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
Would love to know if you try any of them!
Print
Quick & 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 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): Stand Mixer or Handheld Mixer | Glass Mixing Bowls | Whisk | 12-Count Muffin Pan | Muffin Liners
- 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. 🙂
Keywords: banana muffins
Love the texture love the flavor very good. I also like to play around with the recipe I don’t use salt, so I do a pinch, and I’ll love to use whole-wheat flower plus 1 cup of semolina flour, and and extra 1/2 teaspoon of vanilla extract. Thank you
★★★★★
Some of the recent reviews have said their muffins tasted awful due to too much baking soda/ baking powder in the recipe. I made these before and thought they were terrific. Made them again today as the recipe states (except I used wheat flour and canola oil) and they are indeed terrific. I don’t know what those reviewers are on about but perhaps they misread the recipe and used 1 tablespoon of baking soda/powder?? I love these with 1/2 cup chocolate chips and 1/2 cup chopped walnuts. I don’t imagine it’s enough chocolate to mask a bitter tasting muffin so I really think some of the poor reviews are due to mistaken measurements or bad ingredients.
★★★★★
I’m in Australia and I followed the recipe almost to the letter, just used a pinch of sea salt flakes. Have to say the best banana muffins I have ever tasted and very quick and easy to make. Did need to cook a little longer.
★★★★★
Kids love these I’ve mixed about a bit instead of plain flour I tried the wholemeal flour, added cranberries instead of the choc chips. And sprinkled with pumpkin and chia seeds on top for healthy lunch alternative
My family didn’t mind the taste and I used the amounts of BS and BP as written. I only added half the cinnamon and left out the nutmeg (we don’t care for it).
I used almond milk, extra vanilla, and Melt brand salted plant butter.
They barely made 8 muffins and they didn’t need to be filled to the very top. I could have left a little space and still have high domes. If I need 12 I’ll probably double and under fill a tiny bit.
The 8 muffins I had disappeared a few hours after making them.
★★★★
Like other reviewers said, the taste is off with this recipe. It’s bitter and gross. It’s either too much of the baking soda, salt or baking powder. Not sure why I didn’t go through reviews first.
Hi Jamie, usually a bitter taste results from either using too much, or expired, baking powder. Be sure that you are only using one teaspoon of baking powder and that it is fresh. Most boxes say to use within 6 months but we generally replace them after 3 months. I hope this helps!
I had to substitute a few things and it all worked out really well! Probably the best banana muffins I have ever made…
Here’s what I did:
1. Instead of 1 tsp baking powder and 1 tsp baking soda (due to some comments about bitter taste), I just added baking powder according to the packet’s directions for the amount of flour used – e.g. It says on the tin, 2 tsp per cup of flour. So, 3 tsp baking powder for this recipe. No baking soda. They rose beautifully and no bad taste. I also sifted the dry ingredients to refine and aerate them on their way into the bowl.
2. Pinch of salt as opposed to 1/2 tsp.
3. No cinnamon or nutmeg, but that’s just because I don’t like the flavours haha.
4. I only had 35g butter in the fridge, so did that, plus then 50g coconut oil. So a combo of both.
5. No brown sugar, so I used just under 2/3 cup golden syrup.
6. Only had oat milk, used that.
7. Filled the muffin tin about 2/3 full, not all the way to the top. This gave the perfect height in the end.
Did everything else according to the recipe and they were fluffy yet moist, rose well and tasted AMAZING!
★★★★
Not exactly what I was looking for. I should’ve used a Betty Crocker plain banana muffin recipe. This was too adult, too fragrant and the banana flavor was faint, although my bananas were very ripe and I did use three. I should not have used the nutmeg. I did use the chips which were fine. I baked it as directed and they were very high and fluffy inside.
★★★
I left out the baking soda, turned out really good.
★★★★★
I doubled this recipe, used chopped semi-sweet chocolate instead of chocolate chips, and didn’t use any salt. The cinnamon and nutmeg spices added a delicious flavor. The muffins’ texture was light – just right! I will used this recipe again.
Just made these, delicious! As mentioned above, I used 1/2tsp of baking soda and powder, I also cut coconut oil in half and added 3 tbsp pnut butter. I also added a PKG of vanilla pudding mix, cut cinnamon in half, added 1/2 tsp ground ginger, left out the nutmeg and I forgot to add salt (oops) so I sprinkled a bit on each muffin after it was in the tin (before baking) I also topped with a bit of granola which added a nice crunch. Delicious! Will definitely make again and use this as my muffin base recipe
★★★★
This is a wonderful recipe! Not too much of or lack of Anything as I’ve seen in other comments. I just added some Apple Pie Spice (Love that flavor), and put a Crumble on top. They are moist and I will be making this recipe all the time.
★★★★★
I used White Lilly flour, sifted, added baking powder, but forgot the baking soda- sadly. I wound up with a dense, heavy, hard crust outer and uncooked centers. So disappointed. But, learned from my mistake.
The muffins made great rocks to throw at the squirrels.
★★
I halved the recipe and baked in well greased cast iron muffin tins. GREAT! My new favorite recipe!
