Flourless Chocolate Peanut Butter Muffins are made with better-for-you ingredients!
Chocolate Peanut Butter Muffins
These muffins are amazing! They call for healthier ingredients and require very little sugar, compared with most muffins (like these Chocolate Muffins!). Plus, there is no wheat flour used. If you’re gluten intolerant, you’ll appreciate the absence of wheat flour!
One of my favorite things about these muffins is that there are no strange ingredients that you probably wouldn’t have on hand or know exactly where they are in your grocery store. Often, healthy muffin recipes call for specialty flours, oil, or sweeteners, and my goal is to use easily accessible mainstream ingredients. And — of course — at no sacrifice to flavor!
I mentioned that Chocolate Peanut Butter Muffins are flourless; instead of using white flour, or even whole wheat flour, we use oats. The oats are blended into a powdery oat flour. No need to buy this from the store, since it literally takes seconds to make at home.
How to make oat “flour”
- Place old-fashioned or quick oats in a food processor or small blender jar.
- Pulse the oats until they are ground into a powder-like consistency that resembles flour (see photo above on the right).
- Stir the oats around to be sure that all the oats have been finely ground.
- Measure the oat flour for these muffins after it’s been turned to flour and not in the original whole oat form. Two tablespoons isn’t a lot, but contributes to the overall stability and flavor of these muffins.
Chocolate Peanut Butter Muffin ingredients
- Cocoa powder: Use natural cocoa powder, not a Dutch-process cocoa powder. I’ve tested these muffins with Dutch-process cocoa powder, and it does not work in these muffins!
- Oat flour. More on this in the section above.
- Baking soda, baking powder, salt. These baking agents help ensure a nice crumb and rise. Here’s how to make sure your baking soda and powder are fresh.
- Creamy peanut butter. Make sure to use creamy, not chunky, peanut butter in these muffins. If using natural peanut butter, be sure it is well mixed and incorporated (not separated or overly oily) before adding.
- Unsweetened applesauce. If using sweetened applesauce, you’ll want to reduce the amount of brown sugar.
- Vanilla Greek yogurt. Our favorite yogurt to use in these muffins is Honey Vanilla Greek yogurt (made by Greek Gods® — not sponsored). Whatever yogurt you choose to use, make sure you like it plain or you likely won’t love it in these muffins.
- Vanilla extract. Vanilla adds a nice flavor to the muffins. It’s not entirely necessary, so don’t worry if you don’t have any to add.
- Brown sugar. This recipe only uses 2 tablespoons, but if you aren’t used to healthier baked goods, you may want to increase the brown sugar to 4 tablespoons.
- Honey. This natural sweetener adds additional sweetness. The reason we use part honey and part brown sugar is because too much honey makes these muffins too moist.
- Egg. These muffins need one large egg; I have not personally tested using egg alternatives.
- Dark chocolate chips: To keep these Chocolate Peanut Butter Muffins more on the nutritious side, we’re using dark chocolate. Dark chocolate has essential fats your body needs and is a powerful source of antioxidants. (Source.)
Quick Tip
If you are eating a gluten-free diet, these muffins are a great addition! While no gluten is added to this recipe, be careful to read the labels on the baking products you buy. Some contain gluten where you wouldn’t expect it, and others are made in a facility with gluten and may be exposed to cross-contamination with gluten products.
Tips
- Generously grease the muffin tin. I don’t recommend muffin liners in this recipe; the batter sticks to the liners. Make sure to really grease the cavities well. Of course, a good muffin tin also makes a world of difference. These tins are my absolute favorite, and I’ve never had a problem with these muffins not releasing nicely.
- Add a few dark chocolate chips on top. I like to add three or four extra chocolate chips on top of each muffin before putting them into the oven. Not only does this make the tops look nicer, it also ensures there is a chocolate chip in every bite!
