Peanut Butter and Jelly Crumb Muffins.
Just LOOK at these little round love muffins.
I’m freaking.
It’s peanut butter and jelly MUFFIN time.
They’re breakfast. A snack. Lunch! Second lunch. Middle of the night munchie.
They’re soft and delicious and filled with preserves and topped with the crumbliest crumb in the universe.
Maybe I’m spending too much time with a certain little love muffin because I’m calling everything a love muffin but these… these really are love muffins.
My obsessive phases go way, way back. I think I ate a PB & J for kindergarten lunch every single day, like to the point where even at five years old, after a year of consuming said sandwich, I was totally over it. So, so over it.
I refused, like flatout REFUSED, to eat peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for years after that. We are talking around fifteen-ish years, to be exact. I wanted not a darn thing to do with the combo. That is, until I realized I could have a jelly preference.
Grape? No can do. So not a fan.
And I was like, wait… what? There are flavors in jars other than grape? There are jellies and jams that don’t come in that squeeze tube? I can have strawberry or peach or sour cherry or blackberry or better yet – fig?!
SOLD.
[Sidebar: I even made cookies with the fig stuff once. So good.] [update: I made the muffins with RED HAVEN PEACH! OMG.]
That’s why these here muffins are made with strawberry. My go-to easy choice for peanut butter and jelly stuff, always. It’s my standard, my fall back, my classic. I use the fig and what not if I want to get a little fancy, but strawberry it is when I feel like I need that nostalgic bite.
Know what? The base of these muffins are almost cookie-like. Cookie muffin hybrids, if you will.
They are made with lots of peanut butter which is very much NOT a light ingredient when it comes to fluffy baking. Therefore, the muffin layers takes on a slightly denser, rich crumb… seriously very cookie-like. At least very peanut butter cookie-like. The super buttery kind, oh yes. The ones that are almost melt in your mouth.
Truth be told, this is not my first peanut butter + jelly muffin recipe here on this page where I ramble on the internets. The first one, I posted over FIVE years ago (wtf?!) and it was a little boring and not quite as flavorful as this recipe. The muffins were okay for being mostly whole wheat, but if we’re being real, I’ve learned a ton in those 1826 (27?) days and had about one thousand muffin fails to teach me all about the goods.
These!! are the goods. Cookie muffs. Muffin cooks. Whatever you want to call them. They are dessert masquerading as snacks. Which is always the best thing. Secret treats!
Peanut Butter and Jelly Crumb Muffins
Ingredients
- 6 tablespoons unsalted butter
- 3/4 cup peanut butter
- 1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
- 1 large egg
- 1/2 cup packed brown sugar
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 3/4 cup milk
- 12 ounces strawberry preserves
crumb topping
- 1/3 cup brown sugar
- 1/3 cup sugar
- 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 cup unsalted butter, melted
- 1 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
Instructions
- Note: these muffins are going to be denser and richer than your normal “muffin” – but since peanut butter is a thick and rich ingredient, there isn’t much way around the loads of flavor unless you want to use a peanut butter extract. The key is to work quickly here before the peanut butter starts to firm up again, so I suggest measuring out all of your ingredients before starting.
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Place the butter and peanut butter together in a bowl and microwave for 30 seconds, stirring well. If the entire mixture is not melted, microwave in 15 second increments, stirring well after each, until it is. Set aside to cool slightly.
- In a bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, salt and spices. Set aside. Line a muffin tin with liners. Spray the liners with nonstick spray – this will help keep the thicker crumbly dough together. You actually don’t even need to use liners as long as you spray the tin well, let the muffins cool completely and gently lift them out with a spoon.
- In a large bowl, whisk together the egg, brown sugar and vanilla extract until smooth. Stir in the butter and peanut butter, mixing until smooth – the batter will be slightly thick. Add in the dry ingredients and stir until almost combined (it will be very thick) then add in the milk and stir until a batter forms, trying not to overmix. Fill the liners 3/4 of the way full. Use an ice cream scoop or equal measure for each. Press a tablespoon or so of the strawberry preserves into the center of the batter, pushing it into the middle. It’s okay if it goes down the sides! Press the tops of each generously with the crumb topping. Bake for 18 to 22 minutes. Let cook before trying to remove the muffins if you did not use a liner – if you did use a liner, try to let them cool before peeling the liner off.
crumb topping
- To make the crumb topping, whisk together the sugar, cinnamon, salt and melted butter until combined. Whisk for a a good minute or two until the sugar begins to dissolve, then use a wooden spoon to stir in the flour. The mixture will be crumb-like and dry. Almost like a sludge or paste. This is what you want!
Notes
Did you make this recipe?
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I appreciate you so much!
Now doesn’t that taste like elementary school?!
129 Comments on “Peanut Butter and Jelly Crumb Muffins.”
I need these in my life as they are the grown up version of our childhood fav. I won’t feel quite as immature eating them all then!
These look amazing! I’m completely in love!
Coming from England, PB&J was never something we had as kids. Its a really recent discovery for me, so these would be a quite a grown up treat! :) Can’t wait to try them.
