Remember my very famous skinny banana chocolate chip muffins from a few years back? I’ve made them time and time again, but finally, I figured it was time for a new healthy banana muffin recipe that’s just as irresistible as my first born (muffin, that is!).
This recipe was actually a happy accident. I told my sister in law I wanted to bake her some banana muffins with my extra ripe bananas, and she requested that they be made without chocolate chips. Since I knew they weren’t going to have the sweetness from chocolate, I decided to naturally sweeten them with honey and they turned out beautifully AND incredibly delicious.
Since I was low on butter at the time, I made these banana muffins with a little bit of heart-healthy olive oil to keep them moist and they ended up having BEST crumb texture. They’re seriously SO fluffy, tender, moist, infused with sweet cinnamon flavor and a nice crunch thanks to walnuts (leave out if you aren’t into nuts). I found myself eating a few here and there throughout the day, some with peanut butter on top or even a little drizzle of honey + sea salt. YASS.
Ingredients in healthy banana muffins
These delicious, healthy banana muffins are not only dairy free, but also seriously moist, flavorful and use honey as a natural sweetener. Here’s what you need:
- Overripe bananas: make sure they’re almost all the way brown so that these muffins have the right amount of sweetness.
- Honey: for a little boost of natural sweetness. I love the flavor that honey gives these banana muffins.
- Egg: you’ll just need one egg in this recipe. You can also try using a flax egg but I have not tested it.
- Vanilla: always baking with vanilla for delicious flavor.
- Olive oil: a bit of olive oil makes these healthy banana muffins super moist. Feel free to sub melted butter or melted and cooled coconut oil.
- Dairy free milk: I like to use unsweetened vanilla almond milk for a little extra flavor, but you can use any milk you’d like!
- Whole wheat pastry flour: I love baking with whole wheat pastry flour because it adds a boost of nutrients while making these muffins perfectly fluffy. If you don’t have this flour feel free to use all purpose flour. You can also use a ratio of ¾ cup whole wheat flour + 1 cup all purpose flour. I have not tried making these gluten free, so I’d suggest my gluten free dairy free banana muffins instead!
- Baking soda: to ensure that these bake up properly.
- Cinnamon: a little cozy spice to make them extra delicious.
- Salt: this will help pull the flavors together.
- Walnuts: I love to add chopped walnuts into the batter of these healthy banana muffins and on top! Feel free to omit or sub pecans if you’d like.
How to make the ultimate healthy banana muffins
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line a 12 cup muffin pan with nonstick cooking spray or line with muffin liners. Either way I recommend using nonstick cooking spray. This guarantees that they muffins will not stick to the liners or the pan.
- In a large bowl, mix together mashed bananas, honey, egg, vanilla, olive oil and milk until well combined. Add in whole wheat pastry flour, baking soda, cinnamon and salt and use a wooden spoon to mix together until the batter is just combined. Fold in ½ cup chopped walnuts.
- Divide batter evenly into muffin liners, sprinkle each muffin with chopped walnuts. Bake for 20-25 minutes or until the toothpick comes out with just a few crumbs attached.
- Cool muffins for 5 minutes then remove and transfer to a wire rack to finish cooling. These healthy banana muffins are best served warm and even better the next day. Makes 12 muffins.
Tips for making the best healthy banana muffins
- Use extra ripe bananas. Yes, I mean EXTRA ripe and almost brown. They’ll give these healthy banana muffins a natural sweetness.
- Don’t overmix the batter. Mix the flour into your wet ingredients until it’s just combined. If you overmix the batter your muffins may turn out dense and almost rubbery, which we don’t want.
Customize your banana muffins
Feel free to add your favorite muffin mix-ins! This healthy banana muffin recipe is a great base for delicious toppings, too. Here are a few suggestions:
- 1/2 cup chocolate chips
- 1/2 cup chopped pecans
- a drizzle of homemade nut butter on top
Freezer-friendly banana muffins
Yes, these healthy banana muffins are freezer-friendly! Simply wrap muffins individually in freezer-safe bags or store them in a large freezer bag. When you’re ready to enjoy them, reheat for 30-45 seconds in the microwave or simply thaw them at room temperature.
