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 ยพ 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 ๐คค). You can add between 1-1ยฝ 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 (donโt 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 coolย completely, wrap individually in plastic wrap, place in a Ziploc bag, and freeze.ย 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!
Letโs bake together! Iโll 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 ยฝ cups (385 g) well-mashed ripe bananas This is typically 3 large bananas for me
- ยผ cup (60 ml) canola oil (may substitute vegetable or avocado oil)
- ยผ cup (60 g) unsalted butter melted and cooled at least 5 minutes
- ยฝ cup (100 g) sugar
- ยฝ cup (100 g) light brown sugar tightly packed
- 2 large eggs room temperature preferred
- ยผ cup (60 ml) buttermilk room temperature preferred
- 1 Tablespoon vanilla extract
- 2 cups (250 g) all-purpose flour
- 1 ยฝ teaspoons baking powder
- ยฝ teaspoon baking soda
- ยฝ teaspoon salt
Streusel (optional)
- ยฝ cup (65 g) all-purpose flour
- ยฝ cup (100 g) brown sugar
- ยผ teaspoon salt
- ยผ 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 ยฝ cups (385 g) well-mashed ripe bananas
- Add oil and melted butter and stir well.ย ยยผ cup (60 ml) canola oil, ยผ cup (60 g) unsalted butter
- Stir in sugars until well-combined.ยฝ cup (100 g) sugar, ยฝ cup (100 g) light brown sugar
- Add eggs, buttermilk, and vanilla extract and stir well.ย Set aside.2 large eggs, 1 Tablespoon vanilla extract, ยผ 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 ยฝ teaspoons baking powder, ยฝ teaspoon baking soda, ยฝ 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 ยพ of the way full.ย 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.ยฝ cup (65 g) all-purpose flour, ยฝ cup (100 g) brown sugar, ยผ teaspoon salt
- Using a pastry cutter, cut in your cold butter until the butter is well-worked in and your mixture resembles coarse crumbs.ยผ 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.
Amanda
What an incredible recipe! Thank you so much for sharing! Best recipe Iโve tried.
Sam
I am so glad you enjoyed it, Amanda! ๐
Carmen Reffitt
Dena, Do you think I could use frozen tart cherries? If yes, how much? One cup or 1/2cup?
Kay
OMG these are AWESOME! Wouldn’t change a thing!
Sam
So glad you enjoyed, Kay!! ๐
Vickie
Do you think I could add Chocolate Chips to this recipe?
Sam
Yes I think that would work just fine! Enjoy! ๐
Betsy
Just came out of the oven. These are the best. Added chocolate chips to remainder of batter and this is by far better than any other recipe I have made. Can’t wait to try blueberries and raspberries. Perfect for a snowy Sunday. Thank you.
Sam
I’m so glad to hear you enjoyed, Betsy!!
Jacquie
I made these muffins for the first time yesterday. I used my silicone muffin cups rather than paper. They took about 12 min on the 350 degree oven rather than 7-8 but are absolutely delicious. I will definitely make those again. My company asked to take a few home. Thanks for sharing this awesome recipe!
Sam
So glad to hear you (and your company) enjoyed them! Thanks for letting me know how they turned out for you, Jacquie!!
Deborah Basch
This is the 2 nd time I have made this recipe/. First time I did NOT put a topping on. Everyone loved them at work.
I just made a batch with the topping, Wow fantastic.
I did add cinnamon to the topping before baking.
I used Olive oil both times.
Sam
I am so glad everyone enjoyed them, Deborah! ๐
Mon
Sooo delicious. I made them without the topping and they were amazing. Will definitely make again ๐
Christina
Omgosh!!! These are AMAZING. Thank you for the recipe.
Sam
I am so glad you like them, Christina! ๐
Dena
Making a double batch right now. Had extra strudel topping and used the excess muffin mixture to make a mini loaf
Sam
I hope you love them, Dena! ๐
Dena
We loved them, in fact I made more this weekend!
Sam
Yay! So happy to hear it! ๐
Anna
They are in the oven now. They look fantastic! Thank you for including weights for ingredients. I recently started using a kitchen scale and itโs so much easier this way, I wish I had started years ago. So thank you for saving me the time of looking up conversions!
Sam
I hope you loved them! A kitchen scale really is so much easier, I’m glad the weight measurements were helpful to you! ๐
Carolyn
I donโt use canola or veg oil. Can I substitute coconut oil?
Sam
Hi, Carolyn. I have not tried it, but if you do choose to use it, I would make sure it is melted, but not too hot. ๐
Ina Lukman
Thank you so much for taking the time and effort to perfect this recipe. I made this once and gave a batch away for my husband to gift his colleagues. Everyone loved em and was raving about em for a week. Lol! Definitely making more.
Sam
I am so glad everyone enjoyed them, Ina! ๐
Sue
The flavor of the muffins are fantastic. The cupcake liner stuck to the muffin, though. I suspect that is because:
1. I didn’t cool them down completely before peeling the liner.
2. Like a dork, I used 1 full cup of buttermilk, instead 1/4 cup. Maybe the excess moisture had something to do with it?
3. The streusel topping sunk into the muffin. Probably didn’t put enough streusel on top.
Definitely will make this again, though. It was DELICIOUS!
Lindsey
Thanks for a great recipe! I only had 2 over ripe bananas so I added a 1/2 cup of unsweetened applesauce. I also added some orange peel to it and they turned out beautiful!
Sam
I am so glad you enjoyed it, Lindsey! ๐