Banana Bread Muffins
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Banana bread muffins are moist, fluffy and filled with big banana flavor. Brown sugar, bananas, vanilla and a hint of cinnamon make these muffins delicious. Then adding sour cream makes them tender and moist. It’s an easy, no mixer recipe that makes perfect banana muffins every time.
**This post was updated November 2, 2024 with new photos and recipe tips**
Do you love banana bread? If yes (who doesn’t????) – then these banana bread muffins are definitely for you. They’re oh so moist and packed with flavor thanks to the bananas, brown sugar, cinnamon and vanilla.
The muffin batter comes together quickly and easily (no mixer required), and compared to making classic banana bread, the bake time isn’t long. Most banana breads need at least 50 minutes in the oven baking, but the bake time for these muffins under 20 minutes. So you end up with all the flavor of banana bread – but they’re ready to enjoy in way less time.
How to Make Moist Banana Bread Muffins
Making banana bread muffins is really simple. To make the muffin batter:
- Start by preheating the oven to 400F (200C) and lining your muffin pan with muffin papers. Alternatively, you can lightly grease and flour the pan, or just lightly grease the pan if using a silicon muffin pan.
- Yes – the oven temperature is hot! More on that below.
- In a large bowl whisk together the flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt & cinnamon. I found using a combo of baking soda and baking powder made the muffins rise perfectly. Then the cinnamon really adds flavor.
- Then in a separate bowl whisk together the melted butter, sugars, eggs, vanilla extract, and sour cream. Stop whisking when you no longer see lumps of brown sugar or pieces of egg. We’re using 1/2 cup packed brown sugar in addition to 1/2 cup white sugar to add more flavor to the muffins. The sour cream is key for super moist muffins
- Then whisk the mashed banana into the butter mixture. If you see banana lumps, that’s OK.
- Make a well in the middle of the dry ingredients, then pour the wet ingredients into the well.
- Gently fold the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients using a rubber spatula or wooden spoon.
- When it’s almost incorporated, stir in 1/2 cup chopped walnuts. Optional – but recommended.
- Then scoop the muffin batter into the prepared muffin pan. You’ll fill the muffin papers to the top. You’ll end up with 12-14 muffins in total.
Baking the Muffins
For extra tall muffins, make sure to fill your muffin liners to the very top. Then we bake them for 5 minutes at 400F (200C) degrees followed by about 10 minutes at 375F (190C) which makes them rise nicely and have golden edges. *You don’t need to remove your muffins from the oven in between – just let them continue to happily bake.*
If you’re worried that your oven’s temperature won’t adjust quickly enough down to 375F – then I recommend baking your muffins at 375F (190C) for the entire time. They’ll need about 18-20 minutes to bake.
These banana bread muffins are perfect for breakfast, coffee time, or a mid-afternoon snack. And if you’re still on the fence – here’s the recap:
- Big on flavor thanks to bananas, brown sugar, cinnamon & vanilla
- Extra moist
- Perfectly tender and soft
- Sky-high muffin tops
- From start to finish, ready in under 30 minutes
If you love these banana bread muffins, make sure to try these other favorites too:
- Banana Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting
- Double Chocolate Banana Muffins
- Classic Banana Bread
- Light and Fluffy Banana Pancakes
Banana Bread Muffins
Equipment
- 12-cavity muffin pan
Ingredients
- 2 cups all-purpose flour (250 grams)
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1/2 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp cinnamon
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 1/2 cup white sugar (100 grams)
- 1/2 cup brown sugar (105 grams), see recipe notes for less sweet muffins
- 1/2 cup butter (112 grams), melted
- 2 large eggs, room temperature
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 1/4 cup sour cream*, room temperature
- 3 medium large brown bananas*, mashed, or 4 smaller bananas – it should be about 1 1/3 cups mashed
- 1/2 cup chopped walnuts
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 400F (200C) degrees and line a muffin pan with papers.
- In a large bowl whisk together the flour, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon and salt. Set aside.
- In a separate bowl, whisk together the melted butter, brown sugar, granulated sugar, eggs, sour cream and vanilla extract.
- Whisk the mashed bananas into the butter mixture.
- Make a well in the middle of the dry ingredients and pour the wet ingredients into the bowl.
- Gently fold the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients. Do this by hand (not an electric mixer)
- Gently fold in the chopped walnuts.
- Spoon the batter into the prepared muffin tin, filling each muffin paper to the top. You should end up with 12-14 muffins in total.
- Bake for 5 minutes at 400F (200C) degrees. Without removing the pan from the oven, turn the oven down to 375F (190C) and continue baking for 10-12 minutes or until an inserted toothpick comes out clean.
Notes
- Sugars: For less sweet muffins, use 1/2 cup white sugar and 1/4 cup brown sugar.
- Sour Cream: Sour cream can be replaced with plain Greek yogurt.
- Bananas: 3 large bananas should be about 1 1/3 cups mashed.
- Oven Temperature: If you’re concerned that your oven temperature won’t adjust quickly enough after turning it down to 375F (190C) – then I recommend baking the muffins at 375F (180C) for the entire time. They’ll need about 18-20 minutes to bake.
- Storage: Muffins are best enjoyed the same day that they’re baked. Store leftovers in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 3 days. Baked and cooled muffins can be frozen for up to 2 months. Thaw in the fridge.
This is our go-to muffin recipe. I have to triple the recipe because they just don’t last. So easy to whip up and less baking time compared to a regular loaf.
I previously made this recipe and followed it to the letter and the muffins were absolutely wonderful, but a bit too sweet. So I followed the recommendation for a less sweeter taste by adding less brown sugar and unfortunately the muffins were dry.
Would gluten free flour work with this recipe?
If you have a gluten-free flour that you’ve used before with good results, then they should be fine. It’s hard for me to say for sure, because different brands of gluten-free flour can behave differently.
I’m going to assume you mean gently fold the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients in step 5 & not flour mixture into the dry ingredients
Thank you so much for catching that – I just updated the post.
I had some very ripe bananas and your recipe is one of the first ones I found on Pinterest…the photo caught my eye, so I gave it a try. DELICIOUS, and they smelled wonderful! Thanks for sharing.
I’m so glad you enjoyed them!
Delicious muffins, and vey quick to make. I left out the walnuts, because I prefer them without nuts, and didn’t have any sour cream, so I used full fat Greek yogurt instead, which worked very well. My toddler grandson ate a whole one for his afternoon snack! thanks for a keeper recipe!
I made these this morning before school and they are delicious!!! Probably my new favorite muffin recipe!
Absolutely the best banana muffins ever! I made a batch for Thanksgiving and froze them but my husband and I kept eating them. Just made anothe batch so our Thanksgivig guets can have them for breakfast.
Thank you so much! Muffins are so great for freezing for company. I hope you have a wonderful Thanksgiving
Changing the temperature does make a difference! Also, I made a few modifications to the recipe (no cinammon and less sugar, for example) but it worked just fine! My best banana bread muffins to date! Thanks so much for sharing!
I make this recipe two different ways: as written for me and my husband (but with toasted pecans instead of walnuts) and a healthy way for school snacks for my kid. Healthy= substitute whole wheat flour for half the flour, reduce the butter by half and add 6 tablespoons unsweetened applesauce, and use chocolate chips instead of nuts. They are SO good with the substitutions!
I have made these many times. They are very good , the only changes I have made is I use Greek yogurt in place of sour cream, and I sprinkle raw sugar on the tops. Thanks for sharing the recipe, it is a keeper!