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.
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!
⭐ Reader Review
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!
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
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.
Video
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
Kirsty says
I’m looking forward to trying these this week but just wondering, is it all purpose flour or self raising flour you use? I may be being daft but I just want to check before I make them 😌
Kathy says
Hi Kirsty,
It is all purpose flour. Let me know how the muffins turn out!
Kathy 🙂
Dee says
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!
Kathy says
Hi Dee,
Thank you so much! So glad your granddaughter loves them! 🙂
Kathy
Mallory says
Delicious! They came out perfect at 19 minutes!
Kathy says
Perfect! Every oven is a bit different so it's a good idea to keep a close watch on them. 🙂
linnea says
hi super great recipe!
i use it weekly.
however i do it without the topping.
notice: if you double the eggs you can change the bannanas to carrot, its ok with apple and i just made with sweet potato.
Kathy says
Thanks so much! And thanks for sharing all your different version! 🙂
Debbie Valencia says
These were delicious! I always freeze and use my over ripe bananas.i wanted something different from banana bread loaves. My family loved them. I pinned it for next time. I added meltd, cooled butter instead of oil. And I added so.e crushed wal uts to the struesell topping. And a bit of choc chips to batter. Next time I'll add chopped pecans to topping.
Kathy says
Thank you so much! I'm so glad you enjoyed the muffins. The additions you made sound delicious! 🙂
Naya says
Can I add spinach to this recipe? I made the original and it was delicious, I’m just trying to make it healthier I guess.
Kathy says
Hi Naya,
I have not ever added spinach to muffins before. I think the biggest issue may be too much liquid from the spinach. You might try to use frozen spinach that has been thawed and squeezed dry. Let me know how they turn out.
Kathy 🙂
Debbie Valencia says
These were delicious! I always freeze and use my over ripe bananas.i wanted something different from banana bread loaves. My family loved them. I pinned it for next time. I added meltd, cooled butter instead of oil. And I added so.e crushed wal uts to the struesell topping. And a bit of choc chips to batter. Next time I'll add chopped pecans to topping.
Debbie Flores says
Naya make spinach and mushroom quiche.
Kathy says
That's a good suggestion, but I believe she wanted to add it to the muffins. 🙂
Maureen DiPietro says
Easy, delicious and beautiful! Thank you for your recipes!
Kathy says
Thank you so much! 🙂
Mariah says
These were amazing!!!! I added half a cup of chocolate chips which I was seeking for that extra chocolate taste. I also added Greek virgin oil instead of vegetable oil. I was desperately searching for an oatmeal based muffin and finally found one I liked (cause yesterday I threw away all 12 muffins from another recipe I followed). Thanks for sharing.
Kathy says
Thanks so much! 🙂 Glad you enjoyed them!
Tamara says
Amazing!! I have made them so many times now. I use honey instead of sugar and skip the topping. I add chocolate chips to half the batch for the humans in my house that like chocolate.
Kathy says
Thanks so much! I like adding chocolate chips to mine from time to time. Makes a great option! 🙂
Geiselle says
I really struggle with baking (I'm a bit of a renegade with measurements) and these turned out AMAZING!
So glad I came across this.
I couldn't leave this page without thanking you, it was a really fun bonding activity with my preschooler! Can't wait to make them again!
Kathy says
I'm so happy this worked for you! How fun to bake with your youngster. Thanks for taking the time to leave a comment. I really appreciate it! 🙂
Maria W says
First off, I want to say that your way of listing each recipe step with the ingredients in it is brilliant! I have had trouble with banana bread in general not cooking in the middle so I thought I would try these muffins. So good! I will definitely make these again and again. The only thing I’m going to try next time is either soaking the oats like someone recommended or grinding the oats to a flour consistency to make the texture a little smoother. Thank you!
Kathy says
Thank you so much! I'm glad you enjoyed the muffins! 🙂
Darcy Tuscano says
Excellent and just what I was looking for! I subbed a mix of whole wheat flour, spelt and white for my flours as that's what I always do.
I also added in a healthy scoop of milled flax seeds and chia seeds.
