An incredibly soft, moist banana muffin made with tall bakery-style muffin tops, sweet banana flavor, and a simple (optional) streusel crumb topping! This is the very best banana muffin recipe! You just need three ripe bananas to get started!
Your New Favorite Breakfast Muffin
Maybe you’ve tried these banana muffins already? They’re not brand new to the blog, in fact they’ve been around for several years and have garnered well over 150 five star ratings ⭐️. Not that I’m bragging or anything, but they’re all well-deserved, (in my totally and completely unbiased opinion) because I truly don’t know what more you could want in a banana muffin.
Soft, moist, and loaded with flavor. These aren’t bland, boring, or basic banana muffins. They’re made with ripe bananas, brown sugar, a tablespoon of pure vanilla extract, a blend of butter and oil (we talked about why we use both in my vanilla cake recipe) and a heavenly, crumbly, buttery streusel topping.
Or, no streusel…
While I personally love and recommend the streusel topping, I know not everyone wants the extra sugar. Or maybe just doesn’t want the extra dishes (definitely been there… or more like currently there, actually). As you can see above they bake up beautifully (if not nakedly) with or without streusel and you’ll get tidier, higher muffin tops without it.
For your muffin bases, you’ll need the following:
- Three ripe bananas. Try to get them much browner, softer, and splotchier than the bananas in the picture below. These were all I had on hand for this photo, but the riper your bananas are the better your banana muffins will taste.
- Butter and oil. We’re using a blend of both for the best flavor and texture in our banana muffins
- Flour. All purpose (or “plain” if you’re in the UK)
- Sugar. A blend of white/granulated and brown gives us a great flavor.
- Baking powder and baking soda. Helps to lift up those muffin tops!
- Buttermilk. Or my easy buttermilk substitute.
- Eggs. Two large.
- Salt & Vanilla Extract. For flavor!
Tips on How to Make Banana Muffins
- The riper your bananas are, the easier they will be to mash and the better the flavor of your banana muffins will be. Don’t shy away from brown spots on your banana peels, that’s what you want for this recipe!
- I recommend mashing your bananas with a fork or with a potato masher — you want them to be well-mashed with very few lumps.
- I strongly recommend stirring this banana muffin batter completely by hand. Since you’re not creaming any butter it can be easily stirred without a mixer and it helps avoid over-mixing. Over-mixing this batter can lead to muffins that are too tough and dense — we want light and fluffy muffins!
About that Streusel
Again, it’s a personal preference. Either you like it or you’re wrong.
OK, sorry, my personal preference is showing. I’m obsessed with that buttery/crumbly topping. To make it you’ll need a pastry cutter. Stir together your flour, brown sugar, and salt and then use a pastry cutter to cut in cold butter until you have a crumbly topping.
I mean just look how beautiful that is.
How to Freeze Banana Muffins
If you wish to freeze these muffins, allow them to cool completely, then wrap well in plastic wrap and then place in a ziploc bag and freeze. You can set them out at room temperature to thaw, or you can microwave them (don’t overdo it, just defrost, or the muffins will become hard).
I’ve been baking and freezing these in preparation for Baby Boy’s arrival; it’s nice to know I have a few waiting for me in the freezer since I suspect baking is going to take a backseat in the upcoming months. Right now it’s hard to imagine what that is going to be like!
These banana muffins are honestly one of my favorites. It took a lot of tries and tweaks to get the recipe just perfect, but these are finally the ultimate, softest, most flavorful banana muffins I’ve ever tasted (with or without the streusel on top) and I hope you love them just as much as I do!
So, are you team streusel or no streusel?
More Muffins to Try!
- Ultimate Basic Muffin Recipe
- Double Chocolate Muffins
- Bakery-Style Chocolate Chip Muffins
- Blueberry Muffins
The Best Banana Muffin Recipe
Ingredients
- 3 ripe bananas
- 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)
- 1/2 cup all-purpose flour (65g)
- 1/2 cup brown sugar (100g)
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1/4 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 3/4 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
This recipe was originally published 01/05/2018. Updated with more information and better photos 10/17/2019.
Paula says
Hi Sam, I’m from Asia. Our bananas are a bit smaller (around 80g) so I had to add one more (should’ve made it two haha).
Agree that the streusel makes ALL the difference. Made 6 plain and 6 with streusel (I only used fork and it worked well).
Thanks for this!! Really loved it.
Sam says
I am so glad you enjoyed them so much, Paula! I love the streusel so much I have to make a little extra because I know I am going to eat it while I make it. 🤣
Karen F. Knapp says
These are, unquestionably, the very best muffins I have ever made. We stay at home for coffee each morning (we are retired, and we used to go out to coffee every day), I make my own lattes on a home espresso machine, and we have muffins. I have been making these at least weekly for 3-4 months now and let me tell you one MOST important thing: do NOT overmix the batter. Sam is absolutely right about this. It is OK to use your mixer to blend the bananas, butter, oil, sugars, vanilla, buttermilk. But fold in the dry ingredients by hand, not with the mixer. This is essential – makes a huge difference. These are the absolute best. We love them. Thanks, Sam!
