Tall, fluffy, and moist banana and cinnamon muffins topped with sugar and silky cream cheese frosting
If you ask me to choose my favorite muffin it would be banana muffins over and over again. There is something about bananas that are just so right when baked into a muffin.
One of the best banana pairings is cinnamon. Cinnamon complements the sweet banana flavor for a delicious combination no matter where it is used. From banana cinnamon oats to pancakes I can’t get enough of it!
How do you get muffins to dome?
One of the best indications of a good muffin is a tall domed top aka muffin top. This indicates a tall, light, and fluffy muffin with a contrastingly crisp and golden top. And honestly, it’s the best part of a muffin!
Flat muffins are one of the biggest issues when making muffins, so follow these tips for perfect muffin tops every time.
Don’t overmix
Overmixing your batter not only gives you a dense, rubbery muffin, it also prevents the batter from rising to its full potential. The more you mix the batter, the more gluten forms.
These are protein networks, and the more there are, the more they will hold the batter together and prevent it from rising. Only mix the batter until just combined. Muffins are known to be a little lumpy so it’s okay if there are a couple of chunks here and there!
Fill to the top
Don’t be shy when filling your muffin cups. Divide batter among the muffin liners until it almost reaches the top. This way anything that rises out of the muffin cups will be a tall muffin top.
Let your batter rest
While this is an optional step, doing so can help give your muffins an extra lift and achieve the perfect muffin top. Resting the batter has the same context as not overmixing.
Once you have filled your muffin tin place the tray into the fridge for 30 mins.
Letting the batter rest helps the gluten networks that may have formed to relax. This will help the muffins rise when they bake!
Chill your batter
Putting the filled muffin pan in the fridge also helps with the batter rising. By putting cold batter straight into a hot oven there will be a faster and taller rise to your muffins.
Bake at a high temperature
I like to bake my muffins at an initial high temperature and then bring it down for the rest of the bake time. This ensures that the muffins hit the oven at the highest temperature and will rise rapidly.
Once the muffins have formed a tall muffin top we turn the oven down so the rest of the muffin bake without burning.
Different variations
There are so many different variations to these muffins. Make tweaks, add toppings and make these yours! Here are a couple of delicious options.
Cinnamon-sugar topping
Combine raw sugar with a pinch of cinnamon before sprinkling it over your unbaked muffins. These will form a deliciously caramelized crunchy sugar layer over the top once baked.
Crumb Topping
Combine 20g butter, 20g brown sugar, and 50g flour and mix with your fingers until large crumbs form. Then sprinkle it over your unbaked muffins.
This will form a crunchy cookie-like crumb over your muffins for a buttery and fragrant touch.
Chocolate chip
One of the best combinations is bananas and chocolate chips! All you need to do is stir in the chocolate chips at the very end of mixing your batter. Then bake as usual!
Nuts
Banana nut muffins are a common flavor combination and for good reason! Feel free to stir walnuts or pecans into your batter at the very end. Or even scatter them over the top of the muffins for a crunchy, nutty top!
Frequently Asked Questions
How long do these last?
These last up to 4 days when stored in an airtight container in the fridge. When consuming make sure you let them sit at room temperature for 15 mins, or so until they are no longer fridge cold. Otherwise, you can zap them in the microwave for 20-30 seconds or so.
Can I make these with unripe bananas?
Any baked good made with bananas is better when they are ripe. Ripe bananas are sweeter and more fragrant with a softer texture.
This makes them easier to mash into the mixture. It also gives the muffins more moisture and an overall better banana flavor.
Why are my muffins flat?
There are a couple of reasons as to why your muffins may turn out flat:
- The batter was overmixed
- The baking powder was old and not active
- The inital oven temperature wasn’t high enough
- Too much banana was used
How do you make your muffins moist?
Many recipes will use ingredients like greek yogurt or sour cream to increase the moisture of the muffins. These are both great methods, but as we are already using bananas I find them unnecessary.
Bananas have the ability to add moisture to any baked good, and adding sour cream or yogurt takes away from the opportunity of adding more bananas and giving these an extra flavor punch!
Make sure your bananas are ripe before using them. The riper they are, the moister your muffins will be.
Let’s Get Cooking
If you liked this recipe make sure to leave me a comment and rating down below. I’d love to know how it went! Also, don’t forget to tag me on Instagram @catherine.desserts.
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Banana Cinnamon Muffin Recipe
Tall, fluffy, and moist banana and cinnamon muffins topped with sugar and silky cream cheese frosting
- Prep Time: 30 minutes
- Cook Time: 15 minutes
- Total Time: 45 minutes
- Yield: 10 tall muffins 1x
- Category: Muffin
- Method: Easy
- Cuisine: American
Ingredients
Banana Muffins
- 180g All purpose flour (1 1/2 cups)
- 90g Brown sugar (1/2 cup)
- 50g Granulated sugar (1/4 cup)
- 1 tsp Baking powder
- 1 tsp Baking soda
- Pinch of salt
- 1 tsp Cinnamon
- 3 small bananas, mashed (approx 1 1/2 cup)
- 60g Unsalted butter, melted
- 60ml Vegetable oil
- 2 Large eggs
- 1 tsp Vanilla extract
- Raw sugar, for sprinkling
Cream cheese filling
- 150g Cream cheese, softened
- 1/3 cup Thickened cream
- 50g White sugar (1/4 cup)
Caramelised Banana
- 1 Banana, sliced
- Caster sugar, for rolling
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 220C/425F
- Line 10 cavities of a muffin or cupcake tin with paper patties
- Combine the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt and cinnamon in a large bowl
- Ina medium bowl combine the banana, melted butter, vegetable oil, eggs, and vanilla exact
- Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and mix until just combined
- Divide the batter among the lined tin and scatter over the raw sugar
- Bake for 5 mins, then reduce the temperature to 170C/338F and bake for 15 mins, or until an inserted toothpick emerges clean
- Cool on a wire cooling rack
Cream Cheese Filling
- Combine the cream cheese, cream and sugar in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a whisk attachment and whisk for 5 mins until light and fluffy
- Transfer to a piping bag fitted with a medium round tip
Assembly
- Make a small cavity in the center of each muffin with a chopstick or the end of a spoon
- Fill the cavity with cream cheese and squeeze a dollop on top
- Roll the sliced bananas in caster sugar and place on a heatproof dish
- Use a blow torch to caramelise the bananas until golden brown (or heat them in a hot frypan until golden brown)
- Cool the bananas to room temperature before placing ontop of the muffins
- Enjoy!
Beautiful delicious muffins. The only change I made was using GF flour (for my husband) – they have a great banana flavor and just the right amount of sweetness – that is, not too sweet. Lovely moist and light texture. Thank you much, Catherine; looking forward to trying more of your recipes.
Sounds delicious! ????
Hi Catherine!
For the cream cheese filling, the ingredient says ‘⅓ cup Thickened cream’, but in the instructions it didn’t mention about cream, but butter instead? If we don’t need to use cream, how much butter do we need?
Thanks!
Hi Serinah, the recipe is all fixed up now, sorry about that! The cream is added with the cream cheese. Hope you like the recipe ????
Hi Catherine! If we chill the batter for 30 mins in the fridge, do you know about how much longer we’ll need to bake it at the higher/lower temperatures? Thanks
Just take 5 minutes of the cook time and check it when the time is up! it might need a couple more minutes so make sure a toothpick comes out clean with a few crumbs.
Hi Catherine,
The best banana muffin recipe – super moist and tender loaded with great banana flavour! But since I used very ripe bananas, how can I adjust the amount of sugar to make the muffins less sweet?