My well-loved Banana Muffin recipe makes incredibly soft, moist muffins with tall, bakery-style tops, sweet banana flavor, and an optional streusel topping. Recipe includes a how-to video!
Your New Favorite Breakfast Muffin
Today I’m re-sharing one of my favorite muffin recipes on the blog, and apparently, it’s one of your favorites too! With nearly 500 five-star ratings, this banana muffin recipe is so well-loved–and for good reason. These aren’t bland, boring, or basic banana muffins; they’re fluffy, moist, and loaded with banana flavor! And if that’s not enough, I recommend topping them with a crumbly, buttery streusel topping…yum.
It took a lot of tries and tweaks to get this recipe just perfect, but it was well worth the trial and error. This recipe makes the softest, most flavorful banana muffin I’ve ever tasted–with or without the streusel on top–and I’m so proud to share it with you!
What Makes My Banana Muffin Recipe the BEST:
- It produces big, beautiful muffin tops, thanks to a nifty oven trick.
- They truly taste like banana muffins, not banana bread in muffin form.
- No mixer needed–these come together easily by hand!
- They take just 30 minutes from start to finish.
What You Need
I found I needed several key ingredients for super flavorful banana muffins:
- Three ripe bananas. Ripe bananas mash easier and impart a stronger banana flavor, so save this recipe for those dark brown bananas lingering at the bottom of your fruit basket (unlike the ones pictured above!).
- Butter and oil. We’re using a blend of both for the best flavored and textured banana muffin (same reason I use a blend of the two in my vanilla cake!). Stick with a neutral oil like canola, vegetable, or grapeseed, and make sure your butter is unsalted.
- Sugar. Using some brown sugar gives the muffins a rich flavor that granulated alone wouldn’t provide.
- Buttermilk. This keeps the muffins nice and moist. If you’re low on buttermilk, give my easy buttermilk substitute a try!
SAM’S TIP: Overmixing your batter can lead to muffins that are too tough and dense. To avoid this, I strongly recommend stirring your banana muffin batter completely by hand. Luckily, we’re using melted butter in this recipe, so mixing by hand is a breeze!
Remember, this is just an overview of the ingredients I used and why. For the full recipe please scroll down to the bottom of the post!
How to Make Banana Muffins
- Mash your bananas, then add the oil and melted butter.
- Stir in the sugar, then add the eggs, vanilla, and buttermilk.
- Combine your dry ingredients in a separate bowl, then gently fold them into the wet ingredients.
- Portion the batter into a paper-lined muffin tin, filling each liner is ¾ of the way full.
- Prepare your streusel, if using, and portion over each muffin.
- Bake your muffins for 8 minutes, then reduce the temperature and bake for another 7-8 minutes until done.
SAM’S TIP: While I personally love and recommend the streusel topping, I know not everyone wants the extra sugar or dishes. As you can see, the “naked” banana muffin pictured below baked up beautifully with an even tidier, higher muffin top. So feel free to skip it!
Frequently Asked Questions
Yes, although I do have a separate banana nut muffin recipe you might want to try (it uses browned butter too 🤤). You can add between 1-1½ cups of add-ins (chocolate chips work well!) to this banana muffin recipe. I recommend adding them when you’re almost done incorporating the dry ingredients.
Yes! To do this, you’ll follow the same instructions I provide for my bakery-style chocolate chip muffins:
Bake at 425F for 8 minutes, then reduce the oven to 350F (don’t open the door!) and continue baking until the muffins begin to turn golden brown. This can take anywhere from 7-15 minutes, so keep an eye on them!
This banana muffin recipe freezes very well! In fact, I did this in preparation for Luke’s arrival so I always had a quick breakfast handy during his newborn phase.
If you want want to freeze yours, allow them to cool completely, wrap individually in plastic wrap, place in a Ziploc bag, and freeze. To thaw, either set your muffins out at room temperature or microwave them (just use the defrost setting or they’ll become hard).
So, do you agree? Is this the BEST banana muffin recipe? Let me know in the comments!
Enjoy!
Let’s bake together! I’ll be walking you through all the steps in my written recipe and video below! If you try this recipe, be sure to tag me on Instagram, and you can also find me on YouTube and Facebook
The Best Banana Muffin Recipe
Ingredients
- 1 ½ cups (385 g) well-mashed ripe bananas This is typically 3 large bananas for me
- ¼ cup (60 ml) canola oil (may substitute vegetable or avocado oil)
- ¼ cup (60 g) unsalted butter melted and cooled at least 5 minutes
- ½ cup (100 g) sugar
- ½ cup (100 g) light brown sugar tightly packed
- 2 large eggs room temperature preferred
- ¼ cup (60 ml) buttermilk room temperature preferred
- 1 Tablespoon vanilla extract
- 2 cups (250 g) all-purpose flour
- 1 ½ teaspoons baking powder
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- ½ teaspoon salt
Streusel (optional)
- ½ cup (65 g) all-purpose flour
- ½ cup (100 g) brown sugar
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- ¼ cup (60 g) unsalted butter, cold
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 425F (220C) and line a muffin tin with paper liners*
- Place peeled bananas in a large bowl and use a fork or a potato masher to mash them – bananas should be well-mashed.1 ½ cups (385 g) well-mashed ripe bananas
- Add oil and melted butter and stir well.¼ cup (60 ml) canola oil, ¼ cup (60 g) unsalted butter
- Stir in sugars until well-combined.½ cup (100 g) sugar, ½ cup (100 g) light brown sugar
- Add eggs, buttermilk, and vanilla extract and stir well. Set aside.2 large eggs, 1 Tablespoon vanilla extract, ¼ cup (60 ml) buttermilk
- In a separate bowl, whisk together your dry ingredients — flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.2 cups (250 g) all-purpose flour, 1 ½ teaspoons baking powder, ½ teaspoon baking soda, ½ teaspoon salt
- Add dry ingredients to your wet batter and gently fold in until ingredients are just combined (don't over-mix the batter!).
