These banana bread muffins are one of the best ways to use up those overripe bananas! Simple ingredients come together to make tender and fluffy muffins full of banana flavor.
This easy recipe turns traditional banana bread into tender and fluffy banana bread muffins. It’s one of those on-the-fly baking ideas you can make with simple ingredients. Plus, these muffins always comes out so cozy and perfect. If you have some overripe bananas on your counter right now, make these muffins.
Why You’ll Love These Banana Bread Muffins
- Tender and fluffy. Banana bread muffins are soft, moist, and full of sweet banana flavor with hints of brown sugar, cinnamon, and maple syrup.
- Just like banana bread. These muffins taste just like a cozy loaf of your favorite banana bread, only quicker to bake and easier to take on the go.
- Easy to make and customize. This muffin recipe uses simple pantry ingredients, and you mix the batter by hand – no mixer required! Customize it with any add-ins you’d like. I love adding nuts or chocolate chips in particular. (More ideas below.)
- Freezer-friendly. Make a double batch and freeze some muffins to enjoy later! These muffins freeze well for months.
Ingredients You’ll Need
Here’s a quick overview of what you’ll need to make these banana bread muffins, with some notes on the key ingredients. Remember to scroll to the recipe card for the full amounts and details.
- Flour
- Baking powder, baking soda, salt
- Cinnamon – For subtle warm spice. You can also use nutmeg or pumpkin pie spice.
- Bananas – Just like the bananas you’d use to make banana bread, the bananas for these muffins should be very ripe (but not too ripe) with brown spots on the peel. See below for details.
- Butter – Melting the butter beforehand makes the muffin batter easy to mix by hand.
- Brown sugar
- Eggs
- Sour cream – For extra moisture and richness, I add sour cream. You won’t really taste sour cream in muffin recipes, but it brings delicious softness and texture to the crumb.
- Vanilla and maple syrup – Make sure to use pure vanilla extract and real maple syrup for the best possible flavor. Skip the artificially flavored pancake syrup and imitation vanilla. If you don’t have maple syrup, use honey instead.
- Raw sugar (optional) – Or another kind of coarse sugar, like baker’s sugar, for topping your muffins with a bit of sweet crunch. Granulated sugar won’t work because it will dissolve into the muffins.
What Bananas Are Best For Banana Bread Muffins?
Your bananas should have plenty of brown spots, but they shouldn’t be totally brown. I often make banana bread and muffins when I have a bunch of spotty, mature bananas in my fruit bowl. Over-ripe bananas have lots of flavor with just the right amount of sweetness, and they’re easier to mash.
How to Make Banana Bread Muffins
Just like banana bread recipes, these banana bread muffins are practically foolproof and so comforting. I love the added crunch that comes with sprinkling them with raw sugar just before baking. Here’s how to make them:
- Make the batter. First, mix the dry ingredients together in one bowl. In a second bowl, mash up your bananas, then combine them with the butter, sugar, and remaining wet ingredients. Add the dry ingredients to the wet batter, and mix.
- Prep for baking. Next, pour the batter into the wells of a greased muffin tin. Top each muffin with a sprinkle of raw sugar.
- Bake. Bake your muffins at 425ºF for 5 minutes. Afterward, lower the temperature to 375ºF and continue to bake for 13-15 minutes, until golden brown. Starting your muffins off at a higher temperature is the secret to big, puffy domes. The muffins are done baking when the tops spring back right away when you press them gently with your finger.
- Cool. Once your muffins are out of the oven, leave them to cool for 20 minutes before serving. See below for easy ways to enjoy these fluffy banana bread muffins.
Tips for Success
Yes, I did say these muffins are “foolproof”, but wait, there’s more! Keep the following in mind for the best-ever banana bread muffins:
- Use ripe bananas. See my notes in the ingredients section earlier. Banana bread (and muffins) is the best excuse to use up bananas that are past their prime.
- Don’t overmix the batter. Mix the batter ingredients until they’re just combined, and try your best to not overmix. Overly worked batter leads to tough, gummy muffins that won’t rise in the oven.
- Fill the wells of the muffin tin up to 3/4 full. Avoid over-filling so that your muffins don’t expand and spill over the rim.
- Bake at a higher temperature to start. This helps the muffins rise higher, with nice, big domes. Baking at 425ºF for 5 minutes creates a quick burst of steam that puffs up the muffins. After, lower the temperature to 375ºF for the remaining time in the oven.
- Don’t overbake. For moist, tender banana bread muffins, be careful that you don’t overbake them. Check the muffins for doneness by gently pressing on them with your finger. If the top springs back right away, your muffins are ready to come out.
Add-Ins and Variations
Anything you’d add to banana bread, you can add to these banana bread muffins! I recommend tossing any add-ins lightly in flour first, to prevent them from sinking to the bottom of the batter.
- Nuts. Mix in chopped toasted nuts, like pecans or walnuts for banana nut muffins.
