by 
These Banana Oatmeal Muffins are easy to make and full of flavor and texture. They are perfect for breakfast or snacking.
With over 2 million page views, hundreds of five-star reviews, and almost 100,000 social shares, this is my most popular muffin recipe that readers keep coming back to make again and again.
Excellent muffin recipe! I made them a few weeks ago and I'm making them again right now. My three and a half year old granddaughter loves them! This recipe is a keeper for sure! Thank you!
Oatmeal banana muffins
These tasty banana muffins have plenty of banana flavor and get a chewy texture from the old-fashioned oats. And to take these muffins a step further, I’ve added a delicious oat topping.
No special equipment needed when making these muffins. You need a bowl, a heavy-duty spoon for mixing, and a muffin tin for baking. Whether you’re a novice in the kitchen or an experienced baker, these banana oatmeal muffins will get you rave reviews in your kitchen!
My top tips for making these muffins include
- Use Very Ripe Bananas: Overripe bananas with dark spots or fully brown skins work best, as they provide natural sweetness and a moist texture.
- Don’t Skip the Oats: Use old-fashioned oats for a chewy texture that complements the banana flavor. Quick oats can alter the texture and may not absorb liquid as well.
- Perfect Crumb Topping: Ensure the crumb topping is mixed until it resembles coarse crumbs. This adds a sweet, crunchy layer to the muffins.
- Even Muffin Sizes: Fill the muffin cups evenly using an ice cream scoop.
If you are looking for a little variety, here is another tasty banana muffin recipe to try!
Banana Oat Muffin Ingredients
- Oats - Use old-fashioned oats or rolled oats. They have a thicker texture than quick oats and are perfect in this recipe.
- Flour - Regular all-purpose flour is used. Be certain to measure your flour using the fluff and scoop method.
- Bananas - The riper the bananas, the better. Choose very brown bananas. You’ll need 1½ cups of mashed bananas which is about 3 bananas.
- Sugar - Two types of sugar are used in this recipe. Granulated sugar is used in the muffin batter and brown sugar is used for the topping.
- Oil - The oil adds moisture and helps create a perfect crumb. Use a light-flavored oil like canola or vegetable oil.
- Spices - Ground cinnamon and nutmeg add the perfect amount of spice.
- Vanilla - Use pure vanilla for the best flavor.
- Leavening - One egg, baking powder, and baking soda are all used in this recipe.
How to make Banana Oatmeal Muffins
- Mix the oatmeal, flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg, and sugar in a large bowl.
- In a smaller bowl mix egg, oil, and vanilla. Add to dry ingredients and stir.
- Stir in mashed bananas.
- Fold together until well combined.
- Divide into 12 sprayed or lined muffin tins.
- Mix the remaining oats, melted butter, brown sugar, and cinnamon.
- Sprinkle topping over unbaked muffins.
- Bake in a preheated 375°F oven for 15-20 minutes.
You might also enjoy these muffins baked into a loaf of oatmeal banana bread.
How to store Banana Oat Muffins
Once the muffins are fully cool, store them in a single layer in an airtight container. Store at room temperature for 3-4 days.
To freeze the muffins, place fully cool muffins in a freezer-safe container or bag in a single layer. Muffins are best used within 1-2 months.
Tips for making Banana Oatmeal Muffins
- Use fresh baking powder - baking powder can lose its effectiveness and if old, your muffins might not rise properly.
- Fully preheat your oven - I use a separate oven thermometer in my oven to make certain my oven has reached the proper temperature. My preheat light often turns off before the oven has reached full temperature so I always give it extra time.
- Do not overmix batter. Just stir until everything is mixed in. Over-stirring can cause tough muffins.
- Use an ice cream scoop for even-sized muffins. Plus it makes putting the batter in the tins easy peasy!
If you make this recipe, I’d love to hear about it! Leave a comment below and snap a picture and tag me on Instagram @beyondthechickencoop
Check out all my muffin recipes!
Oatmeal Banana Muffins Recipe
Video
Equipment
- Measuring Cups
- Measuring Spoons
Ingredients
- 1 ½ Cups oats (old fashioned oats or rolled oats)
- 1 ¼ Cups flour
- ½ cup sugar
- 1 ½ teaspoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- pinch ground nutmeg
- 1 whole egg
- ¼ cup oil
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 1 ½ cups ripe bananas, mashed (about 3-4 bananas)
Topping
- ½ cup oats (old fashioned oats)
- ¼ teaspoon cinnamon
- 2 Tablespoons brown sugar
- 2 Tablespoons melted butter
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 375°F.
