Cranberry Banana Muffins – Quick & Easy Recipe

This cranberry banana muffins recipe is quick & easy. It creates a delicious muffin that combines sweet ripe bananas with slightly tart cranberries. It is also far cheaper to make your own delectable muffins than buy expensive & days-old muffins from your local supermarket.

Delicious Cranberry Banana Muffins

Recipe Sections

1. Ingredients
2. Instructions
3. Helpful Tips

Recipe Rating 5 from 24 votes Featured Comment Shermsmom “Excellent! I added walnuts and it was a great combination. Love the step by step directions. My granddaughter can follow it.”

You can also turn these cranberry banana muffins into an entertaining (if slightly messy) family project where your children help you to make the banana bread batter and pour/scoop the batter into the muffin trays. Your kids will love making & EATING these tasty muffins!

FYI – This is the “muffin version” of my popular Cranberry Banana Bread recipe. It is simple & easy to make. This recipe takes me about 10-15 minutes to prepare and clean up. Please be aware that this is an oven-baked recipe. It is not made with a bread machine. You will also find a printable and “pin-able” recipe at the bottom of this page.

Ingredients – Cranberry Banana Muffins Recipe

• 3 – Bananas (ripe & large sized) – 345 grams – Use exactly 1 1/2 cups of mashed bananas for the best results
• 8 Tablespoons – Unsalted Butter (softened) – 115 grams – Or you can use 1/2 cup of a neutral flavored vegetable oil (such as corn oil).
• 2 – Large Eggs – Not extra large or jumbo eggs
• 1 Cup – Granulated White Sugar – 200 grams – Use 1/2 cup of sugar if you want a lower sugar version & you are using very ripe bananas
• 2 Cups – All Purpose Flour – 240 grams
• 1 Teaspoon – Vanilla Extract – 5 milliliters
• 1 Teaspoon – Baking Soda – 5 grams
• 1 Teaspoon – Baking Powder – 4 grams
• 1/2 Teaspoon – Salt – 3 grams
• 1 1/2 Cups – Cranberries (fresh or frozen) – 150 grams

Servings – Roughly 12-18 standard muffins (non jumbo). Amount depends on whether extra ingredients were added, the size of muffin cups, how much batter was added to each muffin cup, etc.

Equipment – Measuring cup & spoons, mixing bowl, long wooden spoon, muffin trays, paper muffin liners (baking cups), oven mitts, cooling racks… and of course, an oven.

Pour/Scoop Batter into Muffin Cups & Bake

Instructions – Cranberry Banana Muffins Recipe

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
• Mash bananas with a fork.
• Soften butter in a microwave. FYI – I like to melt the butter for better mixability.
• Lightly beat eggs.
• Stir bananas, butter, eggs & sugar together until totally blended together.
• Mix in remaining ingredients (except the cranberries). Stir until batter is completely mixed.
• Add the cranberries to the batter. Stir in the cranberries until fully mixed into batter.
• Place paper muffin baking cups (liners) inside the muffin trays. Or grease the muffin trays if you are not using muffin baking cups or non-stick muffin trays.
• Add the batter to the muffin baking cups until each one is about 60-75% full with batter.
• Place muffin trays into the oven.
• Bake muffins at 350 F for 25-30 minutes.
• Remove the muffin trays from the oven. Use oven mitts when removing the muffin trays.
• Allow the muffins to cool for 5 minutes within the muffin trays.
• Remove the muffins and place them on a cooling rack in order to completely cool.
• Read the tips section below for additional information on how to make these muffins successfully.

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Tips – Cranberry Banana Bread Muffins Recipe

• The tips below are designed to help muffin “novices” and/or people with limited baking experience.
• Click on this “print recipe” link if you want to print out this recipe. It includes all of the recipe’s ingredients and instructions. However, the recipe print function does not include my tips section. Please read the tips section in order to avoid common recipe problems.
• This recipe is part of Bread Dad’s series on Easy Muffin Recipes such as chocolate chip banana muffins, eggless banana muffins and cornbread muffins.

