Banana Protein Muffins
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These Banana Protein Muffins are the perfect nutritious breakfast! With 6g of protein per muffin, they’re delicious + easy to make!
This post was originally shared in 2015, but has since been updated.
If you want to eat more protein, these healthy banana protein muffins are for you!
This is one of the first healthy recipes I EVER came up with, and to this day – it’s one of my favorites (and yours too.. these have over 350 5 Star Reviews!)
These high protein muffins are made with real food ingredients, are low in sugar, and naturally gluten free!
Liz’s Tips for the Best Protein Muffins
- Don’t substitute coconut flour or almond flour for the flour! – you’ll be left with a mushy mess! I promise, it won’t work. Check out our substitutions below if there’s something you need to swap
- Use Whey Protein Powder: Whey protein powder works best in this recipe. Egg protein powder and beef protein have mixed results in this recipe, this whey protein powder works the best!
- Use Ripe Bananas. Your bananas should be brown and spotty. As bananas ripen they get sweeter and softer, making them perfect for baking! However, as long as your bananas aren’t green, you can make this recipe. Yellow bananas will work just fine. I recommend microwaving them for about 20-30 seconds so they are easier to mash!
Ingredients
It will also be helpful to have a nonstick muffin tin + silicone muffin liners – these are a must for your muffins not sticking!
Substitutions and Additions
Bananas – You can sub pumpkin, unsweetened applesauce, or cooked, mashed sweet potatoes for the bananas with a 1:1 ratio. We also have Pumpkin Protein Muffins, Healthy Pumpkin Muffins, and Sweet Potato Muffins recipes!
Honey – You can sub maple syrup with honey. I have not tried making this recipe without a sweetener and would not recommend it.
Oil – You can use extra virgin olive oil, avocado oil or melted butter in place of coconut oil.
Oat Flour – Oat flour is easy to make! Follow this tutorial for How To Make Oat Flour. You can use certified gluten free oats or certified gluten free oat flour. You can substitute oat flour with whole wheat flour. Coconut flour and almond flour can’t be substituted for oat flour.
Protein Powder – Whey protein will generally work better for baking compared to vegan alternatives. You can also use vegan protein powder to make these protein muffins. I would not use unflavored protein powder in this recipe.
More protein – You can increase the recipe to have 1 cup of protein powder in it. The muffins will be more dense + have a stronger protein taste. If you increase the amount of protein used, add 1/3 cup milk so the batter isn’t too thick. You can also skip the protein powder and make these Healthy Banana Muffins instead!
Dairy Free – Use a vegan protein powder and dairy free chocolate chips.
To make vegan- replace 1 egg white with 1 flax egg. Sub honey with maple syrup, use vegan protein powder.
To make lower fat- I haven’t tried it but others have recommended substituting applesauce for oil with a 1:1 ratio if you’re looking to make these muffins lower fat.
Additions:
- Blueberries: If you love bananas and blueberries, try our Banana Blueberry Muffins, or check out our Blueberry Protein Muffins
- Chocolate Chips: These muffins are great with or without chocolate chips. Feel free to substitute based on your preference.
- Apples: You may also like our Apple Protein Muffins.
How to make Protein Muffins
Making these protein muffins is seriously so simple. Anyone can do it!
- In a large bowl, mash bananas. Stir in egg, honey, and coconut oil until combined. Add in dry ingredients. Stir until combined.
- Pour batter into cups, filling 3/4 of the way. Do not overfill!
- Bake muffins at 350° for 15 minutes or until the tops are golden brown.
Can I make this Muffin Recipe into protein bread? I have not tried making this into a loaf of bread but I think it might work. I would grease an 8×4 or 9×5 loaf pan well and add the batter. If you try it, let me know! If you want other banana bread recipes try these: Healthy Banana Bread, Zucchini Banana Bread Recipe.
Expert Tips
Don’t substitute coconut flour or almond flour – you’ll be left with a mushy mess! I promise, it won’t work.
Use Whey Protein Powder: Whey protein powder works best in this recipe. Egg protein powder and beef protein have mixed results in this recipe, whey protein powder works the best!
Storage
Storing: It’s best to store these muffins in an airtight container in your refrigerator. Keeping them in the refrigerator helps to maintain freshness. They will last for 3 days when stored on the counter and up to a week when stored in the refrigerator.
You can freeze these muffins. They freeze super well, so double the batch and freeze the extras! I like to store them in a ziploc freezer bag, or large container.
To defrost the muffins you can take them out of the freezer and put them in the refrigerator the night before you want to eat them, or you can pop them in the microwave for about 30 seconds until they are warm directly from the freezer.
Protein Muffins FAQ
Yes, you can add protein powder to a muffin mix, but it might not turn out well. Protein powder can make baked goods very dense or dry, so don’t add more than 1/4 cup of protein powder to your muffin mix.
No, you can’t use protein powder instead of flour. Flour and protein powder are very different and will give you a very different result. If you are replacing flour with protein powder, you may need to add extra fat/moisture to whatever you are making. They can’t be substituted 1:1.
Whey protein powder works the best in this recipe! I don’t recommend using egg white protein powder or beef protein isolate. Some vegan protein powders work ok in this recipe, but whey works the best!
Trying to eat more protein?
If you’re trying to eat more protein, check out our High Protein Dinners Ebook! It has 24 easy recipes you can make in under an hour with 25g+ protein per serving!
Here are some of our other favorite protein packed recipes:
Protein Muffins Recipe
Ingredients
- 1 cup mashed banana approx 2 large bananas
- 1 egg
- ¼ cup honey
- 3 tablespoons coconut oil melted+ cooled
- ¾ cup oat flour gluten free if necessary
- ½ cup vanilla whey protein powder
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- ½ teaspoon ground ginger
- ¼ cup dark chocolate chips optional
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F and prepare a lined or greased muffin tin.
