Yield: 6 one banana brown butter banana muffins // Total Time: 40 min. // Disclaimer: This post includes affiliate links. // Updated from “brown butter banana nutella muffins” on 12/26/2022.
One banana, 6 delicious and flavorful banana muffins.
One banana brown butter banana muffins
If you’re looking for what to make when you have one banana, you’ve come to the perfect place. These one banana brown butter banana muffins not only solve that problem, but they solve it in the most delicious way. It starts with a brown butter banana muffin base which adds delicious toasty notes, gets filled with chocolate chips, and then swirled with nutella on top.
One banana brown butter banana muffins recipe tips
Weigh your ingredients
- Weighing your ingredients is important for getting the recipe perfect and getting consistent results. Not weighing your ingredients can lead to adding too much or too little of an ingredient and can easily throw off a recipe. If you haven’t already, I highly recommend purchasing a kitchen scale. This one is super cheap and worked well for me when I was starting out!
Mix the batter carefully
- It is super important to not overmix the muffin batter. Overmixing the batter leads to more gluten development which is not desirable in these muffins. Not only will you get those pointy tops on the muffins, but you will end up with tough and chewy muffins.
Room temperature ingredients
- It is important for the ingredients to be at room temperature so that they properly incorporate with each other. If you have ever had your batter look curdled, it is most likely due to the ingredients separating from being at different temperatures. Take out the egg and sour cream at least 30 minutes and up to 1 hr 30 min. before starting the recipe.
Under-bake, don’t over-bake
- Muffins like to go from under-baked to over-baked super quickly so it is important to keep a close eye on them. Start checking at 14 minutes with a toothpick. If the toothpick comes out wet, check them again in 2 minutes and so on until only a few moist crumbs stick to the toothpick.
Get those perfect muffin tops
- The trick to getting those nicely domed muffin tops is (mostly) all in your oven’s temperature! Bake the muffins at 425°F / 220°C for 5 minutes. Then, without opening the oven, reduce the temperature to 350°F / 175°C and continue baking until done. The super high heat will make the muffins rise nice and tall! You will also want to bake them lined in every other tin on the muffin pan, and fill them to the very top. This recipe makes the perfect amount of batter to fill every muffin liner straight to the top for those perfect muffin tops!
Get evenly distributed muffin batter
- My favorite way to evenly distribute muffin batter is to use cookie scoops! Works perfectly every time. So long are the days of eyeballing which muffin may need a little more batter.
Ingredients and substitutions
All purpose flour: for structure and chewiness.
Baking powder: for helping the muffins rise.
Baking soda: for helping the muffins rise.
Salt: to help balance and bring out the sweetness of the muffins.
Unsalted butter: for tenderness and flavor. We will brown the butter to get some deeper, toasty flavor into the muffins. You can use salted butter in place of the unsalted, just be sure to omit the extra salt from the muffins.
Granulated sugar: for sweetness and locks moisture into the muffins.
Light brown sugar: for sweetening, flavor, and for moisture.
Banana: you will need 1 very ripe banana for this recipe.
Egg: for binding and for moisture.
Vanilla: for flavor. I use and love this vanilla extract!
Sour cream: for moisture and making sure the muffins stay tender. You can substitute in buttermilk or greek yogurt as well.
Semi sweet chocolate chips: for texture and for having delicious chocolate throughout the muffins. Use your favorite chocolate chips, chocolate chunks, or chopped baking chocolate here!
Nutella: the star of the show, because who doesn’t want nutella swirled on top of their muffins?! You can always omit the nutella from the recipe if needed, it’s just swirled on top.
How to make small batch brown butter banana nutella muffins
1. Brown the butter. We’ll start off the recipe with browning the butter. Place the butter in a small saucepan over medium heat, and occasionally swirl until the butter turns amber in color. Immediately remove the butter from the heat and transfer it to a medium sized mixing bowl.
2. Mash the banana. Mash the banana, along with both sugars, into the brown butter. The banana doesn’t have to be perfectly mashed, it’s really up to how you like your banana muffins! (with banana chunks or without)
3. Add wet ingredients. Whisk in the egg and sour cream until well combined.
4. Fold in dry ingredients. Add in the dry ingredients, and use a rubber spatula to fold the mixture together just until a few flour streaks remain. Add in the chocolate chips and fold just until the last streak of flour has disappeared.
5. Top with nutella. Distribute the muffin batter evenly between the muffin liners, then use a toothpick to swirl nutella on top of each muffin.
6. Bake. We’ll start the muffins out at 425°F for 5 minutes, which will help them rise up nice and tall. Without opening the oven door, reduce the temperature to 350°F for the remainder of the baking time.
