Whole-Grain Banana Yogurt Muffins

By Genevieve Ko

Whole-Grain Banana Yogurt Muffins
David Malosh for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Barrett Washburne.
Total Time
30 minutes, plus cooling
Rating
5(5,158)
Comments
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Whole-wheat flour gives these muffins a rich, nutty flavor that’s extra satisfying on fall days. Even though this recipe uses all whole-grain flour, the muffins stay light and tender in texture and delicate in taste. Combining the dry ingredients with a large proportion of wet — bananas, yogurt, oil and honey — keeps these from being dry and heavy. Plus, the acidity of yogurt and honey help mellow out the tannic taste of whole wheat. Because these muffins are so tender, their flat tops crack a bit instead of doming. You can adorn them and add crunch by sprinkling with oats, seeds, chopped nuts, grated coconut or cacao nibs before baking.

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Ingredients

Yield:12 muffins
  • 1¼cups/150 grams whole-wheat flour
  • 1teaspoon baking powder
  • 1teaspoon baking soda
  • 1teaspoon ground cinnamon
  • ½teaspoon kosher salt
  • 1cup mashed ripe bananas (from about 2 large bananas)
  • ½cup/120 milliliters plain whole-milk yogurt
  • 1large egg
  • ½cup/110 grams packed light brown sugar
  • ¼cup/60 milliliters neutral oil, such as grapeseed or canola
  • ¼cup/60 milliliters honey
  • Old-fashioned oats, seeds, chopped nuts, grated coconut or cacao nibs, for sprinkling (optional)
Ingredient Substitution Guide
Nutritional analysis per serving (12 servings)

170 calories; 6 grams fat; 1 gram saturated fat; 0 grams trans fat; 3 grams monounsaturated fat; 2 grams polyunsaturated fat; 29 grams carbohydrates; 2 grams dietary fiber; 18 grams sugars; 3 grams protein; 157 milligrams sodium

Note: The information shown is Edamam’s estimate based on available ingredients and preparation. It should not be considered a substitute for a professional nutritionist’s advice.

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Preparation

  1. Step 1

    Heat oven to 375 degrees. Line a 12-cup standard muffin tin with paper liners or generously grease (with nonstick cooking spray or butter).

  2. Step 2

    In a large bowl, whisk the flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon and salt. In a medium bowl, whisk the bananas, yogurt, egg, brown sugar, oil and honey until just smooth.

  3. Step 3

    Pour the wet ingredients into the dry and gently stir with a silicone spatula just until no streaks of flour remain. Divide the batter evenly among the muffins cups. Sprinkle on toppings if you’d like.

  4. Step 4

    Bake until a toothpick inserted into a center muffin comes out clean, 20 to 23 minutes.

  5. Step 5

    Cool in the tin on a rack for 5 minutes, unmold and cool completely or serve warm.

Tip
  • The muffins can be kept at room temperature in an airtight container for up to 3 days or frozen for up to 3 months. If frozen, thaw and reheat in a 350-degree oven for 10 minutes before serving.

Ratings

5 out of 5
5,158 user ratings
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Comments

Spoons

Excellent recipe. Endlessly adaptable. You can easily reduce the sweetener by half. I rarely add the honey and cut the sugar by 1/3-1/2. Adding lemon, coconut and blueberries is delicious but adding frozen raspberries is my house’s favourite variation.

Lori

In an attempt to make these super healthy, I used 1/3 c applesauce in place of the 1/4 c oil and skipped the honey. I also used Greek yogurt as I couldn’t find regular yogurt at my grocery store, and it worked great. A fun recipe to play with. The second time around I used just one banana and a cup or so of berries that were slightly past their prime. Delicious.

Susan

I omitted the honey because I was reading off my phone and missed it. But they were very good, and sweet enough without it. Nice texture, good flavor, freeze nicely. I'm going to add a note that up to 1/4c honey is optional, and I'm going to make this my "go to" muffin recipe.

KTJ

Unfortunately I forgot to add the toppings before baking. But they are still delicious. I like the ideas from Lauren - might try a little lemon zest and blueberry topping. Fun thing is - there's 12 muffins so easy to experiment with toppings and flavors on one batch! Made with applesauce instead of oil, which dropped the fat to 1 g per muffin. 2% greek yogurt. Next time will skip sugar and just use honey.

Anna

Exceptional muffins. Delicious and delicate texture. I used avocado oil and added ground ginger and cardamom, a few sunflower seeds, walnuts, and raisins the second time I made this. I will be making this again and again and looking forward to trying commenters alternate suggestions to the basic recipe.

SD

These are great!! I’m on a calorie deficit so these are perfect. Used Greek yogurt, half ghee and half apple sauce, only 15 grams maple and 15 grams honey, no other sugar. Did about 290 grams of banana since I didn’t want to eat/throw out the rest. Added some 85% dark chocolate. Topped some w pistachios and some w slices almonds. ChatGPT said they about 112 calories which is fantastic.

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