Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cupcakes

Here I go again with the peanut butter and chocolate.  Recently, a friend pinned this recipe with a subtle suggestion that I should make these cupcakes, and I was pretty easily convinced.  They just looked so good, and you know how I am with peanut butter and chocolate.  The only thing was I wanted there to be more chocolate, so I decided to make a chocolate peanut butter frosting.  I used this recipe as a starting point but just ended up adding some extra stuff as usual.  I didn’t put the icing on too thick because the cupcakes were already pretty rich and the icing was really sweet.

Now, let me tell you about the batter.  This stuff was so good, I could have eaten it with a spoon.  Not that I’m telling you to do that.

I am a fan of mini cupcakes so I can have a small snack bite here and there, rather than committing to a whole big cupcake.  So I made some regular sized and some minis.  And okay, I like to bake, but I don’t like to have the baked goods just sitting around the house tempting me, so I made the cupcakes and took them to work.  I’d say they were well-liked because they were gone before noon, and a lot of people commented on how delicious they were.  And I thought they were amazing!  So I’d say this recipe is definitely a keeper!

Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cupcakes

Ingredients:

Cupcakes:

• 1 cup unbleached all purpose flour (I used 2/3 cup white flour and 1/3 cup whole wheat)
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 6 tbsp unsalted butter, at room temperature
• 3/4 cup smooth peanut butter, at room temperature
• 1/2 cup packed dark brown sugar
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1/2 cup whole milk
• 1 1/2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips (if making mini cupcakes, use mini chips)

Frosting:

• 4 cups powdered sugar
• 1/3 cup cocoa powder
• 4-5 T milk, divided
• 4 T creamy peanut butter
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 T butter, room temperature

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Combine flour, baking soda, and salt in a bowl.  Set aside.

In an electric mixer, beat butter and sugars for a couple of minutes until well combined.  Add eggs and blend until light and fluffy (a couple of minutes more).

Add peanut butter and mix until smooth.  Add half of the flour mixture and beat until combined.  Add the milk and vanilla and beat slowly.  Add remaining flour mixture and beat until incorporated.

Stir in chocolate chips.

Fill lined cupcake pans 2/3 of the way full with batter.  For regular sized cupcakes, bake about 22 minutes, until edges begin to brown and top springs back when touched lightly.  For minis, bake 16-18 minutes.  Keep an eye on them, as times may vary due to oven temperatures.  Set on a wire rack to cool.

For the frosting, beat the sugar, cocoa, butter, vanilla, peanut butter, and 4 T of milk in mixer.  Add more milk, little by little, until desired consistency is reached.  You can add more sugar if it gets too runny.  Be careful, it doesn’t take a lot of milk to make it too runny.

Say hello to my little friends!