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: 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): 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. 🙂
These turned out delicious. I swapped the flour for Rye flour (1:1), as that is lower gluten and more agreeable for my body, and the recipe still worked perfectly. Thank you for sharing!
Since the grandson has decided he doesn’t like “banana” muffins anymore, I added butterscotch chips and called the butterscotch muffins. He ate 2 right away. I love the many varieties this recipe can accommodate.
If making these as “mini” muffins, do you know the temp/time for baking? I love making these for the kids’ lunches but want to try mini ones instead. Thank you!
Hi Amy! For mini muffins, bake 12-14 total minutes at 350°F (177°C).
No changes or adjustments made. So delicious with a fresh cup of coffee! I’m going to freeze the leftovers for when my nieces/nephew come to visit.
Really love these! I have made these twice and the second time I accidentally made without eggs but luckily I had already added an extra TBS of butter and a bit of extra banana. So anyone out there who has a sensitivity to eggs, totally possible to make without them.
Great recipe! Delicious
I find that the muffins are more like a light cupcake. I couldn’t taste the spice although I increased to two tsps of cinnamon and one half tsp of nutmeg. I prefer a heavier muffin. I may try your healthy banana muffins. Thank you!
These are delicious! So much flavor! We added walnuts and choc chips! So good! You’re recipes are always the BEST!
The Best banana muffins I’ve ever had- let alone made. Used coconut oil and half brown sugar and half coconut sugar.
Great while warm! This makes delicious banana muffins, and the recipe instructions are clear and easy.
Had a bunch of bananas I didn’t want to throw out. Made a double batch. Half plain, have 1/2 cup pecans, 1/2 cup chocolate chips, both batches were AMAZING! Thank you so much! Definitely a keeper.
I make a double batch of these every week—my grandkids love them as much as we do—and I enjoy experimenting with add-ins. Doubling requires six bananas, but I use seven and omit the milk.
Could you use nonfat yogurt instead of milk?
Hi Sherry, yogurt will be too thick to replace the milk. You can use your favorite variety of dairy or nondairy milk!
These muffins are beyond reliable and quite forgiving. I’ve made them so many times and won’t use another recipe. I’ve made them with quality ingredients, and the el cheapo stuff. I’ve made them with ingredients straight out of the fridge, and stuff I accidentally left out overnight. I’ve made them with quite a variety of add-ons, and almost always with self-raising flour. Each and every time they have been delicious. The kids scoff them down like nobodies business… heck, even I’ve been known to gorge myself on them. I just now finished making a double batch and they are so delicious I decided I had to come back and finally leave a review. Thank you so much for this recipe!
I’m not really much of a baker, but thanks to this recipe, these came out beautifully! I added a cup of white chocolate chips per the optional instructions, which was a nice lighter twist on the standard chocolate ones. They were so good, though, even without the chips! The only thing I might do different next time is stir the dry ingredients into the wet, instead of using the electric mixer. I think that led to overmixing and a slightly tougher crumb. But, they are still moist and unctuous and so so very good! I’d make them again exactly the same way too!
Can I use a different flour, such as almond flour?
Hi Jennie, We don’t recommend almond flour as it has very different baking properties and is not usually 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!
These are delicious and so simple! Do you have the nutrition information for the recipe?
Hi Rebecca, we don’t usually include nutrition information as it can vary between different brands of the same ingredients. Plus, many recipes have ingredient substitutions or optional ingredients listed. However, there are many handy online calculators where you can plug in and customize your exact ingredients/brands. Readers have found this one especially helpful: https://www.verywellfit.com/recipe-nutrition-analyzer-4157076
These were a huge hit! Everyone loved how flavorful and moist they were.
Can this be made in a loaf pan? How would we adjust baking time?
Hi Valerie, We are happy you enjoyed this recipe! You can bake this in a loaf pan but we have not tested it in a cake pan so I’m unsure of the bake time you would need.
Delicious! My kids loved them!
Could you make these jumbo?
Hi Jordynn, if using a jumbo muffin pan, we recommend following the same baking times as these jumbo blueberry muffins. (With the initial high temperature trick.) It should yield about 5 jumbo muffins – fill batter to the top.
I use 2 tablespoons of sour cream instead of the milk and added white chocolate chips and walnuts yummerz! Thanks for recipes.
WONDERFUL, fluffy light and not too sweet. I doubled the recipe and it worked out very well.
This will be my go-to banana muffin recipe!
I made these this morning. Only had two bananas but they were lovely. I would not add the salt next time. I baked 6 in my mini oven and there was enough mixture for a mug cake which I cooked for 1min in the micriwave. It was very light and fluffy. I haven’t tried the baked ones yet but they rose really well and look very toothsome. Thank you for sharing.
Delicious!
I have made these for my son’s birthday to his school friends, I used coconut sugar mixed with brown sugar.
Hi, thanks for your reply on the usage of oil over butter. Can I ask if it is possible to use vegetable oil and melted butter together? If yes, how much should I use? Thanks
Hi Shirley! You could try half and half (3 Tbs of each) – let us know if you give it a try!
I melted some Crisco butter sticks (dairy allergy in my house) and they came out AMAZING!!!!!! Give that a try.
I just made this with half butter and half olive oil turned out great!
I WASN’T ABLE TO PRINT THE RECIPE. I HAD TO COPY IT LONGHAND.
ELAINE
Hi Elaine, you can print this recipe! Look for the pink button that says “print this recipe” in the light gray recipe box above this comment section. Hope you loved the muffins!
Hi, can I use vegetable oil instead of melted butter? Will the texture be different? Thanks
Hi Shirley, You can use the same amount of vegetable/canola oil instead. You will lose a bit of flavor though.
This recipe was a huge hit! I was incredibly surprised how light and fluffy the muffins were. I brought them to work and everyone raved about them! My husband asked me leave half the batch at home for himself…that made me proud!
Thank you for sharing your recipes Sally! I’ve made so many of them and they’ve all been wonderful and easy to follow.
This recipe is so good. I made another recipe yesterday and thought they were too dense so I found this recipe. These are light and fluffy. Soooo good. I can’t wait for my coworkers to try them.
This is such an easy recipe! I made these in under an hour and they’re beautiful. I don’t eat bread or any carbs but I can’t wait for my hubby and daughter to try them!
I made these as the recipe stated and was so excited due to the high rating. Unfortunately they are dry and I didn’t even bake them for the full time. I baked them for 5 min high temp then only 9 min at the lower temp and they still were not moist in the middle. Very disappointed.
Do you know your oven temperature bc it’s not always accurate for what you set it at…grab an oven thermometer to check!
We love these muffins, they are perfect just the way they are. My kids are rather picky and they will devour these. Sometimes I use a little extra banana, white wheat flour and replace most of the butter with unsweetened applesauce to see if I can get it by the kids and they still turn out great.
Oh my lanta! Sooo glad I found this recipe. Tried it, tweak it a little and they came out deliciously, fluffy, soft and not too moist not too dry. I made them with technically what I had in hand such as avocado oil instead of butter and honey instead of sugar. Only missing ingredient was nutmeg but let me share with you all, I spread some almond butter on top afterwards and sprinkle some chia seeds…mmmkkaayyyyy! Thank you!
Hi Consuelo, thank you for trying these! So glad you enjoyed them.
These were delicious. I didn’t read the reviews until after making them, or I would have blotted the frozen/defrosted bananas. So mine came out a bit moist at the bottom, but puffed up and browned beautifully. I added chopped pecans, and would have added chocolate chips if I had some. Yummy, I’ll make them again.