If you have some ripe spotty bananas hanging out on your kitchen counter, this easy vegan muffin recipe is the perfect way to use them up!
Whether for breakfast, brunch, dessert, or snacking, they make the perfect treat when you're craving something sweet.
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Love banana desserts? Try my vegan recipes for banana pudding, banana sheet cake, chocolate banana bread, banana cream pie, tahini banana bread, and banana cheesecake next!
📖 Recipe Overview
- Quick & Easy - You only need to spend around 15 minutes of active prep time making these, and they're ready to eat from start to finish in less than an hour.
- Minimal Ingredients - These muffins use easy-to-find, pantry-staple ingredients, most of which you probably already have in your kitchen!
- Fluffy & Moist - The recipe uses a high volume of bananas, which keeps them soft, moist, and tasting fresh for days.
🧾 Ingredients Needed
You only need 10 ingredients to make these easy vegan banana muffins. Here's what to grab:
Find the complete list of ingredients, quantities, and instructions in the recipe card at the end of this post.
Ingredient Notes
- Spotty Bananas - Make sure you use ripe bananas. They're sweeter with a more intense banana flavor and softer making them easier to mash. Underripe bananas are too starchy and won't give enough flavor or sweetness to your baked goods.
- Coconut Sugar - To keep these vegan muffins refined sugar-free, coconut sugar is a great option. If you don't have coconut sugar, brown sugar will work perfectly.
- Olive Oil - I love using oil for muffin recipes as it adds lovely moisture while keeping the crumb light and fluffy, as butter can lead to a denser bake. This recipe uses a little less oil than my usual muffins as the mashed banana compensates for some of the moisture.
- Vegan Buttermilk - This is a staple in vegan baking and adds a tender and fluffy consistency to the muffins. It's a homemade mixture of non-dairy milk and apple cider vinegar or lemon juice. My go-to for homemade buttermilk is soy milk as it has a high protein content, but you can use oat milk or almond milk if you want.
- Ground Cinnamon - This adds a wonderful spiced flavor to the muffins, you can add more or less depending on your taste.
- The walnut streusel topping is optional but adds a wonderful crunch and texture in contrast to the soft muffins. Melted vegan butter works best for bringing the crumble together, but you can also use olive oil.
🥣 How To Make Banana Bread Muffins
These vegan banana bread muffins are truly so easy to make. Here are the step-by-step images:
Step 1: In a large bowl, mash the bananas using a fork until smooth - a few small lumps of banana are fine.
Step 2: Add the coconut sugar, dairy-free buttermilk, olive oil, and vanilla extract and whisk to combine all the wet ingredients.
Step 3: Add half of the dry ingredients (flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and ground cinnamon) and fold until almost combined.
Step 4: Then fold in the remaining dry ingredients and chopped walnuts until incorporated into the batter. In a separate small bowl, mix the ingredients for the crumb topping.
Step 5: Divide the muffin batter between muffin liners, filling only every other cavity in the muffin pan. If you only have one pan, leave the remaining muffin batter to rest in the mixing bowl while you bake the first batch.
Step 6: Top walnut crumble and bake in a hot oven fan-forced 190°C/375°F or conventional 210°C/410°F for 5 minutes. Then reduce the temperature for the remaining bake time as detailed in the printable recipe card below.
🍌 Variations
I adore this vegan banana muffin recipe as written, but here are some different add-ins and alternatives in case you want to adapt the recipe to your taste:
- Toppings - Instead of the walnut crumble, you can top the muffins with seeds such as sunflower seeds or pepitas.
- Chocolate Chips - Stir in up to 90g/half cup of vegan dark chocolate chips into the muffin batter. Add this when folding in the walnuts.
- Dried Fruit - Fold in up to 75g/half cup of dried cranberries, sultanas, raisins, or dried blueberries.
- Swap The Nuts - Switch the chopped walnuts for pecans if preferred.
- Oatmeal - Swap out 60g flour for oat flakes to make banana oatmeal muffins.
💡Recipe Tips
Measure in grams the best results. Although I have also included a conversion of US cup measurements for your convenience, grams are the best way to guarantee accuracy as even the slightest deviation from wet to dry ingredients can affect the recipe.
I love using tulip muffin liners. If you want to make your own, check out this tutorial by Sugar Spun Run!
Skip every second well in your muffin tin so that only half of the cavities are filled. This encourages the hot air to circulate more evenly and will help the muffins to rise beautifully. If you only have one muffin tray, I recommend baking the muffins in 2 batches. The muffin batter can sit out at room temperature for 30 minutes while you're baking the first batch.
