When I was growing up, the only way to bake something was from scratch.
I never knew brownie mixes, pancake mixes or any other kind of pre-packaged just-add-water mix existed until I was in my teens.
And by then I was lost. Because once you’ve been raised on homemade breads, cakes, cookies, waffles and pancakes, there’s no deviating from the course. “Store bought” becomes the equivalent of “tasteless.” (The exception might be Pepperidge Farm’s Milano cookies!)
In the past few years, the quest has been to come up with recipes for baked goods that are actually good for you and not comprised solely of white flour, white sugar and fat.
It’s not easy, especially since I won’t use artificial anything (including sweeteners), which I happen to think are more harmful than eating the real thing. And btw: You’ll never find me adding salt to my recipes. Ever. And I promise, you won’t miss it.
I’ve been hard at work, and these peanut butter muffins are definitely one of my success stories.
They’re fun to make and delicious to eat. And wow — do they make your house smell good! (And yeah, I know the last 2 ingredients don’t qualify as health food. But I usually go by the 80-20 rule: If it’s 80% healthy, you have some leeway with the remaining 20%)
PEANUT BUTTER MUFFINS
Preheat oven to 375 and line 12 muffin cups with wrappers and grease lightly.
Mix together the dry ingredients:
- 2 C white whole wheat flour (I use King Arthur)
- 3 tsp. baking powder
In separate bowl, whisk together:
- 1/4 C honey
- 2/3 C peanut butter (I use whatever I have at hand, usually Skippy creamy. I prefer the freshly ground PB by itself on crackers or bread.)
- 2 scant Tbs. canola oil
- 2 eggs (or 1 egg and 2 whites)
- 1 C skim milk
- 1 tsp. pure vanilla extract
Gently add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients, then fold in:
- 1/2 C Heath milk chocolate toffee bits
- 1/2 C Hershey’s special dark chocolate chips
Fill muffin cups a little more than 2/3 full with batter and bake about 17 minutes, or until a knife inserted in the center comes out clean.
And don’t forget to tell me what you think of them!
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