The softest, most delicious sourdough banana muffins you’ve ever tasted. A light and fluffy banana muffin, topped with a crunchy and sweet oat crumble. Make them quick or long ferment.
This is one of those recipes that you might just want to bake so your house has the smells of brown sugar, cinnamon, and banana wafting through the halls.
Now that it seems as winter has blown in, leaving fall behind, I’m ready for all the coziness the season brings.
These sourdough banana muffins are hands down one of the best muffins I’ve ever experienced. They are a take on my sourdough banana bread, but made extra special with the oat crumb topping.
You could totally make them without the topping, but why would you want to do that?
I had to play around with the long fermented version and am totally amazed at how light and fluffy they came out after an 18 hour fermentation. So if you have the time and want the extra benefit of fermented grains, I highly recommend it.
Why You Will Love This Recipe:
Delicious: These are seriously so, so good. Like, can’t stop at just one, slightly dangerous kind of good.
Soft and fluffy: Even the long-fermented version yielded a light muffin.
Oat crumble: Brown sugar, butter, oats, and cinnamon make the most wonderful, crunchy, and sweet topping that takes this already delicious banana muffin recipe up a few more notches.
Sourdough Banana Muffin Tips:
- For a more tangy flavor, use sourdough discard that hasn’t been fed in a day, or allow to long ferment. For a less tangy flavor, use an active sourdough starter.
- This recipe can be long fermented for more health benefits, or made into a quick version for a yummy, fast recipe.
- If you want to long ferment this recipe, add an extra 1/2 cup of sourdough starter. Otherwise the batter won’t be moist enough for the ferment. Use an ice cream scoop to evenly and easily scoop the batter into the muffin wells.
- I highly suggest serving them warm. They taste best, in my opinion, right out of the oven.
Ingredients:
Butter – Unsalted
Dark brown sugar – Light brown sugar will also work, but will have less flavor.
Bananas – Super ripe bananas give a sweeter and more prominent banana flavor.
Eggs
Sourdough starter discard – This is sourdough starter that hasn’t been fed. If you want to long ferment I would recommend adding an extra 1/2 cup of sourdough starter. This gives it enough liquid to saturate the flour.
Vanilla extract – Homemade or store-bought
All-purpose flour
Leaveners – Baking soda and baking powder
Salt
Crumble Topping
Brown sugar – Dark or light will work. Dark will give a richer flavor.
Oats – Rolled or quick oats work great. Just don’t use steel cut.
Flour – I usually just use all-purpose, but if you cannot tolerate any unfermented grains you could use gluten free or einkorn flour.
Butter – Unsalted and super soft, so it easily combines with the rest of the crumble ingredients.
Cinnamon – Adds a yummy, warm flavor.
FAQ:
Are banana muffins healthy?
Typically they are high in sugar and may not be the healthiest choice.
What makes a muffin fluffy?
There are a few things that help make a muffin fluffy, such as using the right amount of leaveners, having the eggs and butter at room temperature, and not overmixing.
Can I add fresh bananas to muffin mix?
Yes. Usually you can use up to two mashed bananas, then omit some or all of the liquid.
How To Make Quick Sourdough Banana Muffins Recipe:
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
Melt butter in a microwave safe dish, in a saucepan, or small cast iron pan.
Lightly grease a muffin tin or line with cupcake liners.
In a stand mixer with a paddle attachment or a bowl, mix together melted butter and brown sugar for five minutes.
Turn off the mixer and add in eggs, vanilla, mashed banana, and sourdough starter.
In a separate bowl, stir together dry ingredients (flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt) well.
Add in dry ingredients 1/3 at a time and mix until just incorporated. You don’t want to over-mix.
Add equal amounts of batter to each muffin well. I like to use an ice cream scoop for this.
Top each muffin with the oat crumble.
Bake for 20-25 minutes or until a toothpick or cake tester comes out clean.
Allow the muffins to cool completely. Enjoy
How To Make Long Fermented Sourdough Banana Muffins:
At 12-24 hours before you plan to bake the banana muffins, in a stand mixer bowl with a paddle attachment, add brown sugar and melted butter.
Mix together until well combined for about 3-5 minutes.
Add sourdough starter (1 cup rather than just 1/2 cup) and flour to the brown sugar and butter. Combine well.
Cover with a towel or plastic wrap and allow to ferment at room temperature for 6-24 hours. I just leave it right in my stand mixer bowl.
The next day, preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Line or grease muffin tins.
Using a stand mixer with the paddle attachment, add eggs, vanilla, mashed banana, salt, baking powder, and baking soda to the mixing bowl.
I highly recommend using a stand mixer, because the fermented dough will be stiff and difficult to combine with the other ingredients by hand.
Start on low and work up to medium speed until completely combined. There shouldn’t be large chunks. I find if there are, you can break them up a bit and then mix it again.
