Maple-Sweetened Banana Muffins
These whole wheat, maple-sweetened banana muffins are the best! So fluffy and moist, I bet no one can guess they're healthy muffins. Easy to make, too.
Updated by Kathryne Taylor on August 30, 2024
Meet the banana muffins of my dreams. They’re fluffy, whole grain, naturally sweetened, totally delicious banana muffins. They’re also about as healthy as muffins can be. The recipe calls for basic ingredients and you can mix them all together in one bowl. Too much to be true? Nope.
These muffins are a derivative of my super popular banana bread and pumpkin muffin recipes. If you love these, you certainly don’t miss the blueberry muffins in my cookbook.
Muffins aside, can I tell you what else is exciting? I got a new camera! Can you tell? Bueller? Bueller? Well, that’s ok. I can, and I’m thrilled about it. I bought my old camera during my last year of college and it was the best investment I ever made. Eight years and 88,000 (that’s eighty-eight thousand) photographs later, it was time to upgrade.
My new camera and I are still getting acquainted. I haven’t found the best settings or figured out all the fancy-pants features just yet (anyone want video?). We’ll get there. Photographing these banana muffins was a learning experience. A very tasty learning experience.
The Best Banana Muffins
Here are a few reasons to love this banana muffin recipe (which happens to be more nutritionally redeeming than most):
- These muffins are easy to make with basic ingredients. Only one bowl required!
- They’re made with 100% whole grains, yet they’re fluffy and delicious. No one will know the difference.
- They’re also naturally sweetened with maple syrup or honey, rather than loaded with refined sugar. The maple syrup (or honey) offers a touch of extra flavor, which I love.
- A touch of cinnamon offers some warming spice flavor. These muffins will make your house smell amazing!
- These muffins freeze well, too. Just defrost individual muffins in the microwave for 30 to 60 seconds, or until gently warmed through. You don’t want to overdo it.
Please let me know how your muffins turn out in the comments! I love hearing from you, and hope these banana muffins are your new favorite.
Craving more wholesome banana treats? Don’t miss my banana oat pancakes, vegan banana scones, healthy banana bread and banana cake with cream cheese frosting.
Watch How to Make Banana Muffins
Maple-Sweetened Banana Muffins
These whole wheat, maple-sweetened banana muffins are so fluffy and moist, I bet no one can guess they’re healthy muffins. They’re easy to make, too, with basic ingredients and only one mixing bowl! Feel free to add mix-ins of your choice, like chocolate chips or toasted nuts. Recipe yields 12 muffins.
Ingredients
- ⅓ cup melted coconut oil or extra-virgin olive oil*
- ½ cup maple syrup or honey
- 2 eggs, preferably at room temperature
- 1 cup packed mashed ripe bananas (about 3 bananas)
- ¼ cup milk of choice or water (I used almond milk)
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ½ teaspoon cinnamon, plus more for sprinkling on top
- 1 ¾ cups white whole wheat flour or regular whole wheat flour
- ⅓ cup old-fashioned oats (optional), plus more for sprinkling on top
- 1 teaspoon turbinado (raw) sugar or other granulated sugar, for sprinkling on top
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 325 degrees Fahrenheit (165 degrees Celsius). If necessary, grease all 12 cups of your muffin tin with butter or non-stick cooking spray (my pan is non-stick and didn’t require any grease).
- In a large bowl, beat the coconut oil and maple syrup together with a whisk. Add the eggs and beat well. Mix in the mashed bananas and milk, followed by the baking soda, vanilla extract, salt and cinnamon.
- Add the flour and oats to the bowl and mix with a large spoon, just until combined. If you’d like to add any additional mix-ins**, like nuts, chocolate or dried fruit, fold them in now.
- Divide the batter evenly between the muffin cups, filling each cup about two-thirds full. Sprinkle the tops of the muffins with a small amount of oats (about 1 tablespoon in total), followed by a light sprinkling of sugar (about 1 teaspoon in total). Bake muffins for 22 to 25 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into a muffin comes out clean.
- Place the muffin tin on a cooling rack to cool. You might need to run a butter knife along the outer edge of the muffins to loosen them from the pan. These muffins will keep at room temperature for up to 2 days, or in the refrigerator for up to 4 days. They keep well in the freezer in a freezer-safe bag for up to 3 months (just defrost individual muffins as needed).
Notes
Recipe adapted from my healthy pumpkin muffins.
