PBCC Breakfast Muffins

Einstein and Beethoven can step aside...the greatest creator was he (or she) who combined peanut butter and chocolate. Had these two entities, each glorious in their own right, not been brought together, we can be sure that the world would have crumbled, descended into utter chaos. We are forever grateful to you, oh combiner of peanut butter and chocolate, for making the world a sweeter place.

Today, I bring you a peanut butter chocolate chip breakfast muffin recipe. It is a slight adaptation of Weelicious's Breakfast Cupcakes. I took a delish and healthy recipe and made it something I could enjoy any time of day (or night). The recipe is great in original form, but I wanted something without "frosting". I found that the cupcake alone was a little bland. What to do, what to do...Chocolate Chips to the rescue! Actually, I didn't have to think at all. The first time I read over this little puppy, I wanted to add chocolate chips. Without the "frosting", I had my excuse.

So here is my version. I actually doubled the recipe for the photos. I was making an extra batch to share. The recipe below is for one batch, 12 regular sized muffins or 24 minis.

PBCC Breakfast Muffins

1 1/4 cup all purpose flour

2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 cup chocolate chips

1/4 cup peanut butter (or sub another creamy nut butter of your choice)

1 egg

2 Tbsp sugar

1 1/4 cup milk (I used 1% cow's, but you can sub)

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.

In a large bowl, mix together your dry ingredients...flour, baking powder, salt, and chocolate chips.

In a separate bowl, whisk the peanut butter, egg, and sugar until well combined. It will be wonky at first, but keep at it. They will emulsify. (Ignore the cinnamon and vanilla in the picture below. I was whipping up a whole slew of peanut butter based treats this morning, so they were for something else.)

Once that is well combined, whisk the milk into the peanut butter mixture. Make sure to scrape the sides of your bowl. You want all that peanut buttery goodness in your muffins. Plus, it's less to wash off the side of the bowl later.

Once your milk has been well incorporated, you will add the wet to the dry. There is a lot of debate over the wet-to-dry or dry-to-wet order. The general consensus seems to be that wet into dry causes less clumping. I don't know, I get them either way. Anyway, mix everything up, but don't over mix. This is a pancake batter based muffin, so it doesn't need to be perfectly smooth.

Now since I was making two batches, I made one regular sized muffins and one minis. No matter what size you are using, you will want to spray your muffin tins well. Typically, recipes tell you to fill the cups 2/3 full. HA! Fill them 3/4, or even slightly more, and you will get better muffin tops...on the muffin intself and on your pants from eating a bigger muffin! Ba-da-bum-ching!

Set your timer for 20 minutes. Both sizes took the same amount of time to cook although it's not a bad idea to keep an eye on things. I've made these a bunch of times, and they never really get golden on top. They shouldn't be shiny or wet looking, and you can always stick a toothpick in the middle to check for doneness.

After you remove them from the oven, let them cool in their pan for a few minutes, until you can handle them. Remove them from the tin, and cool on a wire rack.

These will keep several days in an airtight container, or you can individually wrap them to get a little extra time. Seriously though, between my love of pbcc, my husband's insane metabolism, and a picky-ish 3 year old, these never last more than a couple of days in my house. Enjoy!