Peanut Butter & Jelly Muffins

Hello and welcome to National Peanut Butter Day! Really, there is a food holiday for every day of the year and while it would be super fun to celebrate all of them with you, unfortunately a busy job and an even more busy toddler won’t allow that right now. But to me, National Peanut Butter Day can’t be missed so we will observe it accordingly. My favorite peanut butter dishes include anything with chocolate and peanut butter, red curry peanut noodles and any other noodle dish with peanut butter, and heck, just eating peanut butter straight from the jar (my son seems to have picked up on that habit already. Oops). But the epitome of classic peanut butter-ness is that childhood standard, peanut butter and jelly. I still love to bring PB&J to work for lunch every so often. The savory creamy peanut butter mixed with sweet and smooth jelly is a perfect melding of flavors. So why not in a muffin form? Yes, why not? I love making my family muffins for breakfast on the weekend and trying out new recipes. PB&J muffins sounded like a great plan.

I used both all-purpose and whole wheat flour, allowing for a hearty bread-like flavor to the muffins. I combined the flours with the other dry ingredients, then added milk, creamy peanut butter, egg, vanilla, and melted butter and stirred until just moistened.

After filling the muffin tins halfway…

I dropped a spoonful of jelly onto each muffin. The peach jelly on the left was homemade by one of our friends. So good! Hopefully she’ll give me the recipe so I can share it with you.

I then covered them with the remaining batter.

I baked them for 20 minutes, then was able to enjoy peanut butter & jelly in one perfect bite of muffin. Just a hint…proceed with caution when digging in…the jelly stays hot for a while. Then close your eyes and chew. You’ll think you are chowing down on a regular old PB&J but surprise, it’s a muffin!

Follow The Dinner Pages–I have another amazing peanut butter recipe coming soon, this one with CHOCOLATE!! So stay tuned!

______________________________

Peanut Butter & Jelly Muffins (adapted from Cooking Light Annual Recipes 2008)

Yield: 12 muffins

nonstick cooking spray

1 cup all-purpose flour

3/4 cup whole wheat flour

1/4 cup granulated sugar

1/4 cup packed dark brown sugar

1 tablespoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 1/4 cups skim milk

1/2 cup creamy peanut butter (the original recipe recommended against using “natural” peanut butter–it said it wouldn’t rise adequately. I have 5 different types of peanut butter at my house but for this recipe I used Peter Pan honey roasted creamy peanut butter instead of natural)

1 large egg

2 tablespoons butter, melted, and slightly cooled

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/4 cup jelly/jam of choice (I used some strawberry and some peach)

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 400F and coat the muffin tin with nonstick cooking spray.

2. In a large bowl, combine the flours, sugars, baking powder, and salt. Set aside.

3. In another bowl, combine the milk, peanut butter, egg, butter, and vanilla. Make a well in the dry ingredients and pour in the wet ingredients. Stir together until just moistened.

4. Fill each muffin cup about halfway with batter. Spoon approximately 1 teaspoon of jelly atop each muffin. Cover the muffins with the remaining batter.

5. Bake for 20 minutes. The muffin will spring back lightly when touched. Let cool in the pan for 5 minutes.

Per serving: 188 calories, 7 grams fat (calculated from myfitnesspal.com; all nutrition information is approximate)

______________________________

Banana Nut Muffins

My son really loves bananas, so we always have bunches of them around the house and I’m frequently on the lookout for new ways to use bananas. Last week we enjoyed savory banana corn cakes as a side with dinner which were so delicious and this weekend we had these Banana Nut Muffins for Sunday brunch. I posted another banana muffin recipe a while back but seeing as how I had just gotten the Cook’s Illustrated Baking Book (on sale, yay!) and hadn’t even had a chance to look through it yet, I wanted to try out something from that book for breakfast and the muffins sounded delicious. This is not a book review by any means, since honestly I haven’t looked at more than the first few pages and this recipe so far, but what I love about Cook’s Illustrated is that they do all kinds of testing in their kitchens and explain their thought process and the science behind their recipes. Because of that, their recipes are generally very good without much modification on my part and I feel like I’m learning something about how to become a better cook/baker and create my own recipes by reading their books and magazines.

These muffins were different from the other banana muffins I made previously in a few ways. For one, they are huge! These are the size muffins you get from a bakery, like the Costco-sized muffins. So they nearly flowed over the sides of muffin tin and for that reason, weren’t quite as pretty as I was hoping. I actually have a “Texas-sized” muffin tin and I’m wondering if I used that and made 6 muffins instead of a dozen, if they’d look nicer.