*Oil options: I love coconut oil here. I used unrefined coconut oil and can hardly taste it in the final product. Olive oil might lend an herbal note to the muffins, if you’re into that (although, I tested with California Olive Ranch’s “Everyday” variety and couldn’t even taste it). Vegetable oil has a neutral flavor but the average vegetable/canola oil is highly processed, so I recommend using cold-pressed sunflower oil or grapeseed oil if possible.
**Change it up: You could really go crazy with add-ins here. Fold in up to ¾ cup chocolate chips, chopped dried cranberries or crystallized ginger and/or chopped nuts like pecans or walnuts. With add-ins, your muffins might require the full 25 minutes in the oven. Another idea? You could top your muffins with my maple glaze from my pumpkin scones recipe to make them more decadent.
Serving suggestions: These muffins are great on their own, with a pat of butter, or spread with almond butter. They would also be fantastic with homemade pecan butter or coconut butter.
Make it egg free: Substitute flax eggs for the regular eggs.
Make it vegan: Substitute flax eggs for regular eggs, use dairy-free milk like almond milk and use maple syrup instead of honey.
Make it gluten free: Bob’s Red Mill gluten-free all-purpose blend works well instead of the whole wheat flour.
Make it nut free: Use a nut-free milk.
Make it oat free: Simply omit the oats.
Make it lower in fat: I would argue that this bread contains a healthy amount of fat, but you can replace the oil with applesauce if you’re following a low-fat diet.
Nutrition
The information shown is an estimate provided by an online nutrition calculator. It should not be considered a substitute for a professional nutritionist’s advice. See our full nutrition disclosure here.
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These muffins are AMAZING! It was my first time baking muffins and I couldn’t have asked for a better recipe! Readers from India, I used Aashirvaad’s Superior MP Atta for the flour and it was delicious. Will definitely bake these over and over!
Thanks, AK! Especially that note for Indian readers. I appreciate it!
The banana bread is amazing. It even passed my with my son’s approval who is always suspect of baked goods made with whole wheat flour but he loved it!
Hooray! I’m glad both of you enjoyed the muffins, Lisa.
Hi Kate. I’ve trued your vegetarian chilli, peanut butter cookie recipe and almond cake. Everything came out very yummy. Can i replace the flour with whole wheat pastry flour? Thank you!
I’m so glad those worked out so well for you, Samina! Yes, you can replace with whole wheat pastry flour, that would work just as well.
This recipe was FANTASTIC! (I used 2 flax eggs and maple syrup to make the muffins vegan.) I’m a big fan of your pumpkin muffins and decided to try the banana version today simply because I had so many overripe bananas. Holy wow – these are my new favorite muffins! So easy and so, so delicious! (I’m using all of my willpower not to eat more than one as the batch is cooling!)
Good to hear the veganized version tastes just as great, Rachel!
These just came out of the oven and are delicious! I used flax eggs and it turned out great. Thanks for the recipe :)
Perfect! Good to hear the flax eggs worked out. :)
Hi your muffins are supper yummy! Can I add in fresh blueberries?
Hi, Rozz! Yes, I think you could! I haven’t tried it myself, though.
I just made these, and they are so perfect! Not too sweet and super super moist and fluffy. Better than the unhealthier versions I’ve made before.
I had a smaller muffin pan and made 16 muffins and lowered the baking time to 20 minutes.
Great! Thanks for the note, Judy.
I added 3/4 cup of unsweetened cocoa powder, and since it is unsweetened there was no extra sugar and it added an extra cocoa taste they came out great! I have made these a bunch of times and I love them every time.
Great! That sounds delicious, Deandra.
Made these today! Wish there was an option to upload the pics. They are so easy that my first ever baking attempt is a smashing success with my husband and toddler :) Thanks Kate!
First ever?! I’m so glad it went so well, Pallavi!
Hello Kate, just wanted to say I throughly loved ur banana bread, I always use the recipe, next on my list is ur banana muffins, etc. Will be following ur recipes.
Thanks so much, Jenny! I’m so glad you enjoy the blog.
Just made these and they turn out amazing!
Perfect! Thanks, Kevin.
These are great, and this is my go-to banana bread/muffins recipe (I have made the bread on several occasions, and just made the muffins yesterday. I typically use regular olive oil because I feel that it works better than EVOO for baking. I also used roughly 1/2 whole wheat flour, and 1/2 regular white flour. And chopped pecans. I had 3 over-ripe bananas to use up, which yielded slightly more than the recommended 1 cup of mashed banana, but used it all anyway. Definitely a flexible recipe. Sooo moist and delicious! Thank you for sharing this recipe, and developing such a nice blog!
