Gluten-Free Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Muffins

The other night I was craving peanut butter and chocolate and I was *this close* to making my favorite peanut butter chocolate chip cake, but I resisted. Number one, I didn’t have anything to celebrate per-se (you know… other than living another day… or the sunshine… or peanut butter… okay, really? You can ALWAYS find a reason to celebrate if you want to, and I usually do… just not this time); two, I had some bananas that were about to go over the edge and needed to be used, and I hate wasting bananas; and three, with the wedding only weeks away, I need to be careful or I’m not going to fit into my bridesmaid’s dress so cake is (almost) off-limits. My peanut butter and chocolate craving was not going anywhere fast and my sad looking banana’s were practically calling my name when I suddenly had an epiphany. I love Jamba Juice and one of the tastiest things ever at Jamba is a peanut butter moo’d smoothie which combines chocolate, peanut butter and (you guessed it) bananas! But instead of blending all of my ingredients together in a smoothie, I thought I might try my hand at making a healthy(ish) peanut butter chocolate chip muffin that would both satisfy my craving and use up my bananas. The end result was both simple to achieve and satisfying. It was also not overly sweet (which is good in my opinion), but if you really want these babies to be sweeter, you could frost them with a rich chocolate frosting (yum!). Or you could do what David did and take them straight out of the oven and plop a hefty serving of vanilla ice cream on top. The best part of these muffins is that you can eat up as much batter as you want because there are no eggs and therefore, no risk of salmonella!

Gluten-Free Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Muffins (Vegan)

Ingredients:

•  2 large ripe bananas, mashed
• 1/3 cup extra virgin coconut oil, melted
• 2/3 cup creamy peanut butter
• 2/3 cup unsweetened almond milk
• 2/3 cup pure maple syrup
• 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
• 2 cups gluten-free flour (I like this one)
• 1 teaspoon xanthan gum
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 2 teaspoons baking soda
• ¼ teaspoon salt
• 2 Tablespoons ground flaxseeds
• 1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips**

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit.
2. Line a standard muffin tin with paper liners.
3. In a large bowl, mix together the bananas, coconut oil, peanut butter, almond milk, maple syrup and vanilla.
4. In a separate bowl, sift together the gluten-free flour, xanthan gum, baking powder, baking soda, salt and flaxseeds.
5. Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients, in batches and mix together until just combined.
6. Fold in the 1 cup of semi-sweet chocolate chips.
7. Divide the batter into prepared muffin cups and bake at 400 degrees Fahrenheit for 20-25 minutes or until tester inserted into the center of a muffin comes out clean.

**to keep this recipe vegan, you will obviously want to use vegan chocolate chips, which can be found at your local health-food store. If you aren’t attempting to be vegan, you can use any good-old chocolate chips.