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.
What can you sub for the peanut butter? My sons have nut allergies. Thank you!
I haven’t personally tried any substitutes, but I’m sure a substitute like almond butter (my brother is allergic to peanuts but not almonds so I’m not sure what nut allergies your son has hence this recommendation) or sun butter may work in a slightly less flavorful alternative. If you use sun butter you may want to slightly increase the sugar. Sorry to not be of more help!
Can you make this without applesauce? My son is allergic to fruit.
The applesauce is a very integral part of the recipe so it can’t be left out and as I haven’t experimented with substitutions I’m not sure what to tell you would or wouldn’t work. If you try something out though I’d love to hear the results! Sorry to not be of any more help!
I have used more of the vanilla yogurt and then less of my apple butter and mine turn out fine.
Just so you know… I substituted more Greek yogurt instead of applesauce and they are delicious and rich that way. I’ve made them three times this week already. My husband can’t get enough of them!
So great to hear!! That does sound delicious! ๐ Glad you are enjoying these muffins!
Is the cocoa powder sweet or unsweetened?
I used natural unsweetened
I have made 6 batches of these in the past 3 weeks – they are divine! Two of these and I’m good to go for breakfast. On my 6th batch I got a little sidetracked, momentarily thought I was making something else, and added 2T of coconut oil by mistake. Well…..that was the best mistake I’ve made in a long time. It made them even more chocolatey, rich and moist. YUM!!!!! Thanks for such a delicious recipe.
Thanks for the recommendation! I added coconut oil and it was delicious!
These look delicious, I’m going to make them tomorrow! I’m curious, could I use all honey (or another natural sweetener) instead of brown sugar? If so, would it still be 2 tbsp? Thanks!
Oh so glad to hear you liked them! Thanks for the comment Mia ๐
I`m enjoying all these skinny chocolate recipes!! ๐ Chocolate & PB is one of my favorite combos. ๐
You say the recipe makes 9 muffins, but the nutritional values say 12 servings. So less than one muffin is a serving?
Oops sorry! No, I just didn’t change the automatic setting in the program I used. It is automatically set to calculate for 12 muffins. So for 9 muffins it would be 192 calories per muffin. Thanks for catching that!
Wow! HEALTHY muffins?! This is amazing. I would love to eat muffins everyday for breakfast… and now I totally could! Never would have thought to use Greek yogurt and applesauce! Pinned!!
I love these flavours, what a great way to start the day or have handy for snacks! Pinned!
Thank you Anna! ๐