Peanut Butter and Cherry Preserve Muffins

There aren't many things that go together as well as peanut butter and jelly do...ok, except maybe peanut butter and chocolate. A friend of mine told me recently about a peanut butter and jelly muffin she'd had from a bakery and I decide to try to come up with something similar. I'm a fan of muffins because they're fast, and although this one was a bit messy to make, (It's peanut butter, after all!) it was well worth it. While the muffins were also good later in the day, I think they were best right after they had cooled just a bit- this one, as with most muffins, was better warm. I used cherry preserves with this recipe because I love the huge chunks of cherry in it, but of course you can use whatever flavors you want. I can't imagine any kind of jelly or preserves not being good in this! (Warning, you WILL need milk with this one!)
What You'll Need:
For the muffins:
2 cups flour
3/4 cup sugar
1 tbsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1 cup peanut butter
1 cup milk
2 eggs
1/3 cup vegetable oil
1/3 cup or more of cherry preserves
For the crumble topping:
3 tbsp flour
3 tbsp peanut butter
3 tbsp granulated sugar
2 tbsp brown sugar
What to Do:
- Preheat oven to 375 degrees and line a 12-cup muffin tin with paper baking cups.
- Mix the ingredients for the crumble topping together in a small bowl, set aside for later use. I would suggest either using a fork, or mixing it up with your fingers, the latter worked best for me.
- In a large bowl, mix together all of your dry ingredients (flour, salt, baking powder, sugar) and then add in the peanut butter, set bowl aside.
- In another bowl, mix together the wet ingredients (milk, oil, eggs) and then slowly mix the wet ingredients in with the dry. Using a whisk, mix together until peanut butter is spread thoroughly within the batter, but do not over-mix.
- Fill the paper baking cups with half of the batter...this can get messy, so I tend to use an ice cream scoop, it not only helps make less of a mess, it also helps you get your batter distributed a bit more evenly.
- Put 1-2 teaspoons of preserves in the center of each muffin. Adjust it to your taste, I don't like a lot of jelly-filled things, so I just wanted enough to taste it, I added one teaspoon. If you'd like more, put in 2 teaspoons.
- Divide the remaining batter into the baking cups. At this point I worked with my fingers a bit to help close up the muffins, to ensure the preserves would stay inside!
- Sprinkle the topping on the muffins, and bake in pre-heated oven for 20-25 minutes. Let cool in muffin tray for a few minutes, then move to a wire rack to finish cooling.