Banana Oatmeal Muffins with Maple Cinnamon Glaze

These banana oatmeal muffins are moist, fluffy, and rich in delicious banana flavour. They’re the perfect muffin for breakfast; packed with oats, crunchy walnuts and drizzled with an amazing maple cinnamon glaze.

Whenever I have any of those beautiful brown overripe bananas lying around on my counter or stashed away in my freezer, I always make my favourite muffins in the world: Banana Oat Chocolate Chunk Muffins. Which brings me to the story of how this new recipe came to be. You’ll probably never guess, so allow me to share with you!

Kidney Stones!

My husband recently had kidney stones for the SECOND time, poor guy; causing him to go into an internet deep-dive researching what foods to avoid so he never has to experience these stones again. (They say…the pain is comparable to child birth. Gahh!)

Avoid Chocolate.

One of those foods to avoid is CHOCOLATE. As they say in the south, bless his heart. With bananas to use up, I wanted to make my fave muffin recipe but knew it’d be most considerate to leave out the chocolate chips/chunks. Leaving out the chocolate meant, less flavour, and less sweetness, so something had to replace it!

Side note: how many of you would die if you were told you needed to avoid chocolate? I love it, but I’m not addicted. However, if I was told I had to avoid sugar, then I’d probably cry myself to sleep every night.

Muffins are a breakfast food!

I don’t know about you, but I’ve always considered muffins to be a breakfast food. And when I think of breakfast I think of maple syrup. Mmm…and then it came to me. These muffins need some sweetness–how about a glaze? A maple glaze! :O A maple cinnamon glaze. That’s it–Banana Oatmeal Muffins with Maple Cinnamon Glaze!

And that my friends, is how total deliciousness was born. Is it too soon to thank the kidney stones for bringing tasty baked goods to life? Haha don’t tell Jarryd I asked that.

The Ease of Baking Banana Oatmeal Muffins

I love baking muffins because of the ease and minimal equipment that’s required. All it takes is just a couple of bowls, a whisk, spatula, and a trusty muffin tin.

First we begin by whisking together the dry ingredients: flour, sugar, oats, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. This gets done in a medium sized bowl. I remember learning in Home Economics class back in middle school that it’s always best to do your dry ingredients in a small bowl and your wet ingredients in a large bowl. Because it’s easier and makes more sense to pour dry ingredients into a wet bowl than it is to scrape wet ingredients into a dry bowl. Can I get an amen?!

This recipe can totally be made without using an electric mixer. In the large bowl, just whisk an egg and then whisk in the milk, oil, vanilla. Then add in your mashed banana and mix until smooth and evenly combined.

How do you mash your bananas by the way? I used to mash them on a plate with a fork, but now I actually like to use my hand mixer. Works effortlessly in the most beautiful way.

The less mixing the better!

Then gently fold the dry ingredients into the wet bowl–just like we talked about earlier. The key word is gently fold. I love to use a silicone spatula for folding in ingredients. You do not want to overmix muffin batter! They’ll become dense and tough and not so enjoyable.

Once the flour has mostly disappeared into the batter, then once again gently fold in the chopped walnuts. Pecans are a great option too. I always think that pecans and walnuts are interchangeable in recipes. Unless we’re dealing with a PECAN pie–don’t use walnuts, HA!

The EASIEST way to divide batter:

Next, divide the batter evenly among the greased muffin tin. I find that using a cookie scoop is the easiest way to distribute the batter! It keeps it all so mess-free–your hands included! The muffin tins get filled all the way to the top by the way. You may feel like it’s way too much batter, but trust me, it’s PERFECT.

How to make them look like bakery-style muffins:

My favourite way to make muffins like they just came out of a fancy Hallmark movie bakery is after the batter has been divided evenly among the muffin tin, sprinkle the tops with chopped nuts and oats. It’ll look SO good once it’s done baking.

It also gives people an idea of what they can expect to bite into. I don’t know about you, but I feel like when it comes to baked goods, the less surprises the better. I can’t even tell you how many times I thought I was biting into delicious chocolate chips, only to be disappointed with chewy raisins. Ugh, I’d say it’s made itself onto the top 10 first-world problems list.

Making the Maple Cinnamon Glaze

I love this glaze so much. Maple and cinnamon go SO good together. And this part is even EASIER than the muffins themselves. Literally dump all the glaze ingredients into the bowl, and whisk until smooth! I mention this in all my blog post recipes that include glaze: if the glaze is too runny, add more powdered sugar. And if it’s too thick, add more water/milk.

Once the muffins are baked to perfection, after about 10 min or so remove them from the muffin tin and place on a rack to cool. (If you don’t wait a few min, you’ll burn your fingers off.) If you want your muffins to look like mine do in the photos, you’ll want to wait until they’re completely cooled before adding the glaze.

If you simply cannot wait and would rather indulge while it’s still warm, go ahead and drizzle on that glaze ASAP.

I hope you guys love this banana oatmeal muffins recipe as much as I do! Find me on Instagram or comment below–I’d love to hear from you. Thank you, and happy baking! 😍

Want more banana? Check out these recipes:

• Banana Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting
• Banana Oat Chocolate Chunk Muffins