This recipe for banana bread muffins is so far out of the box you'll fall instantly in love with it! What makes this recipe, the best you've ever had, is the surprise chocolate tahini cream at the center of the muffin and the sesame halva crumble on top. They may not look like anything special, but trust us they are the best banana bread muffins you will ever have!
Why You'll Love This Recipe
A Unique Twist on Banana Muffins
If you're ready to break away from the usual banana bread muffin routine, this recipe is for you! These muffins are far from ordinary, offering a delightful change of pace with every bite.
Easy to Make, No Mixer Required
No need for a fancy mixer—just grab a few bowls and a muffin tin. This straightforward recipe makes it perfect for bakers of all levels.
A Creamy, Chocolaty Surprise
Who doesn't love a delicious surprise? These muffins have a creamy chocolate tahini center that stays creamy inside the muffin and is the most delicious chocolate-tahini surprise.
Naturally Sweetened
These banana muffins are naturally sweetened with maple syrup. While the sesame and halva topping adds a touch of sugary crunch, the overall sweetness is perfectly balanced.
Tested and Approved by All
These muffins are so incredibly good, we had to share them with friends and family. After countless batches and taste tests, everyone who tried them fell in love and wanted the recipe.
Inspired By One Of Our Popular Recipes
This banana bread muffin recipe is moist and not overly sweet. The batter for these muffins is inspired by our Easy Vegan Banana Bread, but we added sesame seeds, tahini cream, and an out-of-this-world sesame halva crumble.
Discover New Flavors
If you're not familiar with halvah, tahini, and sesame seeds, this recipe is a wonderful introduction to these fantastic Mediterranean ingredients. You'll discover new flavors that elevate these muffins to extraordinary heights.
Vegan-Friendly Option
Want to make them vegan? Simply use flax eggs instead of regular eggs. It’s an easy swap that doesn’t compromise on taste or texture.
Crazy Good!
These banana bread muffins are so good, you’ll be glad we didn't give up and continued testing until we perfected the recipe. Give them a try and see why everyone raves about them!
How We Created This Banana Muffin Recipe
Since Mediterranean flavors and recipes are our favorite, and that is what we grew up eating and what we know best, we wanted to incorporate some Mediterranean ingredients into this recipe. Enter tahini, halva, sesame seeds, cinnamon, and cardamom.
We tested this recipe over 15 times. It is probably one of our most tested recipes. Why, you may wonder? The flavor was always fantastic-that was not the issue. We wanted that beautiful muffin dome, like the ones you find in those giant bakery muffins. We changed baking temperatures, mixed the tahini cream into the batter, and placed it on top of the batter, in the middle, and at the bottom, to see if it made a difference. Finally, we assumed the crumble topping was too heavy for a perfect dome.
So, no perfect dome on these muffins, but they are one of the best muffins you will ever have. The best parts of these muffins are the crunchy halva topping and the creamy chocolate tahini center.
Ingredients for our Crazy Good Banana Bread Muffins
- Egg or flax egg: Eggs give structure to the muffin batter. You can easily make this recipe vegan by using flax eggs. Look in the recipe for how to make it vegan. You can also use regular eggs.
- All-Purpose Flour: We added the right amount of flour to keep these muffins moist. On one of our multiple recipe tests, we ran out of all-purpose flour. We replaced the flour with 1 cup of Spelt flour and ½ cup of Dark Rye flour, and the result was fantastic! We encourage you to experiment with different flours.
- Sesame Seeds: Any type will work raw, toasted, or black sesame seeds. They provide great texture to the batter.
- Cinnamon and cardamon: Provide a great unique flavor to these muffins.
- Bananas: essential for banana muffins. Can't make a banana muffin without bananas 😉
- Coconut Oil: We love coconut oil in this recipe, it adds the right moisture but you can use avocado, grape seed oil, sunflower oil, etc
- Maple Syrup: Naturally sweetened the muffins.
- Vanilla Extract: Vanilla is the not-so-secret ingredient that enhances the flavor of baked goods.
Here's the Equipment You'll Need
No hand mixer or stand mixer is needed for this recipe.
- 2 Small Mixing Bowl
- Medium Mixing Bowl
- Large Mixing Bowl
- 2- 12-cup muffin tin or one 24-cup muffin tin
- Whisk
How to Make Easy Banana Bread Muffins with Chocolate Tahini Cream
- To make this easy banana bread muffin recipe, start by preheating the oven and lining the muffin tin with cupcake liners.
- Gather all your ingredients and bowls.
- If you are using flax eggs, prepare them now and set them aside. If you are using regular eggs, beat them and set them aside.
- Combine the dry ingredients, and mix them well. In a separate bowl combine the wet ingredients and whisk mashed bananas, coconut oil, maple syrup, vanilla, and egg or flax egg. Add the dry ingredients and stir just until combined.
- Make the chocolate tahini cream and the sesame halva crumble.
- Pour some batter into the muffin liners, add a dollop of chocolate tahini cream in the middle and pour more batter on top. Sprinkle the sesame halva crumble on top. Bake and let it cool completely before eating.
Why Tahini
Our easy banana bread muffins have a delectable chocolate cream filling made from tahini. But what is tahini? Tahini is a sesame paste made from 100% ground sesame seeds. It adds creaminess, a wonderful flavor, and nuttiness to your recipes.
Use a good quality, great-tasting tahini for this recipe. Our favorite brands are Soom, Al Arzi, Mighty Sesame, and 365 Brand.
Make sure your tahini is creamy and not dry or crumbly. Dryer tahini can be used to make homemade hummus, but for this recipe, creamy tahini is essential to get the best results. If you can use a newly opened jar of tahini.
