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.
Sheila
These truly are the BEST! It is the best recipe I have found! I always try to make a recipe exactly as written the first time. I added walnuts at the end, like it said. I added chocolate chips to half of them.The only thing I changed was using my food processor to cut the butter into the streusel topping. Thank you for posting! I will definitely make these again and again.
Sam
I am so glad you enjoyed them so much, Sheila! 🙂
Chipo Nenzou
Made them and added weetabix and used old fashioned brown sugar, they taste amazing
Sam
I am so glad you enjoyed them so much, Chipo! 🙂
Joanna
Made these muffins today and they are very tasty! I like the combination of using both regular sugar & brown sugar, butter & oil. Since my huband & I like a bit of texture I decided to chop some macadamia nuts and add it to the Streusel topping. It worked out well! Definitely a keeper recipe😊
Sam
I’m so glad everyone enjoyed it so much, Joanna! 🙂
Lisa H
The fluffiest, tastiest banana muffins ever. They freeze well, too.
Sam
I am so glad you enjoy them so much, Lisa! 🙂
Megan
Alll I have in is self raising flour. Can I still make this recipe? It looks delicious!
Sam
Hi Megan! You would need to make other adjustments and without having tried it I don’t know exactly what they would be. So unfortunately I don’t recommend it.
Amanda
I make muffins almost daily…they are cooking right now, and smell delicious, but so far have needed to cook for an additional 8 minutes at 350 because they are still wet.
Sugar Spun Run
Thanks for trying my recipe, Amanda! I bet your home smells amazing. As far as bake time, heat and humidity can also affect the bake time. I am sorry that they are taking longer than what is listed. I do hope that you love them. 🙂
Jill
Thanks for a delicious banana muffin recipe Sam. Delicious!
Sam
I am so glad you enjoyed it so much, Jill. 🙂
Lauren
Did you mean a 1/4c flour for the streusel? I noticed the gram difference after I had already measured out half a cup and it looked strange.
Sam
Hi Lauren! 1/2 cup/65 grams is correct as written. I hope you love the muffins 🙂
Terri
Have you ever made this into a banana bread, if so, what temp would you make it at?
Sam
Hi Terri! I actually have a banana bread recipe. 🙂
Stephen
This was really the first time I tried to make muffins. I have a banana bread recipe down pat and wanted to have another way to make something with bananas in it. Followed the recipe exactly as stated and made the buttermilk to the recipe attached to muffin instructions. These came out moister than I thought they would! I cooked them exactly as stated in the recipe. Thanks for sharing such a great recipe. Usually muffins can be on the dry side when you buy them. Going to share the with my daughters and their families.
Sam
I am so glad you enjoyed them so much, Stephen! 🙂
Stephanie
Best Banana Muffin Ever!!!
Sam
I’m so glad you enjoyed, Stephanie! 🙂
Alanna
I left the bowl of sugars on the counter and proceeded to bake these. They were fluffy, soft and full of banana goodness without the sugar. 🙂 Can’t wait to try them with the sugar! LOL
Sam
I am glad you enjoyed them, Alanna! Hopefully even more so with the sugars. 🙂
Georgia
Thoroughly delish! I wanted to add that I made 2 separate batches, and with the second batch, I forgot to turn the oven back up to the higher temp for the initial 8 mins. So I baked them at 175 and they tasted exactly the same as the first lot – scrummy!
I’m sure there’s some science behind the higher temp, but it didn’t seem to make any difference to mine which was great.
Thanks for such a great recipe.
Sam
Hi Georgia! I am so glad you enjoyed them so much! The higher temperature really helps add some lift to the muffins. 🙂
Jenna
Perfect muffins! Thank you for putting measurements in weights. It makes following a recipe sh much easier.
Jenna
Sam
I agree! I am so glad you enjoyed the muffins, Jenna! 🙂
Shirley Hunsperger
I made the banana muffins last night. They are fabulous. I haven’t made a muffin in years because they never turn out right. These were perfect. Can you freeze them? I thought I would need to take off the cupcake papers if I did.
Sam
Hi Shirley! They should do well in the freezer and I don’t see the need to take the papers off before hand. 🙂
Lisa
I leave the papers when I freeze them. I have wrapped them individually with cling wrap and I have frozen them in my cupcake container as is. Both times they have still been as amazing as the day I baked them.