These cinnamon swirl banana muffins are easy, delicious, and perfect for breakfast, brunch, snacking, or dessert. Moist, tender muffins loaded with banana flavor are kicked up with a sweet, buttery cinnamon swirl, for a treat that always has everyone reaching for just one more.
Whether you’re looking for delicious dessert recipes or some sweet breakfast recipes to start the day, these muffins will do the trick.
We love the versatility of sweet muffins. They’re perfect for breakfast, snacking, or desserts, and they’re so easy to make. Really, what’s not to love about them?
We also love the flavors of a good banana bread, like this banana macadamia nut bread. Again, it’s all about versatility. Banana is a classic ingredient for all kinds of breakfast and dessert recipes, so it’s always a great choice.
We’ve taken muffins and banana bread and smashed them together in this delicious recipe that’s the best of both worlds. These soft, moist, and tender muffins are loaded with banana flavor and infused with a swirl of sweet, buttery cinnamon to create a flavor profile that’s perfect for a sweet start to the day, snacking, dessert, or parties.
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Why You’ll Love This Recipe
- Big Banana Flavor: First and foremost, these muffins are loaded with tons of banana flavor.
- A Cinnamon Kick: The buttery, sweet cinnamon swirl adds a warm, sweet spiced note that works perfectly with the bananas.
- So Moist and Tender: This batter uses sour cream to create moist, tender muffins with the perfect crumb.
- Basic Ingredients: This recipe only uses basic baking ingredients found in your kitchen or local grocery store.
- Easy: Just mix, pour, and bake. It’s that easy!
- Versatile: These muffins make the perfect sweet breakfast or brunch, afternoon snack, or dessert.
- Great for Meal Prep: These are freezer-friendly, so you can make extra for future use.
Ingredients
You’ll find a complete list of ingredients and their exact amounts in the recipe card at the end of the post.
Variations
- Sour Cream: Full-fat Greek yogurt works equally well in this recipe and adds extra protein.
- Add Nuts: Mix nuts like walnuts, pecans, or almonds into the batter or top the muffins with them for more flavor and texture.
- Baking Chips: Both chocolate and peanut butter are delicious pairings with banana and cinnamon, so consider adding one or the other to your batter for even more sweet flavor.
- Gluten-Free: Those with gluten issues can use a 1:1 gluten-free flour in equal amounts to create a gluten-free version.
- Extra Tender: For extra tender muffins, try using cake flour.
- Frosted: Top your muffins with cream cheese frosting like we did with these mini banana nut muffins.
How to Make Cinnamon Swirl Banana Muffins
Step 1: Mix the cinnamon swirl ingredients in a small bowl and set them aside.
Step 2: Beat the butter and sugar until creamy. Then, mix in the remaining wet ingredients.
Step 3: Mix in the dry ingredients until just combined. Then, mix in the bananas until combined.
Step 4: Divide half the batter between the wells of a prepared muffin tin. Then, add half the cinnamon mixture. Swirl with a toothpick.
Step 5: Divide the remaining batter and cinnamon swirl as you did before, and swirl again with a toothpick.
Step 6: Bake at 350°F until a toothpick inserted into the center of the muffins comes out clean.
Step 7: Let the muffins cool for a few minutes. Then, transfer them to a wire rack to cool completely.
Step 8: Enjoy with breakfast, as an afternoon snack, or as a dessert.
Tips
- Loosely spoon your flour into your measuring cup and level it off with a knife for accurate measurement.
- Mix your wet and dry ingredients until just combined. This means that everything is moistened, but the batter is still lumpy.
- Mash your bananas as thoroughly as possible for easy, more complete mixing.
- Speaking of bananas, use the ripest bananas possible. As long as they don’t smell off, have liquid oozing out of them, or have mold on the skin, they can’t be too ripe!
- Be sparing with your swirling. You want a nice ribbon of cinnamon sugar swirl throughout the muffins, not a complete mixing of the two.
- Make sure your cinnamon mixture is warm for the easiest swirling.
- For the absolute best muffin texture, let your batter sit for about 10 minutes before baking the muffin.
Cinnamon Swirl Banana Muffins FAQ
Tough muffins can result from inadvertently using too much flour, overmixing, or using expired leaveners. Be sure you measure your flour carefully to avoid using too much. In addition, mix your batter until the ingredients are all moistened and no further. Finally, always use fresh leaveners to ensure your muffins rise as they should.
To properly measure flour, either weigh it or loosely spoon it into your measuring cup and level it off with a knife. Never scoop flour directly out of its container with your measuring cup. This compacts it, resulting in too much being used.
There are two things that work in tandem to create exceptional muffins: mixing and resting. Mix your batter until all the dry ingredients are moistened and no further to prevent excess gluten. Then, allow your batter to rest for about 10 minutes before baking. This allows any activated gluten in the batter to relax before the baking process begins.
More Delicious Banana Recipes
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Cinnamon Swirl Banana Bread
Ingredients
Banana Muffins
- 2 cups all purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- ½ cup butter, softened
- 1 ⅓ cups sugar
- 2 eggs
- 1 cup sour cream
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 4 medium bananas, mashed (about 2 cups)
Cinnamon Swirl
- ⅓ cup light brown sugar
- ¼ cup butter, melted
- 2 tablespoons ground cinnamon
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350° and add paper liners to a muffin pan or spray with non-stick cooking spray. Set aside.
Cinnamon Swirl
- In a small bowl, stir brown sugar, melted butter, and cinnamon together.
Banana Muffins
- In a large bowl, beat butter and sugar together until creamy.
- Add eggs and beat until combined then beat in sour cream and vanilla.
- Next, add flour, baking soda and salt then beat just until combined.
- Stir in mashed bananas and mix until combined.
- Pour batter, about half full, in each paper liner.
- Spoon about ½ of the cinnamon swirl mixture on top of the first layer of batter over each muffin, and use a toothpick to swirl it into the batter.
- Pour the remaining batter equally into each muffin, and then spoon the remaining cinnamon swirl on top and swirl it into the batter with a toothpick again.
- Bake for approximately 18-22 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean.
Notes
- Store for up to 4 days at room temperature in an airtight container.
- If you add cream cheese frosting, refrigerate the muffins for up to 5 days in an airtight container.
- Wrap individual muffins in plastic wrap and freeze for up to 3 months in an airtight, freezer-safe container or heavy-duty freezer bag.
- For frosted muffins, freeze in the same manner for up to 1 month.
- Bring to room temperature before serving.
- Loosely spoon your flour into your measuring cup and level it off with a knife for accurate measurement.
- Mix your wet and dry ingredients until just combined. This means that everything is moistened, but the batter is still lumpy.
- Mash your bananas as thoroughly as possible for easy, more complete mixing.
- Speaking of bananas, use the ripest bananas possible. As long as they don’t smell off, have liquid oozing out of them, or have mold on the skin, they can’t be too ripe!
- Be sparing with your swirling. You want a nice ribbon of cinnamon sugar swirl throughout the muffins, not a complete mixing of the two.
- Make sure your cinnamon mixture is warm for the easiest swirling.
- For the absolute best muffin texture, let your batter sit for about 10 minutes before baking the muffin.
Two of my favorites combined! What a delicious treat to make for the winter mornings!