These muffins contained chopped up ripe bananas rather than using overripe mashed bananas like I usually do when baking with bananas. As a result, they were much paler in color than the typically dark brown banana bread. The muffins were very moist despite not using overripe bananas thanks to yogurt and a generous portion of butter in the batter. Finally, unlike the other muffins which included peanut butter and chocolate chips (awesome flavors in combination with banana), these treats had chopped walnuts instead. Still great flavor and a little less sweet than chocolate chips, just different.

Overall, I really enjoyed these muffins (so did my son, by the way). The basic recipe lends itself well to modifications like apple or blueberry muffins and the muffins are so big that we had plenty of leftovers so I’ve been able to enjoy tasty banana nut muffins for breakfast at work every day this week too.

______________________________
Banana Nut Muffins (adapted with minimal modification from the Cook’s Illustrated Baking Book)

Yield: 1 dozen large muffins

nonstick cooking spray

3 cups all-purpose flour

1 tablespoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg

10 tablespoons unsalted butter, at room temperature

1 cup packed light brown sugar

2 large eggs

1 1/2 cups plain yogurt (low-fat or whole milk)

1 1/2 cups chopped bananas (2-3 medium sized bananas)

3/4 cup coarsely chopped walnuts

Directions:

1. Place the oven rack in the lower-middle position and preheat the oven to 375F. Coat a 12 cup muffin tin with nonstick spray and set aside.

2. Combine the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and nutmeg in a medium bowl and set aside.

3. Beat the butter and sugar with an electric stand mixer on medium-high speed until fluffy. Then add in the eggs, one at a time, stirring until combined. Reduce the speed to low and add the dry ingredients in 3 steps, alternating with the yogurt in 2 steps. Scrape down the sides of the bowl as needed.

4. Fold in the chopped bananas and walnuts.

5. Divide the batter evenly among the muffin tins. Bake until golden brown and a knife inserted into the center comes out with only a few crumbs attached, about 25 to 30 minutes.

6. Let the muffins cool in the tin for a few minutes before serving.

Nutrition Information:

Per muffin (made with low-fat yogurt): 407 calories, 21 grams of fat (calculated from myfitnesspal.com; all nutrition information is approximate)

_____________________________

Eggnog Muffins

This time of year eggnog starts gracing the shelves in the dairy case at the store. I like the flavor of eggnog but generally don’t drink a whole lot of it since it’s so rich and heavy. I’ve never used it for baking before but decided to try it out. My original plan was just to replace the milk or cream in regular muffins with eggnog but then I found this recipe for eggnog muffins and decided to give them a whirl. Success!

These muffins are really quick to throw together for a weekend breakfast or brunch and were so light and fluffy, and quite moist too with lovely hints of eggnog and nutmeg. My son was a huge fan as well..but no, I’m not going to start putting eggnog in his cups instead of milk though based on this, he’d probably like it if I did! While these muffins weren’t overly sweet to serve for breakfast, if you topped them with some kind of frosting, perhaps a spiced cream cheese frosting, or maybe even something with rum extract if you want to get really creative, you could probably get away with serving these as cupcakes at a holiday party.

______________________________

Eggnog Cupcakes (adapted with minimal modifications from Oberweis.com)

nonstick cooking spray

1 1/4 cup eggnog

5 tablespoons butter, melted

1 large egg

1/2 teaspoon nutmeg, freshly grated if available

2 cups all-purpose flour

2/3 cup sugar

1 tablespoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

The Recipe

1. Preheat the oven to 400F. Place 12 muffin cups into a muffin pan or spray with nonstick cooking spray.

2. In a large mixing bowl, combine the flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt.

3. Whisk in the eggnog, butter, egg, and nutmeg. The batter should be mostly smooth, though may have a few lumps.

4. Divide the batter among the 12 muffin cups. Bake for 18-20 minutes until golden brown and cooked through.

____________________________

Banana Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Muffins

Today my husband and I ran our third annual Turkey Trot 5K (and our son slept through his second annual race). Afterwards I wanted something warm and (relatively) healthy for brunch and with some overripe bananas on the counter (plus an extra banana from the race), what better than to make some banana bread?! My son was a huge fan of the pumpkin muffins I made last weekend so I decided to go with muffins again, instead of traditional banana bread, plus muffins are faster to bake and get onto the table.

