Healthy Banana Muffins Recipe
It doesn’t get much better than these Healthy Banana Muffins! They’re light, fluffy and naturally sweetened. They take just minutes to make and are perfect for quick breakfasts and snacks.
Meet my favorite banana muffin! These healthy banana muffins are so easy to make and so good… so much so that I’ve made a batch almost every week for the past two months. If you love banana muffins, then you have to give these a try!
A few years ago, before I had kids who loved to snack, I would always have an abundance of over-ripe bananas on my counter. I could never quite keep up with those bananas, and too often some of them would go to waste. Now I have the opposite problem: the bananas can’t keep up with how often I want to make banana muffins, healthy banana bread and my favorite strawberry banana smoothie!
Most weeks, I buy at least two bunches of bananas. And we never have trouble using them up. We eat them plain for breakfasts and snacks. We add them to smoothies. And practically every week I use a few bananas to make a batch of banana muffins. Most often I make these banana cinnamon muffins or my other favorite, apple banana muffins. Try all my muffin recipes.
How to Make Healthy Banana Muffins
You won’t believe how simple these muffins are to mix up in one bowl. The first step is to whisk together the wet ingredients. Then you sprinkle on some cinnamon, baking soda and salt. You’ll want to whisk those in really well, because you don’t want any clumps of baking soda left in the batter.
Next, you gently stir in white whole wheat flour, until it is just combined. Try not to over-mix in the flour or your muffins could end up tough or dense.
Spoon the batter into your muffin tin. I like to use my large scoop to make the job quick and easy. You can also make mini muffins in a mini muffin pan. I’ve included the baking time for both regular size muffins and mini muffins in the recipe card below.
I like to add a sprinkle of cinnamon to the top of each muffin before baking for extra cinnamon flavor.
You can serve the muffins warm from the oven, after they cool for about 5 minutes in the pan. After the muffins cool completely, I like to store them in a zip-top baggie in my freezer. That way, they’re always ready when we need a quick breakfast or snack.
Best Banana Muffins Recipe
- These banana muffins are fluffy and naturally sweet.
- They’re refined sugar free. You can use either honey or pure maple syrup in this recipe.
- They’re 100% whole wheat, yet still light in texture when made with white whole wheat flour.
- Make regular size muffins or mini muffins in a mini muffin pan.
- The banana muffins freeze really well. I like to make a double batch to stock my freezer!
- You can mix up the batter in just minutes, in one bowl for easy clean up.
Healthy Banana Muffins
Ingredients
- 4 tablespoons unsalted butter
- 1/3 cup honey, or pure maple syrup
- 1 cup mashed ripe banana, about 3 medium
- ¼ cup milk, whichever kind you prefer
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 2 eggs
- 1 ½ teaspoons cinnamon, plus more for sprinkling
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 1 ½ cups white whole wheat flour
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Spray a muffin tin with cooking spray or line with paper liners.
- Place the butter in a large bowl and melt in the microwave. Add the honey or maple syrup, mashed banana, milk and vanilla to the bowl. Whisk to combine. Whisk in the eggs. Sprinkle the cinnamon, baking soda and salt over the wet ingredients. Whisk until well combined. Add the flour to the bowl and stir with a large spoon or spatula until barely combined. Be careful to not over-mix.
- Scoop the batter into the prepared muffin tin, filling each cup about 2/3 full. I like to use a large scoop.
- Optional: Sprinkle tops of muffins with cinnamon.
- Bake for 15-17 minutes until a toothpick inserted into the center of a muffin comes out clean. (Mini muffins will take about 10-12 minutes to bake.)
- Let muffins cool in the pan for 5 minutes and then remove to a wire rack. Serve warm or at room temperature.
Notes
- Recipe makes 12 regular sized muffins or 36 mini muffins.
- Muffins freeze well. Cool completely and then store in an airtight zip-top bag for up to 3 months. Thaw individual muffins at room temperature, overnight in the refrigerator, or in the microwave when ready to eat.
Super good and nice it’s pretty healthy! Good texture, too! Thank you!!!
Didn’t find the mixture was quite enough for 12 muffins, I only managed to fill 10 cases and even then they didn’t rise to full capacity. Maybe UK muffin cases are different size.
This was delicious! I had no butter so I used equal amounts applesauce as well. The muffins were super soft and had a good flavor. I had enough for thirteen muffins, so I fried the leftover batter up as a pancake. Super good!
I’m so glad you enjoyed them! Thanks for sharing how to applesauce substitute worked. 🙂
I came to the comments to see if anyone had subbed applesauce for butter. Glad it turned out ok. Trying it now
These are delicious! So nice to know I’m eating relatively healthily while still enjoying muffins! I added a half cup of chopped pecans, & might try adding in some dried fruit next time. Thank you so much!
I tried these muffins when I was looking for a healthy, sweet snack. I substituted the white flower with wheat and they were delicious!!! Thank you so much for this amazing recipe!! The muffins were moist, sweet, and nutritional 🙂
These muffins were so easy to make and a big favorite with the whole family. The second batch I made I added raisins, they were also a big hit…..thank you for the recipe! ?
