F.

Mix all the dry ingredients (flour, baking powder, salt) in a large bowl. I use a whisk to mix all the ingredients. Set aside.

If you have a food processor, mash or puree the bananas. This is what I do to make it easier to blend the bananas in. If not, you can mash the bananas by hand.

In a mixing bowl of a stand mixer, crack the eggs and beat lightly just until combined. Add in the rest of the wet ingredients (sugar, yogurt, banana, oil, vanilla). Beat in medium speed just until it’s smooth and there are no big banana lumps, roughly 1-2 minutes. If you mash the bananas in the food processor, there’s no need to use an electric mixer. You can mix the wet ingredients by hand, too.

Combine the wet ingredients with the dry mixture until well-blended. Fold in the Cherries and the chocolate chips/pieces.

Divide evenly into a 12-cup muffin pan with liners. Fill each cup until nearly full. This will ensure you have the perfect muffin domes as you can see in the photos. Bake at 375 F for about 18-23 minutes or until a tester comes out clean. 

Leave it to cool a bit in the muffin pan for about 5-7 minutes and then transfer to a rack to cool completely. The muffins may feel soft when you lift them up but don’t worry they will harden as they cool down.

If making a Loaf Cake instead, preheat the oven to 350F. Place the batter in greased loaf tin and then bake for about 50-60 minutes or until a tester comes out clean. Since this is low-fat (doesn’t have much oil), I usually just leave it on the tin placed on a wire rack to cool completely to make sure it doesn’t break apart when I remove it.

NOTES: The muffins come out really tasty and moist even after you have left them standing for a few hours.

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Chocolate Cherry Banana Muffins

Manila Spoon
Take advantage of the freshest cherries this summer and make these delicious Chocolate Cherry Banana Muffins! Made from scratch, they can also be baked into a loaf cake. They’re great for breakfast or for snacks.
No ratings yet
Prep Time 15 minutes
Cook Time 20 minutes
Total Time 35 minutes
Course Breakfast, Snack
Cuisine American
Servings 16
Calories 206 kcal

Ingredients
 

  • 2 cups flour
  • 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • 1/2 cup banana, mashed (about 1 1/2 bananas – you can use 2 bananas if you prefer)
  • 2 eggs, room temp
  • 1 cup plus 3 Tbsp sugar, (I use white sugar)
  • 1 cup plain yogurt
  • 1/4 cup light olive oil or vegetable oil
  • 1 tsp vanilla, optional
  • 1 cup sweet or tart, fresh or dried Cherries (if using fresh – wash, remove pits and then chop)
  • 3/4 cup chocolate chips or broken pieces of one chocolate bar, dark preferred!

Instructions
 

  • Preheat oven to 375 F.
  • In a large bowl, mix all the dry ingredients (flour, baking powder, salt). I use a whisk to mix all the ingredients together. Set aside.
  • If you have a food processor, mash or puree the bananas in it. This is what I do to make it easier to blend the bananas in. If not you can mash the bananas by hand.
  • In a mixing bowl of a stand mixer, crack the eggs and beat lightly just until combined. Add in the rest of the wet ingredients (sugar, yogurt, banana, oil, vanilla). Beat in medium speed just until it's smooth and there are no big banana lumps, roughly 1-2 minutes. If you mash the bananas in the food processor, there's no need to use an electric mixer. You can mix the wet ingredients by hand, as well.
  • Combine the wet ingredients with the dry mixture until well-blended. Fold in the Cherries and the chocolate chips/pieces.
  • Divide evenly into a 12-cup muffin pan with liners. Depending on your pan you may get more than 12. Fill each cup until nearly full. This will ensure you have the perfect muffin domes as you can see in the photos. Bake at 375 F for about 18-23 minutes or until a tester comes out clean.
  • Leave it to cool a bit in the muffin pan for about 5-7 minutes and then transfer to a rack to cool completely. The muffins may feel soft when you lift them up but don’t worry they will harden as they cool down.
  • If making a Loaf Cake instead, preheat the oven to 350F. Place the batter in greased loaf tin and then bake for about 50-60 minutes or until a tester comes out clean. Since this is low-fat (doesn’t have much oil), I usually just leave it on the tin placed on a wire rack to cool completely to make sure it doesn’t break apart when I remove it.

Notes

NOTES: The muffins come out really tasty and moist even after you have left them standing for a few hours.

Nutrition

Calories: 206kcalCarbohydrates: 33gProtein: 4gFat: 7gSaturated Fat: 2gPolyunsaturated Fat: 2gMonounsaturated Fat: 1gTrans Fat: 0.03gCholesterol: 21mgSodium: 127mgPotassium: 85mgFiber: 1gSugar: 20gVitamin A: 46IUVitamin C: 1mgCalcium: 52mgIron: 1mg
Tried this recipe?Let us know how it was!

Last updated on July 18th, 2024 at 10:20 am

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9 Comments

  1. July 26, 2013 / 2:54 am

    Abby!! Love these! Luckily for me I just got a sweet deal on some cherries and we always have bananas so I know what the lovies and I will be baking tomorrow! 🙂 Thanks.

    • July 26, 2013 / 3:18 am

      Thanks, Nicole! My kids devoured these…lol. Hope you love these as much as we do….you can't go wrong with anything that has chocolate, right? 🙂 Thanks for stopping by.

  2. July 26, 2013 / 5:29 am

    These are lovely! The colors pop out! Never tried cherries, I guess I will reconsider buying them to try this!

    • August 8, 2013 / 6:55 am

      They're easy to make so you can make them anytime, Bintu. Thanks for stopping by.

  3. Carla
    August 5, 2013 / 1:17 pm

    Sayang I read this only now. We had fresh cherries last week as pasalubong from a balikbayan relative. Now it's all gone.
    I'll bookmark this for next time. 😉

    • August 8, 2013 / 6:47 am

      Am sure you can make this with dried cherries if you can find them. Thanks for stopping by.

  4. Anonymous
    April 27, 2014 / 10:10 pm

    Can you these with frozen cherries?

    • April 28, 2014 / 8:12 pm

      I haven't tried it but I cannot see why it won't work as I always use frozen blueberries on my muffins, too. Thanks for asking.

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