More Tahini Dessert Recipes
Tahini isn’t just for savory dishes; it’s also great in sweet recipes like
- Tahini Date Caramel,
- Halva Bars,
- Tahini Cookies,
- Vegan Pomegranate Tahini Cupcakes, T
- ahini Truffle Fig Tarts.
FAQ
Keep your banana bread in a bread bag, plastic zipper bag, plastic container, or cake plate with a lid. Since these muffins are very moist place them in the fridge, this way they will last longer.
Yes. Wrap the muffins in parchment paper and place them in an airtight container or freezer-quality plastic zip bag. Freeze for up to three months. Thaw at room temperature
Yes. They need to be thawed and then mashed. Thaw frozen bananas quickly in the microwave or let them sit at room temperature until thawed.
Put your bananas in a small mixing bowl and use a fork to mash them up. You can also use a plastic zipper bag and let your kids mash it. Other methods include using a whisk or potato masher.
Perfectly ripe bananas are fully yellow with a few brown spots. Overripe bananas, which have more black spots on the peel, will also work for banana bread
More Great Banana Recipes
- Banana Upside-Down Cake
- Banana Bread Cake Donut Recipe
- Easy Maple Banana Pumpkin Cinnamon Rolls
- Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins
If you enjoyed this recipe, it would help us tremendously if you left us a star rating in the comments below or on the recipe card. Do you have any questions about the recipe? Do you need a swap for any of the ingredients? We are here to help, just leave us a question in the comments below.
Banana Bread Muffins
- Total Time: 35 minutes
- Yield: 18
- Diet: Vegan
Description
This recipe is most likely the best banana bread muffins you will ever taste. You'll find a delightful tahini surprise in the middle of the muffin and the sesame halvah topping is our of this world good.
Ingredients
- 2 large eggs or 2 flax egg (½ cup unsweetened non-dairy milk mixed with 2 tbsp ground flax seeds).
- 3 large ripe bananas, mashed. About 2 cups mashed
- 3 tbsp melted coconut oil
- ½ cup pure maple syrup
- 1 ½ tsp natural vanilla extract
- 1 ½ cups all-purpose flour
- 2 tbsp toasted sesame seeds
- 2 tbsp black sesame seeds
- ½ cup chopped raw pistachios
- 1 ½ tsp cinnamon
- 2 tsp baking powder
- 1 ½ tsp baking soda
- ¼ tsp salt
Chocolate Tahini Cream
- ½ cup tahini from a freshly opened jar. See Note 1
- ¼ cup maple syrup
- 2 tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder
- ½ tsp cardamom (optional)
- 3 tbsp plant-based milk
Topping / Streusel
- ⅓ cup raw sesame seeds
- ¾ cup crumbled halva
- ¼ cup sparkling sugar
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 425ºF. Line a 24-cup muffin pan or 2 12-cup muffin pan with paper liners.
- Whisk the eggs, bananas, coconut oil, maple syrup, and vanilla extract, in a bowl.
- Combine the flour, sesame seeds, pistachios, cinnamon, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a medium bowl. Whisk until combined.
- Whisk all the chocolate tahini cream ingredients until smooth.
- Add the flour mixture to the banana mixture and mix until combined (do not overmix).
- Fill 18 muffin tin cups halfway. Add a generous heaping teaspoon of tahini cream in the center of each muffin cup. Top them with the remaining batter, filling the muffin cups almost to the top.
- Mix all the topping ingredients in a small bowl and sprinkle evenly over each muffin.
- Bake for 5 minutes at 425ºF, then without opening the oven reduce the temperature to 350ºF and bake for 15 minutes or until a knife or toothpick inserted comes out clean of batter, but not clean of chocolate tahini cream.
- Let the muffins cool completely before enjoying them.
Notes
- To Make them Vegan: replace eggs for flax eggs (2 large eggs = ½ cup unsweetened non-dairy milk mixed with 2 tbsp ground flax seeds).
- To Make them Gluten-Free: use 1 to 1 GF flour
- To make them with healthier flours: use 1 cup spelt flour and ½ cup Rye flour.
- Clean any streusel that may have fallen around the muffin cups, to prevent it from burning while baking.
- Prep Time: 15
- Cook Time: 20
- Category: Dessert
- Method: Oven
- Cuisine: Middle Eastern
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1 muffin
- Calories: 236
- Sugar: 13.9 g
- Sodium: 159.2 mg
- Fat: 11.2 g
- Saturated Fat: 3.3 g
- Trans Fat: 0 g
- Carbohydrates: 31.2 g
- Fiber: 2.6 g
- Protein: 5.2 g
- Cholesterol: 20.7 mg
Roey Malul
Probably one of the best muffins I’ve ever had - excellent!
Vicky and Ruth
Thank you so much!
Rachel Robinson
5 stars is not enough… You cannot find a better muffin than this. It is so fluffy, with the ideal balance of sweetness and the perfect texture. It is seriously the most amazing muffins I’ve had my whole life.
Warning: Once you put this muffin in your mouth you will be craving for more!!
Vicky and Ruth
Thank you so much! We happen to agree with you 😉
Lee Cohen
Delicious, moist, and yummy
Vicky and Ruth
Thank you!
Elaine
Definitely not unattractive looking, very creative and positively scrumptious! Four stars only because of the high amount of sugar. Will treat them more as a special indulgent treat. Really glad they can be frozen. We hold quarterly planning meetings and I always bring homemade muffins for my team. Just frozen up some of the batch. They will love them! Curious if you have tried aquafaba in place of a flax egg?
Vicky and Ruth
These are a real treat!No we haven’t tried them with aquafaba. Let us know the results if you do!