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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I make these muffins a lot and they are delicious! I add walnuts to some, craisins to others, and sometimes some mini chocolate chips. I use olive oil, don’t add turbinado sugar on top, and follow the recipe exactly and they come out perfectly!
Mine were not sweet enough, I used the maple syrup version. I wonder where I went wrong ?
I spoke to a baker friend of mine who said if you cook maple syrup it tends to lose its sweetness ? Next time I’ll try it with the honey.
Thank you
Hi Courtney, That’s interesting as I haven’t run into it before. I appreciate your feedback and let me know what you think when you try it with honey! Make sure your bananas are really ripe, that will impact taste and texture too.
This recipe is my favourite because it’s healthy and my toddler loves it! We bake together which makes it more fun! We use honey and olive oil. Also, coconut sugar for the toppings. We also prefer nuts for the mix-ins rather than chocolate (chipits).
I love this recipe!
Thank you for your review, Joey!
Hey Courtney, I used honey instead, pretty ripe bananas and vanilla paste instead probably 1&1/2ish of paste and frozen raspberries at the bottom of each mould and was delish and sweet enough
Great recipe! Simple to make… like the add on ideas! Thanks for sharing!
You’re welcome, Irene! I’m glad you loved it.
Made these muffins today exactly as recipe, and whilst they are moist, fluffy and delicious they did not rise very much. Is this usual within this recipe or what could I have done wrong.
Hi Jenny, I’m sorry to hear that! How did you measure the flour? Did you add the leavener?
What’s the leavener in this recipe?
Hi! See the ingredients, the baking sodas. I hope you enjoy this recipe!
I’ve learned that if you cook them for the first five minutes on a higher temperature and then lower it to the normal temperature that that’s supposed to help them rise more.
I just made the banana muffins. They are healthy and they rose well. I used olive oil and added a few cut up dates. I drizzle honey over the muffin just before eating. Yum…You can just taste the healthy ingredients and these muffins fill you up. No empty sugar calories here!
Thank you Kate and Cookie. It’s a winner!
Greetings from Switzerland! Very tasty. I’ve got an 8 year old with diabetes 1 and she loved them. I did make changes to suit her condition and they were still super tasty! I used only 1/4c maple syrup with no other sugar substitutes, white spelt flour and butter for the oil. I left out the oats and sugar topping. If it tastes this good scaled down, they’d be amazing as per the recipe.
Made these for the first time in a while recently, but accidentally used almond flour. The texture and consistency were off, but they tasted amazing! I’m curious if you know what measurement I could use of almond flour to get the consistency right, because I actually think I preferred the taste over GF all purpose flour.
Hi Danielle, you could try my Gluten-Free Banana Bread (Made with Almond Flour). Let me know what you think!
Can’t wait to try these!
Has anyone tried using spelt flour in the recipe? May wondering either I could replace or go half half with the wheat flour.
X
Hi! I know it works in my banana bread so you could try it here. Let me know how it works for you!
I have to say these were so so good. It was a rainy day today and I wanted to make something clean and banana-y for my toddler without the added sugars. It was amazing!
Forgot to add that I didn’t add all 1 3/4 cups of flour because I felt like my house was pretty dry in terms of air. I omitted about 1/4 of the cup of flour and they were amazing sans oats. They rose and are so amazing.
I appreciate your review, Becca! Thank you for sharing how you made this.
Made these for the first time for my family and then for a sick friend yesterday, and they are all gone! Absolutely the BEST banana muffins with the added bonus that they are actually healthy. Moist and rich and just delicious. I used whole grain sprouted spelt flour and EVOO and it worked perfectly. Added walnuts. No one wants to go back to the old fashioned ones full of shortening and sugar. Thank you for this beautiful recipe. I am going to go make the pumpkin ones now… I highly recommend!
You’re welcome, Heidi! I’m glad you enjoyed this recipe.
Wow these are the best muffins I’ve ever made! I added walnuts this time and didn’t do toppings. I used olive oil and maple syrup and honey together. I used 100% whole wheat flour. They rose huge! I’m so impressed and will make these over and over again. Thank you! Now I have to go and check out what other things you have!
That’s great to hear, Wendy!
These muffins are delicious! I make these regularly with maple syrup and almond milk. I also mix in 1/3 cup of shredded coconut and sprinkle with coconut sugar before before baking. Everything else I do is following the recipe. I love the coconut and oaty texture and they’re the perfect level of sweetness for us. Thanks for the recipe!
