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These gluten free banana muffins are soft, fluffy, and packed with banana flavor—everything you love about a classic banana muffin, without the gluten. They’re made in just one bowl, ready in 30 minutes, and never dry or dense.
my take
What makes these muffins the best
Soft texture: These muffins have a tender crumb and a fluffy interior—never dense or gummy.
Bold banana flavor: Made with lots of ripe bananas, they taste sweet and rich, with subtle caramel notes.
One bowl, 30 minutes: Quick enough for busy mornings or last-minute baking.
Forgiving recipe: Short on bananas? Swap in a bit of applesauce. You can even use frozen bananas—just defrost and mash before mixing.
what's in it
Muffin ingredients
Here’s what you’ll need to make these soft, flavorful banana muffins:
- All purpose gluten free flour blend – Use a well-balanced blend with finely ground rice flour for the best texture.
- Cornstarch – Lightens the batter and makes the muffins extra tender.
- Baking powder & baking soda – Help the muffins rise and brown just right.
- Salt – Enhances flavor and balances sweetness.
- Granulated sugar – For sweetness and a soft crumb.
- Eggs – Add structure and help the muffins rise evenly.
- Mashed bananas – Use very ripe bananas for natural sweetness and moisture.
- Buttermilk – Adds moisture, tang, and helps keep the muffins light.
- Melted butter – Gives richness and a tender bite.
- Vanilla extract – Rounds out the banana flavor with warmth and depth.
How to make these banana muffins
1. Mix the dry ingredients
In a large bowl, whisk together the gluten free flour blend, xanthan gum (if needed), cornstarch, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and sugar.
2. Add the wet ingredients
Create a well in the center, then add the melted butter, eggs, buttermilk, and vanilla. Mix until just combined.
3. Fold in the mashed bananas
Gently mix in the mashed bananas so you don’t break them down too much. The batter will be thick and a bit lumpy—that’s perfect.
Portion the batter
Divide the batter evenly among your lined muffin cups. Try to fill each well around 3/4 full so they rise evenly.
Bake
Bake at 350°F for 20 to 22 minutes, or until the muffins spring back when pressed lightly in the center. Let them cool in the tin for 5 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack.
Expert Tips
Use the right flour blend
Avoid using single-ingredient flours like coconut or almond flour—they absorb or retain too much moisture. Stick to a well-balanced all purpose gluten free blend for the best texture.
Fill each muffin cup evenly
Uniformly sized muffins bake more evenly. Try to fill each muffin liner about 3/4 of the way full so they rise evenly without spilling over.
Use muffin liners
Liners help your muffins rise taller and make cleanup easier. Just let the muffins cool completely before peeling, or the liners may stick.
Ingredient substitutions
If you have dietary restrictions, here’s how you can modify this recipe:
Dairy-free
Replace the butter with virgin coconut oil (melted and cooled). Triple-filtered coconut oil is best if you don’t want any coconut flavor.
For the buttermilk, mix 1/2 cup plain dairy-free yogurt with 1/2 cup nondairy milk. This combo gives the right moisture and tang—better than soured milk.
Egg-free
This recipe uses 3 eggs, which makes it tricky to replace them reliably. You can try one chia egg (1 tablespoon ground chia seeds + 1 tablespoon water, mixed and left to gel) per egg, Bob's Red Mill's egg replacer, or “Just Egg” liquid egg replacer.
Corn-free
Swap the cornstarch for arrowroot or potato starch.
Gluten Free Banana Muffins Recipe
Ingredients
- 2 ⅓ cups (327 g) all purpose gluten free flour blend, (See Recipe Notes)
- 1 teaspoon xanthan gum, omit if your blend already contains it
- ⅓ cup (48 g) cornstarch
- 1 ¼ teaspoons baking powder
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- ½ teaspoon kosher salt
- ¾ cup (150 g) granulated sugar
- 8 tablespoons (112 g) unsalted butter, melted and cooled
- 3 (150 g (weighed out of shell)) eggs, at room temperature
- 1 cup (8 fluid ounces) buttermilk, at room temperature
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- 2 cups (400 g) mashed ripe bananas, (from about 4 medium to large bananas)
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 350°F. Grease or line a standard 12-cup muffin tin and set it aside.
