Honey Peanut Butter Muffins

An oldie, but (updated) goodie! This is from the September 1981 issue of Self magazine. I thought I lost the recipe years ago. In vain I wrote to Self, checked the Internet, nothing. I found "almost" recipes, but none that called for whole wheat and chunky peanut butter, the only stand-out ingredients I could remember. The article by Abby Avin Belson was titled "Breakfast Success" focusing on powering up muffins with whole grains, milk and extra protein. And just by chance yesterday when I was sorting through old cookbooks, there it was - a Xeroxed page.

This was the original recipe -- 2 cups whole wheat flour...1 tablespoon baking flour...1 cup 2% milk...3/4 cup chunky peanut butter...2 large eggs lightly beaten...2 tablespoons honey...1 tablespoon molasses. I remembered how heavy these were, but that could have been attributed to a very young-20 something/living on my own kitchen experience.

So this morning I tried to lighten it up a little using skim milk instead of 2% and 1 whole egg and 1 egg white. And I loved how they turned out. Definitely lighter tasting and looked more like muffins instead of lumps. I also reduced the heat from 400 to 375 and baked for 12 minutes instead of 15-20 minutes. I also had enough batter to make 12 instead of 9, thereby reducing that original 271 calorie per muffin number further. Out of the oven warm with a little touch of butter, delish! When cooled, try a little grape jelly for a new style PBJ. They also freeze well.

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I also used Peter Pan Crunchy Peanut Butter - it had the lowest sodium of the other national and store brands. If you can find an organic crunchy, even better for you.