- Chocolate chips. Try chocolate chip banana bread muffins and stir in your choice of dark chocolate or white chocolate chips.
- Blueberries. I love stirring a handful of blueberries into the muffin batter when berries are in season.
- More add-ins. Try other mix-in ideas like shredded coconut, raisins, or dried cranberries.
Ways to Enjoy Banana Bread Muffins
For a cozy breakfast, pair banana bread muffins with a bowl of creamy millet porridge and your favorite fresh fruit. They also make an easy addition to a family or holiday brunch. Serve these banana muffins as a sweet side to skillet home fries and scrambled eggs, or a satisfying breakfast casserole, like this spinach and cheese strata.
Looking to take your banana bread on the go? Enjoy fluffy muffins as an easy snack or light breakfast any day of the week. I love them smeared with butter and drizzled with honey or fresh homemade strawberry sauce or blueberry sauce.
If you’re a fan of muffins with a hot cup of coffee (same!) then try these with a Pumpkin Spice Latte, a Caramel Brulée Latte or a Honey Vanilla Latte.
How to Store and Freeze
- To store. These banana bread muffins will keep at room temperature for up to 3 days. Make sure that the muffins are completely cool, and then store them airtight. Storing muffins while they’re still warm causes condensation, which leads to sticky muffins.
- Freeze. To freeze these for later, allow the muffins to cool completely. Then wrap each one in saran wrap and transfer them to a freezer bag or freezer-safe container. Keep the muffins frozen for up to 3 months.
- Defrost frozen muffins on the counter, or you can speed up the thawing process with the microwave. Just remove the plastic wrap and then zap your muffin for about 20-30 seconds. If I’m running errands, I like to take a frozen muffin with me in the morning, and it’s thawed out by the time I’m hungry for a snack.
More Easy Muffin Recipes to Try
- Pumpkin Apple Muffins
- Coffee Cake Muffins
- Blueberry Muffins
- Cornbread Muffins
- Cheddar Cheese Sweet Potato Muffins
- Lemon Poppy Seed Muffins
Banana Bread Muffins
Ingredients
- 2 ½ cups all-purpose flour, leveled
- 1 tablespoon baking powder
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- ½ teaspoon kosher salt
- ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1 cup mashed ripe bananas, about 2 bananas
- ½ cup unsalted butter, melted and cooled
- 1 cup light brown sugar, firmly packed
- 3 large eggs, room temperature
- ¾ cup sour cream
- ½ tablespoon pure vanilla extract
- 1 tablespoon pure maple syrup
- 2 tablespoons raw sugar, or bakers sugar for topping (not granulated sugar)
Instructions
- Prep your tools. Preheat your oven to 425F. Spray a muffin tin with PAM or cooking spray. Set aside.
- Combine dry ingredients. In a medium bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and ground cinnamon. Mix and set aside.
- Mash the banana. In a large bowl, mash the banana with a potato masher or fork, until there are no large chunks left.
- Combine wet ingredients. To the bowl with the mashed banana, add the butter, brown sugar, eggs, sour cream, vanilla and maple syrup. Mix well.
- Add dry ingredients. Pour the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients and mix until there are no dry bits of batter left.
- Prep for baking. Add batter to the prepared tin. Fill each muffin tin almost to the top. Sprinkle a bit of raw sugar on top of the wet batter.
- Bake for 5 minutes at 425ºF. Starting at this higher temperature will help the muffins get a nice dome on top.
- Reduce temperature to 375ºF. Continue baking for 13-15 minutes, until the muffins are light golden brown and the tops spring back when pressed with your finger gently.
- Cool. Remove the tin from the oven and allow the muffins to cool for 20 minutes before serving.
Nutrition
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These are better than banana bread! I love to bake and these turned out so beautiful! My new banana bread go to!
Wonderful! I’m so glad you enjoyed the recipe. 🙂
I can use this recipe as muffins if I don’t have tins for banana loaf and bake in tray👋👌. 👋👋👋
Omg, this is the best easiest recipe ever!
So delicious 👏👏👏👍😃
Thank you soooo much!!
I was just checking my email real quick before hitting the sack and saw your comment. What a lovely way to end the day! Thank you for trying the recipe and for coming back to let me know how it turned out. So happy you liked it. 🙂
Looks Soo yummy😋
Baking is my passion would like more muffin recipes
I tried this recipe today. I have one family favorite I usually use but not today. They turned out really good. I used half coconut oil and half butter. I did not have pure maple syrup so I just left it out. I added walnuts and chocolate chips. I have a great granddaughter that likes muffins but they have to have chocolate chips in them. Very good receipe. It will be a keeper for sure. I should have read down further on the oven temp. I just baked them at 350 degrees.i also made mini . Got a bunch. I found this in the news on my phone .
So glad to hear you enjoyed these muffins Joan! Thank you for trying the recipe and coming back to let me know how it turned out. 🙂