I have been pretty good with my food consumption lately. I have been trying to stick to a mostly Paleo diet, however, the urge to bake struck me like a ton of bricks. I could no longer ignore the desire inside of me to whip up a batch of muffins. There were two ways that this could have ended up, I could have looked for a healthy muffin, loaded with fruit and whole grains, but instead, I opted to make a decadent treat full of peanut butter and chocolaty goodness.

I went to the internet and typed in chocolate peanut butter muffin. The first one that appeared was the one that I decided to make. I was definitely on a mission. I wanted to bake, I wanted it to be chocolate and peanut butter and I wanted it now! 🙂

At first glance, I thought that the recipe was just a peanut butter muffin with chocolate chips, but it actually included some cocoa powder as well, so these are basically a double chocolate peanut butter muffin – AWESOME!

As I gathered up all the ingredients, I saw that softened butter was part of the list. Oh No! This is definitely one of those moments when I regret not having a microwave. But, I calmed down and asked myself, what would Grandma do. I mean, she didn’t have a microwave when she was baking for her family. I took the butter out of the fridge, put it on a plate and placed it over the heat vent from the oven (as the oven was preheating). I kept scraping the softened butter off until I had the 1/3 cup that was called for. Phew, disaster diverted!

I mixed all the ingredients together and once I had my muffin batter (it was really thick) I decided to use my cookie scoop to make each muffin uniform in size. See, watching countless hours of the Food Network has taught me something, they use cookie or ice cream scoops all the time on Cupcake Wars!

I may have sampled some of the raw muffin batter. Because it was so thick (almost like cookie dough) I thought it would taste like cookie dough, but it wasn’t as sweet. It was still good, but not the same as a scrumptious bite of perfect cookie dough.

When the muffins were finally done, I couldn’t wait to sample one. I literally took one as soon as they came out of the oven. They definitely satisfied my craving for baked goods. Now the question I have to ask myself is “Am I back on the baking train?” Only time will tell (or this weekend!) 😉

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Adapted from:
About.com – Chocolate Peanut Butter Muffins

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup peanut butter
• 1/3 cup butter, softened
• 3/4 cup brown sugar
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 2 eggs
• 2 tsp vanilla
• 1 3/4 cups flour
• 1/4 cup cocoa powder
• 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 2/3 cup almond milk
• 1 cup milk chocolate chips

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 350°F.
2. Line 12 muffin cups with paper liners and set aside. In large bowl, combine 1/2 cup peanut butter and softened butter and beat well until combined. Add brown sugar and sugar and beat until light and fluffy. Add eggs and vanilla and beat well.
3. In sifter or sieve, combine flour, cocoa, baking powder, and baking soda. Sift into peanut butter mixture; add milk, and stir until batter is smooth. Fold in 1 cup chocolate chips. Spoon batter into prepared muffin cups.
4. Bake for 18-20minutes or until muffins spring back when touched in center. Remove to wire racks to cool.
5. Chocolate and Peanut Butter – the perfect flavour combination 🙂