I hope you love these healthy banana muffins! If you make them I’d love for you to leave a comment and rating letting me know how you liked them. Enjoy xo!
The Ultimate Healthy Banana Muffins
The ultimate healthy banana muffins are incredibly moist, dairy free and naturally sweetened with just ripe bananas and honey. This easy, healthy banana muffin recipe comes together in one bowl in just 30 minutes with options to add a delicious crunch from walnuts! The perfect healthy breakfast or snack that's freezer-friendly, too.
Ingredients
- 3 VERY overripe bananas, mashed (make sure they are almost all the way brown)
- ⅓ cup honey
- 1 large egg, at room temperature
- ½ tablespoon vanilla extract
- ¼ cup olive oil
- 1/4 cup unsweetened vanilla almond milk (or milk of choice)
- Dry ingredients
- 1 ¾ cup whole wheat pastry flour*
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- ½ teaspoon salt
- Mix-ins
- ½ cup chopped walnuts, plus ¼ cup chopped walnuts for sprinkling on top of muffins
Instructions
-
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Line a muffin pan with liners and spray the inside of the liners to prevent sticking.
-
In a large bowl, mix together mashed bananas, honey, egg, vanilla, olive oil and milk until well combined. Add in whole wheat pastry flour, baking soda, cinnamon and salt and use a wooden spoon to mix together until the batter is just combined. DO NOT overmix. Fold in ½ cup chopped walnuts.
-
Divide batter evenly into muffin liners, sprinkle each muffin with chopped walnuts. Bake for 20-25 minutes or until the toothpick comes out with just a few crumbs attached.
-
Cool muffins for 5 minutes then remove and transfer to a wire rack to finish cooling. Muffins are best served warm and even better the next day. Makes 12 muffins.
Recipe Notes
*If you don’t have whole wheat pastry flour feel free to use all purpose flour. You can also use a ratio of ¾ cup whole wheat flour + 1 cup all purpose flour.
To make gluten free, I suggest making my gluten free dairy free banana muffins.
Recipe by: Monique Volz // Ambitious Kitchen | Photography by: Eat Love Eats
If you like this recipe you might also like:
Best Ever Healthy Banana Bread Recipe
Vegan Banana Bread Cinnamon Rolls
Chia Banana Bread Energy Bites
Peanut Butter Banana Baked Oatmeal Cups
Healthy Banana Oatmeal Pancakes (made right in the blender!)
44 comments
What great timing! I was just trying to figure out what to do with the ripe bananas on the counter. Problem solved!!
Perfect!! Enjoy 🙂
I would really like it if you could include the picture of your recipe in the Print Recipe tab. I seldom make a recipe if I can’t see the picture and when I print your recipes, the picture is left out. All other food bloggers have the picture included in the print out. Is this something I may be doing wrong?
Hi Julia! Thanks for the feedback – we’re working on this 🙂
Monique these are to die for!
So glad you love them!
These muffins are delish! So soft & flavourful!
I used maple syrup instead of the honey and spelt flour. So good, thank you!
Perfect! Glad you enjoyed 🙂
Yum!! Made as written with 1C AP flour and 3/4C whole wheat flour. Delicious and perfect muffins. My kids gobbled them up. Made half with nuts and half for kids without topped with mini choc chips. Soft, perfectly sweet, and easy to whip up. 10/10 will make again.
Perfect! Happy to hear that!
These muffins are amazing! I left out the walnuts and added 1/2 cup chocolate chips and they tasted great. New fave muffin recipe.
Perfect! Glad you enjoyed 🙂
Super easy and yummy! Great tips to make these perfect, like spraying the muffin liners so they don’t stick, genius! Awesome, thank you for this 🙂 I’ll be making these again soon!
