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.
Totally AMAZING!This is my new favorite banana muffin recipe…topping is definitely a bonus. Love it so much.
Thanks for sharing.
I’ve made banana muffins many, many times but THIS time my husband said “These are the best you’ve ever made!” Super soft by not over-mixing the ingredients, wonderfully delicious and the topping is just-enough. Delicate, Delicious and quickly all gone! Thanks for the recipe
Delicious, moist, and light! I really like this easy recipe. I would probably add some oats to the topping just for some texture next time.
Just baked these, turned out wonderfully and my husband loves them! However, they needed about 15 minutes more oven time than the recipe states. Super moist and flavorful, I think a tbsp of cinnamon would take these to the next level 🙂
One of the best muffin recipes I’ve ever come across. I used regular milk instead of buttermilk, only 2 bananas and added a handful of choc-chips. Amazing!
Best banana muffins I have ever had! Thank You
Love these! (sometimes at least) So my oven doesntallow me to switch temperatures while baking. I have to shut the oven off then reset at the new temp. And even though I am going from 425 to 350, it still puts the oven in preheat mode and thus burns the muffin tops while the inside isn’t done. I have a double over so I usually set the bottom oven to 350 and transfer the pan to that oven when the 8 mins are up in the 425 oven. However, everytime I make them, they done out a little differently, sometimes amazing, sometimes not so much. Any advice on using one temperature or anything else that might work? Thank you!!
I would bake them on 375 the entire time for probably 22-24 minutes, but I’m not 100% sure on the time. I hope that helps! 🙂
thanks so much! I will give that a try!
Baking them at 375 for the entire time (about 15-18 minutes worked for me) did work well and the muffins were delicious, but didn’t have that great bakery style top. Knowing that heat helps those tops rise, I preheated the oven to 425 and let it sit while making the muffin batter. As I was getting close to done with the batter, I shut oven off and preheated to 375. Then I put the muffins in once it beeped. And it worked! Something about the oven being really good and hot, even though it “technically” was at 375 seemed to help. Thanks again, they are delicious muffins!
Easy recipe. I came out with a baker’s dozen. Soft, moist, delicious!
These are delicious! Thank you!
Fantastic! Followed the instructions to a tee. Best banana muffins ever.
I just made these for the first time. So delicious! It made 18 muffins in my muffin tins. I calculated the ingredient amounts for making 12 muffins in my muffin tins:
1 cup + 2 Tbl banana 3 Tbl buttermilk
3 Tbl oil 2¼ teasp vanilla
3 Tbl butter, melted 1½ cups flour
1/4 cup + 2 Tbl sugar 1⅛ teasp baking powder
1/4 cup + 2 Tbl brown sugar 3/8 teasp baking soda
1 egg + 1 egg yolk 3/8 teasp salt
This is a fantastic recipe! I have tried many different ones and this gets rave reviews from my family. A must do
Delicious recipe; full of flavor 🤤❤️
These truly are the BEST, most delicious banana muffin my “muffin-loving” husband has tried. You can taste the delicious banana taste, not masked by strong spices …Thank you,Sam! As usual, your recipe is an absolute winner .. even without the streusel topping. 10 STARS!
I want to use my jumbo muffin pan for this recommendation for temp and time I’m super excited
Easy to follow recipe. Muffins turned out great; made them without the streusel. They were fluffy, moist with a slight outer crustiness, and tasty. I added two tablespoons of flax meal, cut the sugar a little and mixed a tablespoon of Greek yogurt in milk as a substitute for buttermilk.
Definitely adding these to my lineup.