Chocolate Peanut Butter Muffins

Published: May 12, 2025 · Modified: Jun 24, 2025 by Nicole Kendrick · This post may contain affiliate links · 48 Comments

Our chocolate peanut butter muffins recipe combines moist, tender muffins with the classic flavor combination that everyone loves. Made with better-for-you ingredients, these muffins let you enjoy sweet, delicious flavor with zero guilt. Dig in!

A chocolate muffin with peanut butter chips on a plate.

Quick Look: Chocolate Peanut Butter Muffins

⏱ Prep Time: 10 minutes
🔥 Cook Time: 25 minutes
⏳ Total Time: 35 minutes
🥜 Serving: 9 muffins
⚡ Calories: 198 calories per muffin
🍂 Flavor Profile: Moist cake with tastes of peanut butter in every bite
👌 Difficulty: Easy - Your new favorite breakfast is now ready!

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We love our desserts, but we also love keeping things at least somewhat healthy. To that end, we usually use alternatives to refined sugars and butter to help create delicious desserts and treats that have all the sweetness we love but less bad stuff.

These chocolate peanut butter muffins are moist, tender, and loaded with peanut butter chocolate flavor, but just like our dairy-free corn muffins, we make them with ingredients that don't load them up with harmful ingredients.

These muffins have a classic flavor, but we use yogurt and avocado oil for moisture in place of butter and honey in place of sugar. They create muffins that are much better for you but still taste as delicious as their regular counterparts. Pair them with these spinach feta egg bites for a fun breakfast loaded with flavor.

And just like the traditional version, these moist, tender muffins and their chocolate peanut butter flavor make a great dessert, especially when paired with bold dishes like these stuffed poblano peppers with chicken and cream cheese or this Ground Chicken and Sweet Potato Recipe.

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Quick Look: Chocolate Peanut Butter Muffins
Why You'll Love This Recipe
Ingredients
Flavor Variations
Equipment
Instructions
Expert Tips
Pairing Suggestions
FAQ
More Delicious Muffin Recipes
Chocolate Peanut Butter Muffins
💬 Comments

Why You'll Love This Recipe

Basic Ingredients: Like our gluten free pumpkin cake, this recipe uses basic baking ingredients. Even the replacement ingredients are found in any grocery store, so you don't have to track down anything special.
Easy to Make: This is a basic muffin recipe, so you'll just mix, scoop, and bake. That's it!
Classic Flavor: The chocolate batter and peanut butter chips create a classic flavor combination that every chocolate and peanut butter lover craves.
Moist and Tender: Using yogurt and avocado oil actually makes these muffins more moist and tender than they would be using traditional butter.
Versatile: These make the perfect sweet breakfast or afternoon snack, dessert, or appetizer at parties.
Freezer-Friendly: These muffins can be frozen, making them perfect for meal prep.
Better for You: Honey in place of sugar and brown sugar and oil in place of butter makes these muffins a better-for-you choice.

Ingredients

Dry Ingredients

Flour and Baking Soda: Most muffins require flour, and baking soda makes them rise.
Unsweetened Cocoa Powder: Cocoa powder gives the muffins their deep, rich chocolate flavor.
Cinnamon: Cinnamon adds a warm, earthy note that complements both the chocolate and peanut butter flavors in the muffins.
Peanut Butter Chips: Peanut butter baking chips add pops of peanut butter flavor in every bite of these muffins.

Wet Ingredients

Yogurt: Yogurt helps make the muffins tender and soft without using butter.
Avocado Oil: Avocado oil adds the fat necessary for the muffins to get tender without the need for butter.
Eggs: Eggs add moisture and bind the batter together.
Milk: Milk adds more moisture to the muffins, helping make them soft.
Honey: Honey sweetens the muffins without refined sugar and adds a deeper flavor.
Vanilla Extract: Vanilla adds a richness that accentuates the other ingredients. We prefer Singing Dog vanilla for its quality, purity, and deep vanilla flavor.

See the recipe card at the end of the post for a full list of ingredients and their exact amounts.

Flavor Variations

Add Nuts: Chopped peanuts add more peanut flavor and texture to the muffins.
Coffee: Add a bit of strong coffee to accentuate the chocolate flavor of the muffins.
Deeper Chocolate Flavor: Dutched cocoa adds even deeper chocolate flavor with no bitterness.
Even Healthier: Use a blend of flour and whole wheat flour.
Flour: We use a 1:1 gluten-free flour to make these gluten-free muffins, but all-purpose flour will work as well.
Dairy Free: Use dairy free yogurt, dairy free peanut butter chips, and almond milk for a dairy free muffins.
Frosted: For even more chocolate and peanut butter flavor, try frosting these muffins with the peanut butter cream cheese frosting used in our gluten free dairy free banana cake recipe.
Muffins for All: Use both gluten and dairy free ingredients for muffins that anyone except those with nut allergies can enjoy.

Equipment

Measuring cups and spoons
Mixing bowls
Muffin tin
Muffin liners
Whisk
Wire cooling rack

Instructions

Line a cupcake or muffin pan with 9 liners and preheat the oven to 325 degrees.
Whisk all the dry ingredients in a medium mixing bowl.
Whisk the wet ingredients in a large mixing bowl.
Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and mix until just combined. Then, fold in the peanut butter chips.
Use a large cookie scoop to fill the muffin liners about ⅔ full. At this point, you can top them with more peanut butter chips if you like.
Bake the muffins until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.
Remove the muffins from the oven and let them cool in the pan for about 10 minutes. Then, transfer them to a wire rack to cool completely.

Expert Tips

Bring all your cold ingredients to room temperature for more efficient mixing and less gluten formation.
Mix your muffin ingredients until just combined. This helps keep the muffins soft and tender.
Let your muffin batter rest for 5 to 10 minutes before baking to get nice, high crowns.
We find that tulip muffin lines make it so easy to remove the muffins. Just grab the tops and pop them out!

Pairing Suggestions

These muffins are the perfect sweet breakfast or afternoon snack with a glass of milk, a cup of coffee, or a cup of tea. They're also a simple, delicious dessert after a meal like crock pot rosemary chicken or baked chipotle chicken.

An overhead shot of chocolate peanut butter muffins in a muffin tin.

FAQ

Is melted butter or oil better for muffins?

Butter and oil both work well in muffins. The choice really comes down to personal preference. Butter adds more flavor, while oil has a neutral flavor that lets the other ingredients shine. Butter also often makes baked goods rise more than oil.

What is the secret to moist muffins?

Moist muffins need fat as well as moisture. A combination of butter, yogurt, or sour cream and oil yields incredibly moist and tender results. In addition, mixing the batter until just combined and not overbaking are both crucial to tender, moist muffins.

What is the most common mistake when making muffins?

The most common, and perhaps the most detrimental, mistake made when making muffins is overmixing the batter. Muffin batter should be mixed until just combined. NO SMOOTH BATTER. Overmixing the batter makes them tough and dense.

More Delicious Muffin Recipes