Healthy banana muffins are made with nutritious ingredients and are sugar & butter-free too! They’re moist, tender, fluffy, and lightly sweetened and make a perfect snack or grab-and-go breakfast.
If you’ve tried my healthy banana bread, then you’re going to enjoy these healthy banana muffins even more. They’re all my kids ask for and I’m happy to make them because they’re super healthy and are butter & sugar-free!
These delicious healthy muffins are moist, tender, fluffy, and lightly sweet. They’re perfect for a snack or grab-and-go breakfast and they’re freezer-friendly, too. My kids love them as a lunchbox treat, which is a huge plus!
How To Make Healthy Banana Muffins
To make healthy banana muffins, Whisk together your dry ingredients (whole wheat flour, baking soda, and salt). In another bowl whisk together your wet ingredients (eggs, coconut oil, honey or maple syrup, milk and vanilla, bananas).
Combine the wet and dry ingredients and add chocolate chips or nuts if desired. To keep these muffins healthy, use dark chocolate chips.
Bake for 20-22 minutes or until a toothpick insert comes out clean. Transfer to a cooling rack and be sure to cool for at least 5-10 minutes before enjoying!
Why these Banana Muffins are Healthy
To make these delicious banana muffins, I’ve experimented with many ingredients over the years and this is my all-time favorite combo of healthy and delicious!
The first and most important ingredient is bananas which act as a natural sweetener. The secret to making these delicious muffins is to use extra-ripe bananas. The darker the better. The riper the bananas are, the sweeter they’ll be and that will make the muffins moist and naturally sweet.
Pro Tip: If your bananas are not yet brown or soft then you can place them in a 300F degree oven for 15-20 minutes or until dark brown. This will ripen them in minutes and make them perfect for baking.
Another important step to making these healthy muffins is to replace the sugar with honey or pure maple syrup.
For the butter, that is replaced with olive, coconut, or avocado oil. Coconut or avocado oil is my personal favorite here but feel free to experiment with other oils or even applesauce!
If you want to go the extra step and treat yourself, add in 1/2 cup of your favorite add-in to the batter. Nuts or chocolate are a great addition. I like to use dark chocolate chunks because dark chocolate is healthy and tastes delicious with bananas.
For the flour, I use white whole wheat flour. White whole wheat flour is just as nutritious as whole wheat flour, it bakes better and tastes more like the regular all-purpose flour. Now, you may be asking yourself if you can replace the white whole wheat flour with regular whole wheat flour and the answer is no. Both white and regular whole wheat flours are 100% whole grains but the difference is the type of wheat.
The Difference Between Whole-Wheat and White Whole-Wheat Flour
- Whole-wheat flour is made with red wheat, which is darker in color. It has a slightly bitter taste and a coarser texture.
- White whole-wheat flour which lacks bran color. It also has a milder flavor and a softer texture.
How to Freeze Banana Muffins
I like to make a double batch of these delicious healthy banana muffins and enjoy one or two right away. Then, I freeze the extras. They’ll keep for up to 3 months in the freezer. To thaw one, just pop it in the microwave for about 30 seconds and you are done!
More Delicious Healthy Muffins
- Healthy Peanut Butter Muffins
- Healthy Carrot Muffins
- Healthy Lemon Blueberry Muffins
- Healthy Pumpkin Muffins
- Healthy Banana Oat Muffins
Best Healthy Banana Muffins
Ingredients
- 1 3/4 cups white whole wheat flour , or plain all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 2 eggs
- 1/2 cup melted coconut oil or olive oil
- 1/2 cup honey or maple syrup
- 1/4 cup milk or Greek yogurt
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 cup mashed ripe bananas about 2-3 medium bananas
- 1/2 cup dark chocolate chunks or nuts , optional
Instructions
- Pre-heat oven to 350F. Grease or line a 12 cup muffin pan with muffin liners and set aside.
- In a medium bowl, whisk the flour, baking soda, and salt. Set aside.
