Easy & Fast Banana Muffins

Recipe: Banana Muffin Recipe »

This banana muffin recipe is the perfect weekend bake! It's simple, all you need is a couple of bowls and a whisk and you'll be making serving up some deliciously soft and moist banana muffins that taste like your favourite banana bread.

About Banana Muffins

These banana muffins are like a delicious, moist banana bread but in a muffin form so that they're quick to bake, easy to transport and shareable. They're great for lunchboxes too and freeze very well.

What do you need for banana muffins? Ripe bananas, brown sugar, oil or butter, flour, milk and egg are the main ingredients for banana muffins. I love adding walnuts to my banana muffins but some people like adding other nuts or chocolate chips too!

Ingredients for Banana Muffins:

• Flour - I always use cake flour which is a lower protein flour which makes the muffins softer. To make 1 cup/150g/5.2ozs of cake flour replace 2 tablespoons of plain all purpose flour with cornflour/fine cornstarch and whisk well. I usually mix up a big batch of this and keep it in a container ready for baking cakes as it produces a softer texture.
• Bananas - always use super ripe bananas in banana muffins and bread. The flavour and sweetness won't be the same unless the bananas are super ripe. Sometimes stores sell super ripe bananas. Otherwise I buy too many, let some over-ripen and then peel them and keep them in the freezer for when the craving for banana bread hits.
• Brown sugar - I like using brown sugar as it is more moist and makes the resulting muffins more moist.
• Oil or melted butter - you can use either, depending on what you have and prefer. I like the taste of butter but
• Baking powder - this is used to make the banana muffins rise (along the egg).
• Egg - We are only using one egg in this recipe! You only need one and this along with the baking powder will give the muffins a nice rise.
• Lemon juice - I like to acidulate my cake mixes as this breaks down the proteins in the flour to produce a softer cake or muffin.
• Yogurt - I always have natural yogurt in the fridge so I use this but you can also use buttermilk or sour cream or regular milk too.

• Vanilla - Use vanilla bean paste or extract for the best flavour. Otherwise vanilla essence can work too.

• Walnuts - optional but I love walnuts in banana bread and muffins!

Tips For Making Banana Muffins

1 - My biggest tip is to ensure that the bananas are suuuper ripe. I find you can really taste the tang of the banana in the muffin (OK I'm weird).

2- I always use cake flour when I bake cakes to ensure that they have a softer texture.

3 - Slice the banana thinly to go on top. Thicker slices will weigh down the batter.

4 - You can replace the weight of the walnuts with milk, dark or white chocolate chips if you prefer that combo. Some people add a dollop of Nutella to the centre of the muffin too.

5 - I like using a 2 oz ice cream scoop to add the batter to the cases.

6 - Fill the cupcakes just shy of the top. They will rise and puff up higher than the cases.

7 - Whenever you have a surplus of ripe bananas, peel them and place them in the freezer. They will turn grey when thawed but they're still perfect for banana bread. I think they taste better than fresh over-ripe bananas (seriously!).

8 - Banana muffins freeze well, up to 3 months in the freezer!

9 - Don't throw out the banana skins. Have you ever tried banana skin cake? It's delicious! If you want to make an amazing banana cake then try this recipe. It is the best banana cake ever and so soft!

Banana Muffin Recipe

An Original Recipe by Lorraine Elliott

Recipe Overview

Preparation time: 20 minutes

Cooking time: 22 minutes

Makes 12 muffins

Ingredients Needed

• 130g/4.6ozs walnut pieces, roughly chopped
• 220g/7.7ozs cake flour * see note above
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon fine salt
• 250g/8.8ozs bananas (fruit weight, not including skin), pureed
• 200g/7ozs brown sugar
• 100ml/3.5ozs oil or melted butter
• 75ml/2.6ozs natural yogurt, milk or sour cream
• 1 egg, large
• 2 teaspoons vanilla bean paste
• 1 teaspoon lemon juice
• 12 thin slices of banana

Step-By-Step Instructions

Step 1 - Line a 12 cup muffin tray with liners. Toast the walnuts. Spread the chopped walnuts out on a baking tray and bake at 160C/320F fan forced for 8 minutes. Set aside to cool.

Step 2 - In a small bowl whisk the flour, baking powder and salt. In a large bowl whisk the pureed bananas, brown sugar, oil, yogurt, egg, vanilla bean paste and lemon juice.

Step 3 - Add the flour mixture into the wet mixture and stir until just combined. Do not overmix (very important), I try and give this 6 or 8 swirls with the spatula maximum. Stir in the walnuts and scoop into the prepared tin almost up to the top. Place a thin slice of banana on top and bake for 22-24 minutes until golden and puffed.

Storage notes: Banana Muffins can be frozen for up to 3-4 months. They can also be stored at room temperature in an airtight container for up to 3 days or up to 5-7 days in the fridge.

Personal Note

I was busy this whole week testing out these banana muffins. I think I ended up making around 4 batches of muffins until I got them just right. That meant that I had 48 (okay 44, we ate one of each batch) muffins to give away. Usually I would freeze them and bring them to an Elliott birthday picnic because they happen with alarming regularity but the next Elliott birthday would be at a karaoke bar and I just couldn't spare the freezer space for that long. So two batches went to each neighbour and a big batch went to my neighbour Sally who gave us some home grown lemons.

I didn't realise this but Sally brought them to her work which is at a school and some of her colleagues are readers. Sally was kind enough to say that they enjoyed them but a part of was slightly embarrassed that they were tasting some experimental version of these!

So tell me Dear Reader, do you only share food that is "perfect"? How ripe do you eat your bananas?