You know what today needs?
A muffin.
A streusel-y, spiced, sweet, and fluffy muffin. Yes, please!
This is a mash-up of two of my favorite baked treats (banana bread and coffee cake), and I couldn’t be happier with how the recipe came out.
These banana bread coffee cake muffins are so, so good. I love making muffins, and I almost always have bananas that need to get used up. Banana muffins happen in our household quite a bit!
Thankfully, my kids adore them. And I love that I can have a quick and easy (mostly healthy) snack on hand for them.
These are extra special because the muffins themselves taste like banana bread. Dense and light at the same time, moist and soft, spiced and sweet, and filled with banana flavor.
My mouth is watering just typing this out. YUM.
The tops are streuseled (let’s make that a verb, shall we?), just like coffee cake. Thick crumbles of buttery streusel on top make everything better. It’s a fact.
These muffins are no different.
I love how they look like mini coffee cakes and then you bite into one and it tastes like banana bread! So fun. AND delicious.
The best part? They come together easily.
I like to make these muffins with butter, lots of brown sugar, spices, a touch of instant coffee/espresso, and buttermilk. The coffee does not make these taste like coffee at all – it just adds some depth and enhances those spices. I love it here.
The buttermilk is one of the most key ingredients. I’ve made these with almond milk (total fail), whole milk (worked but not as moist), and the buttermilk (winner, hands down). The buttermilk not only keeps things light and moist, but it adds a touch of tang to the overall flavor, and it makes a big difference in the end!
I also add a couple tablespoons of neutral oil to this batter. I love avocado oil, but any neutral oil will work! Even coconut or olive oils work. We just need that extra fat to combat any muffin dryness.
As for spices, I love the classics here: cinnamon and nutmeg. You can’t have banana bread OR coffee cake without cinnamon! It’s a must. The nutmeg is something I always add to banana things. It adds that distinct flavor.
My favorite part of these muffins, though, is the streusel. My husband and I are those annoying people who will eat the streusel-y top off of things and leave the base behind. Hah.
These muffins were no different! A bunch of naked muffins sitting in their wrappers after we attacked that streusel.
In all seriousness, though, the streusel is the best topping for these. More cinnamon, butter, and sugar on top! What’s not to love?
I love to dust these with a little powdered sugar after they’ve baked and cooled, to really achieve that classic coffee cake effect.
These are an awesome thing to bake up for a week of snacks or quick add-ons to kids’ breakfasts. My family LOVES these, and I hope yours will as well!
Now, what else can I add streusel to?
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Banana Bread Coffee Cake Muffins
- Total Time: 35 minutes
- Yield: 12–16 muffins 1x
Description
These Banana Bread Coffee Cake Muffins are a mash-up between two of my favorite baked goods. You guessed it: banana bread and coffee cake! The muffins are spiced and moist, just like banana bread should be, and then topped off with a thick cinnamon streusel! Dibs on the extra streusel!
Ingredients
For the Muffins:
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1 teaspoon instant coffee or espresso powder
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1½ teaspoons cinnamon
- ½ teaspoon nutmeg
- 4 oz unsalted butter, melted
- ¾ cup granulated sugar
- ¼ cup light brown sugar
- 2 large eggs
- 2 tablespoons avocado or grapeseed oil (any neutral oil will work)
- 2 teaspoons vanilla bean paste (or extract)
- 2 large, very ripe bananas, mashed (roughly ½ cup)
- ½ cup buttermilk
For the Streusel Topping:
- 1 cup all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon instant coffee or espresso powder
- ⅔ cup sugar
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- Pinch of salt
- 1 stick unsalted butter, melted
- Powdered sugar, for dusting
Instructions
For the Muffins:
- Preheat the oven to 375°F and line a 12-cup muffin pan with paper liners (this recipe makes about 14 muffins for me, so I prepare another smaller muffin tin as well).
- In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, instant coffee, salt, and spices.
- In another bowl, whisk together the melted butter and sugars until smooth.
- Add the eggs, vanilla extract, oil, and mashed bananas and mix until smooth.
- Alternate adding the flour mixture and the buttermilk, starting and ending with flour (so, add half the flour first, then all of the buttermilk, and end with the remaining half of flour), gently stirring and folding the batter after each addition. Try not to overmix! This will yield tough muffins.
- Scoop the batter into the prepared muffin pan and then top each muffin with the streusel topping (steps below).
- Bake for 20-25 minutes or until the muffins are golden around the edges and set in the middles.
- Dust with the powdered sugar after the muffins have cooled a little bit.
- Allow to cool on a wire rack and keep covered at room temperature in an airtight container for up to one week.
For the Streusel Topping:
- To the same bowl used for the muffin dry ingredients, whisk together the flour, instant coffee, sugar, cinnamon, and a tiny pinch of salt.
- Add the melted butter and stir the mixture until it clumps together and is crumbly.
- Generously top each muffin with the streusel before baking.
Notes
The instant coffee/espresso powder is totally optional here. It does not make the muffins or streusel taste strongly of coffee, but it does add some depth of flavor and richness. That said, you can skip it entirely, if preferred!
- Prep Time: 10 minutes
- Cook Time: 25 minutes
- Category: muffins
Hi There. I'm Molly. I'm a food-obsessed, self-taught cook and I can't wait to share my passion for all things culinary with you. My love for egg yolks is just the tip of the iceberg!
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