They are so easy to make and taste delicious. My two kids (6 and 3 years old) loved them.
I added a few chocolate chips on top for extra sweetness…
Can you add Raisins?
Yes, raisins might be good in this recipe.
These muffins are delicious quick and healthy. Thanks
Can I use regular white flour?
Yes, that will work fine. Enjoy the muffins!
These muffins were great and I loved how quickly they came together. I don’t like cinnamon so my only change to the recipe was to not add any cinnamon and I didn’t think they missed anything. I will definitely make them again!
I like to use freshly milled whole wheat flour instead of store bought whole wheat as it is more nutritious and less processed.
These are great! I wanted a healthier banana bread option so my 10 month old could enjoy with us, used 2 tbsp of maple syrup instead of 1/3 cup and kept everything else the same- they’re perfect! Thank you for a lovely and easy recipe!
These muffins are delicious! My husband loves them and I love just using one bowl! Looking forward to trying your apple banana muffins! ?
I made these for my family yesterday morning and everyone loved it! My family had eaten all of them by the time I went for seconds! I’m going to make them again today or tomorrow, and was wondering if I made a double batch if I could freeze some of the batter? These are definitely a new family favorite. Thank you!
Hi Sonya,
I’m so glad your family enjoyed these! The baked muffins freeze well, but I don’t recommend freezing the batter.
Will I be able to use this recipe to make banana bread or can I only use it to make muffins? The muffins look super yummy and am excited to bake this!
Hi Ren,
Try my healthy banana bread recipe if you want to make banana bread instead of muffins.
Yummy! I made 20 muffins but probably cause o didn’t fill up all the way. So delicious. Should I store these in the fridge or countertop?
You can store them on the counter for 2-3 days, or in the refrigerator for about 5 days. They also freeze well!
Great muffins
What is kcal?? Is it the same as calories one to one??? If not how many calories per muffin???
What we refer to as Calories are technically kcal. So the estimated kcal in this recipe is the number of Calories per muffin.
This muffins are actually delicious!!
I substituted 4 T of butter to 3 T olive oil, and they tasted delicious and of course healthier:)
Thanks for the recpie
Can you stub GF flour to make it allergen friendly?
While I haven’t tried it myself, I think you could use a gluten free 1:1 baking flour.
I made a double batch of these today
and they turned out great. I found that the cook time was more like 17-18 minutes. One thing to point out: based on the level of ripeness and size of the bananas, the cook time and yield will vary slightly. I just set my timer to go off two minutes earlier than the recipe. I checked and added two minutes. Then two more. Then perfect!
I love this recipe because it is easy it only takes about twenty five minutes and they taste great.This recipe also has no sugar!it also gives you options so if you don’t h ave one of the ingredients you can use a different ingredient and it will still taste great.
I have a major complaint about these muffins. I can’t stop eating them!!! I haven’t been this pleased with a recipe in a long time — they’re absolutely delicious and were so quick and easy to make. By the way, I found myself with only one egg in the house, so I used a 1/4 cup of Greek yogurt instead, and they came out perfect. I can’t say enough about them — thank you!
Hi Karen,
You had me worried there for a minute! 😉 Thanks for sharing about the Greek yogurt sub. I’m so glad you enjoyed these muffins!
Do you think this is a recipe/ has any one added protein powder to this recipe? If so, did you change anything? Any recommendations on flavor?
Muffins are sooooo moist and delicious! Will make again and again.
I doubled the recipe and made jumbo muffins. Absolutely deliciousÂ
I made these instead of traditional muffins that have sugar, I used the honey, which I would rather from the farm, adding cinnamon is a great idea. Love cinnamon took longer to cook in my new oven about 25 minutes great recipe!Â
Can I use oat bran instead of whole wheat flour?
I haven’t tried this recipe with oat bran so can’t advise. If you decide to try it, let me know how the muffins turn out. 🙂
Can you use coconut oil instead of butter?
Yes, you can. Enjoy!
Love these!
Love that they’re so easy to make.
Love that they’re not too sweet.
Made an even dozen using two large bananas.
A keeper for sure.
These muffins are great and a wonderful snack for my toddler. I used paper liners and baked mine at 350 for 17 mins. All my muffins stuck to the liners. Is there a way to prevent them from sticking?
I’m glad you enjoyed the recipe! Instead of using paper liners, I use a nonstick muffin pan (I love USA pans) or spray a muffin pan with cooking spray. If you want to use a liner, parchment paper liners are best for nonstick.
So GOOD! Thank you!! Thaey came out perfectly the first go 😊
Super easy delicious muffins! I only had regular flour, was out of vanilla extract so just put a little extra honey and they were amazing!
These were really good and not dry. I thought the cinnamon would be overpowering but it wasn’t at all & these were perfectly sweetened . I didn’t have whole wheat white, so I used  1.25 C white & 1/4c ground flax seed & they came out perfect. I will have these on my family’s muffin rotation. Thanks for sharing these!