Pour into the muffin pan.
Top with crumb toppings.
Bake for 20-22 minutes.
Allow to cool and enjoy.
Storage:
Store in an air-tight container for up to 4 days at room temperature. Or freeze as a whole loaf or in slices with parchment paper between in a freezer Zip-lock bag.
Optional Add-Ins
Usually I just make it regular delicious banana muffins, but you could also add about 1 cup of these add-ins.
- Chopped nuts
- Chocolate Chips
- Dried Fruit
- Seeds
- Coconut
Find More Sourdough Recipes:
- Sourdough Pumpkin Bread
- Sourdough Pumpkin Muffins With Oat Crumble
- Easy Sourdough Pizza Dough
- Sourdough Cheese Bread
- Sourdough Croissants
Sourdough Banana Muffins
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup melted unsalted butter
- 1 cup dark brown sugar
- 3 ripe bananas, 350g
- 2 large eggs
- 1/2 cup sourdough starter discard*
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
Dry Ingredients
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1 teaspoon salt
Crumb Topping (Optional)
- 1/2 cup brown sugar
- 1/2 cup oats
- 2 tablespoons flour
- 4 tablespoons softened unsalted butter
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
- Melt butter in a microwave safe dish, in a saucepan, or small cast iron pan.
- Lightly grease a muffin tin or line with cupcake liners.
- In a stand mixer with a paddle attachment or a bowl, mix together melted butter and brown sugar for five minutes.
- Turn off the mixer and add in eggs, vanilla, mashed banana, and sourdough starter.
- In a separate bowl, stir together dry ingredients (flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt) well.
- Add in dry ingredients 1/3 at a time and mix until just incorporated. You don’t want to over-mix.
- Add equal amounts of batter to each muffin well. I like to use an ice cream scoop for this.
- Top each muffin with the oat crumble.
- Bake for 20-25 minutes or until a toothpick or cake tester comes out clean.
- Allow the muffins to cool completely. Enjoy
Notes
- * If you want to long ferment this recipe, add an extra 1/2 cup of sourdough starter to. Otherwise the batter won’t be moist enough for the ferment. Long fermented directions in the post above.
- For a more tangy flavor, use sourdough discard that hasn’t been fed in a day, or allow to long ferment. For a less tangy flavor, use an active sourdough starter.
- Crumble topping is optional, but adds a super yummy flavor and texture.
- I highly suggest serving them warm. They taste best, in my opinion, right out of the oven.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Do you have a chocolate chip recipe? Or is there a way to turn one of the already existing muffin recipes into chocolate chip muffins?
You could use my blueberry muffin recipe and swap out the blueberries for chocolate chips. https://www.farmhouseonboone.com/sourdough-blueberry-muffins
These were amazing! I made them into tiny muffins for a little girl’s 2 years old birthday and everyone loved them! I adjusted the time to 12 min
Great idea! thanks for sharing!
These turned out great. I live at high altitude so I did adjust the temperature to 375 as one comment suggested. They are tall with crispy tops… just how they should be 🙂 Thank you for the recipe.
So glad you enjoyed it!
Looks yummy!! Could I bulk ferment and then put into the fridge overnight and bake in the morning?
Yes!
If adding oats, should I add extra liquid, or maybe soak the oats?
It would probably depend on how much oats you are adding if you would need to add extra liquid or not.
These muffins are very good. I long fermented them overnight, doubled the recipe (the recipe makes make 18 muffins) and made 24 large fluffy delicious muffins. I have tried quite a few long fermented muffin recipes and this is by far the best one I have made. Highly recommend.
So glad you enjoyed the recipe! Have a great day!
Do you ever use honey instead of sugar in your recipes? Wasn’t sure if the sourdough would react weird to it. Thx!
I tried it with honey and they were awesome! I added some molasses and long fermented it for 12 hours. I recommend trying!
Do you have to adjust the liquid at all when you substitute the sugar with honey?
These are the best banana muffins I’ve ever made. I used the long ferment method. I also made the carrot cake with the long fermentation. The best. Both of them. The texture and flavor are just so much better than a typical muffin and the crumb topping is so delicious. Thank you for these great recipes!
Wow! Thank you for such compliment. Thrilled you loved it so much.
Baked 2 batches. One at 350 and the other at 375 cause I know sourdough likes heat. The second batch looked much nicer since they puffed up at the top while the first batch was flat! I reduced the baking time to 17 minutes and they were ready. They all tasted good though
Oh interesting! Thanks for sharing that. I’ll have to try it next time.
Thank you for sharing.
How can I sub with instant yeast since I don’t have sourdough ferment?
The sourdough starter doesn’t give it rise, it’s there for flavor and for fermentation (if long fermented). You could possibly replace the sourdough starter with equal parts flour and water and then use 1/2 cup of that for the 1/2 cup starter. It won’t add the same about flavor though.