Banana Nut Muffins
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Lightly sweetened with honey, these fluffy banana nut muffins are a delicious way to use up overripe bananas.
When I was in culinary school, the chefs would randomly (and terrifyingly!) inspect our trash cans to make we hadn’t tossed any scraps that could be repurposed into something else. I quickly learned that absolutely nothing is wasted in restaurant kitchens: stale bread becomes breadcrumbs and croutons; bones become stock; vegetable odds and ends become soup; cake trimmings become dessert trifles; and old bananas become muffins, banana cake, banana bread or banana ice cream.
These fluffy banana nut muffins sweetened with honey and enriched with Greek yogurt are one of my favorite ways to use up overripe bananas. Instead of folding the walnuts into the batter, I toss them with honey and cinnamon and sprinkle them over top to give each muffin a sweet and crunchy lid.
Table of Contents
“Just made these and they turned out amazing. Super moist and fluffy…The sweetness is perfect, not too sweet. This is the perfect muffin recipe.”
What You’ll Need To Make Banana Nut Muffins
- Chopped Walnuts: Adds crunch and nutty flavor to the muffin topping.
- Honey: Provides natural sweetness and helps to bind the topping. Additionally, it adds sweetness and moisture to the muffins.
- Cinnamon: Adds warmth and spice to enhance the flavor of the topping.
- All-Purpose Flour: The base for your muffins. Measure it by spooning it into the measuring cup and leveling it off to ensure accuracy.
- Baking Powder and Baking Soda: Act as leavening agents, helping the muffins rise. Additionally, the baking soda reacts with acidic ingredients for extra lift.
- Butter: Adds richness, flavor, and moisture to the muffins.
- Sugar: Sweetens the muffins and contributes to their texture.
- Eggs: Add richness, help bind the ingredients together, and provide structure.
- Mashed Bananas: Offer moisture, sweetness, and banana flavor. The browner and spottier your bananas, the better.
- Vanilla Extract: Enhances the flavor of the muffins.
- Greek Yogurt or Sour Cream: Adds moisture and tenderness to the muffins.
- Jump to the printable recipe for precise measurements
Step-by-Step Instructions
To begin, make the walnut topping: In a small bowl, toss the nuts with the honey and cinnamon until the nuts are evenly coated (the mixture will be sticky). Set aside.
Next, combine the dry ingredients for the muffins in a medium bowl.
Whisk and set aside.
In a large bowl of an electric mixer, combine the butter, sugar and honey.
Beat until fluffy, about 2 minutes.
Beat in the eggs one at a time.
Add the banana, vanilla, and yogurt (or sour cream).
Beat until blended (the batter will look grainy; that’s okay).
Add the dry ingredients.
The batter will look like this.
Spoon the batter into the prepared muffin tin (the cups will be very full) and sprinkle evenly with the nut topping.
Bake the muffins until the tops are golden and domed, 25 to 28 minutes.
Let the muffins cool in the pan for 5 minutes, then turn them out onto a rack and let cool for at least 10 minutes before serving.
Frequently Asked Questions
Banana nut muffins, banana bread, and banana cookies are best when your bananas are overripe, so you’re looking for them to be pretty brown and spotty. If your bananas are not quite ripe enough for baking, you can speed things up by placing them in a brown paper bag and folding down the top. The natural ethylene gas produced by the bananas is trapped in the bag, which accelerates the ripening process.
Sure! Banana nut muffins keep nicely, covered, at room temperature, for up to 4 days.
Absolutely, the muffins can be frozen in an airtight container or resealable plastic bag for up to 3 months. Thaw for 3 to 4 hours on the countertop before serving. To reheat, wrap individual muffins in aluminum foil and place in a preheated 350°F oven until warm.
It’s fine to omit the nuts; just add the cinnamon to the dry ingredients. Or if you’d still like a crunchy topping, you can try a nut-free granola or a sprinkling of coarse sugar (omit the honey).
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Banana Nut Muffins
Lightly sweetened with honey, these fluffy banana nut muffins are a delicious way to use up overripe bananas.
