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, banana bread, or chocolate 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!
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 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. 🙂
Reader Comments and Reviews
*forgot to rate !
5 perfect stars !
Wow 🙂
I can’t recommend this enough – these turned out beautifully !
Just the perfect amount of spice, moist but robust, not too sweet, spongey – I felt an absolute professional.
Amazing 🙂
Best Banana muffin I have ever had and I am a professional banana muffin taster. SPOT ON!!!
Light, fluffy, and delicious the only optional choices I made were coconut oil instead of butter and I added walnuts on top before baking. Adding this recipe to my cards
These are the best! I make them about once a month. Little kid and grown up approved. I’ve never been disappointed by a Sally recipe.
These turn out perfect every time. I have even added one cup of freshly ground zucchini, and they still turned out well..
Love this recipe! Only issue I had was when I saved it to Pinterest it was slightly different. I went back to Google to make again.
These are my go-to muffins! The recipe is so easy that my 4 and 6 year old can help. Moist, delicious and perfect with chocolate chips.
My only advice is that they come out a little too dark on the top although they are NOT overcooked. For appearance purposes, I tent them with foil for the last 6 minutes.
Can I use almond flour instead of AP flour?
Hi Amelia, we don’t recommend almond flour here, as it isn’t always a 1:1 swap with all-purpose flour. You might try these blueberry almond power muffins instead!
This is now my go-to banana muffin recipe. My old oven would freak out if I mucked about with the temperature, but 180°c for 25mins worked a treat. My children especially loved the choc chips. Very moist and not sickly sweet, I highly recommend trying the recipe
would this be good with a glaze
Absolutely!
Banana muffins made easy and that is so true. My first time making muffins and they are professional
These muffins were amazing! They were soft and fluffy and they were delicious but one thing that I did notice is that when they cooled the chocolate chips, kind of stayed the same how do I keep that from not happening?
Loved this recipe ! Super easy & quick & they are so goooood!!!
This was the very first recipe my family tried from Sally’s Baking over a few years ago and we’ve been loving them ever since. I make them at least once a month and every road trip my family has come to expect these muffins. They are just as the title states quick and easy and delicious. I love that whole wheat flour can easily be used in placed of AP flour. The substitutes for butter and brown sugar work wonderfully as well.
So glad you love them, Bri! These muffins are definitely a favorite.
can i leave out the nutmeg?
Yes!
I just made it without the nutmeg and it was Devine!
I made these Sunday and my co-workers said it was the best baked good they ever had!! My mods were browning the butter, adding salted caramel baking chips from Trader Joe’s, and putting turbinado sugar on top. Love that bit of crunch. The browned butter was lovely because I didn’t use any toasted nuts it was the balance there.
Help!! Attempted twice, and followed everything!! Yet they come out clumby at the bottom, why?
Hi Rolando, Were there banana clumps in the bottom? How did you mash your bananas? Next time try mashing the until they are pretty smooth (we find doing this with a mixer is very easy!).
Spectacular! I added mini chocolate chips to dry ingredients and used avocado oil to grease the tin because in prefer wrapper-less muffins. Cheers to you, Sally! ✌
Recipe was easy to follow and yielded a good result overall, although it wasn’t as moist as I had hoped the texture was still good (and it was not dry by any means!) I did substitute a 1/4 cup applesauce for the egg because I was out of egg, and it turned out fine 🙂
I just had to share my opinion with everyone. This is the best recipe IVE ever made. The muffins came out perfect, and IVE eaten so many i feel disgustingly sick. THEYRE delicious.
I’ve made these a few times. I use wheat flour and coconut oil and add 1/2 cup each pecans and walnuts. I’ve subbed some apple sauce when I didn’t have enough bananas. They turn out delicious every time!
These are super easy and super delicious. The recipe is also incredibly forgiving. I was distracted and forgot the egg, so threw it in after the dry ingredients and it still worked out beautifully.
These are the best banana muffins I’ve made! The only thing I changed was using brown butter instead of regular melted butter
Super easy to make, and they turned out amazing!! Everyone in my family loved them and they have so much flavor.
Super delicous! I added diced green apples and soft caramel chews cut into little pieces, it tasted like autumn! 🙂
Made these this morning, exactly following the recipe except for the cup of chocolate chips, I subbed a mix of white chocolate, peanut butter, and chocolate chips at my preschooler’s request. 10/10 delicious.
hi sally, does it matter if i skip the normal flour and use cake flour???? i have no normal flour. may i use almond milk? what about nutmeg? i am not fond of nutmeg. thanks. thses muffins are my favourite kind of ,uffin.
Hi Penelope, we do not recommend cake flour here—it’s too light to use with the heavy bananas. You can use almond milk instead and you can leave out the nutmeg if you wish. Enjoy!
Hello can I used self rising flour in place of the all purpose flour
Hi TT, We don’t recommend using self-raising flour. It would take some recipe testing with that substitution in order to guarantee results.
Oh my. This recipe is amazing. We always throw out several bananas every week. (I honestly think my husband intentionally lets them go dark) I don’t have time or inclination to make banana bread every week.
This recipe however is fast and easy. I have a 3×3 muffin pan that fits perfectly in my air fryer so I’ve made these many many times now.
400 degrees F for 5 mins
350 degrees F for 6-7 mins
PERFECTION!
Thank you Sally. Every recipe you have is great and is so well researched and perfected!
I freeze the bananas that I can make banana bread right away. I peel them and put them whole in a Ziploc bag and put in the freezer. When you defrost them they get a little liquidy. Just drain a little bit of that off but I find once you mix it in it adds moisture. But you don’t want too much water. So I always have bananas ready in the freezer to make when in the mood to bake. Just a suggestion instead of throwing them out for sure.