Peanut Butter and Jelly Muffins – Soft, fluffy, peanut butter-scented muffins are filled with sweet, strawberry jelly, creating a fun twist on PB&J. They’re fast and easy to make, and come together with just one bowl and a whisk. Biting into a tender muffin and hitting an unexpected patch of jelly is the best kind of surprise.
I’ll take peanut butter and jelly in any form. PB & J sandwiches are fine.
But peanut butter muffins with strawberry jelly-filled centers definitely trump sandwiches.
Of all the Peanut Butter Recipes I’ve posted, there’s peanut butter cookies, cake, and bars up the wazoo, but I’ve never posted a peanut butter muffin recipe. It was time to remedy that.
The muffins are fast and easy to make, and come together in minutes with just one bowl and a whisk. No need to haul out your mixer.
The peanut butter does double duty of not only adding flavor, but it keeps the muffins soft and moist. I used oil rather than butter, which I prefer in muffins, cupcakes, and cakes because it keeps them extra soft and springy. Using buttermilk keeps them fluffy, lighter, and moist.
Between the peanut butter, oil, and buttermilk, they’re big softies.
Normally I don’t like surprises, but sinking my teeth into the strawberry jelly filling that’s hiding inside is a surprise I’m on board with.
I didn’t use liners because I didn’t want ruffled edges. I wanted muffins, not potato chips. Instead, I sprayed my muffin pan with floured cooking spray. No issues whatsoever with sticking.
When you’re filling the pan, don’t be scared to fill the wells up to nearly the top, a solid three-quarters full. This is what creates big, bakery-style domed-top muffins. I filled my 12-Cup Muffin Pan
perfectly with the batter. Just enough and none leftover.
I used my tw0-tablespoon cookie scoop, sprayed with cooking spray so the batter slides off easily, to fill each muffin cavity with about 2 tablespoons batter. It’ll come about one-third of the way up.
Then, add a nice dollop of jelly to each cavity, before topping with more batter.
When covering the jelly with batter, make sure it’s completely covered. If it’s not, exposed areas will be prone seeping out, caramelizing (burning), and sticking to the sides of the pan.
They’re soft, fluffy, and light, with just the right amount of density.
The peanut butter flavor is distinct, but not overpowering, perfect for breakfast, brunch, or snacks when you don’t want or need a super intense blast of peanut butter. If you want intense, try these.
The sweet jelly is the perfect compliment to the peanut butter, and it was fun watching my 6-year old bite into these and watching her eyes light up when she discovered the jelly filling. She’s missing her two front teeth right now, and soft, moist, tender food is perfect for my toothless princess.
I’ll never say no to a great PB&J sandwich, but the muffins are my new favorite way to eat PB & J.
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Peanut Butter and Jelly Muffins
Ingredients
- 1 ½ cups all-purpose flour
- ½ cup granulated sugar
- ½ cup light brown sugar, packed
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- pinch salt, optional and to taste
- 1 large egg
- ½ cup buttermilk
- ½ cup milk, I used unsweetened vanilla almond milk; use any kind of milk – soy, cow, rice, goat, coconut
- ½ heaping cup creamy peanut butter
- ⅓ cup canola or vegetable oil
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- about 1/4 cup strawberry jelly, jam or preserves (or try raspberry, grape, cherry, or your favorite), divided
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350F. Spray a standard 12-count muffin pan with floured cooking spray, or grease and flour the pan; set aside. For cosmetic reasons, I prefer to avoid the ruffled edges that paper liners create.
- In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the the first six dry ingredients, ending with optional salt.
- In a separate medium bowl, whisk together the next 6 wet ingredients, ending with vanilla extract.
- Pour the wet ingredients over the dry ingredients, and fold to incorporate using a rubber spatula. Don’t stir vigorously or beat; just make sure everything is combined and there are no unblended dry ingredients hiding at the bottom of the bowl or in the folds of the batter. Don’t overmix or muffins will be tough. Batter will be quite thick.
