These vegan banana muffins are soft, fluffy and perfectly moist with a gorgeous bakery-style domed top. Packed with banana flavor and ideal for breakfast or dessert.
These gorgeous vegan banana muffins are packed with banana flavor and have the perfect high domed top just like a bakery muffin.
They’re soft and moist, loaded with flavor and just about the best thing served warm from the oven.
With some chopped walnuts mixed into the batter and some more on top, these muffins look just as good as they taste.
And if you love bananas like we do, then check out our vegan banana bread, vegan banana cake and vegan banana pancakes.
How To Make Vegan Banana Muffins
You will find full instructions and measurements in the recipe card at the bottom of the post. This is a summary of the process to go along with the process photos.
- Sift all purpose flour into a mixing bowl and add brown sugar, white sugar, baking soda, baking powder, salt, ground cinnamon and nutmeg and mix together.
- Prepare your vegan buttermilk by adding ½ tablespoon of lemon juice to a measuring jug and then adding soy milk up to the ½ cup (120ml) line. Let it sit for a minute to curdle.
- Add mashed bananas, vegan buttermilk, melted coconut oil, applesauce and vanilla extract to the mixing bowl and mix into a thick batter.
- Add chopped walnuts and fold in.
- Divide the batter evenly between the muffin partitions of a muffin tray and then add some more chopped walnuts to the tops of the muffins.
- Bake for 22-25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center of one of the muffins comes out clean.
- Remove the muffins from the muffin tray and transfer to a wire cooling rack to cool.
- And then eat one! Preferably while it’s still warm. Yum.
Baker’s Tips
The best muffin recipes have a thick batter. There is just something about a thick batter that creates the best muffins and these are no exception.
The homemade vegan buttermilk and melted coconut oil along with the mashed banana and applesauce create a batter that is very thick and has to be spooned into the muffin partitions.
The thick batter also enables the chopped walnuts to be very evenly dispersed throughout the muffins which is super tasty.
The acid from the vegan buttermilk (lemon juice) is what reacts with the baking soda and causes them to rise very nicely with an awesome domed top.
The walnuts are a perfect match here. Of course they are optional and if you have a nut allergy don’t worry about it, you can easily omit them, but if walnuts are something you can eat, then they make a delicious addition.
Ripe bananas are absolutely crucial. You can’t get delicious vegan banana muffins without using ripe bananas. Ripe bananas are more sugar than starch which is exactly what you want for both the taste and texture here. So make sure they are yellow and spotty.
We used coconut oil because it’s thick so it works great with muffins. But you can switch this for a different vegetable oil if you can’t use coconut oil.
We used applesauce for a bit of extra moisture in this recipe, but you can replace this with extra mashed banana if you can’t get applesauce. I do like the addition of applesauce here though so use it if you can.
Make Them Gluten-Free
You can try these with a gluten-free all purpose flour blend but don’t try them with a single type of flour such as almond or coconut. It has to be an all purpose blend.
Our favorite brand for gluten free all purpose flour is Bob’s Red Mill.
Storing and Freezing
Keep them covered at room temperature where they will stay fresh for a few days or covered in the fridge where they will stay fresh for up to a week.
They are also freezer friendly for up to 3 months. When you’re ready for them, thaw them in the fridge and then bring them up to room temperature on the countertop or warm them up in the microwave.
More Vegan Muffins
- Vegan Blueberry Muffins
- Vegan Blackberry Muffins
- Vegan Pumpkin Muffins
- Vegan Chocolate Chip Muffins
- Vegan Chocolate Muffins
- Vegan Zucchini Muffins
Did you make this recipe? Be sure to leave a comment and rating below!
Vegan Banana Muffins
Ingredients
- 2 cups All Purpose Flour (250g)
- ½ cup Light Brown Sugar (100g)
- ½ cup White Granulated Sugar (100g)
- 1 teaspoon Baking Soda
- 1 teaspoon Baking Powder
- ¼ teaspoon Salt
- 1 teaspoon Ground Cinnamon
- ¼ teaspoon Ground Nutmeg
- ½ cup Vegan Buttermilk (120ml) ½ Tablespoon lemon juice + soy milk up to the ½ cup line*
- 1 ⅓ cups Mashed Ripe Banana (300g) about 3 Medium Ripe Bananas*
- ¼ cup Coconut Oil (60ml) Melted
- 2 Tablespoons Applesauce
- 1 teaspoon Vanilla Extract
- 1 cup Walnuts (100g) Chopped, plus more to add on top
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350°F (180°C) and spray a muffin tray with non-stick spray. Set aside.
