Banana Bread Muffins

At a glance

What stands out: Banana bread muffins are everything you love about banana bread but with a much shorter baking time (and no slicing required!). From-scratch muffins are straightforward to mix, better for you, and much less expensive than bakery muffins.

How long it takes: about a half hour
Equipment you’ll need: mixing bowl, muffin tins
Servings: makes 12 muffins

Banana Bread Muffins

Healthier ingredients. With this recipe, you can have your banana bread muffins and eat them too. They’re made with whole wheat flour, unsweetened applesauce in place of most of the oil, and a reasonable amount of sugar. Ripe bananas provide natural sweetness. There’s no fake banana flavoring here!

A nourishing breakfast. Accompanied by fresh fruit and nonfat plain Greek yogurt, banana bread muffins will provide a lighter start to your day. They’re the reliable grab-and-go breakfast for those extra crazy mornings when you don’t have a minute to even think about sitting down with a bowl of granola or oatmeal.

Kids love them! Muffins are great for kids because they are neat(ish) finger food. They’re a take on our whole wheat banana bread in a straightforward muffin format. Put a muffin in your student’s lunchbox for a welcome wholesome treat.

Reasons To Love From-scratch Muffins

• From-scratch muffins are healthier than most bakery muffins. You’ll find that bakery muffins have more calories, and contain more saturated fat, sugar, and sodium than from-scratch muffins. When you make your own, you control what goes in the muffins. And they’re preservative free!
• From-scratch muffins are inexpensive to make. The ingredients are pretty basic. You probably have everything you need already in your pantry. And who doesn’t have a few overripe bananas languishing on the counter? You can probably make a whole batch of muffins for the price of one bakery muffin.
• You get to enjoy the wonderful scent of muffins baking in the oven. Why buy fancy-schmancy air fresheners? Bake a batch of muffins and your house will smell wonderful! Bonus: You get to enjoy a warm muffin right out of the oven, reliable with a cup of coffee or tea.

What goes in

• Bananas: Making banana bread muffins is a good way to use up overripe bananas (for more about that, see the FAQ section below). You’ll need three to four bananas, depending on their size. (If you still have extra bananas, try our banana coconut pancakes!)
• Eggs: A couple of eggs add structure, flavor, and protein to the muffins.
• Applesauce: We like to use a snack-size container of unsweetened applesauce. It’s just the right amount and we usually have it in the house. Why applesauce? It keeps the muffins moist without adding a lot of oil.
• Canola Oil: This mild-tasting oil is reliable for baking. If you prefer another type of oil, feel free to substitute it. You’ll only need a quarter-cup.
• Whole Wheat Flour/All Purpose Flour: We find that using a blend of both flours makes muffins that have the nutritional benefit of whole wheat but are still fluffy and soft. You can use any ratio you like; we like to use a cup of each (1:1).
• Sugar: The recipe calls for ¾ cup. If your bananas are nice and ripe, you can easily cut that amount down to ½ cup or even a ⅓ cup.
• Pure Vanilla Extract: Vanilla enhances the flavor of the bananas. It’s a baker’s best friend!
• Baking Soda, Baking Powder, Salt: These three ingredients play important roles.You can’t taste them but you sure would miss them if you forgot to add them.

How it comes together

Get started. Always begin by preheating your oven. Never put muffins into a cold oven; they simply won’t turn out. Lightly spray your muffin tins with nonstick spray. Alternatively, you can grease them with shortening or oil, or line them with paper liners.

Mash the bananas. Choose a large bowl (it’s the only bowl you’ll need for our straightforward one-bowl method!). Peel and mash the bananas using a fork or pastry cutter. You should have 1 ½ cups of mashed banana. It’s best to measure the amount because bananas vary widely in size.

Add eggs, applesauce, oil, sugar, and vanilla. Crack a couple of eggs in the bowl with the mashed bananas. Whisk the eggs until they are well-blended. Add the applesauce, oil, sugar, and vanilla; whisk well to combine. The mixture should be fairly smooth.