- In a large bowl, beat eggs, oil, honey, milk and vanilla for 1-2 minutes. Stir in the bananas, flour mixture and chocolate chips (or any other add-ins of choice.
- Pour batter into muffin pan. Bake for 20-22 minutes or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean. Cool for 10 minutes and enjoy!
Video
Equipment
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Soft and delicious!
I added 1/4 cup of flax meal to the recipe and they were still fabulous.
I am not sure why the keywords include honey garlic salmon, though. 😬
So glad you enjoyed them! Haha, thanks for the feedback, I will go ahead and get those removed 😀
I have made these as muffins & as a loaf and it’s my go-to always! Curious if there is a way to make these higher in protein while still dairy-free? Thought of adding vanilla protein powder, but am unsure how much to add. Any tips would help!
This is my go to banana muffin recipe using maple syrup and adding pecans. I hadn’t tried freezing them until I made my last batch. Individually wrapped them before placing in a freezer bag. Just tried one from the freezer after microwaving it for 30 seconds and it was great!
Delicious!!! And so moist! My family eats them as fast as I make them!
These were fantastic!! I used olive oil and morsels instead of chocolate chunks. The right amount of sweetness, moisture and they feel relatively healthy! Great recipe
Everyone is obsessed with these muffins. So, so good and not too sweet. I did half honey and half maple syrup as well as half fat free greek yogurt and half milk. I also added walnuts and dark chocolate chips (double the amount recommended) Make them!
P.S., And I used olive oil! 🙂
These muffins are to die for! I only used 1/3 cup of honey … as I prefer a less sweeter muffin… I added some sultanas too. Used 1/2 stoneground and half unbleached … very happy. My toddler loves them. I only cooked for 16 mins and I found I may have still over cooked slightly… next time I’ll cook for 14 mins I am finding ALOT of recipes on the internet appear to cook their cakes and muffins for waaaaay too long… (just my feedback) maybe our ovens are hotter in New Zealand 😂 who knows. Anyway! Recipe is a keeper. Thank you
Did anyone find the full nutritional label for these?
They should have the nutritional below the recipe if they are going to call them healthy. I’m in the food business and very familiar with nutritional facts and without the full nutritional you can’t tell if the claim of healthy is truly accurate. one*
This recipe is amazing. I only substituted with coconut milk and it came out perfectly.
I love this recipe – it feels much more like one of those “you probably have all the ingredients on hand” type recipes where you actually DO have the ingredients on hand. I’ve made it with and without chocolate chips, frozen them, and probably honestly even fudged the recipe a few times and they come out great EVERY TIME. I can’t remember if I’ve ever actually used honey, but with a good maple syrup, I feel like they’re not an overly sweet treat while still satisfying a sweet craving. I am thinking about trying with blueberries just to see, but they’re also wonderfully moist so I don’t know if it’ll be much of a success (and I’m okay with that). My toddler loves them too, which is a major plus – such an easy treat to whip together or to pull from the freezer.
This is my favorite banana muffin/bread recipe! I have probably made it 10 times and it is amazing every time. I use pamela’s gf flour mix and spectrum shortening instead of butter.
Delicious recipe but it’s seriously misleading to advertise these as sugar-free: honey and maple syrup are still forms of sugar, even if they’re less processed than white sugar. I encourage you to edit the wording.
FYI I followed the recipe exactly with exception to the following choices: olive oil instead of coconut oil, plain Balkan style yogurt instead of milk, subbed kamut flour, slightly less honey than called for (between 1/3-1/2C), and added a handful of chopped walnuts. 21min baked on convection at 350.
Yielded 13 muffins. They turned out amazingly moist and moderately sweet. I think I could reduce the sweetener a touch more next time.
Wow these are so good!! Easy simple ingredients. Bakery quality minus all the unnecessary sugar!
This recipe is a keeper! Super yummy and perfect for my family’s breakfast. The only thing I would say is that 21 minutes was too long, they browned a tad much for me.