- Sift the flour into a mixing bowl and add the brown and white sugar, baking soda, baking powder, salt, cinnamon and nutmeg.
- Prepare the vegan buttermilk by adding ½ Tbsp of lemon juice to a measuring cup and then adding in soy milk up to the ½ cup (120ml) line. Let it curdle.
- Add the vegan buttermilk, mashed banana, melted coconut oil, applesauce and vanilla extract to the mixing bowl and mix into a thick batter.
- Add the chopped walnuts and stir in.
- Divide the batter evenly between the muffin partitions and add some more chopped walnuts on top.
- Place into the oven and bake for 22-25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center of one of the muffins comes out clean.
- Transfer the muffins to a wire cooling rack to cool and then enjoy!
Video
Notes
- Measure the flour correctly using the spoon and level method, spoon it into your measuring cup and then level off the top with a knife. Don’t scoop the flour and don’t pack it into the cup.
- You can also make vegan buttermilk with almond milk, though the result isn’t as thick as with soy milk. It has differing results with other plant milks, but even if it doesn’t curdle into buttermilk, you can still use another milk if that’s what you have on hand.
- You can use a different oil such as vegetable oil if you can’t use coconut oil.
- If you don’t have any applesauce on hand, then just use 2 Tbsp of extra mashed banana.
- This recipe was first published in February 2019.
These muffins were great! I made these muffins in preparation for family coming down over the weekend and they loved this as part of breakfast or as a midday snack. They were soft, hearty, not under-sweet or over-sweet. I used 4 average sized bananas which was equivalent to 2 cups of mashed banana (someone has an allergy to apples so I had to cut out the apple sauce) and they turned out perfect! I made half with walnuts and half without to see the difference and both were great! I personally prefer the walnuts for some extra texture but other family members preferred without. I will definitely make these again!
Thanks for sharing and the awesome review Chris!
Made these this afternoon just as the recipe states. They are super good! I will be making them over & over for sure!!
So happy you liked them Karla! Thanks so much for posting.
Thank you Alison for another great and easy healthy recipe. I only used half a cup of brown sugar and found that sweet enough. We all loved it and will make it my go-to recipe when using up ripe bananas.
Awesome Krisina, thanks so much for the wonderful review!
I decided to try this recipe for the simplicity of the ingredients and also for the beautiful recipe photo. Don’t be tempted to add extra liquid to the batter, as these muffins turn out perfectly light and moist, with a delicious flavor from the spices and vanilla. This is easily the best vegan muffin recipe we’ve tried. My adjustments to the recipe were half white and half wholemeal flour, a little extra banana as I had no applesauce and I omitted the white sugar as I added some vegan white choc chips. This will be my staple muffin recipe from now on.
Wonderful! Thanks so much for sharing Marie!
My husband is the baker in our family and these muffins are our weekly treat. He makes huge batches and distributes around amongst the family. These are THE BEST muffins I have ever tasted. He leaves out the applesauce and adds more fruit. We have different concoctions each week using this recipe as the base. This week for example we’re having banana, sultana, fig and macadamia nuts.
I feel there’s often a perception that vegan bakery items are inferior because they don’t use egg. This recipe makes a fallacy of that claim. Thank you for sharing it with us.
Thanks so much for the awesome comment and review Wendy!
Just made these and they taste so good! I don’t know what I did wrong but mine did not rise. HELP! I followed the directions.
Hi Darlene, so glad they taste good. This recipe has baking powder and baking soda which gives them a gorgeous rise, since yours didn’t, I would check if your baking powder and baking soda are still active.
Had to improvise on this but came out great- not enough banana so added 1/2 a ripe avocado. no walnuts so used pumpkin and sunflower seeds. Halved the sugar and added raisins- and used 1/2 whole meal flour! All with excellent results…4 vs 5 because I think if you stuck to the recipe exactly there would be too much sugar!
These turned out great! I used 150g sugar altogether, left out the apple sauce and added in some chocolate chips. Will definitely make again.
So happy to hear that Anna! Thanks so much for the awesome review!
Alison hits another home run. Quick and
Easy. Delicious. I made them following instructions exactly. Left out apple sauce. They are sooooo good.
Awesome! Thanks so much Beth! 🙂
I love these muffins. I make them with half the sugar, and as I never have applesauce, I peel and chop half an apple and microwave with a little water and sugar, and that works perfectly! And they’re ready in 20 minutes in my oven. Delicious, thank you again for another great recipe.
Thanks so much for the awesome review!