These banana blackberry muffins are soft, moist, and filled with blackberries. The banana flavor comes through clearly without overpowering the berries, and the coarse sugar on top adds a little crunch.

The batter comes together quickly without a mixer and works well with either all-purpose flour or a gluten-free flour blend. You can also make them dairy-free using coconut milk yogurt.

Depending on your bananas and blackberries, the texture can range from fluffy and cake-like to a little more dense and hearty, but still in a good banana muffin kind of way.

stack of 3 banana blackberry muffins on a cutting board with blackberries in background

What’s To Love

Soft and fluffy texture – the bananas keep the muffins moist without making them heavy.
Flexible dairy options – sour cream, Greek yogurt, or dairy-free coconut yogurt all work well.
Freezer-friendly – they thaw well and stay soft after freezing.
Great use for frozen blackberries! – not all recipes turn out well with frozen, but so far, all of my blackberry recipes do, including these Lemon Blackberry Muffins, Blackberry Jam and Blackberry Crumble.

Ingredients

These are just some notes on selected ingredients. Please scroll down for the full recipe.

Bananas – they should be very ripe and heavily spotted for the best flavor and texture.
Blackberries – if your berries are large, cut them in half so they distribute more evenly throughout the muffins instead of creating large wet pockets. Fresh or frozen work equally well. If using frozen, keep them frozen until the last minute.
Sour cream, Greek yogurt or dairy-free coconut yogurt – use full-fat versions. Low-fat versions contain more water and can make the muffins slightly less rich and fluffy. Sour cream gives the richest flavor, Greek yogurt makes the muffins a little lighter, and coconut yogurt works well for a dairy-free version without noticeably affecting the texture, but you’ll have a little coconut flavor in your muffins.
Coarse sugar – gives the tops a crisp texture, but you can omit this if you’d like. They’re sweet enough without.
Flour – you can use all-purpose flour or King Arthur Gluten-free Measure for Measure Flour for a gluten-free version. I haven’t tested other flour blends in this recipe, so I can’t say how they’d turn out. But I’m confident that almond flour, oat flour, coconut flour, and other flours that aren’t designed as a 1:1 substitute for all-purpose flour won’t work here.

ingredients laid out to make banana blackberry muffins on a white table

How to Make Them

Whisk together the dry ingredients in one bowl and the wet ingredients in another.

Stir the wet ingredients into the dry mixture just until combined, then gently fold in the blackberries.

collage showing the mixing together of the muffin batter

Divide the batter among the muffin liners, sprinkle the tops with coarse sugar, and bake at a high temperature first to help the muffins rise well.

Lower the oven temperature partway through baking and continue baking until the centers are baked through.

the muffin batter filled in the moulds of the muffin pan and another photo showing the baked muffins in its place

Tips for Success

Use bananas with lots of brown spots – they provide better flavor, sweetness, and moisture.
Be gentle when folding in the berries – blackberries are delicate and break apart easily.
Don’t overmix the batter – mixing too much can make the muffins dense instead of fluffy.
Fill the liners almost full – this helps create taller muffin tops.

inside shot of a banana blackberry muffin on a white plate with blackberries on either side

Why Muffin Texture Can Vary

My muffins came out fluffier and with more domed tops than my photographer’s.

Banana muffins are one of those recipes where small differences in ingredients or mixing can noticeably affect the final texture. Even when two people follow the same recipe exactly, one batch may come out a little fluffier while another is slightly denser and more hearty.

banana blackberry muffins on a white plate on white table

Here are some of the most common reasons why that can happen.

User error:

Flour measurement matters – if measuring by cups instead of grams, even a little extra flour can tighten the crumb noticeably. My photographer always uses a scale, so that wasn’t the issue.
Overmixing the batter – it’s easy to accidentally overmix while trying to evenly distribute the berries. A few extra stirs can make the muffins heavier. I know the photographer also didn’t do this.

Here’s a quick cellphone photo to show you what the inside of my muffins looked like. They were super fluffy with a soft, cake-like texture.

So here are some things you can’t really control:

Bananas vary a lot in moisture – some ripe bananas are much wetter than others, even when using the same weight. Wetter bananas can make the muffins a bit denser.
Blackberries can release different amounts of juice – especially very ripe berries. More juice in the batter can lead to a softer, denser texture around the berries.
Oven differences – some ovens don’t hold the initial high baking temperature as well, which can affect how much the muffins rise.

The muffins should still stay soft and moist either way. Depending on the ingredients and baking conditions, the texture may range from lightly fluffy to a little more dense, but still in a good banana muffin sort of way.

banana blackberry muffins with a bite taken out of the top muffin, sitting on a cutting board

How to Store and Freeze

These muffins are best the day they’re made, while the coarse sugar topping is still crisp. For the first day, store them loosely covered at room temperature. This helps the sugar topping stay crisp longer.

After that, transfer the muffins to an airtight container so they don’t dry out. The sugar topping will soften, but the muffins will stay soft and moist for up to 3 days at room temperature or up to 5 days in the refrigerator.

For longer storage, freeze the muffins in an airtight container or freezer bag for up to 3 months. Thaw at room temperature or microwave briefly to warm through.

Categories:

Breakfast and Brunch, Dairy-free, Gluten-free, Muffins, Seasonal Recipes, Special Diets, Summer Recipes,

Banana Blackberry Muffins

Ingredients

How to Make Them

Why Muffin Texture Can Vary

How to Store and Freeze