Make your next brunch party extra decadent and tasty with these easy Nutella-banana muffins! These moist, soft and fluffy muffins are bursting with fresh banana flavor with a chocolatey, creamy swirl of Nutella in every delicious bite. You'll never need another banana muffin recipe again -- you can't beat these favorite Nutella muffins.
Why You'll Love This Recipe
That Nutella swirl: Who doesn’t love Nutella by the spoonful? You add Nutella to just about anything, and you get an instant crowd-pleasing recipe. With Nutella swirled throughout this baked treat, these muffins are sure to fly off the platter.
Easy yet impressive: This is truly one easy banana muffin recipe, and even though the Nutella swirl looks fancy, we’ll walk through the process to show you how surprisingly simple it is. You will look like a master baker.
Make ahead for a brunch party: While I especially love these muffins warm and fresh out of the oven, I always love a good make-ahead recipe for parties to keep entertaining a breeze, and muffins are perfect for the occasion. Plus, you get 12 Nutella-banana muffins out of one batch, so it’s great for feeding a crowd.
Related: For more brunch favorites, try these fresh raspberry pancakes and blackberry pancakes.
Ingredients
As you can see, the banana-Nutella muffins ingredient list is simple and straightforward, but here are a few notes to ensure your success.
Mashed bananas: For the best flavor and extra moisture, it’s important to use overripe bananas. I like to wait until my bananas are nearly all brown before using. If you’re not quite ready to bake, overripe bananas freeze beautifully.
Nutella: Nutella is a brand name of a chocolate-hazelnut spread. If you prefer to use a generic brand, that should be no problem.
Oil: For my baking, I typically use vegetable oil. You could also substitute canola oil, but I wouldn’t recommend olive oil, which is too strongly flavored. We want a neutral-flavored oil here.
Flour: This recipe was developed using all-purpose flour, but if you use another type, please let me know how it goes!
Step-by-Step Instructions
Step 1: We begin by whisking together the flour, dark brown sugar, salt, cinnamon, baking powder and baking soda in a large bowl (photo 1). Break up any large lumps of brown sugar, though some smaller lumps are inevitable.
Step 2: In a separate bowl, we whisk together our wet ingredients, which include the eggs, milk, melted butter, oil, mashed bananas and vanilla extract (photo 2).
Step 3: Now we pour the wet ingredients on top of the dry ingredients and gently fold the two together with a wooden spoon to make one cohesive muffin batter (photo 3).
Step 4: From here, we spoon the batter into a lined muffin pan. I like to add enough batter to the muffin tin so that they’re about three-quarters full like so (photo 4).
Step 5: And now for the best part – swirling with Nutella! For this step, we add a dollop of Nutella on top of the batter and then use a toothpick or skewer to swirl (photo 5).
Step 6: All that’s left is to bake. We put the muffin cup pan in a 425-degree preheated oven and then immediately turn the heat down to 350. That initial blast of hot air helps give our muffins the perfect lift. After baking, we let the Nutella-banana muffins cool on a wire rack (photo 6).
Now dig in and enjoy some freshly baked Nutella-swirled banana muffins! You’re in for a real treat.
How to Store
Once the muffins have completely cooled, simply store them in an airtight container in room temperature. There’s no need to keep them in the refrigerator.
If properly stored, I find homemade muffins are at their best for about two to three days. That said, if the muffins start to get old, you can give them a quick zap in the microwave to warm them, and it helps cover some aging.
Recipe FAQs
To get the perfect smooth texture, simply use a fork or even potato masher to press down on the bananas. The bananas may have a bit of lumpiness, and that’s OK, but we want to smooth it as much as possible. Just keep pressing down with that fork or masher until you get a mostly smooth consistency.
Absolutely, I love throwing my overrripe bananas in the freezer for baking banana bread, muffins, cake and the like. To freeze overripe bananas, we have three methods, depending on your preference, and they will keep at peak condition for up to six months.
One method is to mash the bananas before freezing and then storing the bananas in a freezer-safe, airtight container. I like to measure the banana purée into 1-cup measurements with this method to make baking prep even faster.
You can also place the bananas whole – peeled or unpeeled – into a freezer bag. Some people don’t like peeling frozen bananas, but if you let them start to thaw first, they peel easily. The other method is to cut the bananas into slices before freezing, which is great if you also like to keep bananas on hand for making smoothies or frozen cocktails.
For best results, you need to use overripe bananas. As bananas ripen, they turn sweeter with a stronger flavor, and they make for more moist banana muffins. Let’s not go through all the trouble of making homemade banana muffins and then not use the right ingredients. You deserve the best banana muffins, and that comes with overripe fruit.
Expert Tips
Do not overmix. This can lead to tough muffins. As soon as the batter comes together, stop folding, and you'll have the most perfect banana-Nutella muffins.
Slightly warm the Nutella before swirling. While this step is optional, it makes swirling a bit easier. Just pop the Nutella in the microwave for a few seconds. We don’t need it to be piping hot – just warm enough to make it a bit runnier.