7. Serve and enjoy! Serve warm with butter, or room temperature without. Either way is delicious!
One banana brown butter banana muffins Q & A
Do I need to use ripe bananas?
- I know it can be quite frustrating if you don’t have any ripe bananas on hand, but you do need to use a very ripe banana for this recipe. Ripe bananas provide are a different texture, sweeter, and more flavorful than green or yellow bananas. If you don’t have any ripe bananas, simply buy some at the beginning of the week and leave them out with the intention of making a banana recipe at the end of the week! If you need the bananas ripe NOW, I’ve seen that you can bake them in the oven until they turn brown (although I have never tried this method).
Can I double this recipe?
- Of course! Obviously it won’t be small batch anymore but small batch isn’t always what we need! Simply double all of the ingredients in the recipe to make 12 delicious banana muffins. I even more strongly recommend measuring by weight if you are going to double the recipe for the best results.
How to make brown butter:
- Add the butter to a small saucepan and place it over medium heat. Occasionally swirl the butter while it is melting. Continue cooking and occasionally swirling the butter until it begins to bubble up and turn amber in color. Once the butter turns amber and you can see little brown bits in it, remove it from the heat, and now you have brown butter!
How to store these muffins
- Like most baked goods, these muffins will definitely taste the best on the day that they are baked. They will last for up to 3 days stored in an airtight container at room temperature.
Why do you measure in grams?
My recipes are all written in grams because it is the most accurate way to bake. When you use a kitchen scale, you ensure that your baked goods turn out as close to the written recipe as possible. Plus, the cleanup is way easier when using a scale! I will provide standard cup measurements but please note that I have not tested the recipe using cup measurements and therefore can not guarantee your recipe will come out how mine did. Here is my favorite kitchen scale, and here’s an article about why I use a kitchen scale, and why you should too!
A note on oven temperature
Ovens vary and fluctuate in temperature. For example, I always have to set my oven to 330°F if I want it to bake at 350°F. If you love to bake like I do, I highly recommend getting an oven thermometer. They are super helpful for letting you know when your oven might be lying to you! I use this one.
Tools and ingredients
You can find all my favorite tools and ingredients that I use on my Amazon Storefront page, here!
Did you make these one banana brown butter banana muffins?
If you made these one banana brown butter banana muffins I would love to see them and know your thoughts! Please leave a comment and review down below, and tag me on Instagram @freshbeanbakery. If you have any questions about the recipe I will gladly do my best to answer them in the comments below!
One Banana Brown Butter Banana Muffins
Ingredients
- 75 g unsalted butter (⅓ c.)
- 130 g ripe banana (~1 large banana)
- 55 g light brown sugar (¼ c.)
- 50 g granulated sugar (¼ c.)
- 1 egg room temperature
- 52 g sour cream room temperature (¼ c.)
- 160 g all purpose flour (1 ⅓ c.)
- 1 tsp. baking powder
- ½ tsp. baking soda
- ¼ tsp. salt
- 85 g semi sweet chocolate chips (½ c.)
- 2 tbsp. nutella
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 425°F / 220°C. Alternate lining a muffin pan with 6 parchment liners.
- In a small saucepan set over medium heat, brown the butter. Stir the butter occasionally until it turns amber in color and develops little brown specks. Take the butter off the heat and transfer to a medium sized bowl.
- In a small mixing bowl, mash the banana, then whisk in the brown butter and both sugars. Make sure you add in all those specks from the brown butter, that's the flavor!
- Beat in the egg and sour cream until well combined.
- Add in the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and chocolate chips. Lightly fold the mixture together just until no flour streaks remain.
- Evenly distribute the muffin batter between the six parchment liners, filling each liner to the very top.
- In a small bowl, melt the nutella. Drizzle ~1 tsp. of melted nutella over each muffin, then use a toothpick to swirl it around on top.
- Bake the muffins at 425°F for 5 minutes. Without opening the oven door, reduce the temperature to 350°F / 175°C. Bake for an additional 10 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the muffins comes out clean.
- Serve and enjoy!
I made these for my roommates and they loved them! I made another batch the next day because they were so good
Thank you so much! So happy you and your roommates enjoyed the recipe! 🙂
Hi! I doubled the batch to make some for my family and we loved them!! I was craving Nutella so making these was a great decision! Super easy to make, will be making these again!
Thank you so much, so happy you liked the recipe! 🙂
This is so wonderfully quick and easy to make – I made them for New Year’s breakfast and I love that it’s just a one-bowl, no beater recipe.
And they taste delicious too!
Ah thank you so much for your kind words, I’m so happy you enjoy the recipe! 🙂
Do you know approximately how many calories per muffin?
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