Add dry ingredients. Carefully measure out the flour and dump it into the bowl on top of the wet mixture. Add the baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Gently use your fingertips or a fork to blend the dry ingredients together a bit.

Stir it all together. Fold the dry ingredients into the banana mixture, stirring just until they are combined. It’s okay if a few lumps remain; don’t overmix the muffin batter.

Scoop the batter into the muffin tins. Evenly divide the batter into the muffin cups. You can use any size muffin cups you like, from mini muffins to giant muffins. Keep in mind that small muffins won’t take as long to bake as large muffins.

Bake the muffins. Put the muffins into the oven and bake them until they are lightly golden brown and firm to the touch. If you insert a toothpick into the center of a muffin, it should come out clean without batter stuck to it.

Cool the muffins. Let the muffins cool in the tins until they firm up a bit, five to ten minutes. Carefully remove them from the tins and finish cooling the muffins on a wire rack.

Before you start

Ways to change it

• Add embellishments. Chocolate chips or mini chocolate chips go well with banana. Although we haven’t tried it, we're thinking white chocolate chips, toffee chips, or butterscotch chips would be great, too. Add toasted walnuts or toasted pecans, if you like, or stir in raisins or dried cranberries. If you love streusel, be sure to try our banana streusel muffins!
• Use less sugar. The recipe calls for ¾ cup but we often use less, closer to ⅓ cup or ½ cup, especially if we're adding chocolate chips. Ripe bananas provide plenty of sweet flavor.
• Make the muffins 100% whole wheat. We often make our muffins with 100% whole wheat flour, without mixing in all-purpose flour. The muffins are a little heartier and a bit heavier. If you aren’t used to whole wheat muffins, gradually use less and less all-purpose flour until you’ve acclimated to whole wheat.
• Make them mini! Bake them in a mini muffin tin. Baking time will be shorter, 10-11 minutes.

Keeping leftovers

Cool the muffins completely before storing in an airtight container. They’ll keep for a few days on the counter. For longer storage, refrigerate them.

Freezing Instructions: Muffins freeze well. Store them in freezer safe containers or bags. We like to keep an assortment of muffins in the freezer, wrapped individually, and then we can easily grab one to add to lunchboxes or for a speedy snack. Muffins thaw quickly so they’ll be ready to eat by recess or lunch time.

• Yield: 12 muffins
• Prep: 10 minutes
• Cook: 15 minutes
• Total: 30 minutes

Ingredients

• 1 ½ cups mashed ripe bananas ( 3 to 4 bananas, depending on size)
• 2 large eggs
• ½ cup applesauce (or 1 snack size container)
• ¼ cup canola oil (or any mild tasting oil)
• ¾ cup sugar
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 1 cup whole wheat flour (see note)
• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• ½ teaspoon baking powder
• ½ teaspoon salt

Method

1. Heat oven to 350°F. Spray muffin tins ( 12 cup) with nonstick cooking spray.
2. In a large bowl, mash bananas (see note). Whisk in eggs until combined. Add applesauce, oil, sugar, and vanilla extract. Stir well until combined.
3. Add flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt on top of banana mixture. Mix the dry ingredients lightly with fingertips, then stir in the dry ingredients into the banana mixture just until combined.
4. Scoop batter evenly into prepared muffin tins, about ¾ full. Yield may vary depending on the size of your muffin tins.
5. Bake until a toothpick inserted in center of a muffin comes out clean and muffins are golden brown, 14 to 16 minutes. Transfer muffin tins to a wire rack and let cool 5 minutes. Remove muffins from tin and cool on wire rack, or better yet, enjoy warm.

Notes

Measure the bananas! Since bananas vary so much in size, it’s best to measure the amount of mashed bananas so you get an accurate measurement.

If desired, make jumbo muffins or mini muffins with this batter but adjust baking time accordingly.

If you prefer, substitute all-purpose flour for the whole wheat flour, or vice versa.