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.

Hours later, we stand in the kitchen, looking at the 25 or so nearly over-ripe bananas on the counter. It was just too good to pass up: $1 for all the nearly-rotting bananas you could carry. Naturally, we grabbed as many as we could hold without a second thought. But now we have two dozen old bananas that need to be used right away. There couldn’t be a better excuse to make healthy banana apple muffins.

There’s plenty of tasty banana things I like to make. Banana bread. Pound cake. Even cookies. But somehow I decided to try a healthy recipe. While they sound good on paper, healthy recipes don’t always translate. Like a sugar free cookbook I picked up from Goodwill filled with layer cakes and cookies sweetened naturally. Blech. My major complaint with healthy muffins is this: they only taste good fresh out of the oven. Wait a few days and they’re a little too moist. They don’t look appealing. These muffins didn’t last a few days, so it’ll remain a mystery. It does say something about this recipe though, which is adapted from allrecipes.com.

Healthy Banana Apple Muffins

1 cup mashed banana
2 apples, peeled, cored, and diced
2/3 cup unsweetened applesauce
1 cup brown sugar
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 cup nonfat vanilla yogurt
1 cup all purpose flour
1 cup whole wheat flour

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Grease or line 30 muffin tins with paper cups.

In a large bowl, combine the applesauce and sugar, mixing until smooth. Stir in the two eggs, one at a time, mixing well between additions. Then mix in the vanilla extract and yogurt. Sift in the flours, baking soda, salt, and spices, gently mixing until barely combined. A few streaks of flour are fine. Carefully fold in the mashed banana, diced apples, and chocolate chips.

Use a small ice cream scoop or tablespoon to fill muffin tins 3/4 full to create raised, rounded tops. Bake muffins for 20 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean.

Printer Friendly Version – Healthy Banana Apple Muffins

I wonder when we’ll get sick of bananas.

I don’t know what else to do besides bake when the weather throws you a wet, muddy curveball like this one and prevents you from going to the park. It calls for something warm and healthy, with a good handful of oats. Well, who am I kidding. A good handful of chocolate, too. Which is how I ended up making chocolate cranberry bran muffins.

Might I even say these were worth it?

This recipe is super versatile. Use chocolate, or nuts, or coconut, or not. Change the dried fruit, or throw in a grated apple, carrot, or even pear. Add pumpkin or squash and different spices. I bet a lot of tasty variations could be made very easily. Oh… and one more note. These are low fat! At least the chocolate-free original version from All Recipes is. :)

Chocolate Cranberry Bran Muffins

1 1/2 cups oat bran or rolled oats
1 cup nonfat milk (or soy milk)
1/2 cup unsweetened applesauce
2/3 cup brown sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 egg
3/4 cup whole wheat flour
1/4 cup all purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup dried cranberries
1/2 cup semi-sweet, bittersweet, or dark chocolate chips

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees and grease 18 standard size muffin tins (or use paper liners.) Combine the oats and milk in a bowl and soak for 15 minutes.

In another bowl, stir together the applesauce, sugar, vanilla, and egg. Add in the oat and milk mixture.

Sift together the flours, baking powder, baking soda, and salt, and gently fold into the applesauce mixture. Be careful not to overmix; a few streaks of flour are fine. Stir in the cranberries and chocolate chips.

Fill each muffin tin 3/4 full and bake 18 minutes, or until muffins spring back lightly when tapped and a toothpick comes out clean.

Printer Friendly Version – Chocolate Cranberry Bran Muffins