Easy Three Banana Cottage Cheese Muffins Recipe
These irresistible banana cottage cheese muffins are moist and dense. And with three bananas, they are full of rich banana flavor. A simple recipe made with simple ingredients you likely already have on hand. Whether topped with a silky cottage cheese frosting, or enjoyed plain, these high-protein muffins make a delicious breakfast, snack, or dessert.
Ready in 45 minutes, these muffins are also customizable – add nuts for crunch, chocolate chips for indulgence, or keep them simple for everyday enjoyment. Once you try this recipe, store-bought muffins will never satisfy quite the same way again!
If you would like to see some more cottage cheese recipes, try these cottage cheese avocado toasts and these blueberry cottage cheese muffins.
Table of contents
Why you will love this recipe
- The cottage cheese adds protein while creating a moist, tender texture
- Great for for breakfast, brunch or snacks
- Full of banana flavor, not sugar flavor!
- This is quite a moist, dense muffin
- One of my favorite muffin recipes because I can make it with just a touch of honey and without adding any extra sugar
- Quick and easy – Mix your ingredients in undeer 10 minutes and then bake!
- Easy to find ingredients
Ingredients
- Flour – all purpose flour, not self-raising
- Baking powder – this helps with the rise
- Baking soda – this also helps with the rise
- Salt – I use sea salt
- Cinnamon (optional) but gives depth of flavor
- Ripe bananas – they really need to be ripe. Brown is perfectly fine – this is a great way to use up those overripe bananas that no one wants to eat. You can use overripe bananas you have previously frozen.
- Honey, pure maple syrup or brown sugar – Very little is needed, because most of the sweetness will come from the bananas
- Eggs – I use large, free-range, but you can also use a flax egg
- Butter – dairy or vegan is fine
- Vegetable oil or avocado oil or olive oil is fine too
- Vanilla extract – yes, you can use imitation, but we all know it won’t taste quite as nice…
- Apple cider vinegar – this helps activate the baking powder
Additions and substitutions
- Flour – you can use white flour, whole wheat flour or gluten free flour
- Ripe bananas – you can use yellow ones, but they get sweeter as they become more brown.
- Cottage cheese – you can use ricotta cheese in a pinch, but the muffins may be denser since ricotta is thicker and contains less moisture. Add 2 tablespoons milk to batter.
- Honey – pure maple syrup, brown sugar, rice malt sugar all work
- Eggs – you can substitute eggs with flaxseed in this banana cottage cheese muffins recipe. Use 1 Tablespoon flaxseed for every egg.
- Apple cider vinegar – white vinegar or lemon juice will work as well, activating the leavening agents, tenderizing the crumb, and improving texture. If using Lemon juice, use 1 1/2 teaspoons.
- Walnuts or pecans (optional) – for a bit of crunch, or better yet, add some honey caramelized walnuts – yum!
- Dark chocolate chips or chunks (optional)
- Sugar crystals – for an optional topping
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 350°F (175°C). For best results, use a silicone muffin tin or grease or spray your muffin tin. You can also use parchment paper, but do not use those muffin liners with jagged edges, as the muffins will stick to the edges.
- In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon until well combined.
- In a separate medium bowl, mash the ripe bananas with a fork until smooth.
- Add the cottage cheese, honey (or maple syrup/brown sugar), eggs, melted butter, oil, vanilla extract, and apple cider vinegar to the mashed bananas. Stir until well combined.
- Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and gently fold together using a spatula. Mix just until no dry flour remains – overmixing will result in dense muffins.
- Divide the batter evenly among the prepared 12 muffin cups, filling each about 3/4 full.
- Bake in the preheated oven for 30-35 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean or with just a few moist crumbs. Allow the muffins to cool in the pan for 5 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.
Storage
- Store in an airtight container for up to 2 days at room temperature or 5 days in the fridge. They are very moist and will keep fresher in the fridge.
- I like to heat mine up in the air fryer right before having one in the afternoon with a cup of coffee or tea.
- Freeze for up to 2 months.
Recipe
Easy Three Banana Cottage Cheese Muffin Recipe
Ingredients
- 1 3/4 cups all-purpose white flour or whole wheat flour (220 grams)
- 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
- 3 large ripe bananas mashed (about 1 -1/4 cup or 320 grams)
- 1 cup cottage cheese small curd
- 1/2 cup honey or pure maple syrup or brown sugar
- 2 large eggs room temperature
- 1/4 cup melted butter
- 1 tablespoons vegetable oil avocado oil or olive oil
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar
- 1/2 cup chopped walnuts or pecans (optional)
- 1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips (optional)
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 375°F. Lightly Spray muffin tin (silicone is best) with oil. You can use parchment paper, but do not use muffin liners, as the muffins will stick to those jagged edges.
- In a large mixing bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and cinnamon.
- In another bowl, mix mashed bananas, cottage cheese, honey/maple syrup, eggs, melted butter, oil, vanilla extract, and apple cider vinegar until well combined.
- Fold together the dry ingredients with the wet ingredients gently until just combined (do not overmix). Using a wooden spoon or spatula works best.
- Fold in nuts or chocolate chips if using.
- Use ice cream scoop to scoop the muffin batter into the muffin pan. This gives you equal amounts of batter.
- Bake for 28-33 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. The tops should be golden brown, but not dark brown. It's best to do the toothpick test the first time you make them, as ovens temps can vary. 🙂
- Cool in the pan for 5 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.
Notes
Nutrition
FAQ
Not really, at least not in the way you might expect. The cottage cheese mostly blends into the batter, and you wouldn’t identify distinct curds or chunks. Instead, it creates a very slight tanginess that many people wouldn’t even recognize as cottage cheese unless you tell them.
These muffins are incredibly moist and dense. As soon as I increased the banana content, the muffins started to stick more to the liners and pan. I got very frustrated until I remembered I could just use a silicon baking cheat to bake my muffins. And voila! They don’t stick!
Yes! Prepare your flax eggs first (2 tablespoons ground flaxseed + 6 tablespoons water total)
Let them thicken while you prepare the other ingredients
Add the flax eggs to the wet ingredients where you would normally add the regular eggs
Keep in mind that the flax eggs may slightly change the texture and flavor of your muffins – The muffins will be slightly denser, with a bit of a nutty flavor from the flaxseed.
How I developed this banana cottage cheese muffin recipe
I wanted to create a banana cottage cheese muffin that tasted like bananas and not sugar. (I am so tired of buying muffins in shops and all I can taste is the sugar). With my Latvian heritage and living in France for over 15 years, I have come to appreciate the natural flavors of ingredients. To get a better flavor and texture, I increased the banana content and added some cottage cheese to increase the moistness and add some additional protein.
These are the changes I made to the traditional banana muffin recipe:
- Decreased the amount of honey/sugar and upped the natural flavor from the bananas by using three whole bananas (1 cup when mashed)
- Added cottage cheese for extra protein – it also makes the muffins have a more substantial mouthfeel – less cakey and more dense
- Incorporated apple cider vinegar (1 tsp) to activate the leavening agents and create a more tender crumb
- Added 2 tablespoons of oil alongside the butter for extra moisture retention
- Increased vanilla extract to 1½ teaspoons for a beautiful flavor
Plus, after multiple attempts, I realized that paper muffin liners were a no-go. Unless you spray the liners, spray the muffin tin or use a silicon muffin tin, these banana muffins with cottage cheese will stick to the liners/muffin tin.