Jennie // Scarletscorchdroppers
xx
These are soooo going to get made. I just need to buy milk. I never have milk on hand. :-/
I thought this recipe looked incredible so I made it last night. But sadly this recipe just didn’t work. I baked the muffins for 10 minutes extra (almost double the time) but still they are completely doughy and raw in the middle. The batter was definitely so thick it was more like a loose cookie dough. The quantities also seem off- this made 12 huge and heavy muffins with so much crumb mixture it won’t stick to the top. It only worked for me because I use tulip baking cups, otherwise they would have overflowed. I so wanted these to be amazing but I think the recipe needs work.
hi hannah! i’m so sorry these didn’t work out for you. i know that is so annoying. i made them again this morning and i think some of the issues you had might have been from my poor recipe writing above so i added some tips. i’m not sure why they took so long but mine were done again in 18 minutes, so i increased the cook time a bit. as for the crumb – pressing it down firmly into the batter will help it stick and not overflow. i love tons and tons of streusel so if you want to try and make them again, you can definitely halve it! i added a tip to work quickly when making the batter before the peanut butter firms up again and creates a loose dough – it will still be dough-like, but should stick together. as for the thickness and denser muffin, there isn’t much way around this unless you want to use peanut butter extract, unfortunately. but they shouldn’t be super heavy and doughy. i use a standard size muffin tin and have just enough for 12 muffins. i’m wondering if yours is a little smaller than mine, hence why they were so big??
Use a standard muffin tin as opposed to a standard cupcake tin?
Hooray for dessert masquerading as snacks!! ;)
Oh Jess, you slay it again. I wonder how chocolate chips might up the ante? Oh goodness!
Pb and J muffins with crumbs?! Is that even legal? I don’t thing they will last a day in my house. Gosh, just look the the jelly oozying out.
Juju
http://www.jujusprinkles.com
I need these in my life! Yum!
Kari
http://www.sweetteasweetie.com
What?! YES!!!
*An Herbal Essences voice may have been involved.*
Perfect treats! My family would go nuts for these!
SQUEAL! You made my dream muffin!
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Oh my god. This is like the perfect breakfast!
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Anything with PB & J. I totally understand the aversion to Grape jelly. “Grape” jelly is sort of like “watermelon” bubble gum in my book!
Oh man! I LOVE the peanut butter and jelly combo!!
Peanut butter and jelly might be my all time favorite food. These muffins look ridiculously amazing. I don’t think I can live without them.
Omg! Pb+j never looked so good!
Could you substitute the all purpose flour for whole wheat??! Would it affect the taste by a lot?
i wouldn’t use all whole wheat – it would make the muffins pretty dry and gritty and heavier than they are already due to the peanut butter. you can definitely try whole wheat pastry – i usually can use that and all-purpose interchangeably!
You could try white whole wheat flour. King Arthur makes a great one from lighter kernels. I use it interchangeably with all purpose. It is a bit more nutty tasting which should work well with the peanut butter.
Debi
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I just made these muffins. I do a lot of baking and even more eating. These have to be the world’s greatest muffins!
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These look awesome! I want to make some sort of bar for a work thing tomorrow, do you think this recipe would work as a cake in a 9 by 13 pan? Usually that amount translates-ish. I hate my muffin tin….and I just can’t get this recipe out of my brain, it looks so good!
i really don’t know how it would translate to cake… try these bars instead! super super old recipe but amazing: http://www.howsweeteats.com/2010/03/peanut-butter-and-jelly-bars/
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I’m in love with that recipe
LOVED this recipe! Made it for my friends and they all loved it. Thank you for sharing this. My first experience with your site and I’m officially in love!
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Just had my first bite of a somewhat cooled muffin and it’s delicious! I followed the recipe to a T and baked them for 22 minutes. A few minutes less would’ve been fine but I was so worried they would need extra time. The crumb topping is perfect and adds the best crunch. Totally going to show these off at work tomorrow! Thank you, thank you!!
Jessica, These looks insanely good. Do you think they would freeze well? Thanks!
Hi! These looks really good, but do you need to mix using an electric mixer? I don’t own one and really wanna make these, I wonder if it will mix well with hand considering peanut butter is thick. Also, if I used jelly (grape jelly) would it work or does it have to be preserves? And after I press the jelly into the batter in the muffin tins, am I still supposed to see the jelly before I add the crumb topping, or should I completely fold it in? Thanks
this looks amazing! I think I had PB&J sandwiches for years in grade school, mostly because it was the only lunch I knew how to make. My mom constantly makes fun of me because I never got sick of it haha. Thanks for the delicious recipe!
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I have baked them and I´m so in Love! Thanks for the Recipe.
Greetings from Germany :D
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Is there a typo? 1 1/2 cups is an awful lot of flour for the crumb topping! I made the topping that way first and it was just like having thick flour. I reduced to half a cup in my second round and it was perfect.
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These look amazing! Is it ok to use natural peanut butter (made with only peanuts, oil and salt)?
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