Delicious and easy banana muffins made with caramelized banana and Nutella swirl on top! Caramelizing the banana helps bring out and enhance the flavor.
My family loves my Banana Bread that I’ve been making since my college days. When they are tired of it, this Caramelized Banana Muffin is my go to recipe.
If you make banana muffins but not with caramelized bananas, you have to give this recipe a try! Caramelized bananas add so much flavors to the muffins and they are absolutely delicious!
Overripe Bananas, Make Caramelized Banana Muffins!
Since my children started to eat solid food, bananas are always in the kitchen. They snack on them between meals, put them in their yogurt, or eat them with pancakes and crepes on weekends.
But once in a while, my children would go through “no more banana” stage, and it always happens all of the sudden without any warning. Luckily, I know they will always eat my banana muffins or Banana Bread so I don’t have to end up eating all the bananas myself.
How To Caramelize Bananas
This banana muffins recipe uses caramelized bananas instead of mashed banana in the batter.
To make caramelized bananas, put sugar and water in a saucepan and caramelize the sugar first. Then add the banana slices and coat them with the caramelized sugar. And finally fold in the caramelized bananas into the batter.
Yes it’s an extra step, but believe me it’s totally worth it!
Add Nutella Swirl to Caramelized Banana Muffins
I usually put one slice of banana on top of my muffins (see below), but once in awhile I add Nutella to my banana muffins. Just lightly swirl Nutella into the batter…and the kids love it!
If you think they are too sweet and want to pick either caramelized bananas or Nutella, of course pick caramelized bananas for this recipe.
Other snacks I make with banana include Frozen Chocolate Covered Banana treats, they are refreshing and delightful during hot weather.
Enjoy the muffins warm with your favorite cup of hot tea, milk or coffee.
Similar Recipes:
- Sesame Cupcakes with Honey Meringue Frosting – Guest Post by T and Tea Cake
- Steamed Cake (Mushi-pan)
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Caramelized Banana Muffins
Ingredients
- 1 ½ cup all-purpose flour (plain flour)
- 1 ½ tsp baking powder
- 11 oz overripe bananas (2 medium size bananas)
- ⅓ cup sugar (for caramelizing bananas)
- 3 Tbsp water
- ¾ cup unsalted butter (12 Tbsp; at room temperature)
- ⅔ cup sugar
- 2 large eggs (50 g each w/o shell) (at room temperature)
- ½ cup milk (at room temperature)
- 1 tsp pure vanilla extract
- 6 tsp Nutella (optional)
Instructions
- Gather all the ingredients.
- Preheat oven to 350ºF (180ºC). For a convection oven, reduce cooking temperature by 25ºF (15ºC). Lightly spray muffin tin with non-stick cooking spray or line with cupcake liners.
- Sift flour and baking powder and cut bananas into thin slices.
- To make the caramel, cook sugar and water over medium heat in a small saucepan. Gently tilt the pan off the heat to distribute color evenly as the sugar caramelizes.
- When the mixture turns into nice amber color, immediately add sliced bananas and coat with caramel and turn off the heat.
- In the bowl of the electric mixer, beat the butter on medium-high speed until soft. Then add sugar and mix until creamy and fluffy.
- Whisk the eggs in a bowl, stir into the batter and blend well.
- Add half of the flour to the batter and mix well. Then stir in half of the milk. Add the rest of flour and mix, and finally stir in the rest of milk. Mix well to combine.
- Add vanilla extract and fold in the caramelized banana just until combined.
- Spoon muffin batter into muffin tin ¾ full. If you like, top each muffin with ½ tsp of Nutella and use a skewer or chopstick to swirl it into the batter.
- Bake muffins at 350ºF (180ºC) for about 25 minutes, or until a skewer insered in the center comes out clean. Serve warm or let cool completely for storage.
To Store
- You can keep the leftovers in an airtight container and store in the refrigerator for up to 4-5 days and in the freezer for a month.
Editor’s Note: This post was originally published on February 5, 2014.
OMG Nami! These look absolutely delicious. I will definitely try to make these very soon! 😀
Thank you Courtney! Hope you enjoy these muffins. 🙂
yay another dessert recipe! they look very delicious. thank you for posting. =)
Thank you Shaona! 🙂
Thank you for the new twist on Banana Muffins – never thought of adding Nutella! I have always used cocoa powder in the mix! Can’t wait to try this! 🙂
Thank you for your comment Sandra! Yes, try Nutella! It’s really delicious! <3
Thanks for sharing the recipe — these look so delicious! I can see why the Nutella is a recommended step. I’m sending this recipe to my mom, who has been a long-time fan of banana cake… now she can add muffins to her repertoire. =)
Thank you Kimmi! You’re so lucky your mom is a baker! My mom baked only several times growing up (as long as I remember…). 🙂
Oh my gosh. This really looks like heaven. I don’t know how you think of these amazingly good looking muffins but I’m looking forward to making it this week!
