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
Made these today and they were gone in 15 minutes! Can I substitute oat flour instead next time? Would the measurements be the same?
Hi Kim, we haven’t tested this recipe with oat flour, so are unsure of the results. If you decide to try it, please let us know how they turn out!
So good!!! Try this
So good!!!
Sally and her team have taught me so much through the years that I knew what to do with a conundrum! I only had two bananas, frozen, and after thawing and draining off all of their liquid, I was short by nearly half. So I substituted the rest of 345 grams with unsweetened applesauce! Years of following Sally’s website, books and social media taught me it might work and it did. The muffins turned out fantastic and so moist!
Have made this recipe so many times, always an absolute hit! Never fails me
These are my favorite muffins! I make them all the time.
Highly recommend making them with butterscotch chips!
My new favourite banana muffin recipe!! I can’t tell you how happy these make me!
These are delicious! I ran out of butter and used 1/4 cup of applesauce instead of 6 Tbsp. of butter and was pleasantly surprised! They were super moist and did not taste of the applesauce at all.
I’ve made these muffins many times, and we love them. I bought nice ceramic pans as a gift for the teachers and I want to fill them with this recipe. would you have any changes to suggest with baking time etc for a 23x18cm pan? 9×7 inches. I bake tomorrow, thanks!
Hi Erin, we’d recommend using our very similar banana bread recipe. That’s written for a 9×5-inch pan, so yours will be a bit shorter. Bake time may be slightly quicker, too. Hope it’s a hit!
This is my favorite muffin recipe!! So delicious! I love the technique of baking the muffins at a higher temp to get them to rise. It works every time and they always look beautiful. I am definitely addicted to them;)
I make these so often and this time l substituted the melted butter with half applesauce and half melted coconut oil. I also used only coconut sugar. Even with these adjustments they still turned out amazing! (I couldn’t even taste a difference in them at all.) They ended up being about 150 calories (which is hard to beat for a good muffin). Thank you!
Thank you! I follow many of your recipes! I appreciate the advice below regarding turing into mini muffins; 350 degrees for 14-15 minutes. I added a dash more of salt and only a dash of cinnamon. Perfect moist mini muffins! Thank you!
Hi, if I want to double the recipe, should any of the ingredient ratios change?
Thanks!
Hi Meagan, You can simply double everything, but for best results and to prevent over mixing, we recommend making two separate batches.
Just made these and they’re so easy and delicious!! Made them with GF King Arthur flower and they came out divine with pecans and chocolate chips. Just gave some to the neighbors!
This IS the banana muffin recipe!!!! I make them all the time and I always come back to this recipe specifically. So much so that my kids request “that one really good muffin recipe”. Delicious!!
I made these this morning and they are the best banana muffins ever!
Going to ice with a chocolate ganache if they last long enough and do t get eaten
Delish! Love the cinnamon flavor.
can I add blueberries?
You certainly could add a cup of blueberries to the batter with no other changes. Enjoy!
Love these. Will definitely save this recipe. Thank you!
I just took these out of the oven, they are absolutely delicious!
My 5yo raves about these! We no longer dread too many bananas. Definitely a keeper!
Our family loves these muffins! They really are so quick and so easy, plus they are super delicious and a great way to use up bananas that are on their way out. For some reason, banana bread feels like it wouldn’t get eaten as fast in our house but when it’s in muffin form, they disappear. This recipe is a staple for us and I’ve made it tons of times. Thanks!
How long should I bake jumbo muffins?
Hi Victoria, We recommend using the baking times and instructions from jumbo blueberry muffins as a guide.
Very delicious, soft and moist muffin recipe. I used canola oil instead of butter with very good results. Easy to make and budget friendly. Thank you very much.
I was just wondering, if I were to bake these as mini muffins, would that affect the bake time and temperature?
Hi AB, For mini muffins, bake 12–14 total minutes at 350°F (177°C).
Wow! These are the best banana muffins I’ve ever made! The instructions were easy to follow, and they were super easy to make with my son. Delicious, moist, and fluffy. Not dense at all or dry. Definitely a keeper recipe and my new go-to! Thanks so much!
I followed the recipe but for reducing the sugar to 1/4 cup but I only ended up with 9 regular sized muffins. So you may want to adjust the recipe or only fill each 2/3 full.
Hi Sally, first time baking cupcakes. Thank you for the superb recipe
I noticed my cakes spilling out of the cupcake sheets unto the muffin tray and they (batter) were not even filled to the top. What could have been the cause?
Hi Nma, thank you for giving these a try! Were you using a standard muffin pan to bake these? Or maybe something smaller?
I usually don’t sub a recipe the first time through but I reduced butter to 4 tbsp and added a heaping tbsp of creamy peanut butter. They were amazing, especially with the spices. Thanks for the inspo.
My family tasted the salt. It needs to
How many calories in one muffin with no nuts or chocolate chips?
Hi Erica, 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