Needed to adjust the moisture slightly so I added some whole greek yogurt instead of more milk.
Is there a plug in or widget to convert your recipes for those of us baking in metric (IE: the entire rest of the world outside the USA?) because it sure would be amazing to do this without converting everything to weigh!
Thanks!
Kathy says
Hi Darcy,
Thanks so much! I'm so glad you enjoyed the muffins and I like your twists on the recipe.
I'll look in to adding a way to convert the measurements! Thanks so much! 🙂
Corienne Van Van Rhijn-Otter says
I am afraid that the converter you juse now is'n working. It converts 1,5 cup ( 120g) oatmeal to 350g.
Kathy says
Oh goodness! That's not good. I have been using an automatic converter to change each measurement into metric units. It is supposed to be based on the actual ingredients, since each ingredient has a different mass. I will work on getting these corrected, ASAP! Thanks so much for letting me know.
Kathy
Kathy says
I have made the adjustment and figured out my error. I had listed oatmeal for the dry oats. When configuring the metric conversion, it was tabulating the grams based one the amount of cooked oatmeal. I've changed the ingredient to show oats (old fashioned oats) and adjusted the grams to show the correct amount. Thank you again!
Alice says
Made these because other recipes had either too much sugar or too little oats in them. They were only mildly sweet so the topping is really a must. (I subbed 1/4cup of the oats for chopped pecans, which added nice bit of crunch).
I also used whole wheat flour. I already knew the muffin batter would be a bit too dry just for switching out the white flour so I anticipated adding 1-2 T of milk, but this batter was even drier than expected (yes, I always use the scoop & measure method or weigh my flour). My bananas were not small and they were very ripe and spotty. But there is a lot of oats and comparatively little liquid in the recipe. So I think the oats just sucked up most of the moisture from the egg and banana especially as I let them sit while chopping the nuts for the topping. In the end, they came out find but I did have to add a good 1/4 - 1/3 cup of milk to get the batter to the right consistency.
They're very moist and healthy for a muffin so I can feel OK about giving them to my toddler for a snack or eating one for breakfast. But I'd be lying if I said I didn't wish they were just a tad sweeter.
Kathy says
Thank you
Claire says
Super moist! Made recipe as posted.
Kathy says
Thanks so much! So glad you enjoyed them! 🙂
Karen says
Great recipe, thanks.
I used gluten-free flour and gluten-free oatmeal. I also added 1/3 of a cup of Chia seeds. So delicious and very moist. Added a fourth banana because of the Chia seeds.
Kathy says
Thanks for sharing your twists on the recipe! 🙂
Taylor says
Super easy to make!
Kathy says
Thanks so much! 🙂
Taylor says
Super easy to make!
Kathy says
Thanks so much! 🙂
Becky says
I absolutely love this recipe! All of my kids loved this recipe as well.
The only thing that I changed, really wasn't a change, but was just a part of the directions. Something that I always do with oats. I love baking with oats but the first few times I ever did, it was quite dry. So I will always soak the oats in the banana, eggs, oil and all the other wet ingredients for at least 15 minutes.
I can't believe I never thought to put an oatmeal crumble on top of banana muffins.
Also, a big fan of the cinnamon!
Kathy says
Hi Becky,
Thanks so much for your tip! Glad everyone loved the muffins!
Kathy 🙂
Nicki says
These were SO easy to make and REALLY really good, hard to mess up recipe, I will definitely use this one again!!!
Kathy says
Hi Nicki,
So glad you enjoyed the muffins! Thanks so much for taking the time to leave a comment! I really appreciate it.
Kathy 🙂
Sarah says
These were so good, and my kids and I agree: what a great way to start the day! The muffins were moist and delicious and not too sweet, and the topping added a sweet pop of flavor. I followed the recipe exactly. I'm so glad I found this site - I can't wait to try the cranberry orange muffins next 🙂
Kathy says
Hi Sarah,
Thanks so much! So glad you enjoyed the muffins. The cranberry orange are delicious too! 🙂
Thanks,
Kathy 🙂