Ingredients
For the Walnut Topping
- 1 cup chopped walnuts
- 1 tablespoon honey
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
For the Muffins
- 1⅔ cups all-purpose flour, spooned into measuring cup and leveled-off
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 1 stick unsalted butter, at room temperature
- ⅔ cup sugar
- ¼ cup honey
- 2 large eggs
- 1 cup mashed bananas, from 2 to 3 overripe bananas
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- ⅓ cup Greek yogurt or sour cream (low fat is fine)
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350°F. Line a 12-cup muffin tin with paper liners.
- Make the walnut topping: In a small bowl, toss the nuts with the honey and cinnamon until the nuts are evenly coated (the mixture will be sticky). Set aside.
- For the Muffins: In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Set aside.
- In a large bowl of an electric mixer, beat the butter, sugar, and honey until fluffy, about 2 minutes. Scrape down the sides of the bowl with a rubber spatula if necessary. At medium speed, add the eggs one at a time, beating until fully incorporated between additions. Add the mashed bananas, vanilla, and yogurt (or sour cream) and beat until blended (the batter will look grainy; that's okay). Add the dry ingredients and mix on low speed until well blended.
- Spoon the batter into the prepared muffin tin (the cups will be very full) and sprinkle evenly with the nut topping. Bake the muffins until the tops are golden and domed, 25 to 28 minutes. Let the muffins cool in the pan for 5 minutes, then turn them out onto a rack and let cool for at least 10 minutes before serving.
- Freezer-Friendly Instructions: The muffins can be frozen in an airtight container or sealable plastic bag for up to 3 months. Thaw for 3 – 4 hours on the countertop before serving. To reheat, wrap individual muffins in aluminum foil and place in a preheated 350°F oven until warm.
Nutrition Information
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- Serving size: 1 muffin
- Calories: 302
- Fat: 15 g
- Saturated fat: 6 g
- Carbohydrates: 38 g
- Sugar: 21 g
- Fiber: 2 g
- Protein: 5 g
- Sodium: 216 mg
- Cholesterol: 52 mg
This website is written and produced for informational purposes only. I am not a certified nutritionist and the nutritional data on this site has not been evaluated or approved by a nutritionist or the Food and Drug Administration. Nutritional information is offered as a courtesy and should not be construed as a guarantee. The data is calculated through an online nutritional calculator, Edamam.com. Although I do my best to provide accurate nutritional information, these figures should be considered estimates only. Varying factors such as product types or brands purchased, natural fluctuations in fresh produce, and the way ingredients are processed change the effective nutritional information in any given recipe. Furthermore, different online calculators provide different results depending on their own nutrition fact sources and algorithms. To obtain the most accurate nutritional information in a given recipe, you should calculate the nutritional information with the actual ingredients used in your recipe, using your preferred nutrition calculator.
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Absolutely loved these muffins. Moist, fluffy and delicious. Some seem to have had some mishaps. My first attempt had to do with an over hot oven temperature. Investing in an oven thermometer fixed that so for my second try today, I adjusted the temperature accordingly. Because my oven is 15 degrees hotter than normal, I baked these at 335 and had perfect results! Thank you for a wonderful recipe!
Hello
Yummyum. But mine stuck to the paper liners. Any suggestions?
Thanks Jenn. Love you’re recipes.
Hi Mary, Sorry to hear they stuck to the liners! If you make them again, I’d suggest spraying the liners with nonstick spray. Hope that helps!
Try using parchment liners. I find they come off easily.
These muffins are a WOW, Jenn! I definitely will use the pecans rolled in honey and cinnamon on my pancakes before flipping them over as well. Would these nuts also work on top of a banana bread loaf, or is that too long for them? Thanks for this awesome recipe.
So glad you liked these! I do think the pecans would work on top of the banana bread. (If you find that they’re getting too browned while the banana bread is baking, just loosely lay a piece of foil over top of the loaf pan.) Hope that helps!
I discovered recently than I’m allergic to honey. Any problem w/ substituting maybe light corn syrup for the honey in the topping? Equal amounts?
You could use corn syrup, Lyle’s golden syrup, or maple syrup (an equal amount). Hope you enjoy!
These taste delicious but the texture and consistency is completely off.
I’ve tried making them a few times and every time the insides are way too dense and the muffins also seem deflated. Not at all light and fluffy like they are meant to be. Same issues as others have mentioned.