Sam says
Thank you so much, Karen! I am so glad you enjoy them so much. 🙂
Paula says
Hi Sam!
Can I use mini loaves pan instead?
Sam says
Hi Paula! That should work just fine. 🙂
Emily says
These were the best banana muffins I’ve ever tried. The topping really made it! 10/10 recommend 😍😍!
Sam says
I am so glad you enjoyed it so much, Emily! 🙂
Lisa says
I made these today. I halved the white sugar and swirled some Dutch pressed cocoa powder in them and added a few milk chocolate chips on top. Excellent! They are moist, fast, easy and delicious. Thank you for sharing this recipe. It’s a keeper. XOXO
Sam says
I am so glad you enjoyed them so much, Lisa! 🙂
jamie says
may i ask how heavy are your bananas?
Sam says
Hi Jamie! They are typically close to 130g. 🙂
Mary L Taylor says
Made these for a breakfast meeting tomorrow. Oh how beautiful they turned out. If these taste as good as they look, I’ve hit a homerun!
Thank you for sharing this one.. I have always had great success when making your recipes. I almost forgot to tell you that I made these into a jumbo and they baked up with no problem. Just added about 3 minutes at the end.
Sam says
I am so glad you enjoyed them so much, Mary! 🙂
Kim says
This is a great recipe! There’s plenty of banana flavor, and they are light and fluffy. My 2-year-old has already eaten two of them, so that proves they’re really good :). I made 12 muffins, then put the rest into a mini loaf pan, which baked up really nice. I will definitely use this recipe from now on! I might even try adding a little cinnamon to it in the fall.
Sugar Spun Run says
I am so glad that everyone enjoyed them, Kim! Thanks for trying my recipe. 🙂
Halie says
This was the best banana muffins I made. I can’t wait for hubby to try!! Next time I’ll try it with the Streusel topping. I just didn’t have a pastry cutter at the time. Thank you so much for sharing! I’m looking forward to trying your other recipes.
Sam says
I am so glad you enjoyed it, Halie! It’s even better with the topping. If you are really in a pinch you could use a large fork to work it together instead of the pastry cutter. I hope you love everything. 🙂
KK says
We got so many compliments on these muffins! We doubled the recipe and gave several away but my tribe inhaled them. Thank you!
Sam says
I am so glad everyone enjoyed them so much! 🙂
Mel says
This was amazing! 🙂 I’m new to baking and I wanted to try out easy, non intimidating recipes and this is one of those. I did not use the streusel recipe, added some nutella and chopped hazelnuts instead. Thanks Sam for sharing this.
Sam says
I am so glad everyone enjoyed them so much, Mel! Hopefully this will help you expand your baking skills. My goal is to make it easy for anyone to duplicate the results. Enjoy! 🙂
Sandra Malone says
These muffins were moist and very tasty. I made 12 muffins and one mini loaf out of the batter. I will definitely make them again as they were well liked. I dipped them in melted butter, then sugar while still warm instead of suing streusel. Thank you for the recipe.
Sam says
I am so glad you enjoyed it so much, Sandra! 🙂
Susan says
These are DIVINE!! And just beautiful to look at as well—thank you for all your tweaking of the baking chemistry—the recipe is outstanding, and I didn’t even put the streusel on top. It feels good not to waste those bananas, to be able to freeze and save a treat, and to enjoy some lovely comfort food in the palm of your hand!
Sam says
I am so glad you enjoyed them so much, Susan! 🙂
Heather says
Hi! These muffins have to be some of the best I have ever baked! I decided to use the leftover batter (after the 12) in a mini muffin pan, which was great for the kiddos! I wasn’t quite sure how to bake them, so I just kept a close eye on them, and they turned out pretty good, but a bit dry. (Though the mini chocolate chips helped!)
I’m wondering if you have any suggestions for how to bake these in a mini muffin pan, since I’m thinking of doing only the minis.
Thank you! (The kiddos thank you, too! Lol)
Sam says
Hi Heather! They probably just needed to be pulled out a few minutes earlier. They should still be pretty moist as mini muffins. 🙂
Miguel says
Hello!
I was looking into this recipe and it looks fantastic. I was wondering how the muffins would react if I only baked them at one constant temperature (and if you recommend any specific temperature)? Unfortunately our oven is very traditional and it can’t really shift to another temperature as fast as modern digital ovens. I’d love to try out this recipe tomorrow for my family and I’d love it if I could bake it as great as you do!
Sam says
Hi Miguel! If you just bake them at one temperature they won’t get that nice lift. I think even with an older oven the two temperature method will work. When you turn down the heat it does take a bit for the oven to get down to that temperature even on brand new ovens. If you want to use one temperature, just use the lower temperature the whole time and bake it for a few minutes longer and keep an eye on them so they don’t get over-baked. 🙂
Glenda says
Hi,
II want to try this banana muffin recipe. I was looking at your others muffin recipes and saw that the bakery style chocolate chip muffin ask for one egg and one egg white and this banana muffin recipe ask for 2 eggs. What is the difference of using one egg white?
Sam says
Hi Glenda! The recipes are pretty different. There are a lot of factors at play. Each recipe is specifically written to help highlight different aspects of each muffin. 🙂