- In a large bowl, mash bananas until smooth. Stir in egg, honey, and coconut oil until combined. (You can also use a stand mixer with your whisk attachment)
- Add in oat flour, protein powder, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon and ginger. Stir until combined. Fold in chocolate chips if using.
- Pour the muffin batter into muffin cups, filling 3/4 of the way. Do not overfill!
- Bake the muffins for 15 minutes or until the tops are golden brown and a toothpick comes out clean when inserted in the center of the muffin.
- Allow the muffins to cool for 5 minutes before removing from the muffin tin.
Insanely delicious. I doubled the recipe to feed my big family. I also used half oat flour and half almond flour. I added pepitas and a small amount of craisins. Kids LOVE them. I ate three!!
These muffins turned out great! I had chocolate-flavored protein powder and used that instead, and it worked! I would add some walnuts to it next time to make it a banana nuts sort of thing.
It didn’t give me 12 muffins, though; only 7 🙂
Super tasty! I reduced the oil to 2.5 T and added 3 T of peanut butter!
do these freeze well
You can freeze these muffins. They freeze super well, so double the batch and freeze the extras! I like to store them in a ziploc freezer bag, or large container.
To defrost the muffins I will either take them out of the freezer and put them in the refrigerator the night before I want to eat them, or you can pop them in the microwave for about 30 seconds until they are warm.
These are absolutely delicious! Will be the recipe I always use from now on. Thank you.
Love this recipe and LOVE that I can make oat flour in my vitamix!! Just a note that in the directions you don’t mention adding the ginger. 🙂
Super yummy! I had to make a bunch of changes, but they still turned out well!
Subbed butter for coconut oil. Blended a cup of rolled oats into flour since I didn’t have any. Subbed unflavored protein powder and just added a teaspoon of vanilla extract. I’m super sensitive to baking soda taste, so I increased the baking powder to 4 teaspoons and left out the soda. I think next time I’ll mix the dry ingredients separately before adding to decrease to prevent possible over mixing. I’ll end up having 2 for breakfast, so that’s around 300 calories, not bad at all!
Loved it!
Quick, easy, and delicious! I love that these don’t use sugar, and the addition of protein powder is a great idea. I didn’t have coconut oil so used cinnamon applesauce instead, super tasty! It made for a filling breakfast for all my kids, and everyone ate them up quickly.
I have been looking for a healthy muffin recipe that actually tastes good and has a good texture and this is it! I used Canadian Protein’s vegan chocolate protein and added a little almond milk to thin out the batter because I find vegan proteins absorb more moisture. The muffins turned out great!
I have made these many times by now and love them! I’m thinking about adding cocoa powder this time. Do you have any suggestions for how much I should add to bring out a good chocolate flavor? And do I need to adjust any of the other ingredients if I do this? Thank you!
First off I’m not a baker at all. I used Vega Vanilla protein powder. I followed the recipe. Put them in the oven and realized after five minutes I forgot to add the coconut oil. It was sitting on the counter. Lol. They were done I cooled them off. Tasted it and was like WOOOOWWW! How delicious! Less fat I’m ok with that! Great recipe and outcome
Absolutely delicious! … 4g of protein per muffin is not “packed” with protein. A single egg has 6g. I’m thinking to try with chopped walnuts next and perhaps blueberries at some point. Very easy to make, moist. Glad to know that I can freeze in batches. Great, quick grab, pre-workout snack when you don’t want anything heavy in your stomach.
Hi!
Have so enjoyed many of your recipes!
Quick question: Can canola oil be substituted for coconut oil? We have an allergy in our family. Thank you. Looking forward to making these.
Sure, that will work!
So moist and the perfect amount of sweetness to satisfy that afternoon chocolate craving. My kids love these after school and the added protein holds them over until suppertime. I omitted the nutmeg but added a teaspoon of vanilla.
Excellent! Made it my own with half the honey and added .5c oat milk. Thank you!
I made this into a loaf instead, covered with foil for 30 minutes and then 15 minutes without. So good!
Me and my boyfriend loved these!
My only question: my muffins didn’t rise much. Did I mess something up? Or, is that normal for this recipe?
Thank you!
It could have to do with the type of protein powder you used!
Thank you!
I made these with chocolate protein powder and they were so bomb!!! Best recipe!!
I used what I had on hand; so subbed oat flour and coconut oil for regular flour and avocado oil and they weren’t quite as healthy but oh my gosh these are incredible. I used chocolate Orgain powder and they’re like a tastier, healthier chocolate Costco muffin. Sooooo delicious. Probably better than any dessert I’ve ever made.
Love this recipe. The fact that it’s gluten-free and that all ingredients are natural and healthy. I add dates and sometimes also add walnuts instead of the chocolate chips. Thanks for this great healthy muffin snack!
Haven’t tried the recipe yet but can I substitute with chickpea, or red lentil powder
Please check out the green substitutions section where we outline every single substitution we’ve tried. I don’t know what you want to substitute for chickpea powder, but I honestly think it would taste disgusting and not work in place of protein powder or flour. Sorry!
Thanks for the very forgiving recipe that yields yummy muffins. I guestimated everything except for the oat flour and chocolate chips. I also added a couple of squirts of my Stevia blend thing and about 2 teaspoons of vanilla extract. My bananas weren’t green but definitely not near spotty or brown. I was going to microwave and I realized that I didn’t have to instead I could mash by hand since I was gloved up. I also only used 2 tablespoons of my avocado oil instead of the coconut oil. I’m not vegan anymore but I prefer egg free bakes but I added the egg because I am after the protein content! Anyway thanks again!
AMAZING!
Love this delicious recipe. My kiddos are big fans.