• You can use fresh or frozen cranberries to make these cranberry muffins. Depending on the season, fresh cranberries can be hard to find. Therefore, I often like to use frozen cranberries because they are usually more available in the supermarket. They also can sit in your freezer for a long time until you are ready to make some new cranberry muffins or cranberry banana bread.
• If you use frozen cranberries – Just make sure to remove any ice crystals attached to the frozen cranberries or you could be adding too much moisture to this recipe. Just wash & DRY the frozen cranberries if you need to remove lots of ice crystals.
• I prefer to use fresh cranberries. Why? Some frozen cranberries can rupture during the freezing process and this can add “unplanned” extra moisture to the batter. Extra moisture can lead to underbaked muffins, longer baking times, etc.
• My recipe does not use dried cranberries. However, if you do not have fresh or frozen cranberries, you can used dried cranberries as a “less juicy” alternative. However, instead of the 1 1/2 cups of fresh or frozen cranberries, I would suggest using 1 cup of dried cranberries (as there is less “air” spaces/gaps between the berries so you get more cranberries per cup with dried cranberries).
• If you have any cranberry muffin cups with too much batter and too few berries, you can push a few extra berries into the batter within the cups.
• Creating cranberry banana bread muffins is a great way to convert “boring” banana bread into a fun & tasty project for kids. For example, you can let them “help” you by pouring/scooping the batter into the muffin trays.
• Visitors – Do you prefer to use fresh cranberries, frozen cranberries or dried cranberries to make your cranberry muffins? Please post your cranberry thoughts & tips in the comment section below.

• Use RIPE bananas for the best flavor. Ripe bananas are soft and the exterior peel is usually yellow with small black & brown spots. Hard yellow/green(ish) bananas are too starchy and have less banana flavor. If you use non-ripe bananas, your banana muffins will be bland & lacking banana flavor.
• FYI – A banana with picture perfect yellow peel is not fully ripe yet!
• Make sure to use 3 large bananas (not 3 medium bananas). Otherwise, the muffins might turn out to be a little dry.
• For the most accurate results, use EXACTLY 1 1/2 cups of mashed bananas. This lowers the chances of too much or too little moisture being added to the batter.
• In case, you like to use cups versus banana “sizes”… 3 large-sized bananas equal roughly 1 1/3 to 1 2/3 cups of mashed bananas (not sliced bananas). Of course, banana sizes can vary greatly… so stick to measured cups of mashed bananas for the best results.
• Visitors – What do you like to add to your muffins to make them better or more unique? Please post your muffin tips in the comment section below.
• Visitor variations – Linda likes to add chopped pecans for extra texture & crunch, Cindy made a batch that was “half cranberry and half blueberry”, Marie “exchanged 1 cup of AP flour for whole wheat flour, used 1/4 cup craisins (rehydrated in a little hot water), added (optional) 1/2 cup chopped pecans and a pinch of fresh grated nutmeg” and Valerie added some “dark chocolate”.

• Optional – If you want to eliminate the butter used in this recipe (e.g. to reduce the saturated fat in your diet), you can replace the 8 tablespoons of butter with 1/2 cup of yogurt. 8 tablespoons = 1/2 cup. Our thanks to Kim for this great suggestion. For more details on butter substitutes, you might like to read the Bob’s Red Mill article “What Is a Good Substitute for Butter?“.
• Optional – If you want to eliminate the butter from this recipe, you can also replace the butter with a similar amount of vegetable oil. I suggest that you use a neutral flavored oil (e.g. corn oil) because stronger tasting oils (e.g. peanut oil) can overwhelm the banana flavor.
• If you want to use olive oil, I would recommend using a “mild” or “light” olive oil as it would have the least impact on the taste of the cranberry muffins. Unfortunately, extra virgin olive oil has a stronger flavor and is more likely to negatively impact the taste of your cranberry banana muffins.
• A number of my visitors like to use avocado oil in order to make their banana muffins. Avocado oil has a neutral flavor and is high in monounsaturated fats. However, as you are probably aware, avocado oil is usually significantly more expensive than corn oil.

