Twisted Peanut Butter Muffins

The Fall '10 What's Cooking (Kraft Foods magazine) came the other day, and there was a recipe for peanut butter muffins that I thought looked good. As I lay in bed this morning I contemplated these muffins for breakfast, and decided that plain peanut butter muffins might be a bit boring. "What goes with peanut butter?" I asked myself. Bananas, chocolate, and jam sounded good to me, so I mixed up a batch of muffins and divided the batter three ways to try them all! I think my favourite is peanut butter and jam. They were quite delicious for breakfast, still warm, with coffee. Yum!


Twisted Peanut Butter Muffins

1 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 cup sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup (Kraft light) crunchy peanut butter
1/4 cup hard margarine
1 cup skim milk
2 eggs, beaten

Preheat oven to 375*F and prepare a 12 cup muffin tin- grease, or line with paper liners.

Mix flours, sugar, baking powder and salt together in a large bowl. Cut in peanut butter and margarine with a pastry blender or 2 knives until mixture resembles coarse crumbs (as for making biscuits or scones). Add milk and eggs, stirring just until dry ingredients are moistened. (batter will be lumpy)

Peanut Butter & Banana Muffins: add a large, not over-ripe banana, cut into small chunks. Gently stir in banana pieces to distribute them evenly throughout the batter. Spoon batter into prepared muffin cups. Bake for 15-20 minutes, until risen and golden brown on top. Cool in pan 5 minutes, then remove to wire rack and cool completely before storing in airtight container.

Chocolate Peanut Butter Muffins: add 3/4 cup chocolate chips to batter, stirring gently to mix them in. Spoon batter into prepared muffin cups. Bake for 15-20 minutes, until risen and golden brown on top. Cool in pan 5 minutes, then remove to wire rack and cool completely before storing in airtight container.

PB & J:  Spoon batter into prepared muffin cups. Add a teaspoonful of strawberry jam* to the centre of each muffin-cup of batter. Bake for 15-20 minutes, until risen and golden brown on top. Cool in pan 5 minutes, then remove to wire rack and cool completely before storing in airtight container. *cut down calories/carbs and increase fibre by adding a cup of chopped fresh or frozen strawberries.


Nutrition Facts (as supplied by Kraft Canada, for plain muffin made with light peanut butter) 
per muffin: 200 calories, 9g fat, (1.5g saturated fat) 30 mg cholesterol, 270 mg sodium, 26g* carbohydrates, 2g fibre, 11g sugars, 6g protein.
*add 2.5g carbs (for 28.5g carb) to PB&Banana muffin
*add 7g carbs (for 33g carb) to Chocolate PB muffin
*add 2-5 carbs (for 28-31 carb, depending on the jam you use-check the label) to PB&J muffin. Strawberry pieces will add about 1g carb per muffin.
*you can lower the carb count further by using Splenda artificial sweetener instead of sugar. Try 1/3 cup instead of 1/2 cup sugar.