These banana muffins are soft, buttery, and spiced with cinnamon. They’re wonderful plain, with chopped walnuts, or even chocolate chips. You need 3 large ripe bananas and a few basic kitchen ingredients to get started.
Banana bread is wonderful, but muffins are quicker, more convenient, easily portable, and taste just as good. I’ve been searching for the perfect EASY banana muffin recipe since my daughter began eating solids. We always have bananas in the house which means we eventually have spotty bananas ready for baking!
These quick and easy banana muffins bake in 30 minutes, so if you need to be in and out of the kitchen FAST (um, don’t we all?), this recipe is your savior.
Banana Muffin Ingredients—Each Is Important!
This banana muffin recipe requires a handful of basics like flour, sugar, and milk. That’s what I love about baking—it’s the same base ingredients for basically everything.
- Flour: I tested the recipe with both all-purpose flour and whole wheat flour and LOVED both variations. See recipe Note below.
- Melted Butter: We’ll use melted butter as the fat, though melted coconut oil works too. I love using melted butter in baked goods, and though I was afraid these banana muffins would taste too dense without creaming softened butter (which incorporates air), that’s not the case at all.
- Bananas, vanilla, salt, cinnamon, and nutmeg: The flavor team.
- Egg: 1 egg gives the muffins structure.
- Milk: A common ingredient in some muffin recipes including pumpkin muffins, milk provides necessary moisture. Dry muffins… the worst.
- Sugar: Sweetens. When I make these for my daughter, I use half brown sugar and half coconut sugar. You can use all brown sugar, all coconut sugar, or a mixture of the two. Keep in mind that coconut sugar isn’t quite as sweet as brown sugar, so the flavor will change. See my recipe Note. 🙂
Do these banana muffins taste like banana bread? Yes, totally! But they have a lighter, softer, and more buttery texture. You’ll love it.
How to Make Banana Muffins Moist
There’s a fine line between a moist banana muffin and a dry banana muffin, aka sandpaper in a cupcake wrapper. To make banana muffins moist, make sure you’re using a solid ratio of dry to wet ingredients. I found the muffins to be dry without the addition of liquid, but a couple Tablespoons of milk solved the problem. Use a little fat (butter), brown sugar, and plenty of bananas for lots of moisture and flavor.
How to Mash Bananas
So I started doing this last year and it’s been a total game changer whenever I make banana cake, these breakfast cookies, or banana bread. Just use your mixer to mash bananas! Peel and break them into chunks, place in your mixer, and beat until mashed. Beat the rest of the wet ingredients right into this bowl, then beat in the dry ingredients. So easy.
Can I Use Frozen Bananas?
Yes and I do this often. Thaw the frozen bananas at room temperature. Drain off any excess liquid, mash, then use as instructed in the recipe below. See How to Freeze & Thaw Bananas for Baking. Try not to mash too much or else you’ll be left with 2 cups of banana-y liquid; some chunks are great.
This banana muffin recipe is perfect if you:
- Have 3 large spotty bananas
- Love banana bread
- Need a quick homemade breakfast, snack, etc.
- Don’t feel like creaming butter and sugar together
- Don’t feel like dirtying 100 pans
And, to turn these into a scrumptious treat, you could dip the tops of the cooled muffins into chocolate ganache and add sprinkles. (Affiliate link: I love these naturally colored sprinkles.) You can also add the streusel topping from these banana chocolate chip streusel muffins.
More Muffin Recipes
These easy banana muffins have been my default for awhile, though I usually switch between these and a couple other muffin recipes previously published. I consider these muffins on the healthier side and they’re each toddler & adult approved. 🙂
- Baby Apple Oat Muffins
- Bran Muffins
- Whole Wheat Banana Nut Muffins (these include oats)
- Blueberry Oatmeal Muffins
- Healthy Apple Muffins & Chocolate Banana Muffins
- Morning Glory Muffins
- Lemon Blueberry Muffins
- Zucchini Muffins
- Peanut Butter Banana Muffins
- Healthy Blueberry Banana Muffins
- Lemon Poppy Seed Muffins
Would love to know if you try any of them!
PrintQuick & Easy Banana Muffins
- Prep Time: 10 minutes
- Cook Time: 20 minutes
- Total Time: 30 minutes
- Yield: 10-12 muffins
- Category: Muffins
- Method: Baking
- Cuisine: American
Description
These banana muffins are soft, buttery, and spiced with cinnamon. They’re wonderful plain, but taste fantastic with 1 cup chopped walnuts or chocolate chips. You need 3 ripe bananas and a handful of basic kitchen ingredients.
Ingredients
- 1 and 1/2 cups (188g) all-purpose flour (spooned & leveled)
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
- 1 and 1/2 cups (345g) mashed bananas (about 4 medium or 3 large ripe bananas)
- 6 Tablespoons (85g) unsalted butter, melted (or melted coconut oil)
- 2/3 cup (135g) packed light or dark brown sugar (or coconut sugar)*
- 1 large egg, at room temperature
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- 2 Tablespoons (30ml) milk*
- optional: 1 cup chopped walnuts, pecans, or chocolate chips
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 425°F (218°C). Spray a 12-count muffin pan with nonstick spray or use cupcake liners.
