Banana Nut Muffins
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These banana nut muffins are tender, packed with banana flavor, and topped with just the right amount of crunch—perfect for using up those overripe bananas.
When I was in culinary school, the chefs would randomly (and terrifyingly!) inspect our trash cans to ensure we hadn’t tossed any scraps that could be repurposed. I quickly learned that nothing goes to waste in a restaurant kitchen: stale bread becomes breadcrumbs or croutons, bones become stock, vegetable trimmings become soup, and overripe bananas get turned into banana muffins, banana bread, banana pancakes, banana cake—even banana ice cream. These banana nut muffins are one of my favorite ways to use up those spotted bananas—they’re quick to make, full of flavor, and never stick around for long.
If you lean chocolate over nuts, banana chocolate chip muffins are another tried-and-true favorite in my kitchen—and definitely the more kid-friendly option.
“Had a lot of ripe bananas and thought…banana muffins! They were SO moist and delicious! I stuck some in the freezer for a future treat.”
What You’ll Need To Make Banana Nut Muffins
- Mashed Bananas: The browner and spottier, the better—they’re easier to mash and add deeper banana flavor and natural sweetness.
- All-Purpose Flour: Spoon it into your measuring cup and level it off for accuracy—packing it in can lead to dense muffins.
- Sugar & Honey: A mix of granulated sugar and honey gives the muffins just the right amount of sweetness and helps keep them moist.
- Butter & Eggs: These add richness, structure, and flavor. Let them come to room temperature so they blend easily into the batter.
- Greek Yogurt or Sour Cream: Makes the muffins tender and gives them a subtle tang that balances the sweetness.
- Baking Powder & Baking Soda: Work together to lift the muffins. The baking soda also reacts with the yogurt or sour cream for extra rise.
- Vanilla Extract & Cinnamon: Vanilla rounds out the flavor; cinnamon adds a warm, cozy spice that pairs perfectly with banana.
- Chopped Walnuts (for the topping): Add crunch and a toasty, nutty bite. If you’re skipping the nuts, try a little nut-free granola or coarse sugar instead—just omit the honey in the topping if you go that route.
- Jump to the printable recipe for precise measurements
Step-by-Step Instructions
Step 1: Make the topping. In a small bowl, toss the walnuts with the honey and 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon until evenly coated (the mixture will be sticky). Set aside.
Step 2: Mix the dry ingredients. In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon. Set aside. Whisking helps evenly distribute the leaveners and spices so there are no clumps.
Step 3: Cream the butter and sugar. In a large bowl with an electric mixer, beat the butter, sugar, and honey until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes. Butter that’s just a touch cooler than room temperature blends more easily and helps achieve a uniform creamy texture.
Step 4: Add the eggs, banana, and yogurt. Beat in the eggs one at a time, then mix in the mashed banana, vanilla, and yogurt or sour cream.
Step 5: Blend until combined. Beat until smooth (the batter may look a little grainy—that’s fine).
Step 6: Add the dry ingredients. Mix in the flour mixture until just combined. The batter will be thick.
Pro Tip: Avoid overmixing—stir just until you don’t see streaks of flour. Overmixing can lead to dense muffins.
Step 7: Fill and top the muffins. Spoon the batter into the liners in the prepared muffin tin—the cups will be quite full. Sprinkle with the walnut topping.
Step 8: Bake and cool the muffins. Bake at 350°F for 25 to 28 minutes, until the tops are golden and nicely domed. Let them cool in the pan for about 5 minutes—this helps them set—then transfer to a wire rack so the bottoms don’t get soggy. Let them cool for at least 10 minutes before serving. The muffins keep well in an airtight container for a few days and freeze beautifully for up to 3 months.
More Muffin Recipes You May Like
Banana Nut Muffins
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
- ½ cup (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 (175°C). 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.
Notes
Nutrition Information
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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My family loves these muffins! Great use for all of the bananas that I buy too many of. I’ve made them several times and they always turn out great!
I looked for a banana walnut muffin until I found this one. A keeper. Thank you,
Maria
I wonder how you sprinkle the nuts. When mixed with honey, they became liquid-ish. I was only able to put them on top with a spoon. I think next time I will roll the topping mixture into the batter. My muffins do not look that great but still taste good.
Yes, Olga, the topping is definitely sticky! As you mentioned, using a spoon works well. Sorry to hear they’re not the prettiest, but glad to hear they were tasty.
The honey/nut mixture made it into the middle of the muffins and gives it a very nice taste. I “corrected” the look by sprinkling some powdered sugar over the muffins. I now regret giving the recipe 4 stars (-:
First of all, want to thank you, Jenn, for your wonderful recipes. Just ordered you book and am SO looking forward to it. I am wondering if I could make thises muffins successfully without using the paper liners. Thank you!
Hi Maggie, You’ll get the best results with the liners here. If not, the muffins are going to be difficult to remove from the tin.
Delicious and tasty muffins. I will be saving this recipe to use again and again.
I absolutely love these muffins!!!
What I did was i replaced the flour with spelt flour and only added HALF the amount of sugar and only coconut sugar.If you want more sweetness then just add more bananas! Easy as that to make a “healthier” version of this recipe 🙂
Dear Jenn,
I followed your recipe and made a batch of muffins yesterday. It is an amazing recipe, and the muffins are awesome. I was initially a bit weary about the amount of sweetness but it was perfect for our taste-buds and my family loved them. I am surely going to bake these again.
these muffins are awesome and so easy to make! I substituted pecans for walnuts, and added an extra half of a ripe banana to the batter, and was very pleased with how they turned out. Baked for exactly 30 minutes and were perfect. thanks for another great recipe!
I have made this recipe many times and it is just perfect. Very moist. But I was wondering whether I could use grated apples instead of bananas?
Hi Jana, glad you like the muffins. I’m not certain how they’d turn out with apples, so instead, I’d suggest trying these Apple Spice Muffins or the Morning Glory Muffins.
You can multiply my 5 stars by 2 for these scrumptious muffins! My husband and I just had them with dinner and we each had 2! I bake a lot of muffins and these are uniquely delicious with their crunchy, yummy topping. I swapped out two ingredients that you might try: buttermilk that I always use for biscuits and muffins instead of regular milk for an amazingly tender crumb and maple syrup for the honey that we New Englanders can’t get enough of. I had 2 over-ripe bananas and went looking for a new banana nut muffin recipe…I’m so happy yours came up near the top of the list and, when I read it, I knew I wanted to try it. Now I can’t wait to ripen a few more bananas. This one will be my new signature muffin! Thanks so much!!!