Hi Megumi! Well, bananas and Nutella are something my kids love. I usually make banana & nutella grilled sandwich for snack, so adding Nutella to banana muffins are something they really enjoy… 🙂 I hope you enjoy these muffins too, Megumi! 🙂
It is my pleasure to come across your website and learn more about Japanese cooking recently. Thank you for your simple recipes and easy to follow.
You are looking for a good charity and I would like to recommend SYDA Foundation. P.O. Box 600, South Fallsburg, NY 12779-0600, USA
Here is the website: http://www.siddhayoga.org
Hi Jan! Thank you so much for stopping by my blog! I’ll check out this charity. Thank you for your suggestion! 🙂
hi Nami,
is it ok to use low protein flour ? tks
Hi Chrissy! I’ve never used low protein flour before. Maybe you have to give it a try? Sorry I don’t have an answer… 🙂
Nami is it possible to do this without an electric mixer? Mine just broke.
Hi Cheryl! You can make these without an electric mixer. As long as it doesn’t involve making meringue in recipes, I could do it without an electric mixer…. 😀 Hope you enjoy!
Hi Nami,
I noticed you listed the sugar quantities separately. How much sugar should I use for the caramelized bananas and how much fir the batter mixture? Planning to try your recipe tomorrow
Hi Judy! Sorry for confusion. The ingredients appear in order of preparation. So the first sugar will be for caramelizing. Hope this helps.
Thanks for clarifying Nami
I made these cupcakes without Nutella, and they’re tasty but way too sweet with the caramelised bananas. Next time I would definitely take away some of the sugar in the batter
Thanks for trying this recipe and for your feedback, Lea!
Will it work if I substitute nutella with peanut butter?
Hi Eunice! Sure! 🙂 Hope you enjoy!
Hi, I made your matcha chocolate recipe and my friends loved them. I’m planning to bake these muffins and I’m wondering how long they’ll last before their quality drops. Also, are there any tips to preserving their quality?
Hi Nancy! Personally I think next day will be still okay, but the quality will degrade after 2nd day.
During the research I found these sites to show the best way to preserve muffins:
http://www.savvyeat.com/brain-food-101-the-best-way-to-store-muffins/
http://www.stilltasty.com/fooditems/index/17741
Hope this helps. 🙂
Thanks! Oh and when you listed 300g of banana, do you mean one banana is 300g or do you mean the weight of 2 bananas are 300g?
Hi Nancy! Sorry for the confusion. You need TOTAL of 300 g bananas. Hope this helps. 🙂
Just made these! Delicious!!
Hi Rachel! Thanks so much for trying this recipe! So glad you enjoyed it. 🙂
May I just say, thank you so much for adding the metric value to your recipes. As a European, it is very hard to figure out how to measure a cup of butter for instance and all of your recipes are delicious. I’ll make these muffins tomorrow morning and I’m sure they’ll come out just as great as all the other recipes on this website. Thanks for your work!
Hi Dominique! You’re welcome! I came from Japan where we use metric system…and it took me a long time to adjust to US conversion (and still adjusting!). My older recipes may include only cups because I had mostly US audience, but newer recipes should have both measurements. 🙂 I hope you enjoy these muffins. Thank you so much for following my blog! 🙂
Hey, after caramelizing the bananas, do you mash them first and then throw them into the batter, or you just throw them and let them be in chunks in the batter?
Hi Kania! It’s up to you, but I sliced the banana thin that by the time finish caramelizing, it was less chunky and more mashed. 🙂 Hope this helps!
Hi nami,
Thank you for your hard work in creating such a great blog. I often refer to your webpage when i cook japanese food. I am japanese but grew up in america and can’t read japanese, so I’m so glad there is a japanese person showing how to cook real japanese food in English! Thank you so much!
Hi Kumiko! I’m so glad to hear you enjoy my blog! Thank you so much for your kind comment and encouraging words! I hope I have some recipes for your favorite Japanese food. 🙂
I just made these and, while they aren’t as beautiful as yours, they are delicious! Thanks for the recipe!
Hi Haven! I’m so glad you liked the recipe! 🙂 Thanks so much for your kind feedback!