- Whisk the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, and nutmeg together in a medium bowl. Set aside. In a large bowl or in the bowl of your stand mixer, mash the bananas. On medium speed, beat or whisk in the melted butter, brown sugar, egg, vanilla extract, and milk. Pour the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients, then beat or whisk until combined. If adding nuts or chocolate chips, fold them in now. Batter will be thick.
- Spoon the batter into liners, filling them all the way to the top. Bake for 5 minutes at 425°F, then, keeping the muffins in the oven, reduce the oven temperature to 350°F (177°C). Bake for an additional 16–18 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. The total time these muffins take in the oven is about 21–23 minutes, give or take. (For mini muffins, bake 12–14 total minutes at 350°F (177°C).) Allow the muffins to cool for 5 minutes in the muffin pan, then transfer to a wire cooling rack to continue cooling.
- Muffins stay fresh covered at room temperature for a few days or in the refrigerator for up to 1 week.
Notes
- Make Ahead Instructions:Â For longer storage, freeze muffins for up to 3 months. Thaw overnight in the refrigerator, then bring to room temperature or warm up in the microwave if desired.
- Special Tools (affiliate links):Â 12-Count Muffin Pan | Muffin Liners | Electric Mixer (Handheld or Stand) | Glass Mixing Bowls | Whisk | Cooling Rack
- Why the initial high temperature? The hot burst of air will spring up the top of the muffin quickly, then the inside of the muffin can bake for the remainder of the time. This helps the muffins rise nice and tall.
- Whole Wheat Flour: Feel free to substitute whole wheat flour for all-purpose flour or use a mix of both as long as you use 1 and 1/2 cups total. If using all whole wheat flour, add another Tablespoon (15ml) of milk.
- Frozen Bananas: You can use frozen bananas here. Thaw the frozen bananas. Drain off any excess liquid, mash, then use as instructed in the recipe. See How to Freeze & Thaw Bananas for Baking.
- Sugar: You can use 2/3 cup of packed brown sugar or coconut sugar. Or a mixture of these to yield 2/3 cup. If using 2/3 cup coconut sugar, the muffins won’t be as sweet. I find they taste best with 2/3 cup brown sugar or 1/3 cup of each. 2/3 cup of honey or pure maple syrup works too, though the muffins will taste a little more moist in the centers. I’m unsure about sugar substitutes, but let me know if you try any.
- Milk: Use your favorite variety of dairy or nondairy milk.
- Banana Bread: Here’s my favorite banana bread recipe. 🙂
Sally’s Baking Addiction,
The banana muffins recipe was amazing! These are the most moist home-baked muffins that I’ve ever had from a recipe. The result, perfection. The only thing I changed was to add 4 tablespoons of melted butter with 2 tablespoons melted coconut oil. Mmm mmm mmmm! Thank you! 100 stars!
Excellent recipe with great details. I too found that I could only get 11 full size muffins doe at 5+16 minutes, but they are beautiful. Thanks for sharing.
I made these and came out perfect! Very delicious and moist. How do you store the leftover and for how long do they keep?
Hi Cris, Muffins stay fresh covered at room temperature for a few days or in the refrigerator for up to 1 week.
Just wonderful! They came out delicious! Glad I used this recipe!
This is a great recipe. I used some of the tweaks suggested (1/2 WW flour and 1/2 AP flour, 1/2 cane sugar and 1/2 stevia/erythritol, 2 bananas and extra unsweetened applesauce to make 1.5 cups, added Lily’s choc chips) and doubled the vanilla and cinnamon while omitting nutmeg for my hubby who dislikes nutmeg. I ended up baking it 5 minutes at 425 and 13 minutes at 350. So good! Thank you. 🙂
Great recipe! I was going to make pumpkin muffins but realized after I started that I didn’t have any pumpkin… found this recipe and I am glad I did! Definitely will make these again.
Hi Sally, I love your all recipes and it never goes wrong.I made it eggless, added 4 bananas,2 cup whole wheat flour, a little more milk! The muffins were great to taste.Thank you for bringing such great recipes to us!
I didn’t have eggs in my fridge (oops!) so substituted for 1/3 cup of sour cream and added an extra banana and it still turned out great!
Just out of the oven and look and smell delicious! I added extra dashes of cinnamon and nutmeg- just because I’m a fanatic- and can’t wait to gift these beauties! Thanks so much!
I made these tonight, as mom had 6 small ripe bananas. I increased the recipe by 1/2, and added leftover blueberries to some, and semi- sweet chopped chocolate to the others. I liked them, but mom LOVED them. I can’t wait til we can make them again, with walnuts. I appreciate all the variations you included. Thank you!
Made these as mini-muffins with walnuts. They were delicious except a bit salty, so next time, I’d cut back slightly on the salt and baking soda. I will make them again. Thanks!
