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 ยพ 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 ๐คค). You can add between 1-1ยฝ 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 (donโt 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 coolย completely, wrap individually in plastic wrap, place in a Ziploc bag, and freeze.ย 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!
Letโs bake together! Iโll 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 ยฝ cups (385 g) well-mashed ripe bananas This is typically 3 large bananas for me
- ยผ cup (60 ml) canola oil (may substitute vegetable or avocado oil)
- ยผ cup (60 g) unsalted butter melted and cooled at least 5 minutes
- ยฝ cup (100 g) sugar
- ยฝ cup (100 g) light brown sugar tightly packed
- 2 large eggs room temperature preferred
- ยผ cup (60 ml) buttermilk room temperature preferred
- 1 Tablespoon vanilla extract
- 2 cups (250 g) all-purpose flour
- 1 ยฝ teaspoons baking powder
- ยฝ teaspoon baking soda
- ยฝ teaspoon salt
Streusel (optional)
- ยฝ cup (65 g) all-purpose flour
- ยฝ cup (100 g) brown sugar
- ยผ teaspoon salt
- ยผ 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 ยฝ cups (385 g) well-mashed ripe bananas
- Add oil and melted butter and stir well.ย ยยผ cup (60 ml) canola oil, ยผ cup (60 g) unsalted butter
- Stir in sugars until well-combined.ยฝ cup (100 g) sugar, ยฝ cup (100 g) light brown sugar
- Add eggs, buttermilk, and vanilla extract and stir well.ย Set aside.2 large eggs, 1 Tablespoon vanilla extract, ยผ 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 ยฝ teaspoons baking powder, ยฝ teaspoon baking soda, ยฝ 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 ยพ of the way full.ย 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.ยฝ cup (65 g) all-purpose flour, ยฝ cup (100 g) brown sugar, ยผ teaspoon salt
- Using a pastry cutter, cut in your cold butter until the butter is well-worked in and your mixture resembles coarse crumbs.ยผ 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.
Maria
Thank you for the recipe. The best banana muffins ever!
Sugar Spun Run
Thank you so much, Maria! I am glad that you enjoyed your banana muffins. ๐
Robin Fowler
These were delicious. I thought it might be too much topping, but they were perfect. Sugar spun run is now my โgo toโ baking site. Thank you for clear directions, excellent descriptions and tasty treats.
PS. Worst chocolate chip cookies are the worst as I couldnโt stop eating them!!
Sugar Spun Run
Robin, Thank you so much! I am so happy that you enjoyed the Banana Muffins. ๐
Carrie Williams
I followed the recipe completely. The muffins are amazing! Make sure you let them sit out to cool completely, so that the Strudel tops will remain crunchy. Simply the best methods Iโve ever made!
Sugar Spun Run
Thank you so much, Carrie! I am so happy that you enjoyed the Banana Muffins. ๐
Melanie
The muffins were indeed fluffy and delicious. With the topping, I did think they were a bit too sweet and I love sweet. I also made my own buttermilk, using meyer lemon juice from the tree in the yard and milk. Thanks for the recipe!
Sam
I am so glad you enjoyed the banana muffins, Melanie! ๐
Michelle Hawco
I just finished making these banana muffins and they are by far the best muffin I’ve made in a while. After trying countless numbers of banana muffin recipes over the years I believe I’ve finally found my “go to” recipe…thank you so much for sharing it.
P.s..there was no “waiting for them to cool”..with a tiny dab of butter mmmmm. ๐
Sam
I am so glad you enjoyed the muffins so much, Michelle! I definitely struggle to wait for them to cool as well. ๐
Vicki
After making the Best Banana Cake, and helping eat it!, there were just three bananas left, so I made these muffins and they’re wonderful! After mixing up the mashed bananas with some of the other ingredients I discovered I didn’t have enough flour except for the topping, so I made the daring decision to use self rising flour for the muffin batter…I wasn’t confident about it and somehow felt the need to add a little more baking powder, (one half a teaspoon) and just a bit more salt…..don’t know if that really helped, but the muffins came out beautifully! Even in spite of the fact that I saw flames leaping up from the bottom of the oven, (some of the topping slipped off a couple of muffins and fell on the heating element where it caught on fire), so I had to take the muffins out, remove a rack and put it on the back porch so I could sprinkle baking soda on the flames….burning myself in the process….but after the rack was put back in, along with the muffins, they continued to bake to perfection! (I had one fresh from the oven as a consolation treat.) All in all….success! ๐
Sam
Wow! That sounds really scary, Vicki! They probably rose a little too much because of the self rising flour and extra baking powder which would have pushed off the topping. I hope your burn heals. Honestly taking them out of the oven in the middle of baking may have saved them from going completely over the top. I’m so glad it didn’t turn out any worse.
Vanessa
Just baked these, soooooo delicious!
Sam
Thank you so much, Vanessa! I am so glad you enjoyed the banana muffins! ๐
Janell
Delicious recipe. Perfectly moist. I love banana oatmeal muffins, so I cut down the flour by about 2 Tbsp and added a cup of quick cook oats. I also didn’t do the struessel topping and I needed to add 2.5 minutes to the 350 degree cooking time. Resulted in a very light and moist muffin. I’ll definitely do this one again.
Sam
Thank you so much, Janell! I am so glad you enjoyed the muffins. ๐
Lindsay Greenwood
Hi – am in the UK so converting the temps. Are the oven temps indicated for a fan oven? Or do I need to reduce the temps by 15-20c to accommodate for fan?
Will let you know how mine turn out!
Sam
Hi Lindsay! I do not have a fan oven, just a regular conventional oven. I am not familiar with using fan ovens. I hope you love them! ๐
Pam I
Just took these out of the oven and they sure smell good!!! The only question–mine or so much darker than yours. I really want the light color of yours. What would you suggest? Lower temps or shorter time? Thanks for your help.
Sam
Hi Pam! Is your oven temperature accurate, or did they bake a little too long?
Patricia
I’m trying this recipe today with 1/2 AP flour and 1/2 whole wheat. Also, I ususally freeze my bananas if they start getting too ripe. Lastly, usuing almond milk to make the buttermilk. Sorry for all the substitutions but that’s what I have on hand!! We’ll see!!
Sam
I hope the muffins turn out for you Patricia! ๐
Elvy
Don’t you think 275 calories is too much?
Any flour substitute for whole grain?
Sam
I think “too much” is subjective. Unfortunately I am not sure of any whole grain substitutes or how they would work with these banana muffins, sorry!
Theresa
I’ve tried so many different recipes for banana muffins. This is definitely The Best Banana Muffin Recipe. I was brining them as a treat for a kids playdate, so I didn’t add the streusel topping (we make enough crumbs without a topping) and they were enjoyed by all.
Sam
I am so glad everyone enjoyed these muffins so much, Theresa! ๐
Nadya
Hi! Did this last week for the first time i received rave reviews!!
Though in my second try, i tried double batching, but it didnt turned out as well. Its a bit hollow in the middle. Im not sure what i have done wrong..
Help!
Sam
Hi Nadya! I’m so sorry that happened! My best guess was the batter was either over-mixed or under-mixed. Sorry I can’t be more help. Sometimes doubling recipes can be tough.
Monette
The best banana muffin recipe so far. We love how the muffins turned out – soft, moist, and so delicious with the streusel. This recipe is definitely a keeper. Thank you so much!
Sam
Thank you so much, Monette! I am so glad you enjoyed the banana muffins. ๐