Boston Cream Pie & Peanut Butter and Chocolate Chip Muffins

I've been updating a lot lately, but I won't be doing this as often once school starts back up again. I also don't normally bake this often. I used to only do it for social events, special occasions (e.g., birthdays), and during finals to relieve stress, but I've been baking a lot lately because I have a lot of free time.

* My camera dies every few seconds, but then somehow it revives itself, which is when I quickly snap my pictures...so if the quality or lighting is bad, that's why. Sorry.

Tonight I baked because I had a major craving for something sweet after making a Boston cream pie for my friend last night (and I was craving something good after the sorta-gross pumpkin scones):

I guess it did get a little brown (it shouldn't have been though because I took it out a couple of minutes before the minimum amount of time)...but at least it's not black!! I didn't like the ugly parts, so I smoothed down the chocolate over them. I'm not sure how this one turned out because I only licked the spoons of the chocolate and the custard. I hope my friend liked it! If it turned out like the one we made for our other friend a couple of years ago, it was good...I think (we used the same recipe). Can't remember. Anyways, HERE is the recipe for that from The Prepared Pantry.

ANYWAYS, here's what this post is mainly about:

PEANUT BUTTER AND CHOCOLATE CHIP MUFFINS


* bad flash/lighting...I know...

I found the original recipe at BakingBites.com, one of my favorite food blogs.

Here is my recipe (the only changes were that I used semi-sweet choc. chips and I cut down on the brown sugar):

2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
2/3 cup brown sugar (a little less)
6 tbsp butter, melted and cooled (actually, I used part of a margarine bar)
1/2 cup crunchy peanut butter
2 large eggs
1 cup non-fat milk
3/4 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
1. Preheat oven to 375F. Line a 12-cup muffin tin with paper liners.
2. In a large bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, salt and brown sugar.
3. In a medium bowl, whisk together the melted butter, peanut butter, eggs and milk until smooth. Pour into flour mixture and stir until just combined. Stir in chocolate chips.
4. Divide batter into muffin tin, filling each cup to the top.
5. Bake for 17-20 minutes, until a toothpick comes out clean and the top of the muffin springs back when lightly pressed.
6. Cool on a wire rack (or just on a plate or tray).

Makes 12. * It really did make 12 full muffins; the picture is misleading because I ate the 12th one.

THE RESULTS:
* I love these because the muffin base itself isn't too sweet and the tops are PERFECT for muffin-top lovers (they're nice and big!). They were easy to make too! I would definitely make them again. I like the little bits of peanuts too. AND they smelled wonderful. I think the peanut butter flavor could be stronger, but since Nicole, the creator of BakingBites.com, says that peanut butter tends to make baked goods dry and dense, I'm not sure if adding more peanut butter would be a good idea. I think anyone else would like the peanut butter flavor though...I tend to not be able to taste pumpkin in pumpkin foods, so maybe there's something wrong with my taste buds. Also, I had trouble whisking the peanut butter in with the rest of the ingredients because the peanut butter kept getting stuck inside the whisk. Had to use my (clean) finger quite a bit. Overall, YUMMY. I plan on freezing these and saving them for when this semester starts stressing me out.