Hooray! I’m so glad this worked out with your modifications, Erin. Sounds delicious!
I make these all the time and love them, as do my picky toddlers! I recently started mixing the ingredients and realized we were out of eggs. I substituted 1/2 cup of unsweetened applesauce and they came out perfect! Thanks for so many awesome healthy recipes!
Great! Good to hear the applesauce swap worked so well for this, Michelle, I’ll keep that in mind. Thanks for commenting!
These are seriously delicious!!! SO tasty! Thank you x
Awesome! Thank you, Jessica!
Thanks heaps for this recipe!
I wasn’t disappointed, it was moist and tasted excellent! Best banana muffin I’ve ever made in my life, so healthy and easy.
Cheers! :))
Great! I’m glad these came out as you hoped, Carmem.
Hey Kate! I love the sounds of this recipe! I was wondering if I can make it in cookie form? I remember I made banana oatmeal cookies with honey and no butter a few months ago and I think it was one of your recipes! I’m wondering if this one can be made into cookies? Or if you have any suggestions? Thanks!
Hi Kate,
I love this recipe so much. I make them once a week and freeze whatever my family doesn’t eat in a day. (very few)
I am about to make some more and realize I only have quick oats in the cupboard.
Can I substitute those for rolled oats? Should I make any other changes?
Thanks, look forward to trying more variations on this muffin.
I’ve been making these for months and love them! We recently found out our son may have an egg allergy and made it with flax eggs and it tastes amazing, you’d never know! Sarsh
Yes, the flax egg trick works great with these!
Wow that’s look so great
Can i substitute old fashion oats for quick oats
I think so, yes!
These were so yummy! Great recipe, thank you.
can I substitute whole wheat flour with almond flour?
Delicious! So excited to find this recipe. My family usually lets me eat all of the “healthy” muffins I have made to date, but they love these! Thank you!
Just wanna say thank you for this awesome recipe! You made it easy and doable for a first-time beginner like me, AND it tastes incredibly good! Now I see why it’s called comforting food — I feel very much satisfied when I took those out from oven!
I made these last night and they are delicious. I would say the only problem I had (which was my fault so I still gave it 5 stars) was that I ended up with 14 muffins somehow and I did take off some of the bake time (I checked at 19 min) but I really could have taken them out a minute or so earlier and they would have been perfect. My daughters (ages 6&4) loved them as well and enjoyed them for breakfast this morning. I wanted to try the recipe “as is” the first time but I think next time I’ll add in the chocolate chips!
i have made these multiple times, LOVE THEM. although I ran out of whole wheat flour and I dont feel like going to the store lol can I use coconut flour instead? Thanks!
No! Sorry. Coconut flour is not a suitable substitute for other flours; it will suck all of the moisture out of the batter.
I just made these muffins & replaced the milk with espresso! Awesome!!
Beautiful recipe! I used spelt flour instead of whole wheat; turned out fantastic
Making these again today… I use better batter gf flour, today chocolate chips and roasted cashews! Yum thanks for great recipes. So happy I’ve found your blog and cookbook!
Hi! First time visitor to your website. I needed something to do with my ripe bananas and wanted to make muffins. The recipe is undeniably healthy and for once, actually turned out like your photo. The muffins puffed up beautifully and did not deflate after cooling. I ended up with 12 muffins (after adding chocolate chips), baked at 350 degrees for 25 minutes. I haven’t tried them yet but I think they’ll be good!
Great photos. I’ve never used a Sony Alpha, but they seem like great cameras. Will be trying out this recipe soon (w/ Almond Milk & Honey).
Happy Cooking
Just made these. We ate them warm, and they were moist and delicious!
Just made these and my husband and I give it 2 thumbs up! I decided to do half honey and half maple syrup and they were perfectly moist and sweet without being too sweet. Thanks for making our morning even sweeter!
Getting ready to makecan I substitute same amount of applesauce for oil?
Hi Cindy, I think that will work. Since I haven’t tried myself, you might look through the comments to see if that has worked well for others—on a Mac, hold down Command and press F for a search bar. On a PC, hold down Control and press F for a search bar. Search for “applesauce”. Hope that helps!
Love the recipe! I am on an elimination diet and just introducing wheat and this was perfect as I am ok with eggs. It was the perfect amount to make 6 large muffins. I used coconut oil, a mix of maple syrup and honey, coconut sugar on top and added chopped pecans. I also used self-raising wholewheat flour and they came out really fluffy and moist. Definitely a big hit!
That’s great it is a hit, Louise! I really appreciate the comment and review!
