Peanut Butter and Chocolate Chip Muffins

Peanut butter and chocolate is a winning combination no matter how you look at it. If it weren’t, there wouldn’t be nearly so many chocolate and peanut butter confections in the candy aisle at the store. But candy isn’t the only place where you can pair these two flavors. I matched them up in this muffin recipe, adding chocolate chips to a peanut buttery muffin for a rather indulgent breakfast or brunch snack.

I chose to use milk chocolate chips, rather than the semisweet or dark chocolate I usually use. I think that milk chocolate and peanut butter work very well together (possibly because milk and peanut butter really go hand-in-hand), and the milk chocolate chips add an extra bit of sweetness to the not-too-sweet muffin base. You should certainly free to substitute a darker chocolate chip if that is your preference, and if you want to make this extra indulgent (or want to really impress at a bake sale), use chopped up peanut butter cup-type candies, like Reese’s.

I will also note that I used a natural peanut butter that had minimal salt and sugar added into it. The recipe should work out just as well using a more commercial peanut butter, but the flavor will be slightly different since they tend to have more sugar and salt in those butters. Feel free to use chunky peanut butter or smooth, depending on what you have on hand at home and whether you want any extra bits of nut in your muffins.

I have come to expect that peanut butter cakes/muffins/cupcakes, unfortunately, sometimes turn out to be a bit dry and much denser than their non-peanut butter counterparts. Happily, that was not the case with these muffins. They were surprisinly moist and had a relatively light crumb, giving them an almost cake-like texture. But since they are muffins and not cupcakes, they are still sturdy enough to hold up to a spread of peanut butter or cream cheese, if you want to top your muffin off before you eat it.

Peanut Butter and Milk Chocolate Chip 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 crunchy peanut butter (or smooth)
2 large eggs
1 cup milk (low fat or skim is fine)
3/4 cup milk chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 375F. Line a a standard 12-cup muffin tin with paper liners.
In a large bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, salt and brown sugar.
In a medium bowl, whisk together the melted butter, peanut butter, eggs and milk until smooth. Pour into flour mixture and stir until just combined. Stir in chocolate chips. Batter will be thick.
Divide batter into your paper-lined muffin tin. Each cup should be filled to the top, not just half way up, to ensure you get a nice dome on the muffin.
Bake for 17-20 minutes, until a tester comes out clean and the top of the muffin springs back when lightly pressed.
Cool on a wire rack.

Makes 12.