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.
Claire
Outstanding muffins! I made a few adjustments to make it less sweet but still delicious. I cut the sugar to 1/3 c. each white and brown sugar and the vanilla to 1 t. I added a bit more buttermilk because the batter seemed too dry (it is dependent on flour etc.)
I substituted melted coconut oil instead of canola oil. It gives a subtle flavor.
Then on the streusel I just used 1/3 c. flour and 1/3 c brown sugar and dropped the butter proportionately, and added cinnamon.
Anyway, these are DELICIOUS!
Sam
I’m so glad you enjoyed them so much, Claire! And thank you for sharing your substitutions! <3
Joelle
Hi there,
Can I make these in Jumbo size muffins and if so, how would I modify the recipe? Would I just double the recipe?
Thank you and look forward to making these today!
Joelle
Angela Dogagis
Wow!! I made these muffins and they are literally the best banana muffins I have ever had! Thank you so much for this recipe. The whole family LOVES them. And they kept for 4 days so far inside a air tight container beautifully. Still so soft and moist and decadent! Yum 😋
Sam
Yay! Glad to hear they were such a HIT! Thank you for commenting, Angela!!
Cindy
I just made these and everyone loved them !! And so easy . My banana bread always turned out dry . But not these, they were perfect !!!
Sam
Yay! So glad to hear this! Thanks, Cindy!
Carissa Butler
I subbed brown sugar for applesauce and added cinnamon haha. These are wonderful thankyou for including the buttermilk information. I learned from it!!
Sam
So glad to hear they worked with the substitutions! Thank you for commenting, Carissa!!
Hannah
This is my first time baking banana muffin and I am so grateful that I use your recipe. It taste SO GOOD! Thank you! I bake 12 instead of 15, so I cut everything down to 2/3 and it worked! Thank you!
Sam
Yay! So glad they were a hit, Hannah!! Thank you for commenting 🙂
Rowena Artienda
It’s delicious . . . thanks, banana muffin is my fave!
Sam
Glad you enjoyed!
Andrew
I never leave comments on websites, however, I am making an exception this time. I am gluten free and was looking for a quick recipe to make muffins with what I had on hand in the apt. I used King Arthur gluten free equal measure flour. This was super simple, mixed and in oven in 10 mins flat, smelled terrific and tasted even better. It would have taken almost the same time to reheat frozen muffins as it did to make these from scratch and you could clearly taste the difference. In fact, as a gluten free version, several of the people after eating them, said wait… how are you eating these, aren’t you gluten free? That is how good they turned out. Thanks for posting this quick recipe.
Sam
I am so happy to hear this, thank you so much for commenting, Andrew, I really appreciate it!!!
Paula
I just baked the muffins and they came out perfecct! By the taste of the batter I know they will be delicious! On half the batch I added semi sweet chocolate chips! Can’t wait to eat them!!! Thanks!
Sam
YUM! I am so glad you enjoyed the muffins, Paula! Thank you so much for commenting 🙂
Melissa
I’ve been so obsessed with baking and watching baking videos, but nothing I made ever turned out quite right. I started following your recipes this summer and they’ve all turned out perfectly. You’re a queen, Sam!
Sam
You are so sweet, Melissa! Thank you so much for commenting, that really means a lot to me <3
Jordiekay
I just made these but with regular milk as I don’t have vinegar or lemon to make buttermilk, they are amazing and i cannot wait for my husband to try them! He will find them so amazing and probably bring them to work as he does without me knowing and I’ll have to make more and soon have to share them with the whole army base haha! thank you for the great recipe I will be making these from now on as I am constantly searching for good banana recipes cause I never eat a bunch of bananas in time 🙂
Sam
I am so glad that they were a hit!! Thank you for commenting 🙂
Beverly Tangeman
I just made this recipe and it is amazing. I followed your directions with one exception, I used regular milk since I didn’t have buttermilk. I would love mire recipes from you.
Sam
I am so happy to hear you enjoyed the muffins, Beverly! I hope you’ll continue to follow along with the blog to see all my recipes <3
Jenny
These turned out better than a great bakery! Thank you!
alice
Oh my! Fabulous.
Judy
Can I add a cup or so of blueberries to this recipe
Sam
Sorry I’m just now seeing your question, but yes you can