March 27, 2011 // By : amybites // Tags: , , , , ,

Last night around midnight, I got the baking bug. Since it was a Saturday and I had nowhere to be in the morning, I decided to roll with it. I did a quick search on a few of my favorite blogs and came across these muffins on Annie’s Eats. However, they didn’t really have much redeeming nutritional value (something I try to avoid as much as possible when I’m baking just because I’m bored), so I modified them a bit to use whole wheat flour and throw in a banana to use up an overripe one I had lying around.
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Results: fantastic! My boyfriend and I gobbled some up right out of the oven (he had two!) at 12:30, which probably wasn’t the wisest life decision, but I have no regrets. These are best warm, so if you can resist shoving them all into your face just after baking, try heating one up in the microwave for about 15 seconds before eating so the chocolate chips are nice and gooey.
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These muffins are pretty much my perfect muffin. They’re perfect as part of breakfast or as a late-night snack. Chocolatey, peanut buttery, sweet but not overly so, and absolutely gorgeous with their perfectly rounded tops. My favorite way to eat a muffin is to pull off the top and eat that first, so I’m always disappointed when muffins are too small or flat to do that—not a problem with these! The banana flavor in these is extremely subtle, which I like—it adds a little something extra but you might not be able to pinpoint it right away if you didn’t know it was banana. You can use a larger banana or even two bananas to get a more pronounced banana flavor. Let’s do it!

Your cast of characters includes: white whole wheat flour (you can also use whole wheat or all-purpose), brown sugar, a medium banana, butter, vanilla, salt, chocolate chips, eggs, baking powder, milk, and peanut butter. I used a natural peanut butter (literally only peanuts), so keep in mind that if you use something like Jif, your muffins will be a little sweeter. If you want to balance that out, add a little less brown sugar.

First, preheat your oven to 375. Then, whisk together your flour, baking powder, salt, and brown sugar in a bowl. Set aside.

This lovely, appetizing photo includes all the wet ingredients: eggs, milk, mashed banana, melted butter, vanilla, and peanut butter. Mix this together until well combined.

Add your flour mixture in two batches, mixing until just combined. Then, stir in your chocolate chips.

Fill 12 muffin cups equally with your batter. Make sure you use paper liners—since these have chocolate chips, you don’t want the melty chocolate to stick to the sides or burn.

Bake for 17 to 20 minutes until the tops spring back to the touch. Let cool for a few minutes in the pan, then turn out onto a wire rack to finish cooling.

If you’re a chocolate and peanut butter fan, you’ll absolutely love these. And they’re whole wheat? Even better. My boyfriend claims he doesn’t like whole wheat flour, but he didn’t even notice these were whole wheat until I told him. And then he ate another one. This is why I love white whole wheat flour—it has all the benefits of whole wheat, but it’s much milder and better for sneaking into baked treats.

Quick tip—these aren’t the healthiest muffins I’ve ever posted. Yes, they’re whole wheat and don’t have a ton of butter or oil in them, but they do have peanut butter and chocolate in them, so don’t be fooled into thinking that you can eat six of these for breakfast.
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I’d actually recommend stretching the batter into 14 or 16 muffins since these muffins are rather large. That will bring the calorie/fat counts down quite a bit. You can also use a reduced-fat peanut butter (although it may not be quite as easy to mix into the batter), or use mini chocolate chips in about half the amount called for in order to get more mileage out of less chocolate. Or you could just enjoy these as they are and just savor the peanut buttery, chocolatey deliciousness in moderation (always a good thing). However you choose to make them, they’ll almost certainly be delicious.
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Enjoy!
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Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Muffins
Adapted from Annie’s Eats
Serves 12

  • 2 ¼ cups white whole wheat flour
  • 2 tsp. baking powder
  • ½ tsp. salt
  • 2/3 cup brown sugar
  • 6 tbsp. butter, melted and cooled
  • ½ cup peanut butter
  • 1 small-medium ripe banana, mashed
  • 2 large eggs
  • 1 cup low fat milk
  • 1 tsp. vanilla
  • ¾ cup chocolate chips

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Preheat oven to 375°.  Line a muffin pan with 12 paper liners.
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In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, salt and brown sugar.  Set aside.
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In a large bowl, beat together the mashed banana, melted butter, peanut butter, eggs and milk until smooth.  Add in the flour mixture and stir until just combined.  Stir in chocolate chips.  Divide batter evenly between prepared muffin tins, filling each to the top.
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Bake for 17-20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.  Allow to cool for 5 minutes in the pan, then remove to a wire rack to cool completely.

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Nutrition Facts
Serving: 1 muffin (if you make 12) – I’d suggest stretching to 14-16.
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Calories: 321
Fat: 15.7g
Cholesterol: 47.4mg
Sodium: 245mg
Carbohydrate: 41.6g
Fiber: 3.7g
Protein: 8g
Potassium: 158mg