- Using a 2-tablespoon cookie scoop or spoon that’s been sprayed with cooking spray (helps batter to slide right off), fill muffin wells with about 2 heaping tablespoons of batter each, coming about one-third of the way full. You want enough of a layer of batter that the jam that’s added in the next step has a nice cushion to rest on so it won’t bottom-out and sink while baking. Re-spray scoop with cooking spray every third or fourth scoopful of batter, or as necessary.
- Add 1 to 1 1/2 teaspoons jelly to the center of each cavity (marble-sized mounds)
- Top each muffin with remaining batter, about 2 tablespoons each. Fill muffin cups up to a solid 3/4-full, nearly filling to the top. This creates domed, high-top muffins. Underfilled cups create flatter muffins, and you’ll also end up with extra batter.
- Bake for 20 to 25 minutes, or until tops are golden, set, domed, and springy to the touch; don’t overbake.
- Allow muffins to cool in the pan on top of a wire rack for 5 minutes before removing them from the pan. Then place on a wire rack to cool completely.
- Tip: If you’ve accidentally overbaked your muffins, wrapping them while still warm in plasticwrap, and putting them inside a large Ziplock, and sealing it, will help muffins soften over the next day. Muffins are best fresh, but well-wrapped, they will keep airtight at room temperature for up to 5 days, or in the freezer for up to 4 months.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
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35+ Favorite Peanut Butter Recipes
Peanut Butter and Jelly Recipes
Even after writing my first cookbook with 100+ Peanut Butter Recipes, Peanut Butter Comfort: Recipes for Breakfasts, Brownies, Cakes, Cookies, Candies, and Frozen Treats Featuring America’s Favorite Spread
, I’m still not sick of peanut butter.
Book release is just days away on June 4. Thanks to everyone who’s pre-ordered your copy!
Peanut butter and jelly fan?
Do you have a favorite muffin recipe?
great
This is a solid recipe. We made many swaps and it still turned out great: whole wheat instead of all-purpose flour, halved the amount of sugar, 1 cup soy milk instead of buttermilk + milk, and soy butter instead of peanut butter. One suggestion would be to add the sugars with the wet ingredients instead of the dry ingredients.
So these muffins have now become a staple in our household. We love them! I have tweeked the recipe a bit by combining yogurt with my milk to creat the buttermilk with success. The last time I made them, I subbed some white whole wheat flour for the all purpose and although tasty they sank some. I did read some reviews and know that the sinkage is due to not as much gluten in the whole wheat flour. So my question is, is there anything I can add to help with the sinkage while still using some white whole wheat flour? Add more baking powder? Thank you!
I don’t bake much with whole wheat flour due to the gluten being less, and hence, things fall/sink. Not really sure what to suggest since I don’t personally use it much. More baking powder could work, but it could also create an overly cakey texture with weird air pockets. I would make the recipe as written since you love it so much and make some swaps elsewhere in diet/exercise if you’re concerned :)
Moist and peanut buttery deliciousness! I reduced sugars a tad, 1/3 cup of both brown and white sugar. Made them for my toddler for a quick breakfast, hubby took one for a mid morning snack and then mommy even had one post workout ? A real winner!
Thanks for trying the recipe and I’m glad it came out great for you! And that you were able to reduce the sugars a bit and that the whole family enjoyed these!
Can these PB&J muffins be frozen and then opt in a kiddo’s lunch kit to thaw and them eat the muffins at lunch?
I haven’t tried freezing these so can’t say for sure exactly what they’re like upon thawing. Best to just keep at room temp with this recipe I think.
Hi, anybody there? LOL I made the peanut butter and jelly muffin, but the jelly went all the down to the bottom of the pan’s cavity… any ideas why? Thanks a lot
Possibly adding a bit too much jelly or possibly not adding enough batter for the base layer so the jelly didn’t have a sturdy enough platform on which to rest.
I’ve made these muffins a number of times so thought I should come back and leave a comment. We love these muffins! I make them for my kids’ school lunches as an alternative to sandwiches. They cut down on prep time in the morning when I put the lunch together and are fun for the kids to eat. I’ve also substituted sunbutter for the peanut butter since my son’s school has a peanut-free policy. They taste just as good with the sunbutter. Thanks for this recipe!
Thanks for trying these and commenting and so glad they come in handy for school lunches rather than PB&J, or in your case Sunbutter & J. :)