We took our all-time favorite easy banana bread and turned it into the best banana nut muffins. Get ready to sink your teeth into soft, fluffy, and moist banana nut muffins. You’ll love the crackly-crunchy brown sugar topping that makes these muffins extra delicious! Check out the hundreds of 5-star reviews – this recipe is a winner!
Recipe snapshot
TEXTURE: These muffins get the perfect soft texture from a combination of melted butter and lots of mashed bananas.
EASE: The muffin batter comes together in minutes. No special equipment needed.
FLAVOR: The perfect combination of bananas, sweet brown sugar, and fragrant vanilla.
5-STAR REVIEWS: This recipe is a reader favorite and family favorite.
Key ingredients
The following ingredients are essential to making these muffins the best:
Bananas: Use 3-4 overripe bananas to make this bread sweet, moist, and undeniably banana-flavored.
Brown sugar: The only sugar used in these muffins is brown sugar. It is in the batter and it gets sprinkled on top before baking. The brown sugar gives the bread a deeper flavor and almost caramel-like sweetness. Plus, brown sugar and bananas are a fantastic flavor combo.
Topping: Each muffin is topped with a sprinkling of brown sugar and chopped walnuts. This adds a delicate sweet and crunchy layer right on top of each muffin.
Recipe overview
*Full recipe below in recipe card*
Whisk melted butter and brown sugar.
Add eggs, vanilla, and mashed banana.
Stir in flour, baking soda, and salt.
Stir in the chopped nuts.
Scoop the batter into a muffin pan and sprinkle the top of each muffin with brown sugar and chopped nuts.
Bake until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean and the top is golden brown.
Tips: baking with bananas
It’s important that you use overripe bananas. The skin of the bananas should have brown speckles or even be turning dark brownish-black. This ensures that the bananas mash smoothly and are extra sweet.
You will need 3-4 large bananas for this recipe.
Mash the bananas using a fork or potato masher.
I mash the bananas on a paper plate then fold the plate to slide the mashed banana into the measuring cup.
Recipe tips
- Use overripe (brown speckled) bananas, they’ll be extra sweet!
- Your brown sugar should be fresh and soft. Since this is a key ingredient (used in both the topping and the batter), make sure it is fresh and moist.
- Use your favorite nuts. Walnuts, pecans, hazelnuts, or macadamia nuts are all delicious. Feel free to use a combination of nuts.
- Top these muffins with salted butter, honey butter or maple butter to make them extra tasty.
Optional ingredient swaps
Prefer your muffins a bit more wholesome? I have successfully made the following changes:
- Reduce the brown sugar to ½ cup (in the batter). I still recommend sprinkling brown sugar on top.
- Swap the melted butter for melted coconut oil or mild olive oil.
- Reduce the melted butter/oil to 6 tablespoons.
- Swap ¾ cup of the all purpose flour for white whole wheat flour.
Serving and storage
These muffins are best the day they are made; however, leftovers can be stored tightly-covered at room temperature for up to 2 days, or refrigerated for several days longer.
These are best served warm. I reheat them in the microwave or toaster oven and serve with a smear of salted butter.
Free Baking Guide!
Join thousands of other bakers and subscribe to our newsletter!
Recipe
Banana Nut Muffins
Ingredients
Muffins:
- ½ cup unsalted butter, melted and cooled slightly
- ⅔ cup light brown sugar, lightly packed, make sure it is fresh and soft
- 2 large eggs
- 2 cups mashed very ripe bananas , about 3-4 bananas
- 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
- 1 ¾ cups all purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon, optional
- ½ cup chopped walnuts, or swap for macadamia nuts, pecans, or hazelnuts
Topping:
- ¼ cup brown sugar
- 2-3 tablespoons chopped walnuts
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350°F.
- In a large bowl, whisk melted butter and ⅔ cup brown sugar until well combined, about 1 full minute. Add eggs, mashed banana, and vanilla, whisking until combined.
- In a separate bowl, combine the flour, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon. Add dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and use a rubber spatula to lightly stir the batter until almost combined. Add ½ cup chopped nuts and stir until no streaks of flour remain. Be careful not to over-mix.
- Grease 15 standard-sized muffin cups and divide the batter evenly among the cups. Sprinkle the top of the each cup with brown sugar and chopped walnuts (topping). Bake for 14-17 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Place the pan on a wire rack to cool.
Video
Notes
Nutrition
Nutritional Information is an estimate based on third-party calculations and may vary based on products used and serving sizes.
Tried this recipe?Leave a comment and rating below!
Andrea says
When I made these I made 3 batches for a group hang out and everyone loved them. The first were with walnuts without cinnamon, second without walnuts and we put extra cinnamon, and my third and favorite we added a half cup of chocolate chips and they were perfect warm out of the oven or even just a few seconds in the microwave
Allison says
I’m glad you enjoyed them! Thanks for taking the time to comment. 🙂
Louise Jung says
Anyone tried freezing these individually? Wonder how they are a week or so later?
Allison says
Hi, Louise. I have frozen them before. The brown sugar topping tends to soften, but other than that they are fine. Enjoy!
Cyndy says
I was looking for a good basic banana nut muffin recipe I could modify to make a little healthier and this recipe was perfect. I especially loved the topping! I used plain Greek yogurt instead of the butter, and changed the flour to 1 cup regular white flour and 3/4 cup whole wheat. I also added 1/4 teaspoon of nutmeg. Best banana nut muffins ever!
Allison says
I’m glad you enjoyed them! Thanks for stopping by. 🙂
Stephanie says
Did you use non-fat Greek yogurt? Just curious
M says
Added shredded zuchinni, nutmeg and sub apple sauce for half the butter. Amazing Yum!
Allison says
I’m glad you enjoyed them! 🙂
Ruth says
These turned out looking like the picture. BUT, WOW, sorry they tasted like a diet muffin. No flavor, definitely needed more sugar. I like to enjoy my food.
Allison says
Sorry to hear that. That’s not a complaint I’ve heard before. Did you use the correct amount of butter and sugar?
Kendle Stevens says
It could have been the ripeness of your bananas. I have a couple recipes that use exclusively bananas for sweetener and they don’t work unless the bananas are overripe.
PAMELA HETZEL says
Can I half the recipe? There is only 2 of us.
Allison says
Sure, that should be fine.
Tana says
I thought the muffins were perfect. Beautiful. Looking and the taste was amazing
Allison says
I’m glad you enjoyed them! Thanks for taking the time to comment. 🙂
Cristen says
Super good basic recipe. you could do a lot of different things with these. I love the idea to throw chocolate chips in there… I doubled the walnuts and doubled the topping. And I wanted to make the cleanup easier so I did everything in one bowl and it worked out fine.
Allison says
I’m glad you enjoyed them! Thanks for taking the time to comment. 🙂
Martha says
My son, who has autism, is the pickiest eater ever. We tried these muffins together and agreed: each mouthful is simply a mouthful of happiness. Thanks for sharing this recipe. It’s going into my book of standards.
Allison says
I’m glad you enjoyed them! Thanks for taking the time to comment. 🙂
Arta says
I have been baking these muffins for a year now and I absolutely love them. I like to add in some chocolate chips to add a hint of sweetness! The only thing I do differently is that I cook for at least 30 mins because when I did it for 15 the first few times, I felt that it was too raw and my family didn’t like that. I make sure they look golden brown before I take them out! Thank you for sharing!!
Allison says
I’m glad you enjoyed them! Thanks for stopping by. 🙂