These banana and blueberry muffins are the easiest and most delicious muffins you will make! They're also super moist, full of sweet and juicy blueberries and topped with crunchy topping of brown sugar and oats. With this quick, easy and fuss-free recipe, you can bake yourself a batch of fresh, warm muffins in no time!
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How to make these muffins
What I really love about this recipe is how incredibly easy it is to make. The batter is made all by hand, and all that you need is a couple of bowls and a spoon. To make sure your banana blueberry muffins turn out just right, here are few things to keep in mind:
- Prepare the muffin pan first. Use the standard 12-hole tin or 6-hole jumbo tin. Line it with muffin cases. To ensure that your muffin cups don't stick to the muffins, I recommend brushing the paper cases lightly with melted butter or olive oil.
- Mix all of the dry ingredients together. Once the wet ingredients get added to the dry ones, you don't wont to overmix the batter (this will cause really dense muffins), so it's important to incorporate all these dry ingredients well at this stage.
- Combine the wet ingredients until well mixed and add them to the dry ingredients. Use wooden spoon or spatula to quickly stir them all together. DO NOT OVERMIX. The batter should look a bit lumpy and some flecks of flour should be still visible.
- Add the blueberries and give it one more, final stir before dividing the batter between the muffin cases.
Make sure to fill the cases all the way to the top with muffin batter. That way, when they puff up in the oven, they will have these lovely muffin tops!
Tips on how to ripen bananas
Just like best banana bread is made with ripe bananas, these muffins will taste best if you use really ripe bananas. Don't have any ripe bananas in the house? Here are few tips on how to speed this process up:
- For a quick fix- Place the bananas (still in their peels) on a lined baking sheet. Heat the oven to 150 C and bake them until the skins on the bananas turn black/ really dark brown. Cool them for few minutes, before peeling and mushing them.
- The day before baking the muffins- place the bananas in a paper bag, ideally with another high-ethylene producing fruit like an apple (but on its own will work too). Loosely close the bag and set it aside until next day. The bag will block the oxygen and allow the bananas to release chemical called ethylene, which is responsible for speeding up the ripening process.
- If you really short on time, you can also try to microwave the bananas (I have not tested this myself, but some people swear by it). Poke the unpeeled bananas all over with fork or knife, place it on a plate and microwave on high for 30 sec at a time, repeating until they are soft and mushy (about 1-2 minutes total).
Substitutions
As always, I recommend sticking to the ingredients listed in the recipe, for best results. However, if you don't have, or can't use certain ingredients, here are some swaps you can make:
Flour - If no self-rising flour is available, you can use plain flour. General rule is to add 2 tsp of baking powder for every 150 g of plain flour. However, in this recipe, 3 tsp of baking powder in total, with plain flour, will be enough. Whole-wheat/ wholemeal flour will also work, with added baking powder.
Soft light brown sugar - You can use any brown sugar to make these blueberry banana muffins. My go-to is always soft light brown sugar, but demerara, dark brown and muscovado sugars will work too. The muffins may just turn out a bit darker if you use darker sugar, that's all.
Porridge oats - Jumbo or rolled oats can be used instead of porridge oats.
Buttermilk - You can use a mixture of milk (any type) with lemon juice or white vinegar. Simply mix 285 ml of milk with 1 Tbsp of lemon juice or vinegar, stir and set it aside for 5-10 minutes. The mixture will curdle and become a bit lumpy, which is exactly how you want it to be.
Additionally, you can also add some chocolate chips or chopped chocolate to these muffins.
Can I use frozen blueberries?
Absolutely! Frozen blueberries can be used instead of the fresh ones. There is no need to thaw them before. In fact, you should never defrost your berries before baking them into muffins. Berries have the tendency to 'bleed' as they defrost. If you thaw them before adding them to your bake, the moisture content in your bake will be off.
Simply add the frozen berries straight to the batter and bake. Some sources, like this one from The Kitchn suggest tossing them in flour before adding them to the batter, but I found it not necessary in this muffin recipe.
Storing instructions
Store the muffins in the airtight container lined up with paper towel. Place the muffins in a single layer inside of the container, then place another layer of paper towel on top of the muffins as well.
They will keep well at room temperature for up to 4 days.
Can I freeze these muffins?
Yes you can! These banana and blueberry muffins can be frozen for up to a month. To freeze, allow the muffins to cool completely, before wrapping them in a double layer of plastic or kitchen foil.
Place the wrapped muffins in the freezer-friendly container or a freezer bag. Thaw them at room temperature overnight.
Other muffin recipes from the blog:
Apple and Granola Breakfast Muffins
Make sure to tag me on Instagram and comment below if you try this, or any other of my recipes. To pin this recipe and save it for later, use the button on the recipe card or on any of the photos above.
📖 Recipe
Banana and blueberry muffins
Equipment
- 12-hole standard muffin tin (alternatively 6-hole jumbo muffin tin)
- paper muffin cases
- 2 x mixing bowl
- wooden spoon
Ingredients
- 320 g self-rising flour *see notes for the alternatives
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 130 g soft light brown sugar
- 70 g porridge oats
- ½ tsp ground cinnamon
- ⅓ tsp salt
- 2 medium ripe bananas mashed
- 2 medium eggs
- 300 ml buttermilk
- 85 ml olive oil
- 200 g blueberries fresh or frozen
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 185 C (170 C fan). Line the 12-whole muffin tin with paper cases (alternatively, use 6-hole jumbo muffin tin) and set aside. Reserve about 2 Tbsp of brown sugar and 2 Tbsp of oats and set aside. In a large bowl, mix together the flour, baking soda, remaining sugar, remaining oats, cinnamon and salt.
- In a separate bowl, beat together mashed bananas, eggs, buttermilk and olive oil until well combined. Pour this mixture into the bowl with dry ingredients and using a wooden spoon or spatula, stir all the ingredients together until JUST combined. Few lumps and streaks of flour remaining are absolutely fine, don't be tempted to overmix the batter. Reserve a handful of blueberries, then add the remaining blueberries into the batter and give it a final fold to mix them in.
- Divide the batter between the muffin cases. Fill them up all the way up to the top, top each muffin with few extra blueberries, then sprinkle the remaining sugar and oats over the top of each muffin and bake for 18 - 20 minutes until they muffins have risen and their tops are golden brown. Remove from the oven and allow them to cool for 5 minutes, then remove from the baking tin and transfer them into a cooling rack.
Please note that all my recipes are developed and tested in metric grams. I recommend that you use digital scales for a more accurate results. I have provided a conversion to US customary in the recipe but please note that I haven’t tested using this method.
Notes
- To stop the muffins sticking to the paper cases, grease the paper cases lightly with some olive oil (using a pastry brush) or melted butter.
- Self-rising flour- if no self-rising flour is available, you can use plain flour. General rule is to use 2 tsp of baking powder for every 150 g of flour, but in this recipe, 3 tsp of baking powder will be more than enough with 320 g of flour.
- Store the muffins in the airtight container for up to 3 days.
- To freeze, wrap each muffin tightly in plastic or kitchen foil, then transfer to the freezer-friendly container or a freezer bag and freeze for up to a month.
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