★★★★★
This is the best muffin recipe I’ve ever used. I have made these many times with my very picky daughter and she and I both love them. I use half coconut half brown sugar usually, and mix and match regular, coconut and oat flour with every combination turning out just fine. The texture and flavor are both just right. I always use high quality and fresh ingredients so I wonder if people who are saying these aren’t great are not starting out with the best ingredients? I do not think there is too much baking powder or baking soda at all. You could always use less of that though if you are sensitive to the taste, and just have a denser muffin.
★★★★★
Too much backing soda. Tasted gross. Wish I would have read the reviews prior to baking.
★
disappointed because i have never baked something of sally’s that wasn’t good before. these are just very bland. banana flavor is very subtle (i used very ripe bananas) and hardly any cinnamon coming through. not gross but won’t be making these again. i’ve also seen some reviews that there is too much baking soda, and i agree that they taste a bit off probably due to that.
★★
I love this recipe! I make these all of the time for my family. I would make sure that you are sure to use very ripe bananas! The riper they are the more flavorful and moist! Perfect recipe!
★★★★★
So quick and easy and delicious!! Very light. Will try dipping them in chocolate next time.
★★★★★
So much easier than banana bread and I never have to worry about raw centers! Has anyone tried this recipe with almond flour?
★★★★★
I loved these! I did make a couple small adjustments: I used just half the recommended coconut oil & substituted apple sauce for the other half, and for the milk I used unsweetened almond milk.
They were perfectly delicious! Thank you 🙂
★★★★★
I have made these so many times, they taste incredible!
★★★★★
I lost count on how many times i made these muffins
This recipe was so yummy. I added a bit more cinnamon and nutmeg for myself and I did the chocolate ganache on top. It’s moist, soft, and flavorful.
★★★★★
Best Banana muffin ever. Family, friends and 2 picky little eaters loved them.mtlu formsuch a great healthy recipe I can share those I love to spoil. Trying these with the gnash and natural sprinkles
★★★★★
I doubled this recipe and only used 3/4 of the milk, adding 2 small diced Golden Delicious apples. The extra moisture from the soaked diced apple added moisture. I mounded the mixture past the top in a small heap. Recipe was followed exactly as written otherwise (I did brush some butter on top and sprinkled turbinado sugar on afterwards to stick it nicely). It was so amazing Sally! Can I give it 6 stars? Thanks for the recipe!
★★★★★
One of the best I’ve tried I used part coconut oil and part salted butter so a I used a pinch of salt instead of what the recipe said I am gonna make this my go too!
★★★★★
I’ve been making banana bread/muffins and zucchini bread type recipes for a long time and this is by far the best banana muffin recipe I’ve tried. My boyfriend isn’t a “sweets” person and this has just the right amount of sweet for him… he and his 3-year-old ate 11 of the last 12 I made within 3 days. Thank you so much for this! I plan on making the blueberry muffins tonight (the kiddo’s favorite) and will certainly give feedback there once she lets me know her thoughts 😉
★★★★★
Excellent recipe. They came out perfect. Very moist and very tasty. The initial high heat helped them to rise nicely! I will definitely make these again. Like you we always have bananas around and you can only make so much banana bread.
★★★★★
OMG scrumptious! I roadtested this recipe using some browned (perfect!) sweet bananas, semi sweet chocolate chips, and cute leftover large baking cups just to try it. This may become a brunch buffet favorite! I am posting photos @mytinybeachkitchen my IG.
★★★★★
My family and I love this recipe ! We cut the soda by half but its our favourite muffins recipe
Wish I could say these turned out well but I followed the recipe as stated and they came out crispy on the top and a bit hollow inside.
I used an oven thermometer too so it wasn’t a temperature issue. Would be good to know if the temps stated are for fan forced ovens or conventional too.
Taste was average.
★★
Hi Jayne, all our recipes are written for conventional settings. Thank you for giving these muffins a try!
These are great. Kids love them in their lunch boxes for school. I’ve made big and mini muffins and they’ve all come out perfect each time.
★★★★★
Nice texture but I’ve tried it a few times and it has a bad taste due to too much salt, soda and/or powder!!!
Something is definitely a bit off with those measures.
★★★
I had the same result as you! As I was going along I already felt that the measurements were off but decided to trust it since it’s a highly rated recipe.
I actually reduced the amount of salt but BP and BS stayed the same and it tasted really weird and bitter and still salty! So I came to see the reviews instead and lo and behold. I should have read the reviews first!
I also would like to say it is great texture though.
It’s not the salt. I think the baking powder amount is too high. I’m not sure if this recipe has changed recently, because I don’t remember them being bitter/metallic. Maybe 1/2tsp baking powder instead of 1tsp.
I agree with you there. Thought Iwas the only one
I think it’s to much baking soda, they’re good muffins but just a little to much baking soda? Lol idk.
★★★
It’s definitely the BS. I only used about a pinch and left out the nutmeg and they were perfect!
I am a chef, it’s too much soda – which can cause things to not rise enough and have a funky after taste.
I am a diabetic so I alter everything. I used 1/2 cup each white flour, wheat flour and almond flour plus 1 tables coconut flour. I used a measure sugar substitute and used half coconut
and half olive oil. Greek Yogurt instead of milk .. They are wonderful.
I found them to be very moist but I gotta my like a few others have mentioned, there is a slight aftertaste due to either too much baking powder or soda. I put chocolate chips in my so it kinda masks that strange taste, but it’s there. I would suggest that they update the measurements to about half for the baking soda. Too much of that is what gives that bitter taste.
★★★