Banana Bread Muffins
“From-scratch, tender banana bread muffins topped with bakery style streusel crumb topping!”
Visual learner? Watch me make these banana bread crumb muffins from start to finish!
Like most folks, my soul is not fully present in the morning until after my morning coffee. Chocolate coffee, no sugar, extra hazelnut almond milk creamer is my usual.
Normally I don’t need a companion for my coffee but this week I made some banana bread muffins and my my my, what a match! If you’re looking for a portable item to take to a brunch or grab and go breakfast, these rustic babies are it! I hadn’t intended on these being anything fancy, just wanted to use up some old bananas but I think I’ll keep these muffins in the rotation for a while!
I found myself hiding a few in the back of the cabinet just to make sure I had enough to last me throughout the week. Hey, in my house there are no dibs with food, you better get it while you can!
These banana bread crumb muffins taste like something fresh from a bakery! The banana bread muffin is just that; moist, fluffy, tender banana bread in muffin form. And that cinnamony-sugar streusel crumb topping gives the perfect, light crunch on top. These are some of those muffins where you could seriously eat 4-5 without even feeling it. I had 3. Bananas are loaded with potassium… so, yeah.
It’s like every morning these banana bread muffins just kept getting better and better which is so typical with banana bread in any form. The crumb topping makes A LOT so feel free to half the recipe if you’d like. I make the whole batch and store the rest in the fridge for when I make single microwave muffins or mug apple crisps.
*NOTE* Banana bread naturally gets that moist, stickiness on the surface which eventually makes the streusel topping softer once covered and stored. If you are making this for an event and want the topping to remain crunchy, make it the day of the event, and DO NOT cover it until the muffins have cooled completely.
Tips for making the BEST Banana Bread Crumb Muffins:
- Do NOT over mix the batter. Mix the batter just until the flour is combined.
- Slightly underbaking the muffins and allowing them to sit in the hot pan for a few minutes will result in a moist, fluffy muffin. Letting them cook all the way in the oven will result in a dry muffin (boo). Moist crumbs should cling to the toothpick inserted into the center.
- Use your finger to pinch some of the crumb topping together if you prefer larger crumbs.
- Don’t overdo it with bananas. 1 1/2 cups are plenty. More could result in the texture going from moist and fluffy to soggy.
Grab some coffee or milk and enjoy!
Get the Recipe: Banana Bread Crumb Muffins
Ingredients
Crumb Topping
- 1 cup all-purpose flour
- 1/2 cup sugar brown sugar
- 1/2 cup granulated white sugar
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- 8 tablespoons butter, softened
Muffin
- 1 cup granulated white sugar
- 1/2 cup brown sugar
- 1/2 cup butter, softened
- 2 eggs
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
- 1/2 cup buttermilk
- 3 bananas, mashed ( about 1 1/2 cups)
- 1/2 teaspoon lemon juice, optional
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 F.
- Line a muffin tin with cupcake liners. Set aside.
- In a large bowl combine all of the crumb topping ingredients.
- Use a pastry cutter until mixture is crumbly. Set aside.
- In a large bowl, cream together butter, brown sugar and white sugar.
- Beat in eggs and vanilla extract. Seat aside.
- In a medium bowl, whisk or sift flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, and cinnamon.
- Gradually add flour mixture into the wet mixture alternating with the buttermilk.
- Stir just until combined. (be careful not to overdo it.)
- Add lemon juice to mashed bananas.
- Gently fold bananas into the batter.
- Fill muffin pan 3/4 full of batter.
- Spoon on enough crumb topping to completely cover the top. (pinch the crumbs together to create larger crumbs if desired. I used a little over 1 T. of topping)
- Bake for 18-20 minutes.
- Remove from oven when moist crumbs cling to a toothpick inserted into the center.
- Let muffins sit in the pan for about 4 minutes (they will continue to cook)
- Place muffins on a cooling rack to finish cooling.
- Enjoy!
Video
Notes
*Store muffins in an airtight container. Banana bread naturally gets a moist and sticky surface as it sits. If you are serving this for an event and want the topping to remaining crunchy, I'd suggest making this the day of.
I searched for a non-nutty banana bread recipe for a social function and came across this. I loved the idea of the crumble top (that’s one of my favorite things about apple pie!) so I decided to give it a try. I did cut back a little on the sugar in the actual muffin mix, but otherwise followed it precisely. The instructions were clear and helpful and the muffins turned out fabulously! Thank you.
Just tried these and they turned out amazing! I filled the muffins cups a little too much so I had to cook a little longer and the middle sank a bit but overall they are fabulous! I drizzled some butter rum sauce over a few..hmmm hmmm good! Sure they’ll be even better tomorrow. Thanks!!!!
I made them today. Added chocolate chips and walnuts. Mine sank in the middel too. The topping turned into a crunchy sugar crust. The taste is terrific though and they are moist. I made them with glutenfree flour. Mine look terrible but taste good. I thibk you have to press the topping into the muffin a little bit.
How long should i bake this as a loaf or as jumbo muffins? Thanks Monique. Your recipes are delicious and always work as written.
I tried this recipe in place of my tried & true banana muffin recipe. I wanted to like this recipe, but it does not work for my higher altitude (4000+). I baked them a dozen at a time. The muffins sunk in the middle and were slightly gooey in the middle. The second dozen also sank, but were done in the middle as I left them in 7-10min longer. The topping melted on both batches forming a hard, crunchy layer on the top, which was not bad. I will have to tweak this recipe by probably adding more baking powder and decreasing the sugar.
Hi Monique, can I use gluten free flour for this recipe?