Preheat your oven for a family favorite recipe for extra-moist Zucchini Banana Muffins starring overripe bananas and shredded zucchini.
I’m lucky that my boys have palates as big as their appetites, and they’ll eat (almost) anything I put in front of them. But that doesn’t mean that it’s easy to get them to eat their vegetables on a consistent basis.
Although I’m always up for a challenge, Zucchini Banana Muffins help take a bit of pressure off when it comes to getting in our daily dose of veggies!
While zucchini is often spiralized as a low carb substitute for pasta, this recipe is pure carb perfection. Instead of using zucchini to take something away, it’s adding moisture into a favorite baked good. It does the same thing in my all-time favorite zucchini oatmeal cookies!
Finely shredded zucchini, which is barely noticeable, is folded into a tried and true buttermilk banana bread recipe that can be bulked up with your choice of chopped nuts and/or chocolate chips.
The result is golden brown, super moist muffins that are perfect for an afternoon pick-me-up, breakfast on-the-go or afternoon snack.
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Ingredients
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 3/4 cup sugar
- 3/4 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
- 3 very ripe, darkly speckled large bananas, mashed well (about 1 ½ cups)
- ¼ cup buttermilk or buttermilk substitute
- 2 large eggs, beaten lightly
- 6 Tablespoons butter, melted and cooled
- 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 2 medium zucchini
- 1 cup chopped nuts, such as walnuts or pecans (optional)
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350ºF. Line two muffin tins with a total of 16 paper cups. (Alternately, grease 16 muffin cups with cooking spray.)
- In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, baking soda, cinnamon and salt.
- In a separate medium bowl, whisk together the mashed bananas, buttermilk, eggs, melted butter and vanilla. Stir the banana mixture into the dry ingredients.
- Shred the zucchini on the small hole of a box grater. Measure out 1 ½ cups of shredded zucchini then squeeze it in a dish towel to ring out excess moisture.
- Fold the zucchini and chopped nuts (optional) into the batter.
- Divide the batter among the muffin tin cups, filling each about ¾ full.
- Bake the muffins for 22 to 26 minutes until a toothpick inserted comes out clean. Remove the muffins from the oven and let them cool slightly before serving.
Kelly's Notes:
- No buttermilk? No problem! Check out our handy Buttermilk Substitutions Guide for dairy and non-dairy alternatives.
Nutrition
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Recipe by Kelly Senyei of Just a Taste. Please do not reprint this recipe without my permission. If you'd like to feature this recipe on your site, please rewrite the method of preparation and link to this post as the original source.
Another wonderful recipe from Kelly! Delicious and moist and yummy! A real great muffin to have any time of day! I followed the recipe for 16, got 18! Lucky me! We had a bumper crop of zucchini and bananas always spoil, but I freeze them for recipes like this!
Thank you, Kelly!
You are so welcome, Christine! I’m thrilled you enjoyed the recipe!
Easy to follow recipe that results in moist, flavorful muffins. Highly recommend this recipe!
I’m so thrilled you enjoyed the recipe, Beth!
I’m so excited to make these muffins today. Quick question: the recipe calls for making 16 muffins. Most muffin tins are for 12 muffins, and your picture shows 12 muffins. Is there just too much batter for only 12? Just trying to plan our the prep. Thanks for your help.
Hi Nancy! Yes, this recipe yields 16 muffins (as noted in the first line of the instructions, you’ll need two muffin tins). :)