Banana Gingerbread Muffins

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Light and fluffy banana gingerbread muffins are flavored with molasses, ginger, and cinnamon. Ready in less than 30 minutes, they make a great holiday breakfast, tea-time snack, or edible gift. Be prepared for your house to smell like the holidays when you bake these beauties!

muffins in a muffin tin with a napkin and cup of coffee in the background.

One of my favorite things to eat around the holidays is gingerbread-flavored anything. I love the warm spices, along with the deep, complex flavor of molasses.

This banana gingerbread muffin recipe is a marriage of gingerbread and banana bread; it's moist, spicy, easy, and healthy. The rich flavor from molasses pairs so well with the warm spices and bananas (don't worry - the muffins don't taste like banana muffins!), and the whole-wheat flour adds a touch of nuttiness.

We use both sour cream and yogurt for added moisture and creaminess, bananas for their natural sweetness, and a healthy dose of fresh ginger to really make the flavor ginger-forward. Orange zest and candied ginger are added as the final festive touch to make these muffins unforgettable.

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⭐️ Why This Recipe is the Best
🍌 Ingredient Notes
📝 Variations & Substitutions
🥄 How To Make Banana Gingerbread Muffins
👩🏼‍🍳 Expert Tips
💬 Frequently Asked Questions
☕️ Related Recipes
Banana Gingerbread Muffins Recipe

⭐️ Why This Recipe is the Best

Moist, rich, and spicy with flavors of cinnamon, ginger, and molasses
A great way to use up your ripe bananas
Quick, easy, and healthy breakfast or snack
No special equipment needed
Makes a great holiday gift
Freezer-friendly

🍌 Ingredient Notes

Unsulphured molasses - provides a deep and complex flavor that's often found in gingerbread
Whole-wheat flour - Gives nutty flavor and added health benefits.
Ripe bananas - Provides moisture as well as extra nutrition. If you have more ripe bananas to use up, try my oat milk smoothies, peanut butter banana oatmeal cookies, 3 ingredient banana oat pancakes, or french toast with caramelized bananas.
Orange zest - Adds bright citrus notes
Ground ginger - Provides zesty spicy notes that are key to gingerbread
Ground cinnamon & ground cloves - Warm and subtle notes of spice

📝 Variations & Substitutions

Make dairy-free/vegan: Substitute 1 flax egg for the egg, and use any dairy-free/plant-based alternatives for the yogurt, sour cream, and milk.
Make gluten-free: I have not tested this recipe using gluten-free flour, but you should be able to swap all-purpose gluten-free flour 1:1 without a hitch. If you try it, please let me know how they turn out!
Nuts. Add ½ cup of chopped and toasted nuts of your choice to add nuttiness and crunch. Walnuts or pecans would taste great!
Yogurt and sour cream. You can use one or the other, or both, for excellent results.

two muffins stacked with cinnamon sticks on the side.

🥄 How To Make Banana Gingerbread Muffins

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Grease a muffin tin with non-stick cooking spray or use cupcake liners. In a small bowl, whisk the olive oil with the molasses.

olive oil and molasses whisked in a small bowl.

In a mixing bowl, whisk the eggs, mashed bananas, sour cream, yogurt, milk, vanilla extract, and orange zest. Add the olive oil and molasses and stir until well combined.

wet ingredients whisked together in a bowl.

Add the flours, baking soda, salt, ground cinnamon, ground ginger, and ground cloves. Stir a few times until just combined.

muffin batter combined in a mixing bowl.

Scoop into muffin tin and sprinkle a pinch of granulated sugar on top of each muffin.

Bake for 17-20 minutes, until the tops are puffy and firm to the touch. Cool for a few minutes before serving.

freshly baked muffins resting in a muffin tin with cinnamon sticks.

👩🏼‍🍳 Expert Tips

Don't overmix. Overmixing your muffin batter can lead to tough and chewy muffins, and we want light, fluffy, and airy. When adding your dry ingredients, stir just until combined.
Use unsulphured molasses, not blackstrap molasses. Unsulphured molasses is the finest quality, and is the type that most grocery stores carry.
Storage: Place in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 4 days. Because these banana gingerbread muffins contain so much moisture, their shelf-life will not be as long if stored at room temperature.
How to freeze: Wrap your completely cooled muffins individually in foil and place in a freezer bag. Muffins can be stored in the freezer for up to 3 months.
Use ripe bananas. In this recipe, we use bananas to provide natural sweetness as well as moisture. Therefore, we want to use bananas that are quite ripe.

💬 Frequently Asked Questions

Why is my banana bread so dry?

Dry banana bread is often due to an incorrect ratio of wet and dry ingredients, as well as over-baking. In this molasses banana bread muffins recipe, we create perfectly moist muffins with the flavor of gingerbread.

Why do you put baking soda in banana bread?

In addition to helping it rise, baking soda also aids in the browning process.

Can bananas be too ripe to use for banana bread?

The short answer is no. When making banana bread, the blacker the banana, the better, as it becomes sweeter and softer as it ripens.

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