That’s great to hear, Liana!
I’ve made these twice now, both times they turned out great! I used white AP flour both times, but otherwise followed the recipe exactly, and it worked perfectly!
That’s great to hear, Jenay! I appreciate your review.
Seriously, these are so good! We added dark chocolate chips and excluded the sugar and oats on top. We also did 1-2 honey and 1/3 maple syrup. My three year old and I had so much fun making them and eating them together!
Love to hear that, Courtney!
The whole family loves them!
The recipe as is,is perfect. Making these a third time-I played around with almond flour today to use it up and it was so delish. Used 1 cup whole wheat and 3/4 cup almond flour. Added chocolate chips and pecans.
Thank you!
Great to hear, Lisa! Thank you for your review.
Made these muffins today, not a fan of using coconut oil and I think the amount is way to much. Kinda greasy. Love all the other ingredients though.
Hi Stacey, I’m sorry you didn’t love these.
Made these last night, and brought some to work.
I used Oat milk.
And no sugar on top
The complements have not stopped
Everyone wanting to know how they are so soft and have so much flavour.
They are honestly really that good.
Thanks for this tasty, easy recipe. It’s so easy to tweak if you don’t have the exact ingredients. Including the nutritional info was great, too.
I love it that when I am looking for a healthy version of classic recipes, I always end up here! Went out of town for a weekend and came back to a bunch of aging bananas, so I’m really looking forward to trying these banana muffins!
I left out the oats because I don’t like the texture and added half a tsp of baking powder because I didn’t think the soda alone would rise enough.
These were incredible, especially for not having sugar in them!
Heya! Newbie here :) Do I need to spray oil on the cupcake liners? Some people say yes, others say no because it will burn the liner. Are the liners likely to stick without spray or will they be fine?
Hi, I don’t need to with my muffin pan, but yes you will want to make sure they are greased if you have problems with yours sticking.
I want to make these today! I only have steel cut oats. Will they work or should I omit?
Hi Allison, I don’t think that will give you the results you want. What did you decide to do?
Imake these all the time – it is a must have for my sons and husbands lunch!
Love these!The best banana muffins I have ever made!
Thanks for the excellent recipe, it’s a keeper.
You’re welcome, Lenora! I appreciate your review.
I made these using a silicone muffin tray, Bob’s Red Mill gluten free flour and 3/4 cup chopped walnuts. They took 27 minutes to cook. This was a quick and easy recipe with flexibility to use the ingredients I had on hand and they came out delicious! I’m sharing with a friend for lactation purposes due to all of the great ingredients! Thank you for a great recipe. I’ll be saving this one!
I’m delighted you enjoyed it, Kait! Thank you for your review.
It was amazing! This recipe is a keeper! Thanks for the recipe!
Hey Kate, I made these today because I had to use some bananas that were too brown to eat. They were delicious mashed up in your terrific recipe. I used the whole wheat flour and added the oatmeal and walnuts. They were delicious. I think they were plenty sweet using the maple syrup. Thanks again for another winner. Carolyn
For anyone curious here are the mods I made and how it turned out. I used 1 cup regular AP white flour, 3/4 cup almond flour, 1/8 cup ground flaxseed because I thought what the heck why not. I used 1/3 cup of quick oats because I had it. My toddler wanted to add allspice so we did. I did not too with oats or sugar and I did the full amount of maple syrup recommended. I did add in about 1/2 cup of walnuts. Baked for 23 minutes at recommended temp. They were delightful! Moist, nutty, bananaie, just a touch of sweetness. Not oaty in texture at all probably because of the finer quick oats. My one regret is that I’m not supposed to be eating them until after my baby is born. No idea how they will freeze but hoping for the best!
I made these this morning and it was quite an experiment! I had apple sauce cooking on the stove so decided to sub in apple sauce for oil. I was out of eggs so decided to try flax eggs for the first time. I followed your flax egg recipe but it did not work out–it never got thick. So…I just rolled with it and went without any eggs–flax or otherwise! The final result was great, considering all the changes. They were fairly dense, but the flavor was good–just sweet enough (I didn’t add sugar on top). My picky 8 year old approved, so that’s success in my book :)
That’s great to hear, Becca! Thank you for sharing.
