Tessa's Recipe Rundown
Taste: Loaded with sweet banana flavor and a touch of spice!
Texture: Perfectly fluffy yet moist, no gummy bits that stick to the roof of your mouth.
Ease: Ultra easy, these bake up in minutes.
Why You’ll Love This Recipe: Perfect go-to muffin recipe.
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When I set out to develop my ideal bakery style banana muffins, I wanted three things: tall domes, serious banana flavor, and a fluffy crumb that doesn’t stick to the roof of your mouth.
In my testing, I found that many recipes were either moist but flat… or tall but dry. The balance came down to flour choice, fat ratio, and oven temperature.
After several batches (including one overly oily round and one dry, overmixed batch), this version hit exactly what I was after.
The inspiration for this banana muffin recipe came from an issue of Cooks Illustrated.
Reader Love
Hi! I never comment on posts but have to do so for this. I’ve tried 3 different banana muffin recipes before this one and just baked a batch with your recipe and they are beyond amazing thank you so much!
–
Sprinkle of Science
Ingredient Notes
This is a simple recipe, but a few carefully selected ingredients make a world of difference.
- Very Ripe Bananas: The bananas should be heavily speckled or nearly black. Overripe bananas are sweeter, more aromatic, and contain more broken-down starches, which means better moisture and stronger banana flavor. Underripe bananas will give you bland, dry muffins. I like to mash them with a potato masher.
- Bread Flour: This is key for tall banana muffins. Bread flour has higher protein than all-purpose flour, allowing it to absorb more moisture and create stronger structure for bakery-style domes. If substituting AP flour, use a higher-protein brand like King Arthur.
- Butter + Oil: I tested this recipe with all oil and all butter. All oil made the texture slightly greasy. All butter made the muffins less moist by day two.
The combination gives you butter for flavor and oil so they stay tender for days. - Baking Powder + Baking Soda: This recipe uses both. Baking powder gives lift in the oven, while baking soda reacts with the acidity in brown sugar and bananas for browning and additional rise. Learn more in my Baking Soda vs. Baking Powder guide.
How to Make Bakery Style Banana Muffins
1. Preheat the Oven: Preheat to 425°F and position your rack in the middle or upper-middle position. Line a 12-cup muffin tin with paper liners. High heat is critical for tall domes.
2. Mix Dry Ingredients: Whisk all the dry ingredients together thoroughly so the leaveners are evenly distributed. I like to add some spices for extra flavor, but feel free to remove them or switch them up.
3. Mix Wet Ingredients: For the purpose of this recipe, the sugars are included with the wet ingredients.
4. Combine Wet and Dry: Pour wet ingredients into dry ingredients. Stir gently with a spatula until just combined. You should still see a few streaks of flour. Overmixing = dense, tough muffins.
At this point you can also add:
- 1 cup chocolate chips
- OR 3/4 cup toasted chopped walnuts or pecans
5. Fill the Muffin Pan: Fill each cavity 3/4 full for large bakery-style muffins. For slightly smaller muffins, fill 2/3 full and divide between two pans (about 15 muffins). Sprinkle tops generously with coarse sugar for a crisp, sparkly finish.
6. Bake: at 425°F for 14–15 minutes, or until:
- Tops are golden brown
- Centers spring back lightly
- A toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean
Baking Success Tips
- Use bananas that are very ripe for best flavor and moisture.
- Do not use a dark nonstick muffin pan, it can overbrown bottoms. I like USA pans.
- Measure flour with a digital scale for accuracy.
- Stop stirring as soon as flour disappears.
- For extra tall tops, make sure your oven is fully preheated.
- If baking at high altitude, reduce baking powder to 2 teaspoons.
Storage & Make Ahead
Muffins can be stored in an airtight container for up to 3 days.
You can also 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.
FAQs
Yes! Feel free to add 3/4 cup (75 grams) of walnut halves or pecans, chopped after measuring. For best results, toast them first.
You can also add 1 cup (170 grams) chocolate chips. Regular-size or mini chocolate chips will work.
Not ideally. Because this recipe contains baking soda, some leavening strength weakens over time. You can refrigerate overnight if necessary, but expect slightly less browning.
Bananas should be heavily speckled or nearly black. Overripe bananas are sweeter, softer, and provide significantly more flavor and moisture than yellow bananas.
Use bread flour, fill muffin cavities 3/4 full, and bake at 425°F. The higher protein flour builds structure while the high heat creates rapid oven spring for domed tops.
Yes, though bread flour does work best. Use a higher-protein all-purpose flour if possible, like King Arthur.
