Oat Flour Banana Muffins
One bowl, overnight super soft banana muffins made with oat flour.
If you’ve been here a minute, you’ve heard seen me extoll oat flour ad nauseam. I think it makes cookies chewier (and more flavorful) and blondies as well. I use it when I make pancakes or waffles and happily substitute it in my quick breads and muffins. I also have an oat flour brownie recipe which I promise will be up here someday too.
But truthfully, these started out – as all good banana bread recipes do – as a way to use up browning bananas. I wanted a recipe that was fit for morning: I could prep it the night before (with minimal effort), stick it in the fridge and bake some tall, domed lovely muffins in the AM. And oat flour came about because, well – it just worked *so* perfectly here.
Truly this is another magic recipe: it’s one bowl, it sits in the fridge where the dough thickens and chills, then you bake it and you have the softest most lovely banana muffins.
Recipe Ingredients
Bananas: very ripe, covered in brown spots and mushy!
Oat flour: I use storebought (more on using homemade below) as it’s fine. Oat flour is naturally gluten free.
Eggs: whole large eggs. No need to bring them to room temperature.
Sugar: brown sugar, light or dark, adds more moisture to the batter and better flavor.
Oil: any flavorless oil like avocado or grape seed or canola.
Cinnamon: If you’re allergic, try cardamom or just leave it without any spice. It’ll still be great.
Sour cream: I use full fat. Substitutes can be labneh, greek or regular yogurt, vanilla or plain.
How to make Oat Flour Banana Muffins
Mash the bananas then add them, the flavorings, the sugar and oil to a bowl.
Whisk everything together. Don’t worry about breaking up the banana bits, we’ve got more mixing to do
Add the eggs and whisk to combine then add the flour and stir – don’t over do it once the flour is in, just enough to see there’s no dry flour bits remaining
Add chocolate chips if you like (I was under strict instruction to add them for this particular batch) and cover the bowl for the resting period
The batter can be kept overnight in the fridge to bake in the morning.
Bake until tops spring back or a cake tester comes out clean.
Recommended add-ins and toppings
Let’s be real, these are best as is, warm, sliced in half and smothered in a pat of butter but if you are feeling like you want something extra, I have a few suggestions:
A nutella swirl. Warm a few tablespoons of nutella in the microwave. When you’ve got the batter in the muffin liners, dollop about a teaspoon of nutella on top then use a toothpick to swirl it with the batter.
Nuts and chocolate chips. Any nut, any chocolate chip! For nuts, toast them and let them cool before adding to the batter.
Glaze. I made a glaze with 1 cup powdered sugar, a pinch of vanilla, a dash of vanilla paste and 2 tablespoons of milk.
Can I make these overnight oat banana muffins with homemade oat flour?
So I’ve heard from people who have tried this in my other recipes (like my oat flour blondies) and they’ve managed to do so successfully. I have never had such luck; perhaps my food processor isn’t strong enough but when I compare store-bought oat flour to home-ground, the latter is an even, fine powder.
So to answer the question, I’d say if you’ve done it successfully before go for it. If not, stick to store-bought.
Can I halve these for a small batch of oat banana muffins?
You sure can! It’ll make six so you’ll only need one 12-cup muffin tin.
Overnight Oat Banana Muffin Recipe (Gluten-Free)
Oat Flour Banana Muffins
Ingredients
- 3or 300g overripe bananas
- 1cup or 215g brown sugar
- ½cup or 100g canola or olive or avocado oil
- ¼cup or 60g sour cream
- ¾ tsp fine sea salt
- 2 large eggs
- 2cups or 270g oat flour
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1 tsp ground cinnamon
- 1 tsp pure vanilla extract
Method
- Mash the bananas then whisk them with the sugar and oil. Add in the salt, vanilla, cinnamon, and sour cream and whisk well. Whisk in the eggs.
- Add the flour and baking soda and fold with a rubber spatula until combined. Cover with plastic wrap and set in the fridge overnight (or at least for 4 hours).
