Bakery Style Banana Nut Muffins
If you’re craving those big, fluffy muffins from your favorite bakery or coffee shop, this recipe delivers. These jumbo, bakery style banana nut muffins are moist, tender, and filled with sweet pecans for the perfect crunch. They’re just like the ones you see in glass bakery display cases, but made right at home.
These muffins are bursting with banana flavor and are crowned with a sweet and crunchy crumb butter topping. You’ll be tempted to eat them for breakfast, dessert, or as a snack and you will definitely have a hard time sticking to only eating one.
The Ingredients
Light or Dark Brown Sugar: Sweetens the muffin and gives a lightly caramelized taste.
3-4 Ripe Bananas: Use overripe bananas like you would for making banana bread. (NOTE: previously frozen bananas work really well in this recipe and make for a moist muffin. Check out this post on how to freeze and thaw bananas for baking.)
Butter: Provides fat for a moist and tender crumb.
A Mild Flavored Oil: Avocado oil works really well here. Other options are vegetable, canola, or sunflower oil.
Sugar: Use granulated sugar to sweeten the muffins.
Eggs: Eggs at room temperature work best!
Vanilla Extract: Used for flavor.
Sour Cream: Adds extra moisture to the muffins.
All Purpose Flour: All purpose flour helps to create a thick, scoopable batter.
Baking Soda & Baking Powder: Allows the muffins to rise.
Salt & Cinnamon: Used for flavor.
Chopped Pecans: Chop the pecans a bit more to make the bigger pieces smaller. Add into the batter and place a few on top (if desired).
DON’T OVERMIX! Using The Muffin Method For Soft Muffins
Have you ever pulled a batch of muffins out of the oven only to find they’re dense, rubbery, or weirdly chewy—and wondered what went wrong? Here’s a little baking secret: it’s not your recipe- it’s how you mixed the batter.
That’s where the muffin method comes in. These few, simple steps are the key to that tender, bakery-style muffin texture everyone loves (especially paired with a cup of coffee).
Mix dry ingredients in one bowl.
Mix wet ingredients in a separate bowl.
Combine gently by folding the batter over itself using a spatula until it is combined with a thick consistency.
Trying to smooth out the batter can cause overmixing, which develops the gluten in the flour and leads to that dense, chewy texture we all try to avoid.
How to Make Bakery Style Banana Nut Muffins
Preheat Oven:
Preheat the oven to 425°F (218°C).
Make The Crumb Topping:
In a small bowl, mix the brown sugar, cinnamon, and butter until combined. Add the flour and use a fork to mix and fluff together until crumbs begin to form. Be careful not to overmix into a paste. Place the crumbs in the refrigerator until it is time to top the muffins.
Mix Wet Ingredients:
In a large bowl, whisk together the mashed bananas, melted butter, oil, and sugar until smooth with no visible clumps. Add the eggs and vanilla until fully combined. Finally, add the sour cream until it is no longer clumpy.
Mix Dry Ingredients:
In a separate bowl, whisk the all purpose flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon.
Fold Ingredients:
Gently fold the dry ingredients into the wet mixture just until combined. Be careful not to overmix. The batter should be thick but scoopable.
Lightly chop the pecans so that the pieces are not too large. Sprinkle with a light dusting of flour and gently fold into the muffin batter. Let the batter rest for 15 minutes.
Fill The Pan: *This Is How To Get Bakery Style Muffins*
Line the muffin tin with paper liners or parchment paper, or spray with baking spray. For regular muffins, fill each liner about halfway. For larger, bakery style muffins fill every other muffin space (alternating) all the way to the top.
Toppings:
Remove the crumble topping from the refrigerator and generously sprinkle over the batter.
Bake:
Bake at 425°F (218°C) for 5 minutes, then reduce the oven temperature to 350°F (180°C) without opening the oven. Bake for 14-16 minutes or until a toothpick poked through the center comes out clean.
Cool:
Remove from the oven and cool in the pan for 5 minutes. Transfer to a wire baking rack to cool all the way.
The Magic Trick For Tall Muffin Tops
Allow the batter to rest for 15 minutes after making it. After that, fill the batter all the way to the top, not halfway. Only fill every other muffin space so that the tops will have room to rise. So rather than filling all 12 muffin spaces halfway, you are filling 6 spaces until they are full.