After some research it seems that the baking soda and powder in this recipe is completely off. Less soda should be used.
I’ve had the same issue 3 times now, thought it was either the type of flour or maybe old baking powder or soda. Can’t quite figure it out, but they do taste great, just tired of them running over into the bottom of the oven.
I wish I could post the picture I took, these came out just like your photo and were absolutely delicious! I followed the recipes to a tee, they were not overly sweet at all. I didn’t add, I didn’t subtract. I followed the recipe. I did use whole sour cream, and I used a local very good honey. They didn’t spread like a few others said theirs had. They were full and they did dome like you said they should. My neighbor had surgery the other day and I brought over a half dozen of them right out of the oven for her and her hubby and she text me after and said, OMG, these look beautiful and taste amazing! I have used your recipes for a long time now and they are always the best. My husband always says, when I make a new dinner or dessert, “is this Jens recipe? You are on a first name basis in this household! Lol
You are and will continue to be my go to chef!
Glad you (and your neighbors) enjoyed these (and I’m flattered to be on a first-name basis in your house)! 🙂
Delicious!! I baked at 425 for the first 5 min and then 350 for the rest of time (created more of a peak). The topping on these muffins were the best! Thank you!
Can I use flax eggs (1 T ground flax seed + 1.5T water) instead of eggs?
Hi Connie, I’ve never made these with flax eggs, so I can’t stay for sure, but I suspect it should work. Also, two of the best substitutes I’ve heard about (I haven’t personally tried either of them) are a combination of water, oil, and baking powder, and carbonated water. Scroll down to the bottom of this article for more information about both. Hope that helps!
Hi Jen! I love your recipes and always get compliments on EVERY SINGLE ONE I make!!:). This one was a little weird for me, though. I followed the instructions exactly, but the muffins actually overflowed and dripped to the bottom of the oven. Any clues on what may have gone wrong?
Hi Jennifer, glad you like the recipes but sorry you had a problem with this one! This calls for both baking powder and baking soda. Is there any chance that you omitted one of those?
Hi Jen! I used one teaspoon of each and I just checked the packets to make sure. Regardless, they were (I use the past tense because I just pounded the last two AND gave some to a neighbor who also finished them) DELICIOUS and I will definitely make them again…with a baking sheet underneath!!:)
Hmmm… that’s a head-scratcher! Well glad you enjoyed them regardless and that you know now to put a baking sheet under the muffin tine! 🙂
First off, let me say I’m slowly making my way through the recipes on this site because every single one has been an absolute hit 🙂 Thank you!!
I must have messed something up here because my muffins didn’t rise quite like yours, the tops are more like pancakes. And I notice that my muffin tin is full of melted butter that must have seeped through the liners. It’s a lot. I wonder if that’s also impacted the texture, which is good but not great.
Any idea what could have gone wrong here, Jenn? I believe I followed the recipe to a “T”.
All of that said, certainly won’t go to waste 🙂
Glad you’ve enjoyed the recipes but sorry to hear you had a problem with this one! I’m trying to figure out what may have gone wrong for you but am coming up blank. You mentioned that you followed the recipe exactly, but because these muffins are generally very predictable for people, I’m wondering if perhaps you made a measuring mistake.
Perhaps your butter was too soft? I’ve had similar issues when my butter had been out in our hot kitchen in summertime.
I would say it has to be a measuring error. I too experienced a mishap the first time making these. While delicious, I felt the texture was off and I realized it may have been over baked because my oven gets too hot. My second try, using an oven thermometer and adjusting the temperature accordingly, they came out perfectly. Fluffy, moist and delicious! Thank you for a great recipe!
This became a recipe staple the day I made them. We can’t decide which muffins we like best though, these or your chocolate muffins in your current cookbook. Thank you for all you do, we use a lot of your recipes and really enjoy them. We even pre-ordered your next cookbook.
💗
I make them every week they are so good!
These are delicious – the honey flavor and aroma are so nice. The recipe is very forgiving; I was not at all fussy about measuring (sort of eyeballed the flour and the sour cream, and used a little too much banana rather than letting it go to waste), and still they were lovely.