Let the muffins rest in the pan for 5 minutes. Then carefully lift them out onto a cooling rack. Don't let them sit in the pan for longer, as steam will build up underneath them which can lead to gummy soggy bottoms!
For high muffin tops, start them off at a high temperature, then after 5 minutes of baking reduce the temperature and continue baking.
💬 FAQs
Place them in an airtight container and store them at room temperature for up to 5 days or in the fridge for up to a week.
From the fridge, let them sit at room temperature for an hour before serving. You can also freeze them in an airtight container. Take them out of the freezer to thaw for a couple of hours before serving or gently warm them in the oven.
For these muffins, the bananas act as an egg replacer adding so much moisture to the batter. It helps to keep them moist for up to 5 days, without eggs, or yogurt!
I haven't tested this recipe with gluten-free flour, but if you want to give it a try I'd suggest an all-purpose GF flour such as Bob's Red Mill or King Arthur which contains xantham gum.
Also, make sure you let the batter rest for 30 minutes before baking, and let me know in the comments below if you give it a try!
Alternatively, try my recipe for gluten-free banana muffins instead. They're oil-free and use ingredients like peanut butter, maple syrup, and oat flour.
🧁 More Vegan Muffins
Love this recipe? Please leave a 5-star ★★★★★ rating in the recipe card below and consider leaving a comment as well, thanks!
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📖 Recipe
Vegan Banana Bread Muffins With Walnut Crumble Topping
Ingredients
Muffins
- 350 g (1 ½ cups) ripe bananas approx 3x medium or 4x small bananas, weighed without skins *see note 1
- 170 g (1 cup) coconut sugar or soft brown sugar
- 1 batch (1 cup) vegan buttermilk
- 80 ml (⅓ cup) olive oil or neutral oil like rapeseed or sunflower oil
- 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
- 280 g (2 ¼ cups) all-purpose flour sifted
- 125 g (1 cup) walnuts finely chopped
- 3 teaspoons baking powder
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- ½ teaspoon sea salt
- 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
Crumble Topping
- 30 g (¼ cup) walnuts roughly chopped
- 30 g (¼ cup) all-purpose flour
- 2 tablespoons coconut sugar or soft brown sugar
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1 tablespoon melted vegan butter or olive oil
Instructions
- Prepare: Preheat your oven to fan 190°C(375°F) or conventional 210°C(410°F). Line half of the cavities in the muffin tray with muffin liners - I recommend only filling every second cavity as this promotes high muffin tops! The recipe will make 10 large muffins - so if you only have one muffin pan I recommend baking them in 2 batches, just make sure you let the pan cool between batches, and keep the muffin batter rested in the fridge until ready to use for the second batch.
- Mash the banana: To a large mixing bowl, add the banana and mash using a fork until smooth, a few small lumps are fine.
- Mix the wet ingredients: Add in the coconut sugar, vegan buttermilk, olive oil, and vanilla extract. Whisk to combine.
- Mix the dry ingredients: To a separate medium mixing bowl, add the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon. Whisk to combine.
- Make the muffin batter: Add half of the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and fold until almost combined. Fold in the remaining dry ingredients and the diced walnuts until there are no pockets or streaks of flour. Do not be tempted to overmix!Set the batter aside.
- Make the crumb topping: To a medium mixing bowl, add the chopped walnuts, flour, sugar, and cinnamon. Whisk to combine.Add the melted vegan butter or olive oil, and use your fingertips to rub the oil into the dry ingredients. You'll be left with a crumble consistency.
- Using an ice cream scoop or large spoon, distribute the batter amongst the muffin liners. Sprinkle crumble on top.
- Bake at fan 190°C(375°F) or conventional 210°C(410°F) for the first 5 mins. Then turn down the temperature to 170°C (340°F) or conventional 190°C(375°F) and bake for another 15 minutes.
- Check they are done by piercing them with a toothpick or a knife, the knife should come out almost clean- a few crumbs are fine. Allow the muffins to cool for 5 minutes, then carefully lift them out of the tray and transfer them to a cooling rack to cool further for 30 minutes.For an optional vanilla glaze *see recipe note 2.
- Storage: Place the muffins in an airtight container and store them at room temperature for up to 5 days or in the fridge for up to a week. Let them sit at room temperature for an hour before serving if stored in the fridge. You can freeze them in an airtight container and defrost them for a couple of hours before serving.
Notes
- Bananas: If measuring with cups, measure the quantity after mashing.
- Vanilla Glaze - Mix 120g/1 cup of powdered sugar with 1 tablespoon of non-dairy milk and 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract and drizzle over the cooled muffins.
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