- In a large bowl mix oatmeal, flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg, salt and sugar together.1 ½ Cups oats, 1 ¼ Cups flour, ½ cup sugar, 1 ½ teaspoon baking powder, 1 teaspoon baking soda, 1 teaspoon cinnamon, pinch ground nutmeg, ¼ teaspoon salt
- In a smaller bowl mix egg, oil and vanilla. Add to dry ingredients and stir. The mixture will be very dry at this time.1 whole egg, ¼ cup oil, 1 teaspoon vanilla
- Fold in bananas. Keep folding until all the dry ingredients are mixed in.1 ½ cups ripe bananas, mashed
- Divide into muffin tin that has been either lightly sprayed with a nonstick spray or lined with paper liners.
- In another bowl combine topping ingredients. Sprinkle over muffin batter.½ cup oats, ¼ teaspoon cinnamon, 2 Tablespoons brown sugar, 2 Tablespoons melted butter
- Bake at 375°F for 18-20 minutes.
Notes
- Use very ripe bananas. The peel should have lots of brown spots and the bananas should mash easily.
- When measuring flour, don't overpack the measuring cup. Fluff up flour with a spoon or scoop, and then gently scoop it into the measuring cup and then level the cup.
- The batter may be a bit dry if bananas are not fully ripe.
- If batter is too dry add 1-2 tablespoons of milk.
- Use old fashioned oats or quick oatmeal. Steel cut oats do not work for this recipe.
- The old fashioned oats will add texture to the muffins.
Nutritional Disclaimer:
Nutritional information is provided as a courtesy and should only be construed as an estimate rather than a guarantee. To obtain the most precise nutritional information in a provided recipe, you should calculate the nutritional information with the exact ingredients you are using when preparing the recipe using your preferred nutrition calculator.
Nutrition
Recipe adapted from Mad about Muffins
Laura says
We loved these muffins! They are delicious.
Kathy says
Thanks so much! 🙂 So glad you loved them!
Rebecca Tonge says
Hi, can you substitute the sugar with maple syrup?
Kathy says
Hi Rebecca,
I haven't baked with maple syrup before. I did a quick search and found this answer, "Maple syrup is sweeter than regular sugar, so you can use less in your recipe. When substituting maple syrup for sugar in a recipe, use ¾ cup of maple syrup for every 1 cup of white sugar." from Homestead How-To. I hope that helps.
Kathy
Monika Lakyova says
I baked them last night and unfortunately they turned out too dry.
I would adjust flour/oat ratio or add an extra egg/ banana/ yoghurt.
*i did use quick oats and large super ripe bananas
Kathy says
Hi Monika,
Thank you for your comment. Also be careful when measuring your flour. Use the fluff and scoop method to avoid compacting the flour.
Kathy
Alice says
Me too. My bananas were also very ripe (mostly brown, spotty stage) and I could tell from the batter they'd be too dry. Maybe the oats sucked up all the moisture? I had to add roughly 1/4 cup of milk to get the flour to fully combine. Baking now so hopefully they'll turn out
Kathy says
Thank you
Nicolette says
Wow, these turned out so beautiful and my kids devoured them! The crumb topping is a must.
Kathy says
Thanks so much! So glad the kids loved them...that's always a true test to me! 🙂
Beverly says
Made these and they are amazing! My husband and friends loved them.
Kathy says
Thanks so much! I really appreciate you leaving a comment to let me know! 🙂
Meghan says
Delish! And made with ingredients I already had on hand which is even better. My only issue was that they didn't come out as tall/risen as the ones in your picture even though I did put the correct amount of baking soda. Still came out light and fluffy so I will try to perfect them next time!
Kathy says
Hi Meghan,
Did you use both baking powder and baking soda?
Glad you enjoyed the muffins!
Kathy 🙂
Caitlin says
These are really good. I wanted to add my own changes made for these muffins...instead of 1.5 cup flour, I used 1 cup oat bran and 1/2 cup whole wheat flour. I also used quick oats instead of old fashioned and then added chocolate chips. Delicious.
Kathy says
Wonderful! Thanks so much! 🙂
Gloria Ennis says
Just made these muffins, perfect, will be sharing this recipe
Kathy says
Thanks so much!