Dear Nami,
I just made these 5minutes ago & the delicious chocolatey banana smell from the oven woke my housemates up! Haha. Wonderful recipe & I only used a silicone spatula all the way (cause I have no machine at this short term rented room) turned out amazing! Thanks for sharing & making my baking life full of surprises 🙂
Love,
Christyn
Hi Christyn! I’m happy to hear you enjoyed my recipe and thank you for your kind feedback! 🙂
Hi Nami, can i use a frozen ripe banana for this recipe ?
Yes you can! 🙂
Hi Nami,
Thank you for sharing this lovely recipe. It is so good and easy and most importantly the cakes are absolutely delish. I think caramelizing the banana is a great idea really helps bring out and enhance the flavour. I am not a huge fan of banana in cake in general but this has to be an exception! 😀
Nha
Hi Nha! I’m glad you enjoyed it! Thank you for your kind feedback. Yeah I love the caramelized banana too even though it’s a bit extra step. Thank you for giving this recipe a try in the first place despite you’re not a huge fan of banana. 🙂
Thank you for the recipe. Other charities to consider: Niassa Lion Project has a junior school for local children based on donations. Please see Nisssa Lion Project on facebook. Regards Anouk.
Thank you for your suggestion. We’ll take into a consideration. 🙂
Step 8 calls for milk but then it’s not listed in the ingredients, so I don’t know how much to add. Help?
Hi Jeff! I was a little bit in panic when I saw your comment, but thank goodness I have a soft copy of my recipe in Word and stored in external folder!!! Thank you for letting me know. Earlier today I had to manually transfer my recipe from the old recipe plugin to a new one, and I must have missed one line! PHEW….. I added the milk back in. Thank you so much for noticing!
i gotta try these! they sound so good! 🙂 my kids are also going through the one day we like bananas they next day they don’t. :
Hi Randi! Haha we share the same struggle. Keep good banana bread and banana muffin recipes handy! 🙂 I also use for my smoothie recipes too. 🙂 Hope you enjoy!
Made these today and they are amazing. Not heavy at all like other banana muffin recipes I’ve tried 🙂
Hi A! Thank you so much for trying this recipe! So happy to hear you liked it! Thank you for your kind feedback!
Hi Nami ????????
I have a couple of questions.
When i caramelized the bananas, they tend to be watery when i add the bananas to the caramelized sugar ( I waited until the color turned amber though). Is this right? Because the muffin didn’t rise as much as yours did.
Also, can I possibly freeze these muffins?
Thanks Nami ????
Hi Leony!
1) How watery is it? Is your banana more mushier than mine shown in the recipe? If it is very watery, that could be the reason why it didn’t rise. Too much liquid in the batter.
2) Yes, you can freeze these muffins!
Are you going to have a video of this recipe? 😀
Maybe one day! 🙂
I just made these and they are just incredible and so good-looking! The only thing I changed in the original recipe was the amount of sugar – I didn’t add the 2/3 cup (140g) of sugar at all! The sweetness from mushy bananas, caramel and Nutella was all these muffins needed to result in a fabulous treat.
Hi Laura! Wonderful! I’m happy to hear yours came out well. Thank you so much for your kind feedback. 🙂
I tried this and it turned out sooo good! Thank you for the recipe! ????????
Hi Mary Rose! I’m so happy to hear you enjoyed this recipe! Thank you for trying this recipe. 🙂
I DID the caramelized banana muffins the mixture was a little runny I was scared to wouldn’t turn out but my b/f and I love them there really tasty and Im sharing with family and friends thank you!
Hi Betty! Thanks so much for trying this recipe! I’m so happy to hear you enjoyed this recipe. 🙂
I made these yesterday and were sooooo goooood! Definitely a keeper! The muffins were moist and not overly sweet. I nuked it in the microwave for 10 seconds the next day and they are definitely better when it’s a bit warm! Thanks!
Hello Ha! Thank you so much for trying this recipe! I’m so happy to hear you enjoyed these muffins. Thanks so much for your kind feedback. xo 🙂
Hi Nami,
Can I mix the batter using spatula instead of electric mixer?
I don’t have the relevant head, i only have a hand-held mixer for eggs.
Not sure if the result will be the same.
Hi Judy! You can use your hand-held electric mixer for this recipe. Make sure the butter is at room temperature. 🙂
Do you mashed the caramalised banana in the batter? Or just blend it without mashing?
Hi Yuli! I didn’t mash, just blend in. I think even leaving small chunks would make it a nice texture. 🙂
Wow Nami!! I’ve never seen a recipe for banana cake before with caramelized banana. Usually for banana bread/cake it says to just mash up the banana and add it in, but this recipe is much better because you can really taste the banana, and the flavour is amazing! 美味しかったですよ！ありがとう 😊
Hi Natasha! Aww thanks so much for your kind feedback and I’m glad you enjoyed it! どうもありがとう！