Banana nut muffin nutrition (by ingredient)

Banana nut muffins can be a healthy start to your morning breakfast loaded with nuts and even whole grains. But they can also be packed with sugar or saturated fat from butter. The muffins can range from relatively small to jumbo - twice the size at a bakery.

This article looks at calories and nutrition for different banana nut muffin recipes as well as store-bought options, and why some are higher in calories than others.

Here's a top level look at calories, depending on where you buy (or how you make) your banana nut muffins:

• Homemade: 200 - 400 calories
• Grocery store bakery: 350 - 500 calories
• Large bakery muffins: 450 - 680 calories

Let's start by taking a look at the nutrition and calories for purchased muffins, then dig into the details of homemade versions.

Bakery muffins

Muffins from stores vary dramatically in size. A large bakery-style muffin can easily be twice the size of a homemade one. Store-bought options also tend to have a lot more fat and sugar than homemade muffins.

• Target Favorite Day: 350 per muffin and 24 grams sugar
• Walmart Marketside banana nut muffins: 370 per muffin and 26 grams sugar
• Starbucks banana, walnut, and pecan loaf: 380 calories and 26 grams sugar
• Safeway & Jewel-Osco: 420 per muffin and 20 grams sugar
• Kroger grocery store: 460 per muffin and 30 grams sugar
• Otis Spunkmeyer: 470 per muffin and 34 grams sugar
• Bakers Square: 500 per muffin and 29 grams sugar (pdf)
• Lowe's Foods monster muffins: 680 calories, 44 grams sugar (other jumbo muffins are similar)

Homemade muffins

The majority of calories in banana nut muffins come from the flour, nuts, fat (oil or butter), and sugar. The photo above shows the nutrition for my banana pecan muffin recipe, which uses twice the nuts and half the sugar as most recipes.

Sugar & bananas

Let's start by looking at the sugar, which is one of the most variable ingredients. Standard homemade muffins (of any kind) have 1 cup of added sugar. Healthier muffins use less, usually around a half-cup because the recipes rely on the fruit's natural sugars for sweetness.

Other muffins use honey or maple syrup instead of granulated or brown sugar. Most of those recipes use ¼ to ⅓ cup.

Bananas also account for a decent amount of sugar. Each banana has about 14-17 grams of sugar, depending on its size. That's just over a tablespoon of sugar, if you were to compare to granulated sugar (12 grams per tablespoon).

Most banana nut muffin recipes use 3 large bananas, which adds up to almost ¼ cup of sugar.

Here's how different sugars and amounts add up, per muffin:

At the end of this article, I share a bunch of banana nut muffin recipes that use different types and amounts of sugar.

Nuts

A good chunk of the calories in banana nut muffins come from the nuts themselves. Most recipes use ¾ cup of chopped nuts, while a handful use twice or more as much (like my banana pecan muffins or this one from butternut bakery).

Those calories can add up, but don't forget that nuts are filled with protein, omega-3 fatty acids, fiber, and other heart-healthy nutrition.

Here's a breakdown of nutrition per muffin, based on how many nuts the whole recipe uses.

Those values are based on pecans, which are higher in calories than walnuts. If your recipe uses walnuts, you'd have 4 less calories per muffin for a ½ cup of nuts, and 12 less for a recipe using 1.5 cups.

Flour

The nutrition variance from flour depends on two main factors: type of flour (all-purpose, whole wheat, or nut flours) and the amount of flour (how big the muffins end up).

Recipes typically use 1.5 to 2 cups of flour. Here's how that looks on a per-muffin basis:

Some recipes mix the two or add in some nut flour. Almond flour is higher in calories (640 per cup compared to 455 per cup for all-purpose). But almond flour also has almost twice the protein (24 grams per cup compared to 13 grams for all-purpose).

At the end of the article, I share banana nut recipes that use different types and amounts of flour, so you can pick out the one that meets your nutritional goals.

Butter & oil

Butter are oil are slightly interchangeable in muffin recipes. Each one affects the muffin texture and flavor differently. Butter has a more buttery flavor (surprise!) but a drier texture. Oil has a more neutral flavor but a moister texture.

The mashed bananas actually add a lot of moisture to the muffins, they don't suffer from a dry crumb like other butter-based muffins can. Because of this, I personally like butter for these muffins, but if you're looking for a healthier fat, a good vegetable oil works too.

Most recipes use between ¼ and ½ cup of butter or oil. Some go up to ¾ cup for a more bakery style flavor and texture. Vegetable oil and coconut oil have the same amount of calories.

Here's a breakdown for both butter and oil, based on the amount used in each recipe.

Banana nut muffin recipes

I've gathered a whole bunch of banana nut muffin recipes that use different types of flours, sugar, fat, and nuts in varying amounts. Make the one that fits your nutritional goals.

Banana pecan muffins (extra nutty!)

Banana pecan muffins that use twice as many nuts as other recipes, and half the sugar.

Banana pecan muffins

• Busy Baker: cup white sugar, vegetable oil, all-purpose flour
• Butternut Bakery: Brown sugar and maple syrup, butter, all-purpose flour, plus sour cream
• Ambitious Kitchen: honey, olive oil, whole wheat pastry flour
• Sally's Baking: maple syrup, coconut oil, whole wheat flour and rolled oats
• The Big Man's World: maple syrup, no oil, almond flour
• iFoodReal: No added sugar, no oil, almond flour, extra eggs

More muffin recipes

I occasionally write in-depth nutrition guides for popular types of recipes. Not all blogs or restaurants share nutrition and calories, so I'd like to help you meet your nutritional goals.