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
I’ve never made such light and flavorful muffins. The best recipe and I’ve been baking for 40 years. Flavorful with a tender crumb but are not light like a cake. Just perfect! And easy recipe with a wonderful result. Thank you!
These turned out perfectly and the whole family loves them ❤️
Can I sub the suger for regular granulated suger?
Hi Bracha, that should work in a pinch.
Hi, I was just wondering if it’s melted butter or solid that the recipe calls for! Thanks so much
Hi Laura, this recipe calls for melted butter.
Can i use pot instead of oven
These need to be baked in an oven.
This is a go-to in our household for school lunches. Not much of a baker, but I never fail at these 🙂 thanks for a great recipe.
I have 4 ripe bananas and they weigh about 390 grams.
What will this do to the batter?
Hi Christi, we’d recommend leaving part of one out, but you can try to use them all if you’d like to.
This has to be the best muffin recipe I’ve ever tried. These muffins come out perfectly every time. They taste amazing with chocolate chips. I like to sprinkle brown sugar mixed with cinnamon on top of the muffins right before baking to give them a sugar topping.
Thank you for the recipe, I successfully made it but my muffins is kinda tall than yours in the picture (that looks flat).
Fabulous recipe.
I used a gluten free flour blend, 1/2 cup of sugar, plant milk and plant butter and they were perfect. Added cashew and chocolate chips…yum!
I love it when I recipe just works.
I think the metric conversion for flour is wrong here – I had 188g of flour after pouring 1 cup, but the recipe calls for 1.5 cups.
Hi Will, you can read more about measuring baking ingredients. Make sure to spoon and level your flour, instead of scooping, which packs it in too much.
has anyone done a cream cheese frosting on these? is that strange?!
Hi Dee, cream cheese frosting would be delicious here!
I made these muffins last night to use up some leftover bananas and they turned out great. I’m UK based and put them on 220 fan oven (probably should have reduced to 200 for fan). I took the muffins out 3 minutes early and just rescued them but that’s my own mistake. They are very brown in colour but I think that’s the dark sugar I used, I’m super impressed with the taste and texture – seems a foolproof recipe to me! Thank you!
I just made muffins and added walnuts. They are fantastic. Thank you for this quick amazing recipe.❤️❤️
Omg. I had exactly 3 over ripe bananas and I hate food waste. Came across this recipe and now I’m eating banana muffins for dinner! They were meant for snacks and breakfast but so good, the smell is amazing, I could have eaten the batter raw, and so moist! Yum!
I put walnuts and chocolate chips and brown sugar in my recipe. I used defrosted bananas from the freezer…the mashed bananas was a brownish slurry. My muffins turned out quite dark…any ideas why?
Hi Tina, Some brands of dark brown sugar is darker in color than others and also previously frozen bananas can be darker in color. After thawing your bananas be sure to drain off any excess liquid, mash, then use as instructed in the recipe below. See How to Freeze & Thaw Bananas for Baking for details. Try not to mash too much or else you’ll be left with 2 cups of banana-y liquid; some chunks are great.
Excellent recipe. Easy to make and turned out moist and delicious!! I will be making these again and again!!
Can you use whole wheat flour instead of all purpose
Hi Tia, You could try these whole wheat banana muffins or this healthy whole wheat banana bread instead!
Okay, seriously best banana muffins ever. I’m on my second time making these (1 week apart haha!) and my family and I can’t get enough of them. I’m seriously no baker and I can barely cook, but these came out perfect BOTH times! Makes me want to open a bakery or something, but fear not, I’ll spare humanity and stick to my day job haha! But I’ll keep making these!
Hello – I’d like to make these muffins as the step 2 of the milk ladder for my daughter. This is their recipe and it’s awful:
2 cups flour
2 and 1/2 tsp Baking powder
2 tbsp sugar
Pinch salt
1/4 cup Sunflower or Canola oil
1 cup Milk
1/2 cup mashed fruit
Should make 6 muffins
The key ingredient I want to include is the 250ml of milk – how can I do this with your recipe if possible? Can the butter be replaced with milk so that there is more in the recipe? Thank you
Hi Alex, we don’t recommend increasing the milk or the batter will become too thin. We don’t recommend replacing the butter either; you need that fat. You could try these whole wheat banana muffins or this healthy whole wheat banana bread instead, both of which use more milk that this recipe (1/3 cup).
Thank you! Probably why that other recipe is so terrible – I will look at the other two recipes you suggested
These muffins are amazing! We always have extra bananas, so this is a handy recipe for us. The last couple of times I made these, I switched out whole wheat flour for the all-purpose. I found that if I double the amount of milk, then the muffins come out almost as fluffy and moist as using only all-purpose flour. I also throw in a few scoops of unflavored collagen protein powder, and that helps make sure nobody feels too hungry too soon after breakfast!
What is the cooking temp and time for mini muffins?
Hi Laura, see step 3: For mini muffins, bake 12–14 total minutes at 350°F (177°C).
I made these this morning but I only had 2 bananas. I added one 4 oz cup of applesauce to replace the 3rd banana. Every other ingredient and measurement I made the same. Cooked muffins at 425 for 5 minutes and 350 for 15. They were delish.
Hi! Do you think it’s possible to swap all or some of the butter for vegetable or canola oil?
Hi Jules, we typically do not recommend swapping butter (which is solid at room temp) for a liquid oil, but you could use coconut oil here.
I did it successfully with canola oil, and they turned out amazing. I also reduced the sugar by half so that may have done something
Muffins turned out beautiful and delicious. Family loved them. Sally is my first go to for different recipes. Never has failed me.
Love this recipe! I’ve made it multiple times with gluten free flour and oat milk and it is amazing! This time I also swapped cardamom for the nutmeg and it was equally great. I also add either walnuts or pecans AND chocolate chips. All great!
An easy and delicious recipe! I made no changes, and added chopped pecans. This is one I’ll definitely make again!
Can I half the recipe? I only have 2 ripe bananas and I wanna make it with that. Is it just halving all ingredients?
Hi Aalia, yes, you can halve all the ingredients for a half batch.
I would like to make these jumbo muffins. How will that affect baking time?
Hi Kim, We recommend using the baking times and instructions from jumbo blueberry muffins as a guide.
Super good! I swapped 1/2 the flour for whole wheat and used oat milk. Still turned out perfect.
Hi! Could I use browned butter? I don’t know if bb is just for flavor or if it changes anything in the texture as well. Thanks!
Hi Bea, You can use brown butter, but add a tablespoon of water or milk to make up for the liquid loss that occurs when browning the butter. Enjoy!
Amazing recipe, thank you! I add walnuts and hemp seeds. Made multiple times, kids love them so much!
Can I double the recipe?
Hi TP, You can, but for best results and to prevent over mixing, we recommend making two separate batches.