Even though I’ve been engaged less than two months, I’ve already made great strides in wedding planning. For anyone who knows me, this probably doesn’t come as a big surprise. I’m very much a “planner”, as is Ryan, so we (mostly me) have taken off booking as many things as we can early on. We’ve got our date, venue, photographer, florist, DJ, color scheme (yellow, coral, and gray), hair/makeup team, transportation, and last weekend, I even bought my dress! Everything is really coming together, and I’m glad to have a lot of the big things taken care of so I can start focusing on the fun little details (including the dessert table, of course!). Everything is definitely becoming more “real” as the planning continues and I’m starting to envision myself as a bride. In this vision, there really isn’t much room for endless amounts of cupcakes, cookies, and ice cream in the next 10 months. So today I’m trying to pretend as if I’m actually starting to make changes in my diet by sharing these “healthy” muffins…
I based this recipe on a great batch of cinnamon chocolate chip muffins I made last winter that reminded me of bakery-style muffins. But to feign healthiness this time around, I substituted banana for the butter, opted for non-fat yogurt over low-fat, and used a combination of whole wheat and all purpose flour. The chocolate flavor here comes from unsweetened cocoa powder mixed in with the flour instead of chocolate chips, but I probably ruined my aim to cut fat/calories by adding a cup of peanut butter chips. Oh well, you can’t win them all. I could tell that these muffins tasted a bit more wholesome than most things that come from my oven, but our friends only commented on how good they were without knowing anything about the substitutions I made. They might not be as healthy as the breakfast blueberry banana muffins I posted a few years ago, but I was trying to make a healthier chocolate muffin that was delicious, not necessarily intending to replace your nutritionally balanced breakfast. So with that in mind, I’d say I succeeded :)
My favorite part of this recipe is how giant the muffins end up being – just like in a bakery. The recipe calls for the batter to be piled right to the top of the liner, and the muffins rise perfectly in a nice rounded dome. Of course if you were really trying to watch your diet, you could bake these as mini muffins and portion them out as mid-day snacks to appease that 3PM chocolate craving!
Chocolate Banana Peanut Butter Muffins
Yield: 12 (huge) muffins
Ingredients:
Chocolate Banana Peanut Butter Muffins
2 cups whole wheat flour
1 cup all purpose flour
2 tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder
1 tbsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 ripe large banana, mashed
1 cup sugar
2 large eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
1-1/2 cups non-fat yogurt
1 cup peanut butter chips
Directions:
Preheat oven to 375 degrees and line a 12 muffin tin with liners.
In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and cocoa powder.
In the bowl of an electric mixer, beat together banana and sugar. Adds eggs one at a time. Add vanilla.
Alternate adding yogurt and flour mixture to the mixer, starting and ending with the flour. Fold in peanut butter chips with a rubber spatula.
Divide batter evenly among muffin cups, filling them to the top or slightly higher. Bake for 20-25 minutes, or until a cake tester comes out clean.
Cool in the pan for 5 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.
Wow! it looks amazing…:)
Real, natural peanut butter would make these healthier still. They do sound yummy!
Just a heads up, you don’t have a measurement for the baking soda in the ingredients. :) Making these tonight!