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
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.
Paula
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
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
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
Thank you so much, Karen! I am so glad you enjoy them so much. 🙂
Paula
Hi Sam!
Can I use mini loaves pan instead?
Sam
Hi Paula! That should work just fine. 🙂
Emily
These were the best banana muffins I’ve ever tried. The topping really made it! 10/10 recommend 😍😍!
Sam
I am so glad you enjoyed it so much, Emily! 🙂
Lisa
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
I am so glad you enjoyed them so much, Lisa! 🙂
jamie
may i ask how heavy are your bananas?
Sam
Hi Jamie! They are typically close to 130g. 🙂
Mary L Taylor
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
I am so glad you enjoyed them so much, Mary! 🙂
Kim
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
I am so glad that everyone enjoyed them, Kim! Thanks for trying my recipe. 🙂
Halie
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
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
We got so many compliments on these muffins! We doubled the recipe and gave several away but my tribe inhaled them. Thank you!
Sam
I am so glad everyone enjoyed them so much! 🙂
Mel
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
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
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
I am so glad you enjoyed it so much, Sandra! 🙂
Susan
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
I am so glad you enjoyed them so much, Susan! 🙂
Heather
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
Hi Heather! They probably just needed to be pulled out a few minutes earlier. They should still be pretty moist as mini muffins. 🙂
Miguel
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
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
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
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. 🙂