The Best Banana Muffin Recipe
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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) avocado oil or vegetable oil or 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) avocado oil or vegetable oil or 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
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Like this? Leave a comment below!
This recipe was originally published 01/05/2018. Updated with more information and better photos 10/17/2019.
Wow yumm! These were delicious. Thank you for the recipe. I had been searching for a good banana muffin recipe for a while…search is over!
Very nice, full of flavor with a perfect texture. I omitted the topping and made 12 muffins baking them about 6 extra minutes. Will definitely make again.
YUMMY!! I don’t bake or cook much at all, so my fiance was a bit suprised when he arrived home to see me covered in flour tackling this recipe. I didn’t have buttermilk or canola oil so I used regular milk along with shortening and was delighted with how they turned out! Thank you for this recipe it was scrumptious!
Sam, I hardly ever leave reviews, but this recipe is a winner. For anyone looking for a light and fluffy option to traditional banana bread, you must try this. I only strayed a tiny bit by adding 1 cup of chopped pecans to the streusel topping. The recipe is accurate and produces a beautiful result in both taste and appearance. Thanks for posting – when ripe bananas are in the house, it will be my go-to recipe!
Great recipe! Thank you so much for sharing! I added a little bit of cinnamon and tasted delicious.
Best ever! Even my wife agrees… added 1 cup frozen wild blueberries. Added 5 mins. bake time at 350°F for large muffin cups, + 4 more minutes for frozen fruit. Shut off oven and leave sit there for 10 minutes more.
Awesome. And I don’t even like bananas
These were so good! Lots of banana muffin recipes pop up when you google “best banana muffin recipe.” I’m so glad I picked yours! They turned out perfectly! I’m excited to try some more of your recipes. I will definitely recommend these!
I am so happy to hear this! Thank you so much for telling me how they turned out for you! 🙂
I made these this morning and they are TERRIFIC!! I did do a little substitute with Gluten Free 1 to 1 flour and I used Stevia instead of sugar and Coconut oil instead of Canola or Vegetable oil. But even with these subs they turned out perfectly!! Thanks for the recipe.
Hi!
I am curious about why you substituted with coconut oil. Is there any particular reason? For a better flavor or texture?
I made these today and boy oh boy are they delicious! I skipped the streusel but added 1/2 cup chopped walnuts to make banana nut muffins. Yummy!
Thank you so much for your recipes. They are very easy to read and incredibly concise. I’m a fan!
Yay! I’m so glad that you are enjoying the recipes, the addition of walnuts sounds perfect! 🙂
Thanks Sam, for this awesome recipe! I am not a banana muffin lover, but I changed
my mind with this recipe! And I added chocolate chips on the top for a different taste
for the kids! Using brown sugar for the topping was perfect!
I’m so happy to hear that it was such a hit (and I love the addition of chocolate chips!!). I wasn’t much of a banana muffin fan before these, either!
Thanks for commenting, Brenda!! 🙂
Made these muffins yesterday, and they definitely did not disappoint! They were delicious! Thanks for sharing this recipe! It’s a keeper!
I’m so happy to hear you enjoyed them! Thank you for coming back and letting me know how they turned out, Linda!! 🙂
Hi,Sam,
We baked these muffins today, minus the streusel topping. They’re quite wonderful, both in taste and texture. We made the blizzard cookies today, too. Wicked yummy!
Thanks for the terrific recipes.
I’m so happy to hear that you are enjoying the recipe!!! Thank you for commenting, I appreciate it! 🙂
Bananas vary in size. What amount of mashed banana do you recommend?
About 1 1/4 cup, I hope you love the muffins!
Sam
these really ARE THE BEST BANANA MUFFINS!!
we made them in large muffin tins and cooked them longer because of the size and they were incredible! Thanks for sharing another great muffin recipe, yours have been my favorite since discovering your chocolate chip muffins.