Follow the proper measuring technique. Do not scoop the measuring cup into the flour. That packs in too much flour and can throw off the recipe. Instead, spoon the flour into the measuring cup and then level with a spoon.
Use room-temperature eggs and milk. Room-temperature ingredients more easily mix into a batter than cold ingredients. And as mentioned, we don’t want to overmix, so this helps avoid that as well.
Serve slightly warm. These muffins are delicious at room temperature, but they’re even better warm. While microwave times vary, about 10 seconds does the trick for me.
Perfect Pairing
I love a nice coffee stout with these Nutella-banana muffins. The roasted malt makes for a wonderful match with the chocolate in the Nutella, and you’ll love how the coffee flavor pairs with the banana. Plus, a coffee stout is a great brunch drink for beer lovers.
Similarly, a nice coffee drink is also lovely with these muffins. I’m especially partial to pairing this recipe with my maple latte or Baileys latte for an extra kick.
If you’d like wine with your brunch, I love a tawny port here. The nutty, sweet undertones of the tawny port are great with the hazelnut and banana flavors.
For the most decadent brunch treat, I hope you try these Nutella-banana muffins. You will love every delicious bite.
Cheers!
More Sweet Brunch Recipes
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📖 Recipe
Nutella-Banana Muffins
Equipment
- Mixing bowls
- Muffin pan
- Muffin paper liners
- Toothpick or skewer
- Wire cooling rack
Ingredients
- 1 ¾ cups all-purpose flour
- ¾ cup packed dark brown sugar
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 2 eggs room temperature
- 1 cup mashed bananas about 3 bananas
- 1 cup whole milk room temperature
- ¼ cup vegetable oil
- ¼ cup melted salted butter
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract or paste
- 6 tablespoons Nutella
Instructions
- Heat oven to 425 degrees and place paper liners in a muffin tray. Set aside.
- In a large mixing bowl, stir together flour, dark brown sugar, cinnamon, salt, baking soda and baking powder until well combined. Some lumps will be unavoidable, but try to break up any big brown sugar lumps.
- In a separate large mixing bowl, whisk together eggs, mashed bananas, whole milk, vegetable oil, melted butter and vanilla extract until combined.
- Pour the wet ingredients over the dry ingredients and fold just until combined. Do not overmix. Leaving some lumps is OK. The batter won't be perfectly smooth.
- Spoon the batter into baking liners so that they're ¾ full. Dollop about ½ tablespoon Nutella on top of each muffin. Using a toothpick or skewer, swirl the Nutella around the batter.
- Place the muffin pan in the 425-degree oven. Keeping the oven closed, immediately turn oven temperature to 350 degrees. Bake until a toothpick comes out clean on the muffin part, about 20 minutes. Remove from oven and place the baked muffins on a wire rack to cool. Enjoy!
Notes
- For altitude at 5,280 feet, I reduced the baking soda to ⅞ teaspoon and the baking powder to ⅞ teaspoon. I made no other adjustments.
- Do not overmix. This can lead to tough muffins. As soon as the batter comes together, stop folding.
- Slightly warm the Nutella before swirling. While this step is optional, it makes swirling a bit easier. Just pop the Nutella in the microwave for a few seconds. We don’t need it to be piping hot – just warm enough to make it a bit runnier.
- Follow the proper measuring technique. Do not scoop the measuring cup into the flour. That pack in too much flour and can throw off the recipe. Instead, spoon the flour into the measuring cup and then level with a spoon.
- These muffins are delicious at room temperature, but they’re even better warm. While microwave times vary, about 10 seconds does the trick for me.
- Nutritional information is only an estimate. The accuracy of the nutritional information for any recipe on this site is not guaranteed.
Becki says
Delicious outcome! But, it definitely makes way more than a dozen muffins. I doubled the recipe so I would have some to freeze and share and ended up with almost 50 muffins. I also mixed mine using a hand mixer, and it made no difference in the texture.
I didn't use liners, just sprayed the pan. I loathe cupcake liners! I always end up losing 1/4 of the muffin or cupcake in it. I let the pan sit for 15 minutes, and the muffins flipped right out.
I found it easier to put about 1/2 cup of Nutella in a microwavable bowl, heat it about 30 seconds, stir it with a butter knife, use that same knife to put about 1/2 Tablespoon of the warm Nutella in the batter of all 12 cups, and use a steak knife (or something with a point) to stir it around. Even warmed, the Nutella was hard to get out of an actual measuring spoon.
Thank you. I don't really even like Nutella, had bought it only for a Christmas recipe, and am so glad I found this one while searching for ways to use it up!
Amanda McGrory-Dixon says
Hey, Becki! That’s so funny so ended up with way more. I based that on what I got. But, hey, I’d always rather have extras! Thanks for the tip about the Nutella! So, so glad you enjoyed it.