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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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?
I agree with the comment above me- your muffins are magnificent and always turn out wonderfully! These PBJ cuties sound like the perfect snack on the go.
Love that surprise in the middle! I’ve only made a jam filled muffin once but they were so good! Such a fun idea Averie!
I keep wanting to make pbj cupcakes but muffins are so much easier and perfectly acceptable for breakfast :) Pb muffins are some of my faves because they are so super moist. The jelly would be such a nice surprise if you didn’t know it was there.
How fun do those look?! I’m not a PB&J fan, but that’s on a sandwich. This is something totally different in my book. Love the creativity!
Yum!!! These muffins look so great!! The little surprise of jelly in the middle is so clever :)
Your muffins always turn out beautiful! I can not get over your tops, they are perfect! Normally, I am a straight peanut butter girl. Jelly is not usually my thing, but lately I have been experimenting with it and kind of like it. I still just prefer only peanut (ok, well I like PB and Banana), but theses muffin look too good not to try!
These turned out nice but trust me, I have made my share of mushrooms, not muffins, before :)
Yum, Averie! These remind me of one of the first things I baked as a “tween” – – a muffin filled with jam. But back then I wasn’t wise enough to make it a peanut butter muffin! This is every PB&J lover’s breakfast dream… I go back and forth on whether I prefer using muffin liners for muffins or not. Sometimes I like the soft edges the liners allow for, other times I like the more firm outer crust.
I used to think I liked liners but cosmetically, I love them without – plus sometimes the liner and the food dont get along well and half the food ends up on them. But you have a point with the softer texture. I want the best of all worlds!
I just have to admit it. I love peanut butter and jelly more than peanut butter and chocolate. It’s true! Nothing in my recipe archive backs that statement up, but you just gotta believe me. :) I would love these muffins! They are so perfectly stuffed. Sometimes I rip open a stuffed muffin to find the filling off the side and seeping out. That’s just the product of a lazy filler who didn’t do a good job making sure it was properly centered before baking! Anyway, I love these Averie. I immediately thought of your PBJ blondies when I saw the first photo of this post and I’m glad you liked back to those.
a lazy filler who didn’t do a good job making sure it was properly centered before baking <--- LOL but it's true :) And I loved those blondies; if for nothing else, I made them in Aruba and as much as my photo shoots there suck as we've discussed, every time I look at the pics, I am transported to my happy place.
Is it bad that I want to slurp the jelly out of these?
I too love PB and J. I’ve been seeing a lot of recipes with them lately… these by far look the best… love muffins!!
Thanks for saying they look by far the best :)
I have always loved pb&j sandwiches and always will… But that doesn’t mean I’m not on the lookout for new ways to enjoy the beloved combo! These muffins are so much fun! I’d love to sink my teeth into one and enjoy that “surprise” filling!!
The only kind of surprise I like :)
I am going through a huge PB&J phase and can’t wait to try the PB&J blondies–thanks for posting!!
They’re so dense – almost like PB Fudge! I love those things!
I’m pretty sure my husband loves PB as much as me. He’ll top a brownie or ice cream with it and PB&J is one of his frequent snacks. I’ve made PB quick bread and a PB yeast bread, but not a filled muffin. Love this…and so will he! I think it would be fun to go with a few different jam flavors.
I wish I would have thought to fill up some with peach, some with strawberry, raspberry, whatever I had open, but…I didn’t. Fun thought! LMK what you try!
A classic all in one. Love it!
These look amazing!! It’s been way too long since I’ve made muffins and pb and jelly ones are genius! :) These are definitely going on the to-bake list.
Super easy, too. The best kind of muffin :)
I’ll take PB & J in any form too! It’s been a while since I made muffins and I just stocked up on peanut butter at TJ’s today so I really need to make these! I’ve been slacking on breakfast foods so this here is the perfect pick-me-up before I go to work.
oooh that’s awesome that you’re well-stocked. Love that feeling. And you’re the muffin and cupcake queen so I’m honored you’d make these!