Could I use a blender to mash the bananas? Love ur website!
Sure!
i find mashing them with a fork or a potato masher to be super easy…no blender cleanup required- but then i’m lazy! lol
Hi sally, can I use another type of oil like avocado oil instead of butter? If so, is it the same amount? Thank you 🙂
Hi Marcia, You can use the same amount of vegetable/canola or avocado oil instead. You will lose a bit of flavor though.
I’ve just made these with hazelnuts and streusel topping from your strawberry cheesecake muffins. I ended up with leftover streusel. Is there something i can do with it? Besides throwing it out? Thank you in advance!
Hi Ana! How about a small batch of your favorite fruit crisp like our apple crisp – leftover streusel would be a great topping for that.
Great idea! Muffins turned out delicious, by the way! Hazelnuts made them taste even better and added crunch.
Hi Sally,
I noticed that this recipe and other recipes like Healthy Whole Wheat Banana Muffins & Jumbo Raspberry Chocolate Chip Muffins don’t call for sour cream or yogurt but your Blueberry Muffins & Apple Cinnamon Crumb Muffins recipes do. Why is that so?
Hi Julie! I love using sour cream or yogurt in muffin batters. Some batters, however, do not need it and those may have either more milk or another liquid ingredient such as mashed banana or applesauce. The jumbo raspberry muffins do include sour cream.
Made this tonight! Only had two bananas which came to 1 cup so I added half a cup of cinnamon applesauce to bring it to the 1.5 cups the recipe calls for. I also realized I never added the milk but my muffins came out moist so I’m thinking the applesauce helped with that. Baking time for me was spot on however I did make mine a little smaller and got 16 muffins out of it. Definitely going to make these again, thanks for the recipe!
A soft tender muffin, loved the hint of nutmeg! My baking time was considerably shorter. After 5 min at 425 and 10 min at 350 I noticed they were raised and dark brown. I checked and toothpick came out clean. Glad I checked at that point because they would’ve been burned/overdone with 5-8 more minutes in the oven.
Seconded! They cook a lot faster then the recipe claims. Done 10 min after lowering the temp.
Mis favoritos y los de mis hijos! Gracias por publicar!
Un abrazo desde Colombia
Pretty okay recipe. Besides the fact there wasn’t enough batter to make 12. Wouldn’t use this recipe again.
Bananas often vary in size … I used 3 large bananas and i had no problems getting 12 muffins.
Can I use white sugar instead?
Hi Michelle, that should work but the texture/flavor may be different than intended. Enjoy!
This recipe is great. I used 1 cup of ground pecan (for my granddaughter’s sake). The muffins rose nice and tall but I was able to make only 11 pcs after filling up the liners almost to the top. They are scrumptious too.
These muffins are the best! Quick, easy, and delicious!
I get bloated if I take all purpose flour so I made this using half cup AP flour & 1 cup oat flour ( self grind ) Muffins turned out great & I ate 2 and tummy was fine.
Is it okay if I use 2 bananas instead of 3
Hi Taylor, It depends on the size of your bananas. If you have applesauce, you can use any combination of mashed bananas and applesauce to yield 1 and 1/2 cups. Or you can also simply cut the recipe in half if you don’t have enough bananas.
If I added raspberries to these what adjustments would I need to make?
Hi Liz, You could add a cup of berries to the batter with no other changes (blot before adding to the batter to remove some of the excess moisture).
Does the initial high temp thing apply to any muffin recipe? Also I absolutely love this recipe I’ve made these muffins probably 15 times since last fall when I found it!
Hi Sydney, yes, it does! So glad you love these muffins.
Great recipe! Definitely easy to follow! 🙂
Can you substitute almond flour for AP flour 1:1?
Hi Barbara, We don’t recommend almond flour as it has very different baking properties and is not a 1:1 swap. We haven’t tested it, but you might have success experimenting with a gluten-free all-purpose flour like Bob’s Red Mill or Cup4Cup. If you give anything a try, we’d love to know how it goes for you!
Hi ladies. I make all of the Sally’s recipes with the Bob’s Red Mill 1:1 GF flour blend (celiac kids), and they all work great for me. Thanks for the fabulous recipes!
Thank You, Thank You for this delicious recipe — I’m a new baker (and I use the term loosely); this is only my second time baking anything. Your recipe made the process simple enough for someone like me to get the results of moist, fabulously delicious, tasty, and scrumptious muffins that my family enjoyed.
I tweaked the recipe a bit but thank you so much for making it so easy for a beginner like me to create this confidently
Hi Nat, We are so glad you’re enjoying these! Keep baking!
By the way, where can I find the nutritional information for this easy banana muffin, please?
Hi Zubaidah, We don’t usually include nutrition information as it can vary between different brands of the same ingredients, and many recipes have ingredient substitutions or optional ingredients. However, there are many great online calculators where you can plug in your exact ingredients like this one: https://www.verywellfit.com/recipe-nutrition-analyzer-4157076.