Gluten Free Banana Muffins (Almost 2 Cups of Banana)
Even with nearly 2 cups of mashed banana, these gluten free banana muffins bake up tall and golden, with deep banana flavor and a soft, fluffy crumb that never turns heavy or gummy.
- 2 2/3 cups all purpose gluten free flour blend ((See Recipe Notes))
- 1 1/3 teaspoons xanthan gum (omit if your blend already contains it)
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 4 tablespoons unsalted butter (melted and cooled)
- 4 tablespoons neutral oil (canola, vegetable, peanut, or grapeseed oil, etc.)
- 2 eggs (at room temperature, beaten)
- 1/2 cup sour cream (or plain Greek-style yogurt, at room temperature)
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- 1 3/4 cups mashed ripe bananas (from about 4 medium or 3 large bananas)
- Coarse sugar (for sprinkling (optional))
- Preheat your oven to 425°F. Use muffin liners to line every well of a standard 12-cup muffin tin or every other well of 2 standard 12-cup muffin tins. For the tallest muffins, line every other well.
- In a large bowl, place the flour, xanthan gum, baking powder, baking soda, salt and sugar, and whisk to combine well.
- Create a well in the center of the dry ingredients, and add the melted butter, oil, eggs, sour cream, and vanilla.
- Mix the wet ingredients in small circles toward the center, then continue mixing to incorporate most of the dry ingredients. The mixture will be too thick to mix until smooth.
- Add the mashed bananas, and mix to combine fully without breaking the bananas too much. The mixture be lumpy because of the bananas, and thick but relatively soft.
- Fill every lined well of your muffin tin(s) completely, all the way to the top of the liner. Sprinkle the tops lightly with the optional coarse sugar, if using.
- Bake in the center of the preheated oven for 5 minutes, then reduce the oven temperature to 350°F.
- Bake at the lower temperature until a toothpick comes out mostly clean (not wet, with no more than a few moist crumbs) and the muffins bounce back when pressed gently in the center, about 15 minutes more. If your muffins still aren't done baking at nearly 15 minutes, reduce the oven temperature to 325°F to continue baking without burning the bottoms.
- Allow them to cool in the tin for 5 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.
- Repeat with the remaining muffin tin if you've used 2 tins.
Why this recipe works
A generous 1¾ cups of mashed ripe bananas gives these muffins deep banana flavor, but the batter is carefully balanced so the crumb stays light and tender.
The mashed bananas go in last, after most of the batter is mixed. Folding them in gently keeps them from releasing too much moisture, which can make banana muffins gummy.
A combination of melted butter and oil gives the muffins rich flavor and helps them stay moist. Starting them in a very hot oven creates tall domed tops, then lowering the temperature lets the centers bake through without burning.
Recipe ingredients
Here's a little bit about each ingredient in these muffins and why it's worth sourcing the right ones:
- Gluten free flour blend: Provides most of the structure for these muffins. My favorite blends are Better Batter's original blend (which already contains enough xanthan gum), Nicole's Best (with the gum listed in the recipe), or Bob's Red Mill 1-to-1 gluten free blend with an additional 1/4 teaspoon gum since the blend has some, but not enough for muffins that aren't crumbly.
- Baking powder & baking soda: Help the muffins rise and brown in the oven without overbaking.
- Salt: Enhances flavor and balances sweetness.
- Granulated sugar: Adds sweetness and keeps the muffins tender by locking in moisture.
- Eggs: Help the muffins rise and holds the structure of the rise as they cool.
- Mashed bananas: Ripe bananas add flavor, natural sweetness, moisture, and banana aroma. Underripe bananas have less sugar and less moisture, and don't break down fully in the oven. As banana ripen and the skin browns, it also softens, so if your bananas are hard to separate or peel, they're not ready for baking. As long as they're ripe, even if they're not over-ripe, they're fine for baking.
- Sour cream: Adds moisture to bring the batter together, gentle tang, and helps keep the crumb tender.
- Melted butter and neutral oil: The butter adds richness and buttery flavor from the butter and keeps the muffins from tasting oily; the oil's higher concentration of fat that's liquid at room temperature helps the muffins stay moist for longer at room temperature.
- Vanilla extract: Adds depth of flavor.
How to make gluten free banana muffins (step by step photos)
Here's a visual overview of how to make gluten-free banana muffins in your own kitchen, with an explanation of how each step contributes to the best muffins:
Mix the dry ingredients In a large mixing bowl, place the gluten free flour blend, xanthan gum (if needed), baking powder, baking soda, salt, and sugar, and whisk to combine well and avoid any clumps of leavening.
Add the wet ingredients Create a well in the center, then add the melted butter, oil, eggs, sour cream, and vanilla. Start to mix just the wet ingredients together in the center of the bowl before combining with the dry ingredients. This allows us to avoid mixing the wet ingredients together in a separate bowl, simplifying the recipe.
Mix in the wet ingredients Keep mixing the wet ingredients and slowly incorporate as much of the dry ingredients as you can. The mixture will be too thick to mix fully and completely into a smooth batter.
Fold in the mashed bananas Add all of the mashed bananas and use a spatula to fold them into the mixture. It will loosen up a lot. We add the mashed bananas last to avoid crushing them too much, which would release too much moisture and could lead to a gummy result.
Portion the batter For the tallest muffins, use 2 muffins wells and line every other well to give the muffins space to expand without interfering with each other. Scoop enough muffin batter into each liner to fill it all the way to the top.
Bake first at 425°F Bake this very high temperature for 5 minutes to activate the baking powder quickly and force the muffin batter to rise upward quickly, and the outermost layer of the muffins to set into a dome.
Finish baking at 350°F Quickly reduce the oven temperature to 350°F and continue to bake for about another 15 minutes or until the tops spring back when pressed gently in the center and muffins are golden brown. This temperature reduction allows you to bake the muffins all the way through without burning them. Let the muffins cool for just 5 minutes in the tin before transferring them to a wire rack to finish cooling.
For the tallest muffins
Start with a hotter oven of 425°F for the first 5 minutes of baking to create more oven spring in the first few minutes of baking. Then, reduce the oven temperature to 350°F to finish baking without burning your muffins. Only baking in every other muffin well can also help get tall muffins.
Remove from the tin quickly
Don't leave baked muffins in the tin for much longer than 5 minutes or the muffins will steam in the liners and the outside can be become unpleasantly chewy.
