I love baking tasty things with only a few ingredients. All too often, you read a baking recipe, and you need 10, 12 or 15 ingredients. Not in my kitchen! Instead, it’s time to try my 4-Ingredient Banana Muffins. And when I say 4 ingredients, I mean four!
And before you panic and think that these couldn’t taste that great with just 4 ingredients, please let the eating do the talking. These are rich with banana flavour, light, airy and moist.
You’ll need bananas, flour, sugar and eggs to knock these together. That’s it. Of course, I’ve included a few extra tweaks you could make to these, further down the page, but the basic recipe involves just these ingredients.
Pick The Right Bananas
Bananas that are over-ripe, squishy, and loaded with brown spots are PERFECT. Don’t use barely ripe or underripe bananas as they’ll be bitter and won’t release enough sugar during the baking process.
How to Make 4-Ingredient Banana Muffins
A detailed recipe with full quantities can be found in the recipe card at the bottom of this page.
Step 1: As with most baking recipes, it’s a good idea to get prepared first. Preheat the oven to 180Ā°C (350Ā°F) or 160Ā°C (300Ā°F) fan and line a muffin tin with liners.
Step 2: Grab your bananas and pop them into a bowl before giving them a good mash with a fork and potato masher. You want them to be fairly smooth with no large lumps.
You can then add the eggs and sugar and mix to combine fully.
Step 3: Add the flour to the mix and then stir until fully combined with no lumps or pockets of flour. You can’t really overmix this to be honest. If you’re going to include any spices, now is the time to add them.
Step 4: Divide the batter between the lined muffin cases but don’t overfill them. You want to go with around 2/3 full as they will rise a little.
Step 5: Pop the tray into the oven and bake for around 20 minutes. Insert a skewer or toothpick and, if it comes out clean, they are baked.
Step 6: Finally, it’s the most challenging step and that’s the let them cool fully before tucking in. Once cooled, you can give them a drizzle of icing, a sprinkling of cinnamon or eat them how I prefer, and that’s plain.
Bland? Blame the Banana!
Bananas that aren’t ripe yet haven’t developed and then released their sugars, and this is where all that banana flavouring is. When making banana muffins, you want to look for squishy, brown, over-ripened bananas.
Tweak
There are many ways to pimp these simple banana muffins. Here are a few ideas that I’ve used before:
- Add Nuts or Seeds: Stir in some chopped walnuts, pecans, or sunflower seeds for a crunchy texture. You could also sprinkle some on top of the muffins before baking.
- Chocolate Chips: Who doesn’t love chocolate? Add some mini dark chocolate chips to the batter for the ultimate treat.
- Make Banoffee Muffins: You’ve already got the banana flavour, all you need is caramel. Add a few spoonfuls of tinned caramel to the batter, swirling it before pouring it into the muffin case. You could also make a butterscotch-style icing for the top.
- Spices: Adding a teaspoon of cinnamon, nutmeg, or a mix of your favourite baking spices can add a warming undertone to the muffin.
- Cocoa Powder: Replace some flour with cocoa powder for a chocolaty twist on these muffins. Combine this with the chocolate chips if you want to go full chocolate.
- Top with Oats: Sprinkle some oats on the muffins before baking to give it a crunchy topping. You could mix these oats with some soft brown sugar too.
Remember, when adding dry ingredients like cocoa powder or whole-grain flour, you may need to add a bit more banana or a splash of milk to keep the batter from getting too dry. Enjoy experimenting with these muffins!
Know Your Ratios
I tend to use 1 part flour to 2 parts banana. You could also use this ratio for all the dry ingredients. For example, you could do 100g of flour to 200g of banana, or you could do 80g of flour, 20g of cocoa powder and 200g of banana.
Store
With 12 muffins, chances are you’ll want to know how to store these for the longer term. Here are the 3 ways to keep these depending on how long you want them:
Cupboard: Once your muffins have had a chance to cool off completely, find a suitable container that can be sealed. Pop them in and keep them in a dry, cool spot in your cupboard. These muffins should be good for up to 2 days.
Refrigerate: For a longer shelf life, pop your muffins into a container with a tight lid and place it in your refrigerator. This will help maintain their freshness and you can enjoy them for up to a week.
Freeze: If you’re looking to store these muffins for an extended period, freezing is a great option. Wrap each muffin individually in cling film or aluminium foil and place them all in a freezer-safe bag or container.
They will stay fresh for about 3 months, ready to be thawed and enjoyed whenever you fancy a muffin.
4-Ingredient Banana Muffins Recipe
12
servings10
minutes20
minutes30
minutesThese are my freezer-friendly 4-ingredient banana muffins
Keeps the screen of your device ON
Ingredients
4 4 – Ripe Bananas
250 g 2 cup – Self-Raising Flour
150 g 3/4 cup – Sugar
2 2 – Eggs
Directions
- Get Prepared
Preheat your oven to 180Ā°C (350Ā°F) or 160Ā°C (300Ā°F) and line a muffin tin with paper liners. - Mash
In a large bowl, mash the bananas until they’re smooth. Add the eggs and sugar, and mix until well combined. - Make Batter
Gradually add the self-raising flour, stirring just until the flour is incorporated and no dry spots remain. - Divide
Divide the batter evenly among the muffin cups, filling each about 2/3 full. - Bake
Bake in the preheated oven for 20-25 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the centre of a muffin comes out clean. - Cool
Allow the muffins to cool in the tin for 5 minutes, then transfer them to a wire rack to cool completely.