Bake the muffins at 425°F (218°C) for 5 minutes, then lower the oven temperature to 350°F (180°C) and allow muffins to cook without opening the oven door. The extra heat at the beginning allows the muffin tops to “spring” tall and set with that perfect dome shape. (Don’t be alarmed when after the 5 minutes, the domes look deflated-trust the process and don’t open that oven door!) This is a great hack to use on any muffin recipe, including these Whole Wheat Cranberry Banana Oatmeal Muffins.
Bakery Style Banana Nut Muffins
Ingredients
Banana Nut Muffin
- 1 cup (230g) overripe bananas, mashed
- ½ cup (113g) butter, melted
- ¼ cup (50g) oil, (I use avocado oil)
- 1 cup (200g) sugar
- 2 large eggs
- 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
- ¼ cup (60g) sour cream
- 2 cups (250g) all purpose flour
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- 3/4 cup (75g) chopped pecans
Crumble Topping
- ½ cup (110g) light or dark brown sugar
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- ¼ cup (4 tbsp; 56g) butter, melted
- ¾ cup (94g) all purpose flour
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 425°F (218°C).
- Make the crumble topping: In a small bowl, mix the brown sugar, cinnamon, and butter until combined. Add the flour and use a fork to mix and fluff together until crumbs begin to form. Be careful not to overmix into a paste. Place the crumbs in the refrigerator until it is time to top the muffins. *This makes a generous amount of topping, so don't be afraid to use a lot!
- Mix wet ingredients: In a large bowl, whisk together the mashed bananas, melted butter, oil, and sugar until smooth with no visible clumps. Add the eggs and vanilla until fully combined. Finally, add the sour cream until it is no longer clumpy.
- Mix dry ingredients: In a separate bowl, whisk the all purpose flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon.
- Fold ingredients: Gently fold the dry ingredients into the wet mixture just until combined. Be careful not to overmix. The batter should be thick but scoopable.
- Lightly chop the pecans so that the pieces are not too large. Sprinkle with a light dusting of flour and gently fold into the muffin batter. Let the batter rest for 15 minutes.
- Fill the pan: Line the muffin tin with paper liners or parchment paper, or spray with baking spray. For regular muffins, fill each liner about halfway. For larger, bakery style muffins fill only half of the muffin spaces (alternating) all the way to the top.
- Toppings: Remove the crumble topping from the refrigerator and generously sprinkle over the batter.
- Bake: Bake at 425°F (218°C) for 5 minutes, then reduce the oven temperature to 350°F (180°C) without opening the oven. Bake for 14-16 minutes or until a toothpick poked through the center comes out clean.
- Cool: Remove from the oven and cool in the pan for 5 minutes. Transfer to a wire baking rack to cool all the way.
Notes
- Use any neutral oil for a moist muffin. I use avocado oil here for extra nutritional value.
- For a bolder, slightly bitter but crunchier taste, swap out the pecans for chopped walnuts.
- The crumble topping recipe makes a lot, so don’t be afraid to generously cover the tops of your muffins!
FAQ:
Love Muffins? More Muffin Recipes
Whole Wheat Cranberry Banana Oatmeal Muffins
I made these and they were great for a weekend brunch. Delish!
I’m so glad that you liked them! 🙂
The recipe sounds easy. My husband is the banana muffin /banana bread maker. I need to get him to try this. Thank for sharing. The recipe is very clearing written. Nicely done.
I hope he (and you) enjoy them! I love that I can pull bananas from the freezer and whip these up whenever!
Wow these look great! I heard you just started your blog. Nicely done and I mean it!
Thanks so much! These are one of my (and my four year old’s) absolute favorite recipes and I’m excited to share here on this corner of the internet. 🙂
These banana nut muffins look beautiful – I love that they have the high domes, it’s hard to get that in a muffin, so I’m looking forward to trying yours. Beautiful photography by the way!
Thank you so much! The trick to getting high domes is adding more batter and increasing your oven temp to 425 for the first 5 minutes. It’s a game changer!
My muffins look like and taste like they came straight from a bakery! This is my go-to recipe from here on out!
I’m so glad you like them! Enjoy!