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 well-mashed ripe bananas (385g) This is typically 3 large bananas for me
- ¼ cup canola oil (may substitute vegetable oil) (60ml)
- ¼ cup unsalted butter melted and cooled at least 5 minutes (60g)
- ½ cup sugar (100g)
- ½ cup light brown sugar tightly packed (100g)
- 2 large eggs room temperature preferred
- 1 Tablespoon vanilla extract
- 2 cups all-purpose flour (250g)
- 1 ½ teaspoons baking powder
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ¼ cup buttermilk (60ml) room temperature preferred
Streusel (optional)
- ½ cup all-purpose flour (65g)
- ½ cup brown sugar (100g)
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- ¼ cup unsalted butter, cold (60g)
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.
- Add canola oil and melted butter and stir well.
- Stir in sugars until well-combined.
- Add eggs and vanilla extract and butermilk and stir well. Set aside.
- In a separate bowl, whisk together your dry ingredients — flour, baking powder, baking soda, and 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.
- Using a pastry cutter, cut in your cold butter until the butter is well-worked in and your mixture resembles coarse crumbs.
- 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.
Shirley
Can you use 2 bananas instead of 3 and sour milk made with milk and vinegar ???
Emily @ Sugar Spun Run
Hi Shirley! As long as you still end up with 1 ½ cups of mashed bananas, that will work just fine. And yes, the sour milk should work just fine as a buttermilk substitute. Enjoy!
Patricia Notoriano
OMGOSH, these were to die for, loved the strusel topping also. I lost my go to recipe and found this and I am so glad I did.
Emily @ Sugar Spun Run
We’re so happy you loved the muffins, Patricia! Thanks for choosing our recipe 🥰
Sue
Thank you – I have made this recipe for the BEST banana muffins a dozen times now, always with great success. So much so, I’m on your site now for the banana bread recipe that mirrors this muffin recipe! Can’t wait. Love your recipes and website. 🙂
BRIANNA YEARWOOD
Can the batter be made ahead and refrigerated?
Emily @ Sugar Spun Run
Hi Brianna! We’re really not sure how the batter will hold up to being prepared in advance. The baking soda begins to react as soon as it gets wet, and the muffins may not rise properly the next day. The muffins are fine to be baked and frozen in advance though 😊
AnnieShinko
I didn’t do the streusel. Didn’t have buttermilk and used half and half cream instead. And had an extra can of wild blueberries that were lost but then found so tossed that in as well. I also did not have muffin liners, sprayed instead with avocado oil, and made only 12 muffins. They were fantastic. The kids and I all loved them. I will be using this recipe again! Thank you…
Bonnie Engdahl
These banana muffins were moist and yummy! I doubled the recipe and then realized I didn’t have enough cupcake liners, I decided to do half of batter into mini muffins. I omitted the topping and added chocolate chips baked at 350 for 10 minutes turned out just as moist and yummy as the big muffins!
Ashley B
Do you have a healthy version if this recipe by any chance? Something with less sugar and/or honey as a sweetener instead? I LOVE this recipe! I don’t think I have ever been this impressed with a recipe before! So soft, fluffy and flavorful just as you promised! I was just hoping you had a healthier one I could make for the kids I work with.
Sam
Hi Ashley! Unfortunately I have not tested it with any substitutes. 🙁
Carol Kissinger
Love this recipe! I’ve made it many times! It’s my favorite for banana muffins!
Mark
Super good!
Not too heavy with lots of great flavor!
Dhannya
OMG…these were fantastic. I had actually lost my go to muffin recipe and was searching all over the internet and finally decided to try out yours. I knew they’d be good…been a fan of your recipes for a while now…but these were amazing. I’ve got a new go to recipe now…❤️❤️❤️. Thank u so much for giving me access to so many recipes that turn out perfect 👍🏽👍🏽.
Emily @ Sugar Spun Run
We are so happy you’ve been enjoying our recipes, Dhannya! Enjoy the muffins ☺️
Amberlee
these were amazing!!!!!! My family all loved them, as did i. 🙂
Chris
Hello, Could I use avocado oil instead of canola? Canola is not heathy.
Emily @ Sugar Spun Run
Absolutely! Enjoy ☺️
Mary
I have made the banana muffin recipe several times. They were a hit with friends and family. The muffins were so light and fluffy and have the right amount of sweetness. I loved the addition of the streusel topping.
Emily @ Sugar Spun Run
So glad you enjoyed them, Mary! Thanks for the review ☺️