Peanut Butter and Chocolate Chunk Muffins
April 10, 2009 at 6:51 am 15 comments
As a little kid, you get invited to a lot of birthday parties. You know, the kind where every kid in the class gets invited, and so the present opening process takes forever. The nice thing is, it’s inexpensive to please young kids, and the presents were never more than $10.
But by the time I got into middle school, birthday presents began to cost $30 or even $40! Now that I’m in high school, I have to admit I’m glad we don’t need to be spending that much money anymore. Birthday parties don’t exist anymore. But I can’t get enough of birthday presents, so I bake instead of buying.
Like today, when my friend M- celebrated his 17th birthday. I’ll get right to the point. Peanut butter and chocolate chunk muffins, oh my god!
Peanut butter is something that’s been in my life a long time. PB and honey sandwiches were a school lunch staple for many years. Peanut butter was the preferred treat of my first real (non goldfish) pets, my rats Blue and Dewdrop. And I could never resist feeding Tilly, my sweet and neurotic dog, a half tablespoon of peanut butter to watch her jaw get glued together.
Peanut butter pretty much improves everything. Celery? Complete bore on its own, transformed into a deliciously crunchy and refreshing snack with the addition of peanut butter. Toast and jam? Reaches a whole new level of creamy and sweet. But throw chocolate in the mix and you’ve truly got something addictive.
When I saw these muffins on Baking Bites, I was immediately drawn to them. I really like full, domed muffins, and these looked really fantastic. Peanut butter and chocolate is always a winner… I was compelled to bake them. I really encourage you to check out Nicole’s photos, her muffins look delicious!
I was so excited when I took the muffins out of the oven. They all had rounded, high tops, with picture perfect cracks and chunks of chocolate. I half expected the muffins to be a bit dry, a frequent side effect of peanut butter, but these were actually extremely moist. Plus, rather than being rich and heavy, the muffins are light and even delicate. The peanut butter flavor is subtle, but definitely there, and the muffins smell fantastic. I opted for bittersweet chocolate because that was what I had on hand, but I found that the muffins were perfectly sweet.
You could play with the recipe – different types of chocolate, chopped peanuts, Reese’s Pieces candies, banana chips, or even a dollop of jam.
Peanut Butter and Chocolate Chunk Muffins
Adapted from Baking Bites
Makes 12 standard muffins
2 1/4 cups all purpose flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
2/3 cup brown sugar
6 tbsp butter, melted and cooled
1/2 cup peanut butter (I used natural, smooth pb)
2 large eggs
1 cup milk
3/4 cup dark chocolate chunks *
Preheat the oven to 375 degrees and line 12 standard muffin tins.
Whisk together flour, baking powder, salt, and brown sugar in a large bowl. In another bowl, mix the butter, peanut butter, eggs, and milk until smooth. Pour the peanut butter mixture into the flour mixture and stir until just combined. Stir in the chocolate chunks.
Fill each muffin tin to the top to ensure a rounded dome top. Bake 20 minutes or until a tester comes out clean and the tops spring back when lightly tapped. (I just slightly underbaked mine because that’s how I like them.) Cool on a wire rack.
* To make chocolate chunks instead of using chocolate chips, I used a serrated knife to chop up a bar of dark chocolate.
Printer Friendly Version – Peanut Butter Chocolate Chunk Muffins
And by the way… Happy birthday, M-! I hope you enjoy the muffins.
Entry filed under: Breakfast/Brunch. Tags: chocolate, muffins, peanut butter.
15 Comments Add your own
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17 and Baking 
1. Amanda | April 10, 2009 at 11:17 am
mmm… I don’t think I’ve ever made a muffin from scratch. Shame, right?
But it seems like the blogworld is blowing up with muffins this week, so maybe that will have to change. I must say, so far, yours look the most inviting.
2. Tracy Falbe | April 11, 2009 at 5:30 pm
Those peanut butter and chocolate muffins look fantastic. Those are my favorite flavors. I make chocolate chip muffins sometimes. (Just put the chips in a recipe in place of fruit) I’ll to try putting in peanutt butter sometime. I like how this recipe uses 2 eggs. That has to add to the richness.
P.S. I got into baking when I was a teen too.
3. Stephanie | April 13, 2009 at 11:48 pm
Oh my goodness! These sound delicious! I love that domed top on muffins, too — and it is so hard to achieve sometimes! Since you mentioned these are actually light and delicate – I think i will be making these some time soon! Thanks for sharing! :)
4. Maris | April 15, 2009 at 9:00 pm
Amazing photo! I never would have had time to do all of this in high school :) Your friends must love coming over to your house to sample these goodies!
5. Elissa | April 22, 2009 at 10:31 pm
Amanda – you should definitely try them! Nothing beats a homemade muffin. Except maybe a homemade cupcake. (:
Tracy – The eggs do add some richness, and the muffin isn’t exactly light, but it’s somewhat delicate. I’m sure throwing in more PB or egg would up the richness.
Stephanie – This is just a great recipe, and the tops come out like that. It seems foolproof; I’d say yours would look just like it too with reasonable ease!
Maris – I do bring a lot of the “homey” things to school (chocolate chip cookies, muffins, etc.) I even bought a cake carrier just for that purpose! The “nicer” stuff (cheesecake, tarts, etc) go with my mom to her office. As for time… It’s true, I’m pretty busy, but when you love something, you make time!
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[…] them. They are un-frosted cupcakes, and we all know it. I found the recipe at a wonderful blog 17 and Baking. And she apparently found the recipe at Baking Bites. Do you see? These muffins have spread […]
8. Chrissy | July 19, 2009 at 1:50 pm
I agree…A friend of mine just graduated from college and I was thinking for like 5 months of a gift for him, but in the end I made 24 cupcakes with 6 different frostings :P I figure it’s more thoughtful (and cheaper) than buying something that he probably won’t be using anyway.
9. Emily | May 13, 2010 at 11:52 pm
For the 6 tbsp of butter, do you measure it out first and then cool it? or melt some and then measure out 6 tbsp?
Thanks! :)
10. Elissa | May 14, 2010 at 1:20 pm
Emily – You measure, then melt and cool. It’ll be 3/4 of a standard 4 oz stick of butter :)
11. Kayla | May 27, 2010 at 12:14 pm
I love to give my dog peanut butter and watch him smack on it! LOL
I love peanut butter soooo much, and I used to eat it with everything but I ate it so much that now it upsets my stomach and I don’t eat it anymore. D:
This recipe looks great though, and I think I only get sick when I eat peanut butter by itself! I’ll have to give it a try!
12. Chloe | July 22, 2010 at 5:23 pm
I just made these with a friend and they’re ABSOLUTELY AMAZING. We made them at like eleven o’clock at night and all twelve were gone by ten the next morning.
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14. Klaudia | January 21, 2012 at 12:50 pm
These muffins lok great, can’twait 2 try them.
But I can’t find the PBJ bread that u refer to
In your blog. It looks delicious n i would like
To make it. Are u going to include it in your
Recipes?
Klaudia
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