After preheating the oven to 375F and prepping my muffin tin with nonstick cooking spray, I combined the dry ingredients, all-purpose flour, salt, baking powder, cinnamon, ginger, cloves, allspice, and a pinch of nutmeg in a large bowl. I made a well in the center and added the wet ingredients, melted butter, honey, milk, an egg, and peanut butter. To that I added a cup of mashed banana (it was about 2 and a half bananas but would depend on the banana size). After it was all combined until just moistened (still a bit lumpy), I stirred in half a cup of chocolate chips.

I divided the batter among the dozen muffin cups and baked for 20 minutes, until a knife stuck into the center came out clean. It was such a tasty combination of flavors for our post-race brunch. And my son woke up from his nap just in time to enjoy the muffins with us. Happy weekend everyone!

______________________________

Banana Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Muffins (adapted from How to Cook Everything)

Yield: 12 muffins

nonstick cooking spray (or paper liners for the muffin tin)

2 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 tablespoon baking powder

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon ground ginger

1/4 teaspoon ground cloves

1/2 teaspoon ground allspice

pinch of ground nutmeg

3 tablespoons melted unsalted butter

1/4 cup honey

1 large egg

1/4 cup milk

1/4 cup creamy peanut butter

1 cup mashed overripe bananas (2-3 bananas)

1/2 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

The Recipe

1. Preheat the oven to 375F. Coat muffin tin with nonstick cooking spray.

2. In a large bowl, combine the flour, salt, baking powder, cinnamon, ginger, cloves, allspice, and nutmeg.

3. Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients and to that, add the melted butter, honey, egg, and milk. Next add the bananas. Stir together with a fork or wooden spoon until fully combined and just moistened. It will be somewhat lumpy. Mix in the chocolate chips.

4. Bake in preheated oven for 20 minutes, or until a knife inserted into the center comes out clean.

____________________________

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffins

Yes, I know that everything is pumpkin this time of year but I can’t help jumping on the bandwagon because I really do love pumpkin! We had plans to visit some good friends a few hours away this afternoon and I wanted to bake a treat to bring them but didn’t have a lot of time before we needed to get on the road. Muffins fit the bill well. Yummy fall flavors without a ton of prep work or long baking time.

After preheating the oven to 400F and readying my muffin tin, I got down to baking. In a large bowl I combined the dry ingredients, all-purpose flour, baking powder, granulated sugar, salt, ground cinnamon, a pinch of ground cloves, and grated nutmeg. Ground nutmeg would work fine too but the flavor from the freshly grated nutmeg is amazing so I try to always grate it if I have time.

In another bowl I whisked together the wet ingredients, eggs, whole milk, light brown sugar, granulated sugar, a stick of melted unsalted butter, and vanilla. I then added a cup of canned pumpkin purée.

I combined the wet ingredients with the dry ingredients and stirred until just moistened. I added in a cup of semi-sweet chocolate chips then divided the batter among the 16 muffin cups.

I baked them for 22 minutes, until a knife inserted into the center came out clean.

Pumpkin may be trendy this month but there’s a good reason why…it’s delicious!! I can’t promise there won’t be more pumpkin recipes to come here at The Dinner Pages over the next few weeks. Until we move into gingerbread season. Mmmmmm….

_____________________________
Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffins (adapted from Joy of Cooking)

Yield: 16 muffins

2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
2/3 cup granulated sugar, divided
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon
A pinch of ground cloves
1 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg (or 1 teaspoon ground nutmeg)
2 large eggs
1 cup milk
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, melted
1/3 cup packed light brown sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup canned pumpkin purée
1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

The Recipe
1. Preheat the oven to 400F. Prepare muffins tins with 16 paper liners or nonstick cooking spray
2. In a large bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, 1/3 cup sugar, salt, cinnamon, cloves, and nutmeg.
3. In a separate bowl, combine the eggs, milk, melted butter, brown sugar, the remaining 1/3 cup granulated sugar, and vanilla. Stir in the pumpkin purée.
4. Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and mix until just moistened. Add in the chocolate chips.
5. Divide the batter among the muffins cups. Bake for 22 minutes or until a knife inserted into the center of a muffin comes out clean.
______________________________

Name(required)

Email(required)

Website

Comment(required)

Submit

Δ