It’s no secret that Shannon and I are big fans of peanut butter and jelly.
Shannon’s pbj ice cream, and my pbj birthday cake, we can hardly get enough of the stuff. Hardly a week goes by where I don’t consume at least one of my favorite pbj sandwiches (Jif Natural, creamy of course, with Favorit raspberry jam, and maybe a couple fruit slices or potato chips stuffed in for crunch). It’s impossible to resist.
So, it should surprise no one that Shannon’s choice for October’s Baked Occasionally series was the Peanut Butter & Jelly muffins from Baked Occasions.
You will have some batter (and streusel) left over, don’t try to stuff it into the muffin tins (or, read that line after you’ve been stuffing, whatever). If you use the fancy leaf muffin liners, you can use more batter and streusel than normal because they are taller and will hold more. This, however, will also add a few minutes to your baking time.
Tender, slightly sweet peanut butter muffins, filled with just a bit of sweet, sticky jam and topped with crunchy peanut streusel. There’s really not a single thing wrong with these.
What I liked:
- Easy to make – Despite being a filled and topped treat, these muffins were pretty easy to make, actually. I used a large scoop for the batter and a small scoop for the filling and it seemed to work out perfectly!
- Not too sweet – The flavor melds perfectly with sweet filling paired with a peanut-buttery muffin and topped with sweet, crunchy streusel. The muffin itself isn’t too sweet, which is good because it helps to keep this recipe nice and balanced without being tooth-achingly sweet.
What I didn’t like:
- The filling – Of course you need jelly for it to be “PB&J” and I didn’t really “dislike” the jelly, I just wasn’t sure how much it added to these guys. It felt like, if anything, it didn’t add enough jelly flavor for it to be worth the effort. I remember thinking that someone should invent “jelly chips” (like chocolate chips, but filled with jelly and without any chocolate!) and they would be great here because you could evenly dispense the jelly flavor. ANYWAY – If you weren’t up to the effort of dropping tiny spoonfulls of jelly into your muffin cups, you could definitely just serve it on the side, with the added bonus of everyone being able to choose their own jelly flavor!
- One more super tiny note – Again, more of a ‘note’ than a “dislike” really. A couple of my peanuts burned while baking, so you could either tent the muffins with foil for the last five minutes or so of baking, or you can just leave out the peanuts, either way will work just fine.
The Verdict:
- All in all? These are a winner! Bake some up for your next brunch or take them to work (your co-workers will thank you, trust me).
As always, my PIC (that’s “partner in crime”) Shannon has her own beautiful post right here where she shares her thoughts on the recipe, but with much prettier pictures. 🙂
Ingredients
- ½ cup (75 g) salted, roasted peanuts
- 1 cup (130 g) all-purpose flour
- 1?3 cup (75 g) dark brown sugar, firmly packed
- ½ teaspoon kosher salt
- 3 ounces (¾ stick/85 g) unsalted butter, melted and warm
- 1¾ cups (225 g) all-purpose flour
- ½ cup (100 g) granulated sugar
- ½ cup (110 g) dark brown sugar, firmly packed
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- ½ teaspoon kosher salt
- ½ cup (120 ml) whole milk, room temperature
- ½ cup (115 g) sour cream (not low-fat), room temperature
- ½ cup (130 g) creamy peanut butter
- 1?3 cup (75 ml) canola oil
- 1 large egg, room temperature
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- 1?3 to ½ cup jelly of choice
Instructions
- Finely chop peanuts and put in a medium bowl.
- Whisk in the flour, brown sugar, and salt.
- Pour melted butter over the mixture and fold the ingredients together until the mixture is crumb-like. If you press some together inside your fist, it should form a solid piece. Set aside.
- Preheat the oven to 400°F (205°C). Lightly spray each cup of a standard 12-cup muffin pan with nonstick cooking spray and use a paper towel to spread the oil evenly along the bottom and up the sides of each cup. Alternatively, you can line the muffin tin with liners.
- In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, both sugars, baking powder, cinnamon, baking soda, and salt, until well combined. Be sure to break up any lumps of brown sugar.
- In a separate bowl, whisk together the milk, sour cream, peanut butter, oil, egg, and vanilla.
- Make a well in the middle of the dry ingredients and pour the wet ingredients into the well.
- Fold the wet ingredients into the dry until just combined.
- Drop about 2 tablespoons of batter into each cup of the prepared muffin pan. Use the back of a clean, lightly oiled spoon (or silicone spoon) to flatten the batter and make a slight indentation into the center.
- Place 1 rounded teaspoon of jelly onto the muffin batter in each cup, being careful to keep it in the center of the cup.
- Top the jelly with another 2 tablespoons of muffin batter to cover the jelly completely, using the back of a spoon to gently spread the batter into an even layer. It's best to start on the outside of the muffin cup so that you don't spread the jelly towards the outside. The muffin cups should be not quite full.
- Note: You might end up with excess batter. Do not try to force it into the cups; simply make one or two extra muffins.
- Cover the surface of each muffin cup with a small handful of crumbs, pressing the mixture ever so gently so that it adheres to the top. If you use the pretty muffin liners , you can probably fit a very generous amount of streusel onto the top of the muffin, but will likely have some left over.
- Bake muffins, rotating halfway through the baking time, until the crumb topping turns a golden brown, 14 to 18 minutes.
- If a toothpick inserted into a muffin near the edge (avoiding the jelly center) should come out clean (disregarding any topping or jelly that might stick), bake them for a minute more—these muffins might sink in the middle if not baked all the way.
- Let the muffins cool almost completely in the pan on a cooling rack.
- If you used the aforementioned liners, removal is easy peasy. Otherwise, angle the muffin tin slightly and use a small offset spatula or a butter knife to coax the muffins out of their tins. Place muffins on the cooling rack until completely cool.
- These can be stored in an airtight container for 1 day, or wrapped in saran and stored in the freezer for up to a month.
Notes
- You will have extra batter and streusel topping from this. You can make an extra muffin or two, if you like and save some of the streusel, refrigerated, for another use.
- If you don't feel like filling your muffins, I think jelly would be just as good if not better served alongside these muffins, rather than filled.
- If you notice your topping browning a bit too quickly, tent the muffins with foil for the last 5 or 10 minutes of baking.
Bake along – Get the book here!
Check out Shannon’s post here.
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