Our garden is bursting with vegetables so we’re creating lots of easy recipes with our bounty. These homemade zucchini banana muffins with sour cream recipe is one of our favorites.
We made these for dessert tonight because why not??!! I will say that I prefer muffins and/or mini bundts over bread because they get done quicker, are already “cut” into servings, and ensure that the middle is always done. One of the best muffin recipes we have.
There are a few ways to make baked goods not only healthier, but more moist and tender. One big tip is to swap out some of the oil with either Greek yogurt or sour cream! Makes sense right? You still are adding a bit of fat but a healthier version that is creamy so your end result will melt in your mouth. No brainer. 😉
Loaves outsides are always overdone for me in order to get the middle just right. Ok so I got sidetracked, back to our zucchini muffin recipe! We always seem to have a few brown or browning bananas at the house, that is why I came up with this list of overripe banana recipes a while back. I always revert to easy muffins because they are quick to bake.
How Long to Bake Baby Zucchini Banana Muffins
If you want to know how long to bake mini muffins you can read this post and do just that. Regular, large or tiny are all delicious and moist. Small are great for toddlers though since they are just the right size for their little hands and they can have “the whole thing” in one sitting.
How to Prepare Zucchini for Baking
Here’s a tip when baking with it: You MUST remove the moisture first. The best way to do this is to grate it over a wad of paper towels. Then you can roll it up and press so the water is absorbed. I have a few pictures to show you what to do here. Do NOT skip this step or it won’t come out right, they won’t rise.
What happens if you don’t reduce the moisture in your zucchini? It will weigh down your recipe a lot and it may not rise at all. Still, the more you add the more dense your muffins will be. So, if you want them fluffier don’t add quite as much.
Don’t add your shredded zucchini until you’ve mixed together all the other ingredients. This will keep the pieces in tact and won’t release as much moisture into the batter too. If you’re looking for a few more easy brunch menu ideas these are great!
Can you add chocolate chips?
You could add mini chocolate chips into the mix if you wanted to, about 1/2 of a cup. That goes for other add ins you might be thinking about too like chopped nuts. You don’t want to overwhelm the rest of the batter so keep it to a minimum and fold in gently at the end.
Same goes for if you were to add little bits of fruit like our zucchini pineapple bread. Too much and it will weigh them down making the texture heavy and won’t be able to rise as nicely.
Muffins are a versatile baked good that can be customized with a variety of flavors and ingredients. Here are some ideas for what you can add to muffins:
Other Optional Add Ins
I have added finely chopped apples before with our 2 Banana Muffin Recipe. Chopped walnuts, pecans, almonds, or hazelnuts can add crunch and flavor. I am not a huge fan as I don’t like mine to be crunchy but that is personal preference.
Grated carrots work the same way and could be substituted instead of zucchini if you wanted to. Shredded coconut can be added to muffin batter for a tropical twist.
What do you add to make chunky monkey muffins?
Chunky Monkey Muffins are delicious, indulgent muffins inspired by the flavors of Ben & Jerry’s popular Chunky Monkey ice cream. They typically feature a combination of bananas, chocolate chips, and nuts, giving them a rich, chunky texture and sweet flavor. You can tweak our recipe here to add crushed walnuts and semi-sweet chunks into the batter to make these.
Made with Cake Mix (Option)
You can add 3/4 cup shredded veggies into our 4 ingredient banana bread muffins recipe too. Like I said, if you want fluffier muffins decrease the amount of bananas from 3 to 2 and reduce the zucchini to 3/4 of a cup. That way they will rise a bit more as seen here. My opinion, the recipe as is below is PERFECTION!! You can bake into a loaf with our cake mix banana bread steps too.
Zucchini Banana Muffins Recipe
Equipment
- 2 bowls
Ingredients
- 1 large egg
- 1/3 cup vegetable oil, or canola
- 1/4 cup sugar, white
- 1/2 cup brown sugar
- 1/4 cup Greek yogurt, or sour cream
- 1.5 tsp vanilla
- 1 cup all purpose flour
- 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 1/2 tsp baking powder
- 1 cup zucchini , grated and wrung out in paper towels before measuring
- 3 large bananas, as brown as possible, mashed
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Whisk together your egg, oil, sugar, brown sugar, vanilla and yogurt or yogurt in a bowl. Set aside.
- In another bowl mix together your flour, baking soda and powder so they're combined. Pour this into your egg bowl and gently stir just until combined.
- Mash your bananas and add to your bowl.
- Lay out 2 paper towels on the counter and grate your zucchini on top until it looks like you have about a cup.
- Fold over the paper towel and allow it to absorb the water.
- Unfold your paper towel and measure out 1 cup of this shredded zucchini. Add this to your bowl too.
- Gently fold in your bananas and zucchini. Mix will be lumpy.
- Add muffin papers to your muffin pan and fill 3/4 of the way full until all of your mix is gone. This will make a total of 12 normal sized muffins.
- Bake for 18 minutes or until the middle of muffins spring back when gently touched in the center. Do not over bake or they will dry out.
- Remove from oven and take out of pan so they do not continue to bake in hot pan. Put on cooling rack and enjoy warm or cold.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
How to bake in a loaf pan
If you wanted instead to make this in a loaf pan and slice into pieces, I would follow our moist zucchini bread recipe. You can use mashed naners instead of oil in that one if you want both flavors.
Air Fryer Directions
You can bake these in your oven in a muffin pan of course, or make air fryer muffins in just a few minutes. Either way they turn out incredible.
Other easy muffin recipes you’ll love
Our large Pumpkin zucchini muffins are the best Fall treat ever. Add another vegetable to the mix with our mini zucchini carrot muffins too.
- Bisquick savory breakfast muffins with leftover ham are yummy
- Cake mix rum bundt cake is perfect for the holidays
- Then try our pumpkin banana bread or peanut butter blender muffins in the morning for breakfast.
- Try our apple carrot muffins next. They combine vegetables and fruit in them too.