Gummy muffins are usually caused by overmixing or underbaking. Stir just until combined and bake until a toothpick comes out clean.
Yes. Fill mini muffin tins about 3/4 full and reduce bake time to 9–11 minutes. Watch closely.
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Ingredients
- 1 1/2 cups plus 2 tablespoons (205 grams) bread flour
- 1 tablespoon baking powder*
- 1/2 teaspoon 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
- OPTIONAL: 3/4 cup (75 grams) walnut halves or pecans, toasted and chopped OR 1 (170 grams) cup chocolate chips
- 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 stir until just barely combined. Stir in the nuts or chocolate chips, if using.
- 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.
Notes
More Muffin Recipes You’ll Love:
- Pumpkin Muffins (with a brown sugar streusel on top!)
- Chocolate Chip Muffins
- Brown Butter Blueberry Muffins
- Lemon Poppy Seed Muffins
- Double Chocolate Banana Muffins
This recipe was written in 2021 and has been updated with additional baking tips. Photos by Ashley McLaughlin.
This recipe is soooo good!!! Love the muffins, they are crazy delicious. Will definitely make another batch soon. Thank you for sharing this wonderful recipe.
YAY! So excited to hear that, Joan!
The best muffins ever! Nice and firm on the outside with a soft fluffy filling. Perfect addition of spices to the banana. Will be making these on repeat for a long time and trying with different mix ins.
So happy you loved this recipe, Deanna! Thanks for the comment 🙂
These are perfect! I used APF coz I don’t have bread flour on hand but it was still so good. Made it with walnuts and the other half with dark chocolate chip, both were great. Now I have a go to recipe for banana muffins,,,thank you so much ❤️
Wonderful! So happy to hear AP flour worked great for you 🙂
How many calories do these have
Hi Sharon, we don’t count calories on any of our recipes. I’m sorry I can’t help further!
These are AMAZING! I absolutly love these and are so easy to make! Will be making these again and again! Thank you for the great recipe! If I could give a higher star rating I would!
Hooray!! Wonderful to hear you love this recipe so much, Brianna!
Forgot to take a picture, but oh my goodness… These are hands down the best muffins I’ve ever had. Will definitely have this recipe on repeat!
Hooray!! So excited to hear that, JJ!
These are the BEST banana muffins I have ever had. Didn’t have liners on hand so I sprayed my muffin tin really well and that worked just fine. I also added chocolate chips (half semisweet/half milk chocolate). Definitely making these again!
Wonderful to hear how much you love them, Lauren! So glad spraying the tin worked perfectly 🙂
These banana muffins are DELISH!
The moistness and overall flavor really set this recipe apart from me. The cinnamon and nutmeg are subtle, but they really add some warmth. The muffins are just so soft and moist, too. I also added pecans to mine and will do that again, but I know these would taste great with walnuts, chocolate chips, etc.
I’ve kept these in an airtight container in the fridge for the last couple days, and they’re as good now as they were the day they were baked. This will probably be my forever banana nut recipe.
Thank you so much for sharing, Tessa!
YAY! So excited to hear how much you love them, Emma! I agree, they keep their moistness perfectly if stored properly (I think I got up to four days with amazing flavor and texture!). Thanks for the rave review!
Fast, easy, and crazy delicious! Great banana flavor. The butter in the batter adds a delicious richness that I don’t find in other muffin recipes. The muffin top has a delightful crunch that contrasts with the soft, fluffy interior beautifully. Thanks, HtH!
So glad to hear this, Richelle! You described them perfectly, and now I need to go make another batch haha! Thanks for the wonderful comment 🙂
Thanks for the recipe.
Sounds delicious..
I’m thinking of adding swirls of biscoff spread.
Question..
I have bananas that went black so I put them in the freezer. Do you think I can thaw and use them for baking or it won’t be as good?
Ooo let us know how it goes with the swirls of biscoff spread, that sounds delicious! Yes! You can use frozen bananas-just thaw them out, drain the extra moisture, and they’ll be perfect 🙂
If I wanted to use a cookie scoop to evenly portion the batter into a standard muffin pan, what size would you recommend?
Hi Cindy! We used a large scoop, which is 3 tablespoons, or size 20. You may need to add a bit more or less than that depending on the size of muffins you’d like (see the pink tip box above the recipe for more details). Hope that helps! Be sure to let us know what you think of these muffins! 🙂
Love these muffins! They have a wonderful crisp edge the day they’re bake and then soften to this lovely fluffy texture so they’re just as good the next day! I always add a handful of mini chocolate chips and the kids love them!
So glad you’re enjoying this recipe, Amanda! These are a winner in my book too-love how fluffy they are!