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.
This is a wonderful recipe. I added a T.of cinnamon to the batter too. I doubled this recipe using 5 very ripe bananas and made 24 muffins. It may look like you have too much crumb topping but believe me when I say use it ALL. It was fabulous. Thank you for this recipe
So glad you enjoyed it, Marianne! Thanks for using our recipe 🩷
These muffins bake beautifully every time I make them, which is a lot !
I’ve made them plain banana, added blueberries; or chocolate chips. My grandchildren call them Mina Muffins. , which is what they call me!
My question is can I make mini muffins with chocolate chips in them?
Thank you,
We’re so happy the muffins are such a hit for you, Cindy! You can absolutely make them mini and add chocolate chips 😊
Fantastic recipe!! I made these yesterday because I had some bananas to use up. I followed the recipe exactly with no additions. According to my 15-year-old nephew these were the best muffins he has ever had and ate 4 of them in 15 minutes, and the 6-year-old, who eats nothing, loved them. We will try adding chocolate chips and walnuts next time. Both kids are excited to make these with me!
I’m so glad everyone enjoyed them so much, Sarah! There’s no better compliment than when someone just keeps eating and eating! 🙂
Awesome. Folded in 1 cup blueberries at end and the 425 degrees at first worked wonders for the doming. Excellent. Used the streuzel and mixed in blender.
We’re so happy they turned out so nicely for you, Bernadette!
I love the oven temp hack! Normally my banana muffins resemble bread – these come out light and fluffy – more muffiny!! I added some toasted pecans and mini chocolate chips. Result – amazing!!!
Yum! We are so happy they turned out so nicely for you, Dede 🩷
I followed the recipe with the following changes:
added 1/2 cup walnuts
added 1 tsp cinnamon to streusel mixture
used extra light olive oil instead of canola oil
converted it to GLUTEN FREE by:
replacing flour with King Arthur Measure for Measure
replacing dairy butter with plant based butter
The muffins came out light and delicious!
We appreciate you letting us know how those substitutions worked for you, Bryan! Thanks for trying our recipe 🩷
I just made these and they are fabulous!! so moist and flavorful. saving this recipe 😋
Thanks for giving them a try, Cyndi! Enjoy 😊
Hi there, I have just made these banana muffins and they are truly just as you described – light, fluffy and delicious. I also wanted to mention how great it is that you put the ingredient amounts under the relevant step in the method.
We’re so happy you enjoyed the recipe, Ruth! And it’s great to hear that the recipe formatting is helpful 🩷
I followed the recipe except I added chocolate chips. They are delicious! I highly recommendthem and look forward to checking out more of your recipes.
Love that addition, Shawn! Thanks for giving our recipe a try 😊
These muffins are absolutely delicious. They came out perfect. I’m so happy I found this recipe. I was actually really happy we had extra batter because I was able to make about 10 mini muffins and added chocolate chips to them. New family favorite.
We’re so happy you like them, Jennifer! Thanks for the review 🥰
I made these with extra tall cupcake liners I purchased online so I was able to fit all the batter into 12 muffins instead of 15. They were so perfect and delicious!
My muffins came out too oily.
Also, what is the point of a 15 muffin recipe when most muffin pans are 12 count?
Hi Larry! That’s super frustrating, was the muffin oily all the way through or was it just the bottoms of the muffins that were oily? They definitely shouldn’t be oily, but sometimes, depending on the liners used, the bottoms become oily if the muffins sit in the tin for too long.
The reason for the 15-count yield is that adjusting the ratios to suit a 12-count pan would leave you with some pretty awkward measurements OR I could have adjusted the recipe for muffins that simply aren’t as tasty. The amounts listed yield the best tasting and most flavorful muffins I’ve personally ever had, I couldn’t justify tweaking things and delivering a recipe that just wasn’t as good simply for the sake of fitting it into a 12 count tin. It’s worth it to either bake the last few separately or even discard the excess batter, in my opinion. I hope that helps!
make a mini loaf !
I appreciate the 15 count recipe it allows for me to generously give dozen away and still have 3 for me so easy to use 3 ramekins voila
I made this but instead of muffins i made a 9 inch banana cake with strudel topping. i followed this recipe but tweaked it with a cake. i can’t wait until it’s done. i just added a few minutes for the top kept it in the oven for 40 min on 350 perfect
Sounds delicious, Nicole! We hope it turns out great 😊
i ended up cooking it for 20 more min at 350 but it’s perfect. the most amazing cake i had. very delicious and crumble on top. I’ll never make it another way again.
We’re so happy it turned out so nicely!
just made these and cooked on convection at 375 for 25 mins (jumbo muffin pan) and they came out beautiful with big top. I didn’t drop temp and it worked great.
This is a Fantastic muffin recipe! So simple and delicious. I prepared exactly as the recipe is written. It made 15 beautiful muffins. I really think the two temperature method makes the difference
Thanks for the review, Sara! We’re so happy you enjoyed the muffins 🥰
Hi, I am interested in trying this recipe, however I have a dairy free son, so I need a substitute for the buttermilk please.
Hi Karen! You can actually use my buttermilk substitute with any non dairy milks. 🙂
This recipe is simple to make, yet the flavors have complexity and texture (I add nuts and the streusel). This is now a go to recipe that I use for meal prep.
Thanks for trying our recipe, LaTonya! We’re so happy you are enjoying the muffins 😊
best recipe I have ever found! friends and family loved them! Thanks for sharing! ❤️
Thanks for giving them a try, Kathleen! 🥰
Can you use this to make a banana bread loaf ?
Hi Trish! We would actually recommend our banana bread over making this as a loaf. 🙂
Ah same exact ingredients but change the baking temp to 350 for 60 minutes. thanks. Which is exactly what I did ! so worked out
Make 6 jumbo muffins and came out great. Can you freeze these?
Absolutely! Just make sure to wrap them well and store in an airtight container 😊