- When you are ready to bake, preheat the oven to 400 F. Line two 12 cup muffin tins with six liners each, alternating cups so that no two muffins will bake next to each other.
- Bake for 20 minutes, until the tops spring back when pressed.
Notes
Did you make this recipe?
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I was really getting depressed that every recipe I tried for banana bread just wasn’t very bananany, even all the over the top scientific ones with concentrated banana and all that. I’m so delighted that with little fuss these muffins just make it happen. These are in my regular rotation, I’ve made them with a million variables and they’re always great: whole wheat pastry flour, olive oil, melted butter, strained yogurt, coconut sugar, rested and unrested, in a loaf pan, it’s always good. I wanted to try a blueberry 100% oat flour muffin, I tried so many recipes and they were all dense or dry or used 6 eggs or added white flour and I was so disappointed because these are so soft and moist and only use oat flour so I knew it was possible. I substituted the banana with 300g mashed roasted sweet potato for a more neutral flavor and added dried blueberries to prevent excess sog and they were marvelous!!
I was skeptical that the baking soda would raise these muffins after sitting overnight so I mixed it in just before scooping & baking. They did rise and were very good, but the next time, I followed the recipe as written (except 25% less sugar) and they were higher-domed and fluffier – PERFECT!
This is my favourite banana muffin recipe. I don’t bother refrigerating and bake straight away and they turn out perfect every time. Such a fantastic recipe to make variations to eg adding berries, nuts etc.
Looking forward to trying these out, as I am going on a gf diet. Any recommendations as what I could sub the eggs with. I usually sub 1/4 c milk for 1 egg. sometimes I find the muffins don’t keep there fluffiness.
Hi Lori, milk doesn’t have the same fat content, water and protein content. Eggs give the bake structure and help a cake or cookie bind better. They also leaven – think about what happens when you cook an egg versus when you cook milk. This is why you aren’t getting that fluffiness. I would say a better sub for eggs is flax egg (1 tablespoon ground flaxseed and 2 tablespoons water) though I am not quite sure how it would work here.
These are my 1 year old sons FAVORITE thing to eat! I actually do 1 1/2 cups oat flour and 1/2 cup almond flour. I do 24 mini muffins and bake them for 12-14 mins. Whatever’s leftover I put choco chips in and make a couple minis for myself. Thank you for the best muffin recipe ever!
Ps…. I used coconut oil one time and they did not turn out very well!
Excellent muffins. I left out the oil by accident and subbed Greek yogurt for the sour cream and they were so moist even without the oil. When I make them again I will only use half the oil.
hi Sam, still loving these. was wondering if this could be baked into a loaf (since a loaf is easier to share with a larger group) or if it would need modifications due to larger mass affecting how the dough can rise/doom in the oven? best xx
Hi Mimi, it’s a good question and I’d have the same concerns. You’d want to bake it in a single loaf pan for longer, about an hour but check it for doneness around 55 minutes and don’t take it out until a cake tester comes out clear.
Another amazing recipe from one of my fave bakers!!! Didn’t have enough bananas to hit 300g so used a little under 100g of applesauce. Added milk chocolate chips. So good. So moist and I’ve been telling myself definitely healthy! 😂💕
So fluffy! I included blueberries and they rose in perfect domes. Can’t wait to have these for breakfast all week!
These were delicious! I cut the sugar by half and used a mix of goat cheese and almond milk for the sour cream since my husband is allergic to cow’s milk. I tried baking some muffins with the extra space around them in the pan and some without, and personally I didn’t notice a difference in rise. This is a great recipe that is not noticeably gluten free. My GF friend loved them!
These are really, really good! I was skeptical at first, but I’m so pleased at just how good it turned out. I adjusted the recipe for 2 bananas so all other measurements were adjusted, except the eggs.
They rose beautifully into golden brown dome tops and the texture was nice and fluffy. Thank you for a great, easy to follow recipe.
