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.
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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!
Brianna says
Oh I love these!! The brown sugar and walnut topping gives a slight crunch and as my 8 year old says “has great texture”. Definitely keeping this recipe for future muffins! I might add nutmeg and a bit more brown sugar in the topping next time. Great recipe overall! Very moist and fluffy!
Allison says
I’m glad you enjoyed them! Thanks for stopping by. 🙂
Norma says
Dear Allison, l am an experienced baker and since this recipe was similar to one of my own, l printed it to give to my neighbor. Please try to do this yourself and you will be shocked at how the amount assigned to ingredients is changed. (Eg. 0.8 eggs, 0.27 cup of sugar) l have no idea what kind of numeric system is being used, but to a beginner it could mean a disaster and enormous waste.
I corrected the print, going back to the original display.
Thank you
Allison says
Hi, Norma. When you click on the “print recipe” button there is an option to change the serving size, which will alter the quantity of ingredients. You might have inadvertently clicked that and changed it to an “odd” size which is why it displayed different measurements.
Deborah Canady says
Absolutely delicious. I added blueberries, chia, and flaxseeds, and altered the spice and I’m one happy lady.
Allison says
Thanks for the kind review. I’m glad you enjoyed them! 🙂
Shelly says
These were absolutely amazing! Excellent recipe, thank you for sharing. This one is being saved. I look forward to trying some of the other recipes you have posted.
Allison says
I’m glad you enjoyed them! Thanks for taking the time to comment. ?
Kristi says
Simple ingredients, easy instructions, and packed with flavor!! These were soooooo delicious?
Allison says
I’m glad you enjoyed them! Thanks for taking the time to comment. 🙂
Chris says
Very easy to make, and so very tasty!
Entire family enjoyed, and completely devoured them!
Back to the kitchen!!
Allison says
I’m glad you enjoyed them! Thanks for stopping by. 🙂
Mike Cornelius says
I just made these, they turned out OK, but it could be user error. I didn’t have baking SODA so I used baking powder and also didn’t have brown sugar and swapped with an equal portion of raw sugar. I found I needed at least 7 mins added to the cooking time, but for some reason still seem a bit undercooked?!? They don’t peel nicely from the cupcake cups? Was that another mistake I made? Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Allison says
Hi, Mike. Several things:
1) The sugar swap that you made will change the final product. The moisture (and sweetness) from brown sugar is what makes this recipe so good. Raw sugar is dry and coarse compared to brown sugar which is moist and soft.
2) Regarding the bake time: did you divide the batter into 15 muffin cups (as stated in the recipe) or did you squeeze the batter into 12 cups?
3) I don’t use cupcake/muffin liners for this recipe. I just put the batter directly into a greased pan (step 4 in the instructions).
Dawn says
These are fabulous! I don’t bake often, and when I do, things do not generally come out well. However, this recipe is easy to follow, and the muffins came out perfect. I’ll definitely be making these again. Thank you!
Allison says
I’m glad you enjoyed them! Thanks for taking the time to comment. 🙂
Megan says
I just made these and my husband, who is the chef in the family, rated them a 9.5 out of 10!!! They were amazing and I will be making them again!
Allison says
I’m glad you enjoyed them. 🙂 Thanks for taking the time to leave a comment.
Colleen says
Loved this recipe!!! Thank you for sharing!!!
Allison says
You’re welcome! Thanks for taking the time to comment. 🙂
Karla says
I’m a terrible baker, I have a short attention span and this is my first repeatable success!! Simple, easy to follow and DELICIOUS!! My husband usually doesn’t like bananas, now he eyes them waiting for them to get too ripe for me to eat because he LOVES these muffins! Thank you, I will be trying more recipes of yours!
Allison says
Yay! I’m glad you enjoyed them! Thanks for taking the time to leave a comment. 🙂