Double Chocolate Chip Peanut Butter Muffins

Once we stop cooking for a bit, it takes a little something to get back into it. A little something moist and chocolately, irresistibly peanut buttery. A little something muffin. Or, in this case, a lot of something muffin.

We turned the baking shelf upside down for this recipe. About 95 percent of unexpired ingredients made the cut, along with a few stale ones. It was inspired in the way I always dreamed that baking would be -- intuitively throwing ingredients together and then immediately doubting myself and checking the oven every three seconds. We tried to include healthier versions of ingredients whenever possible because it's a fact that using reduced fat peanut butter and skim milk justifies 1 1/2 cups chocolate chips.

These lovelies present a strong chocolate flavor that isn't overwhelmingly sweet, and with the help of some friends, we blew through a solid portion of the batch in the 10 minutes following removal from the oven.

Ingredients:
2 1/4 cups whole wheat pastry flour
1/2 cup granulated sugar
3/4 cup brown sugar
1 tsp salt
2 tsp baking soda
2 eggs, lightly beaten
2 tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder
1 cup skim milk
6 tbsp smart balance or butter, melted
1/2 cup reduced fat peanut butter
3/4 cups white chocolate chips
3/4 cups chocolate chips
extra flour

Instructions:
Preheat oven to 400, line muffin pan with muffin tins. In a large bowl, mix together flour, sugar, cocoa powder, salt and baking soda. In a separate bowl, mix together eggs, milk, butter and peanut butter. Add wet ingredients into dry ingredients, stir until just combined. Coat the chocolate chips in the extra flour to prevent them from sinking to the bottom of the muffins. Mix the chocolate chips into the batter. Spoon batter into the tins, filling them about 4/5 of the way, and bake muffins for about 20 minutes. Cool and serve.