Absolutely! So glad you loved them 🙂
WOW, incredible! I probably should have given my bananas another day to get browner but literally couldn’t wait to try these. Our new favorite muffin!!
So happy you loved them!
HI! I am so excited to try these. When you say almost brown bananas- when you peel the bananas, is it ok they are are all spotty and brown too then? Thank you!!
Hi! The outsides should be brown and spotty, but the inside is generally still normal colored (maybe a bit darker) and soft.
Delicious, healthy and easy! Used whole wheat flour (1cup) and all purpose flour (3/4cup). Added lots of chopped walnuts inside and on top. My new favorite banana muffins!
5 stars (star rating was not working…).
Perfect! So happy you enjoyed!
This recipe is delicious! Super easy to follow and fun to make! I added chocolate chips to mine which made them even better!
Great idea! Glad you love them!
These muffins are awesome so moist. I substituted honey(Little less since I added chocolate chips) for maple syrup and unsalted butter for oil. Totally keeper recipe!
Perfect! Glad you loved them!
I have been wanting to make these since you posted them, but it was impossible to find whole wheat pastry flour in the stores in my city for so long. I was able to make them this past weekend though, and they are amazing! The perfect amount of slight sweetness, and I love the crunch from the walnuts. I was worried that I did something wrong cause the batter was very thick, but they came out so good. A tip for any other readers: I usually plan meals and buy groceries a day in advance, which doesn’t give my bananas time to ripen to that perfect consistency. But I learned that I can ripen them in the oven by baking them at 300 degrees for 15-20 mins. The outside will get black and the inside will develop that sweetness for breads and muffins!
So happy you were able to make these! Such a great snack or breakfast 🙂 and great tip about the bananas!
Very perfect
Glad you like them!
These muffins are great! So fluffy! I had to sub maple syrup for the honey and I used regular flour and still turned out AMAZING!
Perfect! Such a great snack or breakfast!
I made these delish muffins for a quick grab and go breakfast. I added a few dark chocolate pieces and almond nut butter on the top before popping them into the oven for 20 min, absolutely delicious! Thank you 🙏
Love that! Such a great breakfast or snack 🙂
This recipe looks really good. May I sub olive oil for coconut oil? Thanks,
Marcela
Yes that should be fine, just make sure all the ingredients are at room temp so the coconut oil doesn’t harden, or simply stir in the melted coconut oil last.
Hello, can I use the same exact recipe to make a banana bread instead of individual muffins? What would be the baking time? Many thanks!
Yes I think so. Baking time should be anywehre from 45 min – 1 hour.
Made these this morning and wow! Perfectly moist and sweetened. I used part whole wheat flour and part white flour. They tuned out great. I can’t wait to make these again.
Perfect! Glad you loved them!
Delicious!!!! Followed the recipe exactly except I didn’t measure my honey and most likely used a little less. I also didn’t have pastry flour so did the 1 cup white flour and 3/4 whole wheat flour substitution. Super moist and perfect muffin texture. My 2 little girls and I gobbled them up, my 5 year old said they were so amazing and she typically will only eat muffins with fruit so they definitely got the kid approval! Thanks for always posting delicious and healthy recipes!
Perfect! So glad they were a hit!
10/10 ! I was afraid that the muffins would be dry or taste a little too *extra-healthy*. They were just the right texture and using suuuper ripe bananas made them sweet enough for everyone ! I will make them again.
The ripe bananas are key! So glad you loved them!
Monique I love your recipes!! For one, they are SUPER healthy and 2) I don’t find it difficult to make substitutions!! These turned out great! My subs – regular whole wheat, instead of honey I used maple syrup and for the oil I used 1/4 applesauce and 1/4cup sunflower seed oil. Finally I crushed the walnuts and I had a bit more room and I threw hemp hearts in as well! They turned out amazing and my 2.5 year old daughter loves them!
I’m glad those swaps worked out well! Such a great snack or breakfast 🙂