Cinnamon Swirl Banana Bread
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.
Servings: 24 Muffins
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
Storage
- 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.