The Best Peanut Butter Muffins

The Best Peanut Butter Muffins. No fork needed.

Peanut Butter Muffins

Do your kids like peanut butter? Mine do: For all but one, they eat it like it's going out of fashion. Which it is in our house as I only buy it in limited quantities, they'd never stop eating it other wise :)

I know the usual way to eat peanut butter for a lot of us is slathered on hot toast in the mornings (or late at night if you're my husband!) but there's a whole load of ways to use peanut butter in baking and cooking, so one day whilst I was whiling away some 'waiting in the car' time flicking through recipes and planning our week it hit me - Peanut butter muffins.

And we're all very glad it did!

Nut butter is popular and it's gotten more so in the last few years as people have become more aware of the benefits of nuts and less concerned about their fat content. Peanut butter is by a long shot the most popular, but you can also get almond butter, in fact you can get pretty much any type of nut butter now, depending on where in the world you are.

Nut butters are not always cheap, and the better quality the pricier they are of course, but it's worth finding one that's not got palm oil in it.

Any nut butters should really only be made from...nuts! Some may have a little salt added to them, this is fine, but many have added oils and I avoid this.

These are not the first peanut butter muffins I made. I tried to do a few things but the result was never pea-nutty enough and so I went back to basics, started again and this is the result!

I took out the butter altogether and replaced it with the peanut butter entirely and the result? A beautifully simple, full of taste, pea-nutty muffin. Nothing fancy, no particular skills needed, just a basic muffin mix that works!

I add olive oil to these as peanut butter when heated can be drying. The oil keeps these muffins moist.

This little snack is really good.

There's no refined sugar, I use honey to add sweetness (you can use maple syrup)and whole wheat flour. As far as snacks go, these are good.

Plus you get the extra protein hit from the peanuts. Yay!

What's The Best Peanut Butter To Use?

As mentioned, there's a whole array of nut butters in shops these days, but they are not all made equal! Find one without palm oil and the ingredients list should have one ingredient: Peanuts. Two ingredients if you're counting salt :)

I don't always buy Organic peanut butter, I do if it's on offer but the price increase starts to jump too much for us when you get into Organic territory. I'd suggest having a look in your local stores and finding a decent one that won't break the bank.

Crunchy Or Smooth?

I've gone smooth with these muffins for two reasons. One: Because I had it in the pantry and Two: I didn't want complaints about 'bits'. The kids don't complain about the nutty bits when it's on their toast, but just in case....they do have a habit of changing their minds like the wind!

There's no baking reason to use one over the other in this recipe, it really comes down to your preference.

Make Your Own Peanut Butter

If you're a Super Mom, feel free to make your own peanut butter! It's simple enough to make providing you have a really powerful blender.

Simply buy the desired quantity of peanuts, unsalted preferably, and shelled, and then...blend. You'll need to scrape the sides of the blender down several times as the nuts are initially dry and so will stick to the sides, but once they start to release their natural oils you'll suddenly see the familiar texture of peanut butter appear. It's magical!

More Muffin Recipes

• Cheese and carrot muffins
• Breakfast muffins
• Yummy cinnamon muffins
• Fresh cherry muffins
• Cheesy mashed potato muffins
• Pear and cinnamon muffins

Storing These Muffins

As with most muffins I make they can be stored in an airtight container for 3 days. They'll keep their freshness and flavor for this time, if they last that long.

I always used to make 12 muffins for the very professional reason of the fact I owned a 12 hole muffin tin and then one day I bought a 6 hole muffin tin and so now I tend a make a smaller batch where we all get one (I know, shocking!) and then make something else. So there's never really much to store, but they will keep for 3 days if you need them to.

Of course, to make a larger batch than the 6 I've given you the ingredients for here, just multiply the recipe.

Freezing

You can also freeze these if you'd like to. This makes them handy to have as a 'make ahead' muffin, just take them out of the freezer to thaw overnight and they're ready to eat come morning.

I leave them on the kitchen worktop and cover them with food wrap but don't put them in the fridge, the cold temperature is too drying.

If you're going to try freezing these, let them become 100% cold after baking before popping them in the freezer. I also recommend freezing them in sandwich bags and getting as much air out of the bag as possible before freezing.

Variations

These are about as simple as you get but as usual you don't have to stop there! Here's some things you could add into these muffins that would work well:

• Chocolate chips - Peanut butter and chocolate chips. No explanation needed! I'd add half a cup to this recipe
• Vanilla extract - Vanilla works well as gives adds some extra flavor and sweetness
• Apple - Try adding an a quarter of a cup of grated apple. This will give your muffins a touch more moisture without making them soggy and gives you a subtle taste of apple without taking away the peanut butter flavor
• You could also make this muffin recipe as a loaf and then slice it up. Increase the cooking time by 10 minutes if you're going to do this and keep an eye on it. Pierce a skewer into the middle of the loaf when it looks done to make sure it's cooked all the way through

How To Make Peanut Butter Muffins

Ingredients

• 1 Large Egg Whisked
• 1 Cup Wholewheat flour All purpose
• ½ Cup Peanut butter See the post for which peanut butter to use
• ½ Cup Honey Or maple syrup
• ¼ Cup Milk Dairy milk, Oat milk etc...
• 2 tsp Olive oil
• 1 tsp Cinnamon
• 1 tsp Baking powder
• ¼ tsp Salt

Instructions

• Heat your oven to 200c or 390f depending on your oven
• Either grease a muffin pan or line the muffin tin with paper liners
• In a large bowl add the flour, baking powder, cinnamon and salt
• In another bowl whisk the egg and then add the honey and olive oil and combine. Then add the peanut butter and combine into the mixture. Heat your peanut butter in the microwave for 30 seconds to loosen it if it's too firm to mix. This can take a little work, a few minutes of whisking will have the peanut butter well mixed in
• Add the wet mixture to the flour mixture and stir to combine. Try not to 'over mix' during this point. Add the milk to stir it through to combine
• Divide the batter into the muffin tin or muffin cups whichever you've used and bake for 16-18 minutes until the muffins are golden on top and coked through
• Cool on a wire rack and then tuck in!

Peanut Butter Muffin Recipe