Are the kids tired of peanut butter sandwiches? Send them to school with muffins instead.
Muffins have gained a bad reputation over the past few years. This reputation is well deserved – if you are talking about purchased muffins. Pick up a behemoth example from Costco for your breakfast and it’s likely to cost you over 600 calories. I hope you are drinking your coffee black, because that muffin is almost one-half of today’s allowance. (That standard 2000 calorie diet? Yeah, most of us can’t eat that much without gaining weight. At least most women can’t. Especially we women over 50. But that’s a sad story for another day!)
Homemade muffins though are deemed guilty by association. It’s like when you were dutifully sitting in class doing your homework and the teacher kept everyone after because of the nimrods flying paper airplanes in the back of the room.
Homemade muffins are usually 2 ½ inches, not 4 inches across. And they are lower in fat and sugar than the purchased kind. Homemade muffins are easy to make, and are a good substitute for a boring sandwich in the kids’ lunchbox.
This particular recipe has been a family favorite for three generations. It’s the recipe I make for potlucks. It’s the recipe I make when there’s a death in the family and you just can’t choke down a real meal. It’s the recipe I make when we are heading out on a road trip, and it’s the recipe I make for the grandchildren’s lunches.

- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- ½ cup sugar
- 2 ½ tsp baking powder
- ¾ cup peanut butter
- ¾ cup milk
- 2 eggs
- ¼ cup jam or preserves
- Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
- In a large bowl, combine the flour, sugar, and baking powder.
- Cut in the peanut butter until like coarse crumbs using a pastry blender or two knives.
- Add milk and eggs. Stir until combined.
- Place a small amount of batter in greased muffin pans. Add a small amount of jam or preserves to each muffin cup. Top with remaining batter.
- Bake for 15-17 minutes or until lightly browned.
Muffin Making Tips:
- If using unsalted peanut butter you may want to add a dash of salt to the batter before baking.
- This recipe is a great way to use up odds and ends of open jam jars.
- Don’t forget to carefully tip muffins in each cup after removing from the oven. This lets the muffins cool without getting soggy bottoms!
- Eat or freeze muffins within two days. Since these muffins don’t have any additional oil, they will dry out much faster than those purchased at the bakery.
- Use either smoothy or crunchy peanut butter.
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