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.
I absolutely LOVE this recipe. I have made it 4 times since finding it and the muffins turn out perfect every time. I have changed it up just a bit and it is still awesome. I use whole wheat flour and I have tried adding in unsweetened coconut flakes (I ground them first). This recipe is a keeper. They also freeze very well in just a freezer ziplock baggie.
Thank you so much, Theresa! I am so glad that you enjoyed it. 🙂
This recipe is soooo good! Made them just now and the whole family loved it! So moist and fluffy!
I am so glad everyone enjoyed the muffins, Chrizia! 🙂
Can I substitute the buttermilk for coconut milk? For a dairy free option.
I honestly haven’t tried it but think it could work. Hoping someone else who has tried it can chime in. If you make them please let me know how it works out for you!
Can I use salted butter?
Hi Michelle! That will work fine. 🙂
Can you sub Whole Milk for the Buttermilk?
Yes, either will work. 🙂
Thank you!
What a fab recipe! My son had great fun making them and watching them rise in the oven. The best we’ve made to date. Super moist and yummy! We love them. Thanks for sharing 😊
I am so glad that you and your son had fun making the muffins together, Fiona! I am happy that you both enjoyed them. Thanks for trying my recipe and for commenting. 🙂
Just loved your recipe.My kids loved the banana muffins. I added chocochip too n it turned out so good.Thanks a lot .Your recipes are just perfect. Though my muffins were amazing just wanted to ask you that why the top of my muffins were little sticky.I let them cool completely but still they were little sticky on top.Please help me with this and I will be good.
I am happy to hear that the muffins were a hit, Vaishali! As baked goods begin to stale, the moisture within them migrates to the surface. It traps the moisture in, making the muffin tops get soft and sticky. 🙂
Hi!
I was so excited to try this recipe… I love new muffin recipes. I made it twice, thinking maybe I messed up the first time but they didn’t turn out.
I followed your instructions to a tee but the muffins were still wet after the time to cook. So I left them in for an extra 10-15mins, I kept checking them. The outside was getting overdone but the inside was still wet?!? I don’t understand why? Any thoughts?
I’ve never had this happen with muffins before…
I am so sorry that you are experiencing an issue, Sammy! From the sound of it, it sounds like your oven may be running too hot, baking the outside fast and leaving the inside gooey. If you have not done so, I would reccomend testing your oven temperature for accuracy. I recently purchased a new oven and found that it was running 15 degrees hotter than what was shown. I hope that this helps!
Good morning! I just made your recipe. I love the warm banana muffin fragrance that is currently permeating in the air of my kitchen.
The muffins came out beautifully with perfectly rounded crowns, delicate golden edges, and very moist centers! They are incredible! I added chopped walnuts to the streusel topping because my family loves nuts. Thank you for sharing.
The smell is a favorite of mine too, Amy. Thank you so much for trying my recipe, I am glad that you enjoyed them! 🙂
This is going to replace the other banana muffin recipe that I thought was the best ever…
I am so glad that you enjoyed it that much! Thank you, Amy. 🙂
omg they have got to be one of the best muffins I’ve ever had. Wow.
I am so glad that you enjoyed them, Tahnae! Thank you for trying my recipe! 🙂
I just put a batch in the oven. Can’t wait!!
Thanks for trying my recipe, Tahnae! Happy to hear they turned out well. Enjoy! 🙂
Great muffins, best I’ve had homemade.
I am so glad that you enjoyed them, Stacey! Thank you for trying my recipe and for commenting. 🙂
Lovely texture! Made a triple batch (dropping some off at my mother’s Senior Living home as a treat) and they came out spectacular. I think my bananas were a bit smaller so I will be sure to add more or larger size bananas.
Made 24 muffins with Turbinado Sugar on top (I love the crunch) and 24 muffins with mini chocolate chips and the streusel topping. Love the process of baking at 2 different temperatures and the buttermilk makes them extra moist.
I am so glad that you enjoyed the muffins and I hope that your mother does too, Victoria! Thanks for trying my recipe and for commenting. 🙂
Could I add raisins?
They are an excellent muffin.
My boyfriend is a raisin nut so just wondering
I am so glad that you have enjoyed the muffins, Kay! Yes, you can easily add raisins. 🙂
Made as shared , I just ate 2, 1super hot and 1 cooler, loved the ease of making but next time will reduce the oil, almost cupcake as muffins are typically more textured and more chewy, not bad just expect more of cupcake texture. My husband will luv, house smells so good! Will make again w some tweaks, thanks for sharing! Always looking for new recipes and your website is fun browse!
Thank you so much for trying my recipe; I am glad that you enjoyed it. 🙂