- Portion batter into prepared muffin tin, filling each liner ¾ of the way full. Set aside and prepare your Streusel topping.
Streusel Topping (optional)
- Combine flour, brown sugar, and salt in a medium-sized bowl and use a fork to stir the ingredients together.½ cup (65 g) all-purpose flour, ½ cup (100 g) brown sugar, ¼ teaspoon salt
- Using a pastry cutter, cut in your cold butter until the butter is well-worked in and your mixture resembles coarse crumbs.¼ cup (60 g) unsalted butter, cold
- Sprinkle streusel topping evenly over each muffin.
- Bake muffins on 425F (218C) for 8 minutes and then reduce the oven temperature to 350 (175C) (do not open the oven door or remove the muffins, just leave them in and reduce the temperature) and bake another 7-8 minutes on 350F (177C). A toothpick inserted in the center of the largest muffin should come out clean or with few moist crumbs (no wet batter) to test for doneness.
- Allow muffins to cool before enjoying.
Notes
Nutrition
Nutritional information is based on third-party calculations and should be considered an estimate only. Actual nutritional content will vary based upon brands used, measuring methods, cooking method, portion sizes, and more.
This recipe was originally published 01/05/2018. Updated with more information and better photos 10/17/2019.
Ashley
These muffins are amazing!! I’ve made them so many times and my family loves them! I like to add 1/2 teaspoon of cinnamon to the batter, and sometimes I throw in some caramel bits!
shamiroon
I made these muffins and they we amazing
thank you so much for all your wonderful recipes
Chloe
These are so good!!!
Nanciejeanne
These are really good (and I don’t even particularly love bananas, just had some to use up!) I didn’t make any changes (I did use the vinegar to make “buttermilk” link.) I ended up doubling this as I had 6 bananas and ended up with 41 muffins. I used Nordic wear pans and they are maybe a little shallow. it was fine and they looked and tastes beautiful and baked at the same time and temp (mine took maybe 30 seconds longer as it is cold outside and I’m sure the ambient temp of my batter was lower than on a warm day.) It did seem to use a lot of vanilla, especially in a double batch (2 Tablespoons!) which I don’t know if I needed (since bananas are so flavorful) but I didn’t change it, though I may try slightly next time to see if it matters. My daughter took these to work and everyone wanted the recipe! thanks so much for an easy, but good recipe especially if you have a bunch of too-ripe-to-eat-but-not-garbage bananas you want to use up!
Cynthia Christian
I tried your recipe using King Arthur 1-1 gluten free baking flour and they came out beautifully! I used your browned butter suggestion and added pecans, toasted coconut and ground old-fashioned oatmeal as my mix-ins. I also added 2 tsp. of my favorite spice mixture. They froze and defrosted well and stayed moist. They were so delicious! Thanks for the recipe! 😋
Elizabeth
Hi!
Should I do anything differently if I’m using a jumbo muffin tin?
Thanks!!
(Love all your stuff <3 )
Sam
Hi Elizabeth! To make them jumbo, I would follow the baking instructions on my bakery style chocolate chip muffins. 🙂
Mandy
Absolutely wonderful muffins! I have a gluten allergy so I substituted measure for measure gluten free flower and didn’t have buttermilk so I made some with milk and lemon juice, and also thawed my frozen bananas and drained the excess water…and my goodness……MUAH…(chef’s kiss) DELICIOUS!!! I also absolutely love how you added the ingredients into the instructions, it really made it so much easier to quickly go through the process! Thank you so much for sharing this wonderful recipe! This one will be saved and used often in my household for sure!
Brenda
I am not sure what I did wrong. I had more than 15 muffins. But all that butter in the strudel was a lot and though it taste good it’s missing something. Not sure if I’d make again. Wish I knew what I did wrong!!
Sangeet Sidhu
best! I added some miso and less salt. wonderful texture.
ML Bricker
This is a keeper. Thank you for including the ingredient amounts in the directions, so helpful.
Sam
I’m sad to hear this, Amanda, and I can assure you that in over a thousand comments I’ve never had anyone else report these results you’re describing. I’d love to help you troubleshoot so that you can get the same results as everyone else (these muffins are truly incredible!). What was the aftertaste? If it was a metallic taste, most likely you need to replace your baking soda or baking powder. If they were dense, this could also be caused by a bad leavening agent, or potentially over-mixing. Being dense could also be a result of over-baking. Let me know, I think we can figure this out!
Deborah
Easy and wonderful! This is the second time I’m using up my ripe bananas for this recipe, this is a special request from my staff.
Kelli Morris
best muffins I have ever made in my life . thank you !
Amy
I’m going to try these tonight with my kids! I wanted to say first though, that I love how you’ve written the amounts within the recipe directions itself so I don’t have to keep scrolling up and down to remember how much of what. GAME CHANGER for online recipes. Thank you!
Emily @ Sugar Spun Run
It really makes a difference, doesn’t it? So glad you find it helpful too, Amy! Enjoy 🙂
Heidi Wiggers
Best banana muffins I’ve ever had. Making them a second time in a week.