Healthy Banana Muffins that are flavorful and moist and just over 100 calories each. They're low in sugar and fat, have no oil, but taste amazing.
Looking for more muffin recipes? Try Healthy Pumpkin Muffins, Skinny Chocolate Muffins, Healthy Applesauce Oat Muffins, or Blueberry Muffins!
Why I love this recipe:
- Healthier – These are muffins you can feel good about eating or giving your kids. They have no oil, are low sugar, and just over 100 calories each!
- Freezer Friendly – I love keeping a few different muffin options in my freezer. They make my life easier when I need a quick and easy snack for my family, or something to add to my kids school lunch.
- Delicious – While this banana muffin recipe is healthier, they don't sacrifice in flavor or texture one bit.
How to make Banana Bread Muffins:
Combine Wet Ingredients: Mash bananas in a mixing bowl then add egg, vanilla, brown sugar, granulated sugar, and cinnamon and stir well to combine.
Stir Dry Ingredients: In a separate small bowl, stir together flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt then add to banana mixture and stir, just to combine.
Add Butter: Gently stir in melted butter, but don't over-mix the batter.
Bake: Spoon the batter into prepared muffin pan then bake these healthy banana bread muffins for 18-25 minutes. Makes 12 muffins.
Enjoy: Eat warm from the oven (my favorite), or let cool and freeze for an easy breakfast, snack, or a kid's school lunch!
Tips for Perfect Banana Muffins:
- Use Extra-Ripe Bananas: Use really ripe bananas because the riper the banana, the sweeter it is, the easier it is to mash, and the more sweetness it adds to the bread.
- How to Ripen Bananas: If your bananas are not overly ripe, place them, peel on, on a baking sheet and bake at 350 degree F for about 6-8 minutes, or until the banana skin is dark.
- Don't Over-Mix the Batter: The more you mix the batter, the more gluten will develop, which can make the muffins rubbery and dense.
Storage and Freezing Instructions:
To Store: These easy banana muffins will keep at room temperature for 3-5 days.
To Freeze: Cool completely then store in a freezer safe bag in the freezer for up to 3 months. Thaw on the counter or in the microwave. I love to add them to my kid's school lunches.
Recipe Variations:
- Mix-Ins: Feel free to stir in ¾ cup of you favorite chopped nuts, chocolate chips, or raisins, at the end, before adding the batter to the muffin pan.
- Make my Healthy Banana Bread by baking in loaf pans instead of muffins tins.
More Healthy Snacks for Kids:
- Skinny Chocolate Muffins
- No Bake Granola Bars
- Applesauce
- Easy Healthy Granola
- Strawberry Banana Smoothie
- Chocolate Overnight Oats
- Granola Bites
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Recipe
Healthy Banana Muffins
Ingredients
- 4 bananas , about 1 ⅓ cups, mashed (320 g)
- 1 large egg
- 1 Tablespoon vanilla extract (15 ml)
- 3 Tablespoons light brown sugar (40 g)
- 2 Tablespoons granulated sugar (25 g)
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon (2.5 g)
- 1 teaspoon baking powder (5 g)
- 1 teaspoon baking soda (5 g)
- 1/2 teaspoon salt (2.5 g)
- 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour (white or whole wheat) (180 g)
- 2 Tablespoons unsalted butter , melted (28 g)
Instructions
- Grease a standard muffin pan (or line with paper muffin liners). Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
- Mash bananas in a mixing bowl. Add egg, vanilla, brown sugar, granulated sugar, and cinnamon and stir well to combine.
- In a separate small bowl stir together flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Add to banana mixture and stir, just to combine.
- Gently stir in melted butter. Don't over-mix the batter.
- Spoon the batter into prepared muffin pan and bake for 18-25 minutes. Makes 12 muffins.
Notes
Nutrition
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I originally shared this recipe March 2018. Updated August 2023.
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This is so yummy. Just made this for my kids and they LOVE IT wow!!! Thank you.
How many carbs per muffin?
There is an estimated 24g carbohydrate per muffin!
We love this both as muffins and as the loaf. I’ve lost count of how many times we have made it! Do you think I could add cocoa powder for a chocolate twist? If so how much? Thanks!
I’ve never tried it, but you could and cut back a tiny bit on the flour 🙂
The muffins are cooling on the counter as I type. I’ve had one and so has my husband. Two thumbs up. I’ll make it again. I like this healthier version without it being “too healthy”. I’m sure the kids will gobble them up after school. 😉
Great recipe! I doubled the recipe and used:
2c white flour, 1 cup bread flour
And then 1 tbsp vanilla and 1 tbsp almond
Eggs at room temp
Shifted dry ingredients before adding to wet mixture
Cooked perfectly at 19 min
21 muffins total
All three daughters are loving these but they’re sticking a bit to the muffin papers. I’m not much of a baker- any tips with that? Did we eat them too soon out of the oven maybe?
Hi Kati,
Did you spray the muffin liners with non-stick spray? This always does the trick for me 🙂
I love this recipe! They turned out so good!
Would I be able to substitute ghee for the butter? Thanks!
Yes, that should be fine 🙂
I really have to say, this is the best banana muffin recipe I have ever made! My husband won’t even be able to tell they are “skinny” (he is usually very quick to point out if its missing the “sweet”). They took about 20 min, rose into perfect little mounds of moist goodness! Thanks, I will definitely be making these again!
I wish I could add a picture! Mine turned out well. Thank you for the recipe. I personally will be adding walnuts next time- only b/c I’m not a huge fan of bananas and need a little something extra. (Had super ripe bananas that needed used!)
My husband has now made me make them 3 weeks in a row. Added walnuts, soooooo delicious. And when I make them as minis they’re only 1 point on our “plan”. Thank you so much, can’t wait to try some of the others.
Thanks for sharing Susan! I’m really glad you both liked them. Next you should try the Healthy Applesauce Oat Muffins–I think you’ll love them! https://tastesbetterfromscratch.com/healthy-applesauce-oat-muffins/
I was going to post a photo of my muffins after they come out of the oven because they look exactly like your pictures above. In my oven I baked them 20 minutes and they were perfect. They did rise nicely, they did not fall, the crumb texture was great and the taste was lovely. The first time I make a recipe from any site I try to follow it exactly before I make any changes. In this case when I got to the bottom of the recipe and saw the butter, I thought to myself I really need to change that as I am trying really hard to eliminate as much butter in my cooking. Mostly due to the bad saturated fat in butter, not the calories. Other healthier oil’s may have a couple more calories but they are so much better for you due to the lower amounts of the bad saturated fat. I used avocado oil which is light and does not have strong taste and it worked perfectly.
I think I read pretty much every review on here. And did want to respond to some of the problems that some of the reviewer’s said they had. I firmly believe the problems they had have nothing to do with the recipe, a lot of it just comes from baking experience. And I don’t want anyone to get upset with me I am not trying to cut anyone’s baking skills, just providing some insights to mistakes I’ve made in the past and found how to correct them. One that you already mentioned in your recipe comments was over beating or over mixing. That will definitely cause muffins to come out flat and if you haven’t done much baking you may not realize that that’s what you’ve done. Second, you may not have cooked the muffins long enough because that will definitely cause them to fall flat after you take them out of the oven. and for those who said they did not rise like the ones in the photos, check the dates on your baking powder and or baking soda because these things do not last forever in your pantry. And that will definitely affect anything you bake. I think that was the main theme of problems I read in the above posts. And please I hope no one takes offense at me providing this advice because it is only meant in a helpful way, not to disparage anyone’s baking abilities. I have learned in the past with posts like this people can sure take things the wrong way so quickly.