Apple and Peanut Butter Muffins

As soon as I found out that apples would be our first ingredient, I knew that I wanted to do something with peanut butter. Apples and peanut butter have been a favorite snack of mine for years. I remember the first time I had it was sitting in a friend's dorm room her freshman year of college. I wanted a snack, typical, and it was all she had available. There's something about the combination of apples and peanut butter that feels both decadent and wholesome. It's sweet and salty, crisp and creamy, and fairly guiltless...

I wanted a way to transfer those qualities into something breakfast related and portable (i.e. I can eat it in the car on the way to work without worrying about smearing peanut butter all over the steering wheel). A muffin seemed like a good bet. I used this recipe from the Pajama Chef as the starting off point- I really liked her use of the peanut butter chips instead of actual peanut butter- but I made a few tweaks based on what I did and didn't have on hand.

Apple and Peanut Butter Chip Muffins

Ingredients:

• 2 cups all purpose flour (feel free to sub out a cup for whole wheat flour, if that's your thing)
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
• 2 teaspoons cinnamon
• 2 cups diced apples (I used a mix of Fuji and Granny Smith apples, I also left the peel on because I'm lazy and who has time to peel apples?)
• 3/4 cup unsweetened apple juice (shhh... I used unsweetened apple sauce and watered it down)
• 1/3 cup coconut oil (you can use canola, instead)
• 1 egg
• 1/4 cup - 1/2 cup peanut butter chips (approximately)

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Line muffin tin with paper liners or spray with cooking spray.
2. In a large bowl, stir together dry ingredients: flour, sugar, brown sugar, baking powder and cinnamon.
3. Remove about 1/4 cup of the dry mix and toss with diced apples. 
4. Whisk together apple juice, coconut oil and egg. Pour into dry ingredients and stir until just moistened. (The more you stir, the heavier your muffins will be. You don't want this.)
5. Fold in apples, then peanut butter chips. I liked a lot of chips in mine, adjust according to your own taste.
6. Bake for 15-17 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Let cool on a rack before storing.

These made 12 normal sized muffins for me. Obviously, they were best warm and straight from the oven, but they also held up well the next day. My co-workers gobbled them up. They get really moist on day two due to all the apple, so I don't think they'd be very good if you held on to them longer than that.

They're not too sweet and the apple flavor is definitely the dominant one here, but the peanut butter chips add a nice richness and slightly salty kick every other bite. I would totally make these again.