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
Can I add nuts or chocolate chips to these banana muffins?
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.
Does an overnight rest of the batter work for this recipe?
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.
How ripe should bananas be for banana muffins?
Bananas should be heavily speckled or nearly black. Overripe bananas are sweeter, softer, and provide significantly more flavor and moisture than yellow bananas.
How do you make bakery style banana muffins tall?
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.
Can I use all-purpose flour instead of bread flour?
Yes, though bread flour does work best. Use a higher-protein all-purpose flour if possible, like King Arthur.
Why are my banana muffins gummy?
Gummy muffins are usually caused by overmixing or underbaking. Stir just until combined and bake until a toothpick comes out clean.
Can I make these into mini muffins?
Yes. Fill mini muffin tins about 3/4 full and reduce bake time to 9–11 minutes. Watch closely.
Easy Bakery Style Banana Muffins
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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.
Recipe 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.
I forgot to add the oil….oops and they still were the best banana muffins i ever made!!!
my family loved it. ❤️❤️❤️❤️
Really incredible muffin! I was hesitant to use bread flour, as well as the 1 TBSP baking powder (+ soda + salt) but they turned out fabulously. Apart from baking 6 jumbos instead of the smaller 12, I made it verbatim and they were a winner – very robust in flavour and texture, but also really light and lofty. After 40+ of baking homemade breads, it never occurred to me to use bread flour in a muffin, for some reason, and it’s a total game changer. The structure is so much more stable, without being goopy, chewy or dry.
Making this one again and often:)
Made these for my boys. A added berries to one batch, fig jam to another and peanut butter to the last few.
Oddly, all the bottoms came out a bit burnt. I followed the recipe and temp suggestion.
Hi Angel! I hope you enjoyed these muffins! Your creative additions sound fun! There are a few reasons why your muffins may have burned on the bottom:
1. Adding additional ingredients changes the chemistry of the recipe. It’s possible that this added sugar caused a little excess browning on the bottom.
2. Your muffin pan: is it dark-colored? Tessa recommends using light-colored metal pans for most baking, as dark-colored metal heats too aggressively and can cause over-browning or burning. Tessa talks about this, and links to her favorite muffin pans, in the pink tip box, above the recipe. Read more about baking pans here.
3. Your oven could be running hot. Do you have an oven thermometer to check that? Learn more about that, and why it’s so important!, here.
I hope something here helps, Angel, and I hope you give these muffins another try with these suggested adjustments! Happy baking 🙂
This was the first banana bread/cake/muffin recipe that worked for me. Thank you.
So glad to hear that these were a hit for you! 🙂
Very tasty, loved the nuts! Definitely a keeper. I will make them again. Thank you for the recipe. I forgot to add the baking soda and they tasted great and had a nice rise in the middle.
I really appreciate that you included weight measure as I use a scale for baking. I doubled the recipe and reduce the baking powder to the original 1 tbsp as I don’t like the taste of too much baking powder, had to add an extra 125 grams of flour, in Canada our all purpose flour has a higher protein % which is like US bread flour so that is what I used, I baked at 425 for 5 minutes, 350 for 20 minutes which was perfect, yielded 22 large muffins
Thank you for the recipe! I followed the recipe exactly, using bread flour and did a second batch using plain / all purpose flour. I definitely got a taller muffin with bread flour, but also a slightly sturdier muffin vs those made with all purpose flour. They were perfectly sweet and moist, with plenty of banana flavour. And the method could not be any simpler, with minimal washing up and no need to pull out any mixer – just my hand whisk – so thank you very much for that! I will definitely keep to the method, and use half bread flour, half all purpose, just for my personal preference.
I just made these for the first time and they are the best banana muffin I’ve made or tasted! I added the toasted walnuts. They look perfect too, which is always a plus when sharing with family and friends.
These are our go-to banana muffin recipe! We love them and always come back to this recipe. Thanks, Tessa (and team!)
these came out perfect. followed recipe as written. I ended up with 10 muffins, my muffin cups were slightly larger. will use this recipe again. I added pecans and crunchy sugar topping. I could hardly wait for them to cool enough to taste..lol
Another great recipe, Tessa. I made these this morning and they turned out perfectly. Soft crumb, lovely rise, and very tasty. Crunchy sugar topping is a must.