• Optional – If you want to make a lower sugar version of this recipe, you can use 1/2 to 3/4 cup of sugar (versus the 1 cup of sugar called for in the recipe). I prefer the 1 cup version but some people like less sweet muffins and/or they are trying to reduce the sugar in their diet. Moreover, given differences in the level of banana “ripeness” (and related sweetness), the sweetness level can vary somewhat in these muffins (e.g. super ripe bananas add a lot of sweetness). Thanks Lora for the lower sugar idea!
• FYI – If you are using unripe bananas, the lower sugar version of this recipe will taste very bland.
• Optional – Turn this recipe into cranberry chocolate chip muffins by replacing 1/2 cup of cranberries with chocolate chips. So you would be using 1 cup of cranberries & 1/2 cup of chocolate chips. This muffin version is always a kid favorite!
• Optional – You can also turn this recipe into cranberry banana nut muffins by replacing 1/2 cup of cranberries with chopped walnuts. So you would be using 1 cup of cranberries & 1/2 cup of chopped walnuts.
• FYI – Cranberry banana muffins are great as Thanksgiving desserts or Thanksgiving snacks!
• Optional – If you prefer to make muffins that taste of cranberries AND oranges, check out my recipe for Cranberry Orange Muffins. It is made with cranberries, orange juice and orange zest.

• Use paper baking cups (liners) if you want to easily extract the cranberry muffins from the muffin tray. Paper baking cups also result in less mess on your fingers when removing the muffins.
• For larger muffins, you can buy trays designed for “jumbo” muffins (versus trays for standard sized muffins). This recipe should generate roughly 8-12 jumbo banana bread muffins. However, the baking time will be a little longer versus regular muffin trays.
• There are a variety of ways to pour the batter into the muffin tray. For example, you can scoop with a spoon (while using another spoon to scrape off the batter into the muffin tray), use a small cup and spoon, use an ice cream scoop with a trigger release, use a homemade “pastry bag” to squeeze the batter into the muffin liners, etc.
• If you want to freeze these muffins – After the muffins have completely cooled, wrap them in plastic wrap or aluminum foil. Make the wrapping is airtight (no open areas). Then place the wrapped muffins in an airtight container or large resealable sandwich bag before placing them in the freezer. FYI – If the muffins have not completely cooled before being wrapped, they will release steam inside the wrapping as they cool. This steam will condense inside the wrapping and create soggy spots when you eventually thaw out the muffins.
• If your family loves cranberry desserts, you should also try my recipes for Berry Banana Bread (with blueberries & cranberries), Cranberry Banana Bread, Cranberry Banana Nut Bread (with chopped walnuts), Cranberry Bread with Dried Cranberries and Cranberry Bread with Fresh Cranberries.

• If you have a problem with a recipe, please make sure that you are following the recipe exactly (e.g. using the correct oven temperature), using the correct amounts of ingredients (e.g. don’t eyeball the measurements versus using a measuring cup or accidentally add a tablespoon when a teaspoon is called for), using the correct ingredients (e.g. baking soda/powder versus yeast or all purpose flour versus bread flour), etc. Please don’t “wing” things with recipes.
• In addition, you should always try to use relatively FRESH baking soda & powder for the best results. For example, using baking soda from an open container (that has been deodorizing your refrigerator for months) may lead to subpar results. Old & hard baking soda/powder may lead to rising problems and/or leave small bitter clumps in your cranberry banana bread muffins.
• If you like “harvest” type desserts, check out Bread Dad’s recipes for Sweet Potato Bread, Pumpkin Pie Bread, Pumpkin Nut Bread and Blueberry Banana Bread.

• My recipes are based on US ingredient measurements (e.g. US cups & tablespoons). However, as a courtesy to our European visitors, I have also included some very ROUGH European equivalents (e.g. grams & milliliters). Since I rarely use European measurements when baking, please let me know in the comment section below if any of the European ingredient measurements need to be changed (e.g. for XYZ ingredient, milliliters are more commonly used versus the grams information listed in the recipe).
• Always wear oven mitts when dealing with hot ovens, muffin pans, etc.
• For more easy banana bread muffin recipes, please visit Bread Dad’s main section on Muffin Recipes.

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Reference Sources

1. Wikipedia, Banana Bread
2. Wikipedia, Cranberry
3. Wikipedia, Muffin

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