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
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
This recipe is the best. I love it. I make it every two weeks. My granddaughters love it. It’s easy. Tastes soooooo good.
I think I did something wrong
Everything is perfect texture wise, the muffins had a perfect crumb and were not dry. However, upon tasting, the muffins were bitter and sour, like baking soda.
The changes I did was add 2tb extra of butter, 1/8 teaspoon ground ginger + 1/16 allspice
There’s a possibility I under mixed, but I did whisk until combined and no flour particles were showing, and I thoroughly mixed the dry ingredients beforehand hand
Any idea what could’ve went wrong and how to prevent it next time?
Hi Simon! Usually when we can taste the baking soda, the baking soda or baking powder may be a bit old. We recommend getting fresh for next time!
Delicious! I may never make banana bread again. These are moist and have great flavor, and they are so easy to make! I skipped the mixer and whipped everything together with a fork like I do with other muffins, and it was still quick to make these. This is a great recipe!
★★★★★
Wow!!
★★★★★
These are the best banana muffins. They are moist and cook well. I made it just the way it was and wouldn’t change a thing. We added the optional chocolate chips, next time I met leave it without. Great flavor!
★★★★★
My family loooooves these muffins! Does it work to just double the recipe? Or do I have to make 2 separate batches? 6 kids so 12 muffins go too fast!
Hi Katharine, for best taste and texture, we recommend making two separate batches to ensure you don’t over mix and the ingredients incorporate properly. Enjoy!
I made this! It was a lovely recipe. I needed to make a couple of adjustments to share with someone who has diabetes, so instead of 2/3 cups of sugar I did 1/3 cup of artificial sweetener and instead of AP flour I used 1/2 oatmeal flour and 1/2 almond flour. Again, I loved these and they were easy to make!
★★★★★
This recipe is so soft and buttery. The only thing was that for me they were a bit too sweet. Im gonna try them again with less sugar . I will definitely keep making these,thank you !
★★★★
These were delicious
I love that they are effortless to make, my 2 and 3 year old made these lol they did all the mashing and mixing haha I was just supervising !
* I would add less sugar next time, just a personal preference.
★★★★★
I’m getting old so no time to wait for bananas to get really ripe. I substituted the bananas with 1 1/2 cups around 400 grams with banana baby food. I live alone and these were so delicious I will have to give them to neighbors or I will eat them all.
Delicious! Haven’t made muffins in a very long time but will be making them again very soon!!
★★★★★
Your recipes never fail! This is easily the yummiest banana bread I’ve ever baked! All of my muffins were perfectly dome shaped. I gotta remember that heat shot trick!
★★★★★
My 2 yr old grandson and I made these today and they were absolutely delicious. We doubled the recipe , Thank goodness! We did tweak a few things like added in a couple more extra ripe bananas, doubled the amount of cinnamon and nutmeg and used all coconut sugar. We also added in some frozen blueberries to half of the batter and they were amazing. Not overly sweet, just perfect, so nice and fluffy! They were a hit! Thank you for a great recipe we are sure to keep using..
★★★★★
Curious, can you make your muffins, lightly Pammed and no muffin liners? Was n’t sure of the liner purpose. Thanks!
Absolutely! You can use liners or grease the muffin pan with nonstick spray.
If my son had his way I would bake these every week. I swap 2/3 of the flour for wheat flour and add 1 cup chocolate chips. This is my go to muffin recipe because it’s so easy and consistent. I often use frozen bananas too with no problems.
★★★★★
Excellent! I had to use dark brown and light brown sugar because I ran out of light, and the muffins were still delicious.
★★★★★
Fantastic recipe…moist, tall tops, flavorful. What more could you ask for? How about some left for the cook. My grandkids devoured all of them while they were still warm so on to a second batch.
★★★★★
I made these today.
Easy recipe, the muffins are so soft and delicious. Best one banana muffins I’ve ever baked.
The recipe is definitely a keeper!
Yum
★★★★★
Can I use more bananas? What would I need to modify?
Hi Lena, if you have more bananas that you’re trying to use, you could always make this recipe twice and freeze half of the muffins. They freeze well!
They are so delicious! Fluffy and moist.
★★★★★
Delicious! I even added some raisins, blueberries, walnuts & wheat germ and made them as muffin tops!
This recipe worked like a dream! So tasty and such a light texture. I normally bake our go to banana bread in a loaf tin and while the family love the moist dense texture of it, these proved to be very popular.
★★★★★
I’m not a baker but this recipe is delicious. I added the chocolate chips for my great granddaughter and she loves them! My banana bread never comes out good and I’m so happy this recipe worked for me! My next one to try will be the blueberry oatmeal! Thank you for these wonderful recipes.
★★★★★
Perfect!
★★★★★
I made these today and they were fantastic! Super easy and moist. I added chocolate chips and will definitely be making them again
★★★★★
So good! I am always looking for dairy free recipes. I used coconut oil and coconut milk and dairy free chocolate chips. I only had two bananas so I used 1/8 cup applesauce to make sure it was moist enough. They were perfect! Thank you so much!
I made these for the first time this morning and it turned out great. I didn’t have vanilla extract so that was left out and I added chocolate chips and used bread flour because that’s the only flour I had. It was perfect and my family loves it. I made your cinnamon rolls the other morning and they came out great also. Thanks for your recipes.
★★★★★
I started with the recipe and then realized I only have 2 bananas, so I added one extra egg. Then I sprinkled some cinnamon sugar on top before baking and they turned out perfect!! Thanks for all your work!!
★★★★★
Fluffiest and moistest banana muffins I have ever made! I followed the specific baking directions and I am a convert to Sally’sBakingAddiction. I truly think she knows exactly what she is doing, and I am only going to follow her recipes from now on
★★★★★
This recipe was amazing! So moist and fluffy!
★★★★★