These are fantastic! I try a lot of gluten free recipes for my husband and he raves about this one. GF muffins I’m also happy to eat – don’t miss the flour at all and the texture is amazing. We often mix in chocolate chips and PB chips. Also kid approved 🙂
SO GOOD! This has quickly become our favorite muffin recipe. We usually add in blueberries and it’s perfection. Could we make this into a cake or in a bread loaf? Probably, right? Just increase the cook time?
what is on top of the muffins in the picture?
a vanilla glaze, details are in the section “Recommended add-ins and toppings”
thank you so mu h
hello can i use buttermilk instead of sour cream ?
can I use buttermilk instead of sour cream ?
Greek yogurt would be a better sub!
This is a wonderful recipe, thank you! I used melted butter and cut the sugar about a third to suit my preferences and they came out amazing.
For me, a muffin aficionado for decades, the overnight-in-the-fridge approach is a whole new way of making muffins. Tried them with various combos of flour, and / or all-bran, and turned out fabulous every time. Thank you.
you’re so welcome! It enables us to have yummy muffins without much of the labor when we are still waking up ;p
I am a fan of oatmeal and this recipe really helped. I purchased oats intentionally (and used the Vitamix to make my own GF oat flour) so I could try this recipe. It is perfectly oatmeally for me. I CAN taste the banana AND cinnamon, NOT just oatmeal. I am HAPPY. 🙂
I am not a fan of oatmeal and this recipe did not help. I had oatmeal left over ( I had a long term guest who like it) and did not want to throw it out, so I tried this recipe. But it’s too oatmeally for me. I can’t taste the banana or cinnamon, just oatmeal. I am sad.
I make these every weekend!! Love them for breakfast .This tastes really good!! I prefer this over regular banana muffins. Another great recipe from Sam .
I love the versatility of these muffins. They don’t taste too much like banana, which I like. I use “homemade” oat flour, which results in a denser muffin. I’ve made them several times, including making them less fattening by subbing flax seed for the egg and applesauce for the oil.
A lovely muffin! They are quite dense but must be a result of the oat flour which I’ve never used before. I really like the flavor and texture. Next time I’ll add in some nuts, possibly a few blueberries and a cinnamon sugar sprinkle on top. Overall, an easy 1 bowl recipe anyone can whip up for an easy and delicious muffin!
These were fantastic! Loved the glaze too.
My third time around I also omitted a portion of the sugar—which I’ve never done in any recipe before, and the choice was down to curiosity, not any health-related reason nor do I think the recipe as you’ve developed it calls for too much sugar. I replaced the banana with a combination of chunky cooked sweet potato puree and a 1/4ish cup raw grated sweet potato. I don’t actually care for sweet potatoes generally but I had them and needed to use them.
I think I’m a sweet potato lover now! End result had a really nice flavor and mellowness and the breakfast-y aspect made them more satisfying than the dessert-oriented quickbread batters I normally prefer.
I’m thinking of toasting the oatflour next time. Any thoughts about whether this will produce even oatier flavor, or will ot get lost in the mix?
An easy comforting breakfast. What’s not to like? The oat flour helps lend a little nuttiness to the batter and the muffins were super tender. Flavor was on point! The batter was super quick to whip up the night before. I added some walnuts and it was superb. These will become my new routine banana muffins!
These are perfect! So soft and moist, nice flavour. I refrigerated the dough for 24 hours because that was how the timing worked out for me, and I added 1/2 cup semi sweet chocolate chips. Made 13 nice sized muffins. Will definitely be making these again soon. Great after school snack or breakfast for the kids!
These came out really well! I had an extra banana that needed to be used, so I put it in and subtracted the equivalent amount (by weight) from the sugar. I was worried this would give me a poor result, but they looked and tasted great (I’m sure mine are less sweet tasting than Sam’s). I added walnuts and yielded 14 muffins.
made them twice with chocolate chips already, cut down the sugar by 50gr in the second batch cause i like it less sweet but both batches were perfect with the nicest tall domes and remain moist and soft for days. soo good 🙂
That’s awesome Mimi! So good to hear