Oh my gosh, I love this recipe so much! I’ve made these so many times now and they always turn out deliciously fluffy and moist. I usually follow the recipe to the tee but this time I used 1 cup wholemeal spelt and 3/4 cup almond meal, and folded through approx 1 cup blueberries. They were soooo good! Thanks for this wonderful recipe!
That is great, Cristina! Thank you for sharing and providing a review!
Ya’ll. This is seriously the BEST muffin recipe ever! I made it today exactly as stated, except I added a generous handful of chopped walnuts. They came out just like the pics – dense & flavorful, not overly sweet. This is definitely gonna be my go-to muffin recipe from now on! :-)
These are perfect. Because I was out of whole wheat flour, I used all purpose flour and substituted 1/2 of it for 1/2 cup ground flax meal. Also added a generous handful of chocolate chips. They were delicious! Favourite muffin recipe.
That is great! Thanks so much for your review.
I’ve made these muffins several times now following the recipe exact with both Bob’s Red Mill GF flour and Bob’s spelt flour. Both so good! I would highly recommend! Added chocolate chunks to the tops a few times and they came out amazing :). For me 19 min on 325 seems to get the best results ;) Happy Baking <3 Thank u Kate <3
I love this recipe! I’ve made the muffins a few times now and they are easy and best of all, delicious! Thank you!
Thank you, Rose for your review!
I made this recipe and loved it. I added dairy free chocolate chips, sundried cranberries and walnuts. And I used bananas out of the garden! So good!
Sounds delicious, Cindy! Thanks so much for your review.
Fabulous recipe!! I make it all the time. The muffins turn out great substituting flax eggs for real ones. Also, I sometimes lighten it up by using a bit less coconut oil and maple syrup. In its place I add more almond milk.
I tried out this muffin recipe today and it was very moist and yummy. I added some dates, nuts and chia seeds and it was very nice.
Thank you for such a great,easy to make and yummy recipe it is now my favourite muffin recipe.
Dates sound so good! You are welcome, Robyn. :)
I love these muffins! I used almond extract instead of vanilla, and really love them! I used honey, and they have just the right amount of sweetness. Great recipe.
Thank you, Hallie! I appreciate the review.
Made these tonight and these were very good! I made them with a chia egg substitute and Cup for Cup gf flour. I forgot the oatmeal IN the muffins but put a few on top. Was a little doughy inside because of that, but baked them a bit longer so all turned out well. Super option for vegan, gluten-free food! And I love the low sugar (I made with the maple syrup option.) Thank you!
Welcome! I am happy they still turned out :) I appreciate the review.
You have to know…I’m not a natural in the kitchen. Every time I bake it’s too soft, too hard, not good, but this muffin recipe was a hit. My husband ate 3 as soon as they came out of the oven and they were all gone in 3 days. I’m so brave now that today I am going to try the Gluten-Free Apple Crisp. Thanks for the great recipes, easy to make and delicious.
Win! That’s great Monique. Let me know how the Apple Crisp works for you :) I appreciate your comment!
My first time ever baking with wheat flour and I think that the muffins turned out GREAT! I am looking forward to exploring your other recipes as my husband and I explore a more plant based diet to combat his diabetes and my cholesterol (as I refuse to take the medicines until I see if changing my diet will work first)
Glad to hear that, Emmy! Best of luck with combating your dietary needs. I appreciate the review!
These are in the oven right now! This is my third time making them. I use maple syrup, olive oil (EV), ½ whole wheat and ½ regular flour (no oats) and my super picky 8 year old LOVES them!
I hope they were just wonderful, Marsha! Thank you for your review. :)
I just LOVE your muffin recipes. The formula you have down is perfect and makes for quick prep, cooking and clean up (1 bowl!). I have made tweaks here and there (sub some of the whole wheat flour for flax meal and almond meal) but overall your recipe is just perfect. My 16 month old son has one, whether it be this banana muffin, your pumpkin, apple, zucchini or carrot, almost every day. Thank you so much!
Thank you, Leigh!
I’ve made these muffins about a dozen times now. Absolutely love them as well as your other muffin recipes…especially the lemon/blueberry ones! Awesome!
Fantastic! Thank you, Aly. I am glad these are a regular for you. I really appreciate the review.
I made these muffins this morning. They came out delicious! I used olive oil and I added a little plain yogurt because my dough was very sticky. I also made 1/2 of them with chocolate chips so that my daughter will eat them. I made them mini too because they are less calories that way:); Thanks for the recipe!
You are welcome!