- In a large bowl, place the flour, xanthan gum, cornstarch, baking powder, baking soda, salt and sugar, and whisk to combine well.
- Create a well in the center of the dry ingredients, and add the butter, eggs, buttermilk, and vanilla, and mix until just combined.
- Add the mashed bananas, and mix gently to combine.
- The mixture be lumpy because of the bananas, and thick but soft.
- Fill each of the wells of the muffin tin, and shake back and forth to evenly distribute the batter in each well.
- Place the muffin tin in the center of the preheated oven. Bake until the muffins spring back when pressed gently in the center, 20 to 22 minutes.
- They’ll brown nicely around the edges, but not much on top. Remove the muffins from the oven.
- Allow them to cool in the tin for 5 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely. Repeat with the remaining muffin batter.
Video
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
make ahead/leftovers
Storage instructions
Let muffins cool completely before storing to avoid sogginess. Keep them in an airtight container at room temperature for 3 to 5 days.
To refresh a slightly dry muffin, run it briefly under cold water and warm it in a toaster oven at 300°F—it’ll spring back to life.
To freeze, place cooled muffins on a baking sheet until solid, then store in a zip-top bag for up to 2 months. Thaw at room temp or microwave for 25 seconds. For best texture, reheat in a low oven.
FAQs
Yes! Just be sure they're fully thawed before adding them to the batter. Frozen bananas release water as they defrost—use both the fruit and the liquid to maintain the right moisture balance.
No. “Soured” milk made with vinegar or lemon juice doesn't behave like real buttermilk in baking. For best results, use actual buttermilk or a proven dairy-free substitute like yogurt + milk.
Muffins tend to stick if the pan is scratched or no longer nonstick, or if you didn’t grease the wells well enough. Greaseproof paper liners help prevent sticking—just let the muffins cool before peeling.
This usually means they were underbaked. The muffins may have looked done outside while still raw in the center—often caused by an oven running too hot. Use an oven thermometer and bake until the centers spring back.
Yes! Use a 24-cup mini muffin tin and fill each well to the top. Start checking for doneness at 14 minutes. They’re ready when the tops spring back when gently pressed.
Definitely. Add up to 1/2 cup chocolate chips, or 2 to 3 ounces of chopped nuts like walnuts or pecans. You can also stir in 1 teaspoon of ground cinnamon with the dry ingredients for a warm, spiced variation.
Love your recipes thanks Nicole
You’re so welcome, Edith. Thank you for the kind words—they mean so much!
I used to always make your dairy free gluten free banana muffins– they’ve been a favorite in our house for several years. But now I can’t find them on your site, and the video of them on Facebook now redirects to this recipe– are they still around?
I’m afraid that post doesn’t exist on the blog any longer, NB, no. Here’s a link to the printable recipe, if you’d like to print it out and hold onto it, though.
These were fantastic, they are great cut in half and put under the grill with some butter and honey after a few days of sitting out.
Extremely easy to make!
That sounds delicious, Taylor! So glad you enjoyed the muffins, and I’ll have to try them just as you described.
Another very good recipe. I followed the instructions exactly as written and the muffins turned out moist, soft, and delicious. I cannot have buttermilk, so I did Nicole’s swap with Siggi’s nondairy yogurt and lactose free milk, and it was perfect. I will say it again, invest in a small, inexpensive food scale! I weighed my eggs out of the shell and only needed 2 and 1/2 eggs to reach the proper weight. Baking is chemistry so precision matters. The recipe as written made exactly 16 muffins if you fill the muffins as instructed.
So true, Phyllis, baking is chemistry and precision matters! I’m so glad you enjoyed the recipe, and I love that buttermilk swap. It’s really versatile, whether you’re using dairy free components or not! Thank you so much for sharing your experience.