Robby van Asperen says
Hi,I just made this recipe and I made some slight modifications to it. I used traditional rolled oats and put 2 large mugs full in the mix. I also used the same "mug" capacity for the sugar (used light brown )and flour. Otherwise all the other ingredients were the same and quantity were exactly. Mixture was very sticky, but easy to spoon out into the tray. Didn't use cinnamon in the coating, just brown sugar and butter melted together. 20min in oven at 180degC. Came out perfect..... actually on the savoury side as opposed to sweet. But excellent batch.
Kathy says
Thanks for you suggestions!
Jessica S. says
Can I grind up the oats into an oat flower instead? If so would I keep the measurements the same? My kids weren’t thrilled with the texture of the whole grain oats but everyone thought the flavor was great. I liked the texture a lot but want my boys to eat them as well.
Kathy says
Hi Jessica,
You might try using one-minute oats instead of the old-fashioned oats. They will break down more than the old-fashioned. If you decide to grind the oats into a flour, I would start with the measured amount in the recipe, the grind the oats. I have not tried this method so I don't know how the results will be.
Kathy
Jessica S. says
Thank you Kathy! I will definitely give that a try.
Robert says
Just made 2 dozen and they are simply delicious! Best muffins I've made with walnuts & blueberries! Great recipe, thank you!
Kathy says
Thanks so much! 🙂
Juanita Gonzalez says
I made these last night cause I was tired of putting old bananas in the freezer. Man are these GOOD! They were super easy to make and I threw in some trail mix that needed to be used up as well (choco chips, various nuts and seeds, plus craisins) and that only added to the yumminess! I opted for topping with just a few pieces of walnut each. I'm definitely making these again since I still have 3 bananas to use up! I'll also be keeping this recipe to make some lactation muffins once baby #2 is here. Thank you so much!
Kathy says
Thanks so much! I love the addition of the trail mix! 🙂
Meg VR says
Superb muffins. OMG! I used lots of blackberries, which are abundant in our area right now, which were a great pairing with the bananas. I left out the cinnamon but kept the nutmeg.
The only other change was that I mixed the bananas with the wet ingredients. Best muffins I've made in a long time - thank you!!!
Lea Buffington says
So delicious! Thank you for this great recipe. I’ve made them twice this month!
Kathy says
Thank you so much! I'm so glad you enjoy them! 🙂
Meg VR says
Superb muffins. OMG! I used lots of blackberries, which are abundant in our area right now, which were a great pairing with the bananas. The only other change was that I mixed the bananas with the wet ingredients. Best muffins I've made in a long time - thank you!!!
Kathy says
Thanks so much! I'm going to add blackberries to my next batch! Sounds so good!
Samantha says
Delicious! I halved this recipe because I only had 1 banana on hand. They look, smell, and taste amazing.
Kathy says
Thank you so much!
Lis says
Thank you! These muffins are delicious and have a nice slightly chewy texture. I followed your recipe as written and didn’t need to add any additional liquid, but also added 1/2 teaspoon of ground ginger to the batter and 1/4 cup chopped walnuts to the topping. Next time I might try a little cardamom in the batter. Or pecans. Or raisins! Endless possibilities.
Kathy says
Thanks so much! I love all your options. 🙂
Yren says
Dry and no flavor. Followed the recipe. Disappointed
Kathy says
I'm sorry these didn't meet your expectations. Make certain you use really ripe bananas for maximum flavor and be careful when measuring your flour. Make certain you fluff and then scoop the flour into the measuring cup and then level with a knife. Otherwise you can end up with compacted flour which means too much flour could be added resulting in a dry muffin.
Kathy
Courtney says
Made these today. Better than expected. So good. I subbed quick cook outs for Old Fashioned since I don't like Old Fashioned and they were great.
The only other thing I did was use brown sugar instead of granulated. I thought it would be better.
Kathy says
Thank you! Glad you enjoyed 🙂
Beth says
I made these, I followed the recipe except for a small change.
I mixed the banana together with the wet ingredients and added an 1/8 cup of milk.
The muffins came out light, fluffy and delicious with a beautiful dome.
My toddler loved them too.
Kathy says
Thank you so much!:)
Lorelei says
Oh wow these are so yummy, thanks for sharing! The topping definitely gives this the edge compared to other banana oat muffins I've tried.
One question, how long do these muffins normally keep for? Sorry if this has already been covered I couldn't see it in the recipe
Kathy says
Thanks so much! I'm so glad you enjoy them! Try to use the muffins up within 3-4 days.
Kathy 🙂