Peanut Butter and Nutella Muffins

Listen up, readers... today is a very, very special day. It's World Nutella Day. You heard that right... a whole day devoted to chocolatey, hazelnutty, spreadable goodness. I dare say it's better than Christmas.

Bloggers Sara from Ms. Adventures in Italy and Michelle from Bleeding Espresso declared February 5th "World Nutella Day 2010" - a day to celebrate, to get creative with, and most importantly, to EAT Nutella. If you caught the recent crepes post, you know that Nutella holds a special place in my heart. So I am warmly embracing World Nutella Day by sharing a recipe for Peanut Butter and Nutella muffins.

This is adapted from Cooking Light's recipe for Peanut Butter and Jelly muffins. I ended up filling half of the muffins with Nutella and half with the jelly... they are delicious either way. The Nutella doesn't soak into the muffins as nicely as the jam does, so it might be fun to swirl it into the muffins next time. For now, the problem is solved by spreading some extra Nutella on top!

 

Peanut Butter and Nutella (or Jelly) Muffins
adapted from Cooking Light

Ingredients:
1  cup  all-purpose flour (about 4 1/2 ounces)
3/4  cup  whole wheat pastry flour (about 3 1/2 ounces)
1/4  cup  granulated sugar
1/4  cup  packed dark brown sugar
1  tablespoon  baking powder
1/2  teaspoon  salt
1 1/4  cups  milk
1/3  cup  creamy peanut butter
1 egg, lightly beaten
2  tablespoons  butter, melted
1  teaspoon  vanilla extract
Cooking spray
1/4  cup Nutella (or your favorite jam... or some of each!)

Directions:

Preheat oven to 400°.

Lightly spoon flours into dry measuring cups; level with a knife. Combine flours, sugars, baking powder, and salt in a large bowl; stir with a whisk. Make a well in center of mixture. Combine milk and next 4 ingredients (through vanilla); add to flour mixture, stirring just until moist.

Spoon batter into 12 muffin cups coated with cooking spray. Fill each cup half full with batter. Spoon 1 teaspoon Nutella/jam into each cup. Spoon remaining batter on top to cover Nutella/jam (be extra careful during this step... the jam has a tendency to leak out).

Bake at 400° for 20 minutes or until muffins spring back when touched lightly in center. Let cool in pan 5 minutes. Remove from pan, and cool on a wire rack.

Makes 12 muffins.

Download a printable recipe.
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