Pumpkin Banana Muffins

Meet your new favourite muffin, pumpkin banana muffins! These muffins are a combination of a classic banana bread with everyone’s favourite fall ingredient, pumpkin. These sweet and tender muffins are made with whole wheat flour, cinnamon, pumpkin pie spice and chocolate chips.

Once fall arrives and the weather cools, I’m always really excited to turn my oven on again and do some fall baking. Earlier in the season, I look for recipes that highlight apples like apple blondies or apple muffins, but once October hits, it’s all about pumpkin. Enter whole wheat pumpkin quick bread or pumpkin chocolate chip bars, which are my go-to fall treats.

Why this recipe works

With this recipe, you get the best of both worlds–the flavours of banana bread and the flavours of pumpkin spice.

Plus, these are made with whole wheat flour, so you can totally eat them for breakfast! Even with whole wheat flour, these have a tender and light crumb.

Ingredients you’ll need

• For the mashed banana you’ll want to use brown, fully ripened banana. They provide more sweetness and flavour–simply mash them with a fork.
• I use store bought pumpkin puree for the pumpkin element.
• This recipe uses 100% whole wheat flour. This is also what is used for the streusel topping.
• Baking soda is the leavening agent, this works because it’s activated by the acidity that comes from the mashed banana and brown sugar.
• Egg helps to bind the muffins and provide structure and a tender crumb.
• The fat that I like to use in these muffins is melted butter (because this is also what I use in the streusel topping, so it keeps things simple!). You could also use a neutral oil like canola oil or vegetable oil.
• Chocolate chips are optional, I like to use either semi sweet or milk chocolate, or a combination of both depending on what I have in my pantry. I also love using mini chocolate chips for this recipe.
• The spices are cinnamon and pumpkin pie spice, and vanilla extract which helps to round out the flavours.

Step by step instructions

1. Start by whisking your dry ingredients in a medium bowl, this includes the flour, baking soda, spices and salt.
2. Next, you’ll whisk the wet ingredients in a large bowl, this includes the mashed banana, pumpkin puree, melted butter, egg, vanilla extract and brown sugar.
3. Then you’ll fold the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients. Be careful not to over-mix as this will lead to a dense muffin! There should still be some streaks of flour in the batter before you add the chocolate chips.

1. Fold in the chocolate chips and then use a standard-sized ice cream scoop to scoop the batter into a muffin pan lined with muffin liners (I like these silicone liners from Amazon).
2. To make the streusel, pour melted butter into a small bowl with flour and brown sugar, stir with a fork until it resembles small pebbles. Sprinkle evenly overtop of the muffins.
3. Bake at 350F for 20-25 minutes, to check for doneness, use a toothpick and insert it into the center of the muffin, if it comes out clean, they are ready! If not, put them back in for another minute or two.

Expert tips

1. While this recipes calls for two bananas, it’s always key to measure the mashed banana before adding it to the batter, because the fruits can vary wildly in size, you could run into a problem of having either too much liquid or too little in the batter, which will throw off the texture.
2. As with all muffins and quick breads, you want to be careful not to over mix the batter. The trick I use is to make sure there are still some flour pockets before I add in the chocolate chips. The folding in of the chocolate chips will remove the flour pockets without any over mixing.

Pumpkin Banana Muffins

Author: Louisa Clements

5 from 1 vote

Pumpkin banana muffins are a combination of banana bread and pumpkin bread! These are sweet and tender muffins made with whole wheat flour, cinnamon, pumpkin pie spice and chocolate chips

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Prep: 15 minutes

Cook: 25 minutes

Total: 40 minutes

Servings: 12 muffins

Ingredients

• 1 ¾ cup whole wheat flour
• 2 tsp cinnamon
• 1 ½ tsp pumpkin pie spice
• 1 ¼ tsp baking soda
• ½ tsp salt
• 1 cup pumpkin puree
• ¾ cup mashed banana, about 2 bananas, mashed
• ½ cup brown sugar
• ¼ cup melted unsalted butter
• 1 large egg
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• ½ cup chocolate chips

For streusel topping

• 1 tbsp melted butter
• 2 tbsp whole wheat flour
• 2 tsp brown sugar
• ¼ tsp pumpkin pie spice

Instructions

• Preheat oven to 350F and line a muffin tin with muffin liners.
• Whisk dry ingredients, flour, cinnamon, pumpkin pie spice, baking soda and salt in a medium bowl.
• Whisk wet ingredients, pumpkin puree, mashed banana, brown sugar, melted butter, egg and vanilla extract in a large bowl.
• Gently fold the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients. Be careful not to over-mix as this will lead to a dense muffin! There should still be some streaks of flour in the batter before you add the chocolate chips.
• Fold in the chocolate chips, until combined and no pockets of flour remain. Using a standard-sized ice cream scoop, scoop the batter into the prepared muffin pan.
• To make the streusel topping, stir melted butter into flour, sugar and pumpkin pie spice with a fork until the mixture resembles pebbles or bread crumbs. Using your fingers, sprinkle evenly overtop of the muffins.
• Bake at 350F for 20-25 minutes or until you can prick a toothpick into the center of a muffin and it comes out clean.

Notes

1. If you don’t want to use chocolate chips, you can leave them out or replace them with something like walnuts, pecans or dried cranberries. 
2. Be careful not to over-mix the batter. The trick I use is to ensure there are still some flour pockets before adding the chocolate chips. When you fold in the chocolate chips, this will remove the flour pockets without any over-mixing.

Did you try this recipe?Leave a comment + rating and let me know what you think!