More healthy baked goods
- Healthy Zucchini Bread with Greek yogurt
- Gluten-Free Apple Muffins with almond butter
- Healthy Pumpkin Muffins with dark chocolate chips
- Peanut Butter Granola with coconut
- Healthy Banana Muffins with Greek yogurt
Chocolate Peanut Butter Muffins
Equipment
- Muffin pan
Ingredients
- Cooking spray
- 1/4 cup cocoa powder
- 2 tablespoons oat flour see note 1
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 2 tablespoons light brown sugar lightly packed
- 1/2 cup creamy peanut butter
- 1/4 cup unsweetened applesauce see note 2
- 1/4 cup vanilla Greek yogurt
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 2 tablespoons honey
- 1 large egg
- 5 tablespoons dark chocolate chips
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350โ. Generously spray 8 of the muffin pan cavities with cooking spray, but don't use muffin liners!
- In a large bowl, stir together the cocoa powder, oat flour (see note 1), baking soda, baking powder, salt, and brown sugar.
- In a separate bowl, combine the peanut butter, applesauce, Greek yogurt, vanilla, honey, and egg. Mix until completely combined.
- Add dry ingredients on top of wet and chocolate chips on top of that. Stir until just combined. Transfer the batter into the prepared muffin tin. If desired, top each muffin with a few more chocolate chips.
- Bake for 18โ22 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Remove and let cool in the muffin tin for 2โ4 minutes and then gently coax out onto a cooling rack to finish cooling.
Video
Recipe Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
These are incredible! They turn out better than normal muffin recipes, theyโre super moist. I started adding a scoop of my protein powder, which doesnโt affect the texture at all. Thanks for the awesome recipe!
So happy to hear that!! Thanks for the comment and review Tori ๐
1. These are absolutely great.
2. Yes. That’s the right amount of dry ingredients.
3. I topped 2 with white chocolate, 2 with caramelized pecans and 2 with a swirl of peanut butter.
3. I poured my remained batter in my waffle maker. Best decision ever.
In a waffle maker!? Sounds amazing!!!
How should the muffins be stored and for how long?
What is the nutrition info on this?
These were so delicious – I had 3 muffins in one sitting (they taste like lava cakes! How could I resist?!). NO REGRETS.
I already sent the recipe to many of my friends and family. I’ll be keeping this recipe forever. THANK YOU
So thrilled these were a hit!! Thank you for the comment Kiki ๐
For anyone wanting to know about Weight Watchers, I entered the ingredients in their Recipe Builder online and (using lowfat vanilla Greek yogurt) came to 7 Smart Points for each of 9 muffins on the Freestyle Program. I just ran the numbers on another blogger’s zucchini chocolate chip muffin and that came to 13 Smart Points. I printed Chelsea’s recipe and I’m making them tomorrow. Thanks, Chelsea!
Ahh thank you so much for doing that!! I hope you enjoy! ๐
Hi, just calculated the calorie intake to see how ยซย skinnyย ยป those were and I am very much impressed with it! the whole batch comes up to 1480 calories (6192 kJ) or 164 calories per muffin (686 kJ).
About a third of a ยซย normalย ยป muffin!!
These are sooo good! My teenage son thought I was serving brownies for breakfast LOL. Needless to say the whole family loves these healthier muffins!
I’m so glad to hear you guys enjoyed this! My boys always love when I’ve made these for breakfast! Thanks! ๐
I just made these muffins. I substituted oat flour for coconut flour which I had on hand. I used 1/2 cup of applesauce since I didn’t have any yogurt in house, also used Sunflower peanut butter. I am hoping these will reduce the calorie count even more. I only had a 6 muffin pan, and the batter made 6 full muffins. They are delicious!!!
Way to work with what you have!! Those sound awesome! I’m so glad you enjoyed! ๐
I made these when my grandsons were over. They are OUTSTANDING! We couldn’t stop ourselves. We ate the whole batch! So worth it.
Ahh this makes me so happy to hear! ๐ Thanks!!