Made these this afternoon and they turned out great! I followed the recipe and used honey and coconut oil – they are just a little sweet the way my family and I like muffins. Looking forward to using some add-ins next time! Thanks!
I’m not much of a baker, but these came out delicious and were relatively easy to make. I used EVOO, honey, almond milk and added walnuts. I also added some leftover chia seeds, probably about a tablespoon. Love that they’re yummy and healthy!
I made this recipe and loved it! But they did come out pretty dry for me. I used honey instead of syrup and white flower instead of whole wheat. Would that make a big difference?
That could have impacted results. How did you measure your flour? Did you spoon and level it?
Can I use white spelt
Hi Suzy! I know it works in my banana bread, so you could try it here. Let me know what you think!
I made this just now and it turned out perfect! Gonna share it to my co-workers tomorrow . Thank you for this recipe!
You’re welcome, Trx! I appreciate your review.
So today was my first time baking with whole wheat flour so I only made one batch not knowing how’d the kiddos would like them.. and jeez I should have made 3 batches!! Lol over half of them are already eaten, and I’m told these are the best muffins I’ve ever made
*We added crushed pecans and I substituted the regular granulated sugar with cinnamon sugar. We also sprinkled the top with the pecans and cinnamon sugar and it gave that first bite that extra kick of deliciousness
I love to hear that, Kassandra! Thank you for sharing.
Hi there, just wondering if this recipe is diabetic friendly?
I can’t give specific dietetics insights as I’m not a registered dietitian, sorry!
These were super easy and the best results texture and taste wise for me. Thank you.
Question can I replace the bananas with the same amount of grated apple for apple oat muffins?
Hi Karla, I would recommend my Healthy Apple Muffins
I love the taste of these muffins. Can’t believe there is no sugar! Do we know how many calories are in a muffin?
Thanks
Christine
Hi Christine, The nutritional information is below the notes section. I’m glad you love these!
I made these earlier this morning and they are so good. I love that they are not too sweet. I used honey and all purpose flour since I didn’t have any whole wheat flour. Do you think I could use oat flour for some of the flour? If so, what would the ratio be?
Up next will be your pumpkin muffins. I have 1cup of pumpkin that needs to be used up!
Hi, I don’t have a ratio to mix flours. You could try with just oat flour. See my How to Make Oat Flour for more input.
Well, I was inspired to make muffins today and stumbled across this site.
I baked using wholemeal self raising flour and olive oil.
I didn’t have enough maple syrup so added honey and rice syrup.
I added granulated nuts and P2 nut powder, the oats and didn’t have raw sugar for the top so sprinkled on brown sugar (mistake)
The changes to the recipe were very forgiving.
I made 6 good sized muffins and had to cook a little longer.
I will cook again and add some other add ins. Amazing when warm and freshly cooked. Hubby is a chef and he said great.
These are amazing!!!
Made these today with white flour as no wholemeal left and baking powder (3 teaspoons) instead of baking soda and they’re the most moist fluffy muffins ever! Will be baking again!
Great to hear, Megan! I appreciate your review.
These were delicious and addicting! The combination of coconut oil and maple syrup was an excellent sweetener! The addition of chocolate chips also helped a lot! I used gluten-free flour, which worked out well.
Hi Kate, really like this recipe.
Do you know what the equivalent of 1/2 C syrup is in monkfruit sugar?
Thanks!
marjory
Hi, I don’t sorry. I’m not sure if it will turn out the same.
hello!
I love your banana and pumpkin muffins, I make them every week. I find mine always take close to 30 minutes sometimes more to cook – I cook them at 325. Any tips?
Thanks !
Hi! Are you baking at an altitude?
Can I use spelt flour?
It worked well in my banana bread recipe, so it should work here as well.
Hi, Kate – I made these muffins today and they were fabulous. Moist and delicious! I used four bananas and used buttermilk (as I was trying to use both up). Otherwise I followed the recipe exactly. I will definitely be making these again!
Possibly my favourite banana bread / muffin recipe ever. These are SO addictive and delicious.
I’m glad you loved it, Kali! I appreciate you review.
I made these with honey, and they were delicious! My kids love them too! Thanks for sharing!
You’re welcome, Jackie! I’m glad you enjoyed it.
hello!
i love many of your recipes.
would;d it work to add blueberries to this recipe?
thank you
Hi! I don’t know if your results would be the same you can try my Healthy Blueberry Muffins recipe.