Tessa’s Recipe Rundown
Taste: Loaded with banana flavor and the perfect amount of spice.
Texture: Perfectly fluffy, moist, and tender with a delicious crunch from the walnuts.
Ease: Ridiculously easy to make.
Why You’ll Love This Recipe: Crowd-pleasing muffins that are SO easy to make!
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I’m not sure if there’s a more comforting breakfast recipe than Banana Nut Muffins. These simple and easy muffins come together in no time!
Enjoy one of these banana muffins with a cup of coffee – you won’t regret it. Each bite is pure comfort!
I’ve shared all my sweet tips for making the BEST Banana Nut Muffins below.
Sprinkle of Science
How to Make Banana Nut Muffins
How Ripe Should Bananas be for Muffins?
- Be sure to use overripe bananas for this recipe.
- The best bananas for baking should be very well-speckled or even nearly black.
- This is important when baking Banana Bread, muffins, Banana Cake, or Banana Cupcakes!
- Why use overripe bananas? Besides the fact that they’re not good for much else in the kitchen, overripe bananas are actually significantly sweeter and will contribute more banana flavor AND more moisture to the recipe.
- If you use underripe bananas (and when I say ‘underripe,’ I mean for baking specifically), your muffins will be bland and dry.
How to Mash Bananas for Baking
- Place bananas in a bowl and use a fork to mash them into a banana mixture.
- OR, place bananas in a bowl and use an electric mixer to beat the bananas until they’re mashed.
How to Toast Nuts for Baking
Toasting the chopped pecans or chopped walnuts for this recipe really and truly brings out their flavor and improves their texture.
- Option 1: To toast nuts on the stove, place nuts in a single layer on a dry skillet. Turn heat to medium, and toast for 4 to 7 minutes, or until golden and fragrant. Nuts can go from toasted to burnt quickly, so don’t leave the stove. Remove nuts to a different container to prevent them from scorching.
- Option 2: To toast nuts in the oven, preheat to 350°F. Place nuts in a single layer on a rimmed baking sheet. Bake until golden and fragrant, about 7 to 8 minutes. Remove nuts to a different container to prevent them from scorching.
Which Nuts Should I Use in Banana Nut Muffins?
It’s entirely up to you which nuts you use, but these are my favorite options:
- Walnuts
- Pecans
- Hazelnuts
- Cashews
- Macadamia nuts
Can I Leave Out the Nuts?
Check out my Plain Bakery Style Banana Muffins recipe if you prefer your muffins without walnuts or pecans.
You can also use chocolate chips instead if you prefer.
Do I Need to Adjust This Recipe for High-Altitude Baking?
Reduce baking powder to 2 teaspoons if at high altitude. You may need to adjust more or less depending on your altitude.
How to Bake TALL Banana Nut Muffins
Tall Muffin Tip #1: Use Bread Flour!
- Bread flour has a higher level of protein content than all-purpose flour.
- That extra protein will allow the flour to absorb more moisture and add more structure.
- The result? Extra tall muffins that are still super moist and tender!
- Don’t have bread flour? Although bread flour does work best, you can use all-purpose flour.
- If you’ve got it, opt for King Arthur All-Purpose Flour, which has a higher protein content.
Tall Muffin Tip #2: Bake at a High Temperature!
- In this recipe, we bake at a high temperature of 425°F the entire time to get tall, beautiful muffins.
- You may have seen techniques that call for an initial burst of heat and then require you to drop the temperature down.
- I personally don’t love this method because all it takes is one time when you forget to lower the temperature, and you have scorched muffins.
Tall Muffin Tip #3: Fill Your Muffin Cavities 3/4 Full with Batter!
- For tall muffins that have a bit of a muffin top, it’s essential to fill each cavity of your muffin pan pretty full with batter.
- For this recipe, I find that filling each cavity 3/4 full using a standard 12-cup muffin tin works beautifully.
- However, if you want slightly smaller muffins or have a muffin pan with smaller cavities (each bakeware brand is different!), then feel free to fill the cavities 2/3 full. You’ll just need to fill 15 cavities across two pans.
How Long to Bake Muffins
This recipe was designed to bake at a higher temperature for a shorter period of time, just 14 to 15 minutes. Those overripe bananas help to keep the muffins moist instead of drying out in the hot oven.
How to Avoid Overbaking Muffins
Don’t use a dark-colored nonstick pan when baking muffins. It simply conducts heat too aggressively and can lead to burnt bottoms or dry edges. My favorite pan for muffin baking is either this Wilton or this USA Pan.
Does Resting the Batter Overnight Work for This Recipe?
I wouldn’t particularly recommend an overnight batter rest for this recipe.
