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.
Gayle
I didn’t have buttermilk but I did have full fat, plain Greek yogurt, and sour cream in the frig. I opted to use the yogurt, slightly thinned with milk, and had excellent results. I only had one muffin pan so I baked 7 muffins then used remaining batter for 8 more, which gave me an interesting result. The batter that sat at room temperature while first seven were baking produced even higher top muffins. This may because the dry ingredients had more time to absorb the moisture from the bananas/milk/eggs. I also measured all batter placed in muffin pans for consistency of size. My family loved them.
Kara
My daughter asked for banana muffins. I couldn’t find my go to recipe. I got to say, this is by far the best recipe. The muffins are light and fluffy and not too dense, and the crumble topping is fantastic. ( I added a pinch of cinnamon). This is my new go to recipe.
Emily @ Sugar Spun Run
We are so happy you enjoyed the recipe so much, Kara! Thanks for the review 🥰
Jackie
Can you freeze these muffins? thanks
Emily @ Sugar Spun Run
Absolutely! Just make sure to protect them with some plastic wrap and/or aluminum foil and store them in an airtight container. Enjoy!
Marie
Can I use half banana extract and half vanilla extract?
Emily @ Sugar Spun Run
That should work 😊
Brittany O
Can this recipe be used to make a loaf instead of muffins? Thanks!
Emily @ Sugar Spun Run
Hi Brittany! We aren’t sure how this would do in a loaf pan. We do have a banana bread recipe you can try 🙂
Justine Light
SO GOOD AND SO MOIST!! I used half spelt flour and half all purpose, cut the sugar by half for a lightly sweetened muffin, subbed coconut oil for the oil/butter, and added frozen blueberries and hemp hearts for a little extra nutrition. Also used five eggs instead of two to increase the protein. Didn’t do the streusel topping. They all came out amazing with domed tops!
Kids and husband and I all enjoyed and loved them! THis is the second time i’ve made these and made a double batch because they were so good the first time around. Came out amazing the second time around as well!
Mark
Do you use kosher salt or table salt?
Sam
Always table salt unless otherwise indicated. Enjoy!
Halina
Delicious. Cut down on both sugars. Added frozen blueberries. Very easy to make, turned out great.
Douglas Frederick
Great recipe. My son really enjoyed them .
Robyn Folsom
This is my family’s new favorite recipe! It’s light fluffy and bakes perfectly according to the directions. Thank you!!
Pris
Just made these. I was missing a small fraction of the banana, so I just spooned in some Greek yogurt to complete the 385g. Also added mini chocolate chips to about 2/3 of the batter (husband doesn’t care for them). Otherwise followed the recipe to a T and we all looooved these muffins!
Casey @ Sugar Spun Run
Mmm chocolate chips are a delicious addition! We’re so glad you enjoyed them, Pris!
Kiera
These muffins are hands down the best muffins i’ve ever made!! They were very delicious and I will always make these from now on! I would totally recommend making these!!
Casey @ Sugar Spun Run
Thank you for leaving us a review, Kiera! We’re so glad you loved them so much!
Darlene
Very good muffins. I used a little less of both sugars and they are delicious.
Emily @ Sugar Spun Run
So glad they were a hit for you, Darlene! 🩷
Sterling
I didn’t make the strudel part but I did add mini chocolate chips and Protein powder, the muffins were perfectly moist and delicious!
Emily @ Sugar Spun Run
Thanks for letting us know how it went for you, Sterling! Enjoy 🩷
Britt
Really delicious, fluffy and moist! Added 1/2 c mini chocolate chips, and made the streusel top. Needed an extra 5 min baking time and tops were flat rather than domed but flavour and texture was excellent. I measured accurately and used the spoon and sweep method for measuring flour (maybe I shouldn’t have) and thought maybe batter just needed a bit more flour to thicken it up so added some to the batter for the second panful (I’m using a 6 well muffin pan) and that worked! Thank you for the recipe!
Casey @ Sugar Spun Run
We’re so glad you loved them, Britt! Chocolate chips are a great addition!