Hi Nicole:
Can I use gf tapioca flour instead of the cornstarch?
If so, how much?
Thank you.
I don’t recommend that, no, as tapioca flour is a unique starch with lots of stretchy qualities that you don’t want more of here. In place of cornstarch, you can use an equal amount of potato starch or arrowroot if you can’t have corn.
These are amazingly light fluffy. The whole family loved them. Nobody knew that they were GF! I added about a cup of chopped Walnuts and got 24 Muffins, so froze half for another time. This recipe goes to the top of my GF list! Now I can’t wait to try your other recipes! Thanks so much!
I’ve been using your recipes to bake gluten free stuff for quite some time now and there are some great recipes.
I have a few comments to make and the main one is the amount of sugar you use in a lot of recipes is way over the top and very unhealthy. Again if it is cakes we are baking then more sugar is required but for things like banana muffins for example, the bananas are already sweet and also the vanilla is sweet and therefore does not in my opinion need anywhere near 150g of sugar. I use 50g and it is plenty sweet enough and doesn’t take away from the texture at all.
The second one is your aversion to psyllium husk. I can fully understand that you feel that there is a taste that it leaves that you don’t like but I have to say that psyllium husk is way better than xanthan gum in terms of binding the mix together and gives a far better texture. I personally get no taste from the psyllium but fully appreciate that this is a personal thing and everybody is different.
Please don’t take this as criticism as I’m a big fan of your recipes and use them all the time.
Mike, I’m publishing your comment, but I don’t believe it contains accurate information, so I’m responding to correct it. Whether you intended it as criticism or not, my response has nothing to do with hurt feelings. It’s with respect to the information itself.
There is no more sugar in my recipes than there is in conventional recipes of each type. Your opinion is not backed by science. Sugar isn’t just a sweetener. It’s a tenderizer, which is why fat free baked goods tend to be loaded with sugar. These recipes use a conventional amount of sugar. I don’t do “low sugar” or “sugar free” baking because it requires a lot more than just reducing sugar in a recipe not developed with that in mind to make good baked goods with the expected taste and texture. Viewing my recipes through the lens of “healthy eating” in general is a mistake, as I’m not that sort of blogger. I wouldn’t expect you to criticize a healthy blogger’s recipes as too low in sugar. In addition, gluten free baked goods already get criticized as being subpar. My entire purpose is to elevate people’s expectations. Perhaps a keto blog would suit your tastes better? And as a point of reference, pure vanilla extract has a very pleasant taste and aroma, but is not at all sweet and cannot make up for missing sugar in a recipe.
About psyllium husk, please do whatever works for you, but I won’t recommend or agree with anyone else’s recommendation for its use in my recipes here on my blog, as they will come to me for support when things don’t go as planned. I’m afraid I simply won’t provide that support. There are many recipe developers that use this ingredient, and make recipes intended for it, and I respect them and their efforts very much. It isn’t a simple 1:1 substitute for xanthan gum at all, in fact, and if I were one of those bloggers, I’d hate to see someone recommending that as if it were simple and foolproof. That’s why I won’t offer my suggestions on something that is an entirely different, and respected, way of baking in its own right.
My insistence on specificity in my recipes, and following a recipe carefully, isn’t for everyone, but I stand by it 100%.
I love this recipe, but I substitute Guar Gum for the Xanthum Gum, I stopped using Xanthum Gum years ago, it was way too stringy, sticky kind of dough. With the Guar Gum, it is just like I am cooking with regular gluten type of way, it pours, and flows like I have experienced for all the years I baked with wheat flour before going gluten free. Just a suggestion.
I’m glad you found something that works for you, Cindy. It sounds like you were using too much xanthan gum in your baking, which is why it’s important to use it sparingly, and according to a recipe. For others’ benefit, xanthan gum is considerably more effective for baked goods than guar gum. Guar gum is most useful in cold applications, like ice cream.
Awesome!