If you’ve followed me for a little while, you may have seen my overnight muffin batter fridge trick. Basically, for muffin recipes that use baking powder, if you cover the batter and allow it to rest overnight in the fridge, then the muffins will bake up extra tall and tender the next day. Check out my full article on How to Bake Tall Bakery Style Muffins here.
However, this banana nut muffin recipe is a little different. It uses both baking powder and baking soda. Baking powder is double acting so it activates upon being mixed with liquid and when it hits the heat of the oven. Baking soda only acts upon being mixed with something acidic (like brown sugar). The baking soda in the batter will lose strength the longer it sits before being baked.
You can chill this batter in the fridge if you’d like to get a jump start on breakfast or brunch the night before. You’ll likely lose a little browning on the muffins while they bake. If you’re curious about learning more about baking soda vs. baking powder, click here!
How to Make MOIST Banana Muffins
- Use a combination of oil AND butter! Use some oil for the sensation of moisture on the palate. This happens because oil is liquid at room temperature. It’s also my preference to use some melted butter so you get that beautiful distinct taste that only butter provides. This way, you get moistness and flavor!
- Avoid overmixing your wet ingredients with the flour mixture as this will result in more dry, dense muffins instead of muffins with a moist crumb.
- Follow the other tips above for using overripe bananas for the best guarantee of moist muffins!
How to Store Banana Nut Muffins
Muffins can be stored in an airtight container for up to 3 days.
Can you Freeze Banana Nut Muffins?
Place cooled muffins on a baking sheet and freeze until solid. Remove them to an airtight container or freezer bags and freeze for up to 3 months. You can reheat in the microwave directly from the freezer (about 15 to 20 seconds) or thaw overnight in the fridge and reheat in the oven.
More Muffin Recipes You’ll Love:
More Banana Recipes:
Banana Nut Muffins
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Ingredients
- 1 1/2 cups plus 2 tablespoons (205 grams) bread flour
- 1 tablespoon baking powder*
- 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon fine sea salt
- 3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon, optional
- 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg, optional
- 1 1/2 cups (354 grams) mashed, very ripe bananas (about 3 large bananas)**
- 1/2 cup (100 grams) granulated sugar
- 1/4 cup (50 grams) light brown sugar
- 2 tablespoons (28 grams) unsalted butter, melted and cooled
- 1/4 cup (50 grams) vegetable or canola oil
- 2 large eggs
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 3/4 cup (75 grams) walnut halves or pecans, toasted
- Coarse sugar, for garnish if desired
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 425°F. Position an oven rack to the middle or upper middle position. Line a standard muffin tin with paper liners.
- In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and spices if using.
- In a medium bowl, whisk together the bananas, sugars, butter, oil, eggs, and vanilla until well combined. Pour into the dry ingredients and use a rubber spatula to stir until just barely combined. Stir in the nuts.
- Divide evenly among the muffin tin cups, filling each 3/4 full for large muffins. You can also make about 15 smaller muffins by filling the cavities of two pans just 2/3 full. Sprinkle each with a generous amount of coarse sugar for a crunchy shiny topping, if desired.
- Bake until golden brown and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, about 14 to 15 minutes. Let cool in muffin pan for 5 to 10 minutes before removing to wire rack. Serve warm or at room temperature.
- Store in an airtight container for up to 3 days.
Forgot the rating!
These are fantastic! I followed the recipe exactly and would have never thought to use bread flour but the texture was perfect. They are light, moist and delicious!!
Made these muffins today. Absolute best banana muffin recipe I’ve ever made. Used toasted pecans and baked per instructions. Couldn’t be moister or better tasting!
Thank you for an excellent recipe…great tasting products 😊
Why are my muffins dry???
Hi Deb! I’m sorry to hear that your muffins are dry. Without having baked alongside you, it’s difficult to say exactly what went wrong here, but here are a few of the possible culprits:
– Also, how do you measure your ingredients? By volume (using cups) or by weight (using a digital kitchen scale)? When measuring by volume, it’s easy to mismeasure ingredients (particularly flour) and throw off the entire chemistry of a recipe, resulting in a dry, lackluster muffins.Check out Tessa’s article here, where she talks about how to measure ingredients correctly to ensure accuracy every time.
– If you use underripe bananas, your muffins will be bland and dry. Overripe bananas are actually significantly sweeter and will contribute more banana flavor and moisture to the recipe.
– Another possibility is overmixing your wet ingredients with the flour mixture, as this will result in drier, denser muffins instead of muffins with a moist crumb.
I hope something here helped, Deb, and I hope you’ll give these muffins another try sometime – they really are amazing! Happy Baking 🙂
Made this recipe using reg flour and it came out perfectly. Love the crunchy topping