Banana Muffins

Whenever I see bananas beginning to speckle and brown in my kitchen, I know baking is in order. If you’re not recycling week-old bananas into muffins, you’re missing out. Think of sweet, buttery, fluffy muffins with a punch of banana and a hint of cinnamon, and you’ve got these beauties. I pushed them a little beyond muffin territory—think of them as miniature banana cakes, flat-top and all, but with the integrity of muffins.

The great thing about banana muffins is that they can be enjoyed all day long. Pack one for breakfast with a smoothie, eat one as your sweet-carby treat after a kale-forward lunch, or sneak one on the couch for a late-night snack.

How To Make Banana Muffins

INGREDIENTS

• Unsalted Butter: Nonstick spray is good and fine, but I like to grease muffin tins with butter, which adds flavor and helps give the muffins a beautifully browned exterior. Just 1 Tbsp. will do; the remaining butter gets creamed with the sugar for muffins that are extra fluffy.
• Vegetable Oil: Oil makes muffins moister (say that five times fast) and helps them stay fresh longer.
• Granulated Sugar: I wanted my muffins to lean on the cakey side, so I opted to sweeten them with granulated sugar only, which gives them a lighter, airier texture.
• Bananas: In addition to flavor, mashed bananas contribute a lot of moisture, which helps produce a moist, tender crumb.
• Large Eggs: Eggs contribute networks of coagulating proteins that trap the gases generated by the baking powder, allowing the muffins to bake up flight and fluffy.
• All-Purpose Flour: The backbone of any muffin recipe. All-purpose flour strikes the right balance between structure and tenderness.
• Baking Powder: I chose baking powder over baking soda because it produces a more tender, even crumb and has less impact on the overall flavor of the muffins, letting the flavor of the bananas come through clearer.
• Cinnamon: I’ve always felt that the sweet-spicy warmth of cinnamon helps bananas be their best self. It just has a way of bringing out the sweetness of bananas.
• Heavy Cream: I opted for heavy cream over other liquids, as I found it produces muffins with a softer, more tender crumb and a better ability to retain moisture.

STEP-BY-STEP INSTRUCTIONS

Start by preheating your oven to 350° and greasing the cups of your muffin tin with butter. Set the tin aside and get to work on the batter; we’ll start with the wet ingredients. You’ll need a large bowl and a handheld electric mixer; alternatively, you can use a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Beat the sugar and softened butter together, starting on low speed (so the sugar doesn’t fly all over the kitchen) and increasing to medium speed and scraping down the bowl with a rubber spatula as needed, until the mixture is pale, light, and creamy; this usually takes 2 to 3 minutes. Beat in the oil until incorporated, then beat in the bananas until batter is mostly homogeneous, with just some tiny lumps remaining, about 1 minute.

Reduce the mixer speed to medium-low and beat in the eggs, adding them one at a time and beating each until incorporated before adding the next. Beat in the vanilla, then shut off the mixer and turn your attention to the dry ingredients.

Combine the flour, baking powder, salt, and cinnamon in a medium bowl and whisk together until combined. Add about half of flour mixture to the wet ingredients and beat on low speed just to combine. Add the cream to the batter and beat until combined. Now, add the remaining flour mixture and beat just until incorporated; some lumps are okay. The key is to mix as minimally as possible; overmixing will result in tougher, denser muffins.

Divide the batter evenly among the muffin cups. This can be messy business, so I like to use a large cookie scoop to drop the batter into the cups.

Bake the muffins until pale golden brown around the edges and domed on top, 20 to 25 minutes. Let cool in the pan for 30 minutes before serving.

Full list of ingredients and directions can be found in the recipe below.

Recipe Tips

• The key to making the fluffiest muffins: I’m a big believer in making muffins feel and taste like their cakier cousin. To that end, I’ve borrowed a cake technique—creaming fat and sugar together—to give these muffin’s a uniquely light and airy texture. Beating the oil, butter, and sugar until pale and creamy incorporates more air into the batter, and using a combination of butter and oil allows you to get the moisture from the oil without sacrificing the flavor of the butter.
• By “ripe,” I mean nearing the edge of overripe: Bananas are at peak ripeness for baking when they are deep yellow and covered all over with black speckles. Those speckles, commonly known as “sugar spots,” indicate the bananas’ starches have converted to sugars and the bananas are at their sweetest.
• Add salt later: Salt balances sweetness, but it also increases the elasticity of a batter or dough, increasing chewiness. In my pursuit of the tenderest muffins, I opted to add the salt in the last few seconds of mixing, which gives it less time to affect the structure of the muffins.
• Butter those tins: Nonstick muffin pans are great for a couple of reasons: They minimize the potential for a sticky mess while simultaneously helping muffins to brown. I augment those qualities by buttering my nonstick tins, which adds flavor, helps give the muffins a tender exterior, and further aids in browning. When in doubt, use more butter!

Storage

These muffins are a great make-ahead breakfast for grab-and-go ease. I highly recommend making a double batch to enjoy throughout the week. Store in an airtight container or zip-top bag at room temperature for up to 1 week. You can also freeze them for up to 1 month.