Flourless Peanut Butter Muffins — These gluten-free peanut butter muffins are made in a blender and come together in mere minutes. You’d never guess that these mini muffins are gluten-free, dairy-free, refined sugar-free, and oil-free!
Gluten-Free Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Muffins
I put peanut butter, banana, and honey in the blender, and my daughter asked what kind of smoothie I was making. None, I said. I’m making muffins. What???
This goes down as the easiest and fastest batter I’ve ever made. Ready in about 17 seconds with the flip of a switch.
I’m a big fan of whisk-together batters, and nearly every blondie, brownie, bar, quick bread, muffin, and cake on my site is made with a whisk. I reserve my stand mixer for cookie dough, bread dough, and frosting.
But this peanut butter muffin batter is even easier than using a whisk. Just combine one egg, banana, peanut butter, honey, vanilla, and baking soda in a blender and blend, before stirring in chocolate chips.
Did you notice what’s missing in the ingredients list? Flour. Gluten. The muffins are gluten-free, grain-free, soy-free, dairy-free, oil-free, refined sugar-free, and they clock in at under 100 calories each based on SparkPeople’s calculator.
If you’re willing to give up the chocolate chips, you can shave off 35% of the calories. But I like chocolate.
I have a few recipes for flourless peanut butter cookies, as well as other peanut butter cookies that are gluten-free or that don’t use white sugar, brown sugar, butter, salt, or oil. But I had never tried to pull of a flourless muffin until now, and I’m sold because these are some of the softest, moistest, and best peanut butter muffins I’ve ever had.
For all the health claims that can be made about the muffins, the best part is that they taste every bit as good as muffins made with flour, gluten, and lots of added sugar.
Because there’s no flour, I was a bit worried that these blender muffins would turn out like peanut butter fudge, since there was no flour to fluff them up and provide the normal amount of cakiness found in a muffin, but I was wrong.
The egg, pinch of baking soda, and banana did the trick to give them the springiness and bounciness you want in a muffin. When I was stacking them, the muffins on the bottom were like little trampolines, ready to absorb the weight and bounced back.
Warm and fresh from the oven, these little guys were incredibly good. Soft and a little squishy, supremely moist, and tons of bold peanut butter flavor, complemented by melty chocolate chips.
You may want to just double the recipe and make a double batch from the get go. Muffins freeze beautifully and you can keep a stash in the freezer to toss into lunches or for an easy snack when your peanut butter and chocolate cravings hit.
At under 100 calories, have a few.
Peanut Butter Muffins Ingredients
For these peanut butter chocolate chip muffins, you’ll need:
- Banana
- Egg
- Creamy peanut butter
- Honey
- Vanilla extract
- Baking soda
- Salt
- Mini chocolate chips
Bananas are versatile workhorses in baking, and the banana here helps to add lightness, fluffiness, and natural sweetness since there’s only 3 tablespoons honey used to sweeten the entire recipe. And for those who don’t like bananas, you’re very safe here and you can hardly taste it.
My daughter did detect the banana, but I have a feeling that’s because she had a hawkeye on the ingredients as they went into the blender.
How to Make Peanut Butter Muffins in a Blender
To make this gluten-free mini muffin recipe, simply add everything but the chocolate chips into the blender and blend until smooth. Stir in the chocolate chips by hand, and then spoon the batter into greased mini muffin tins.
I baked the muffins in my mini muffin pans and they only took 8 1/2 minutes to bake. I made 17 mini muffins, and filled the cavities to a solid 3/4 full. Don’t be surprised if they’re nicely domed in the oven, but fall a bit as they cool.
Let these peanut butter muffins cool for about 10 minutes before trying to take them from the muffin tins. These mini muffins are best fresh, but will keep for up to 5 days at room temperature.
Can I Make These as Regular-Sized Muffins?
I haven’t tested the recipe as full size muffins. You’ll probably yield about 8 or 9 and I’d start watching the clock closely at about 13 minutes and go from there, but I haven’t tried, and am purely guessing. After all, part of the appeal of this recipe is the mini size. Mini food is just so pop-able.
Can I Use an Egg Substitute in This Recipe?
I haven’t tried that myself, so I can’t say for sure if you can replace the egg with anything. If you try an egg replacement and it works, please leave me a comment down below so I can try it out myself!
Is There a Banana Substitute I Can Use?
I’m not sure! I’ve only ever made these peanut butter muffins as listed in the recipe card below, so I don’t know if you can substitute the banana for anything. You really can’t taste it though!
Can I Use Another Type of Nut Butter?
Possibly, yes. I personally recommend using peanut butter from a brand like Jif or Skippy. But if you have a peanut allergy, you may be able to use sun butter or almond butter. Just note that both are much thinner and runnier than peanut butter, and I don’t know if either will work.
Can I Use Muffin Liners Instead of Greasing the Pan?
I personally skip muffin liners (I’m too lazy to line all those mini muffin tins!), but I don’t see why you couldn’t use them for this recipe.
Can I Freeze Muffins?
Yes, these gluten-free peanut butter muffins freeze like a dream. To freeze these, first let them come to room temperature, then seal them inside a freezer bag. When you’re ready to enjoy them, either reheat them in the oven (set to a very low temperature), or simply place on your counter to thaw.
Tips for the Best Peanut Butter Muffins
I used store-bought peanut butter and always recommend baking with something like Jif or Skippy because natural and homemade peanut butter tends to be thinner, runnier, and can separate. If you try natural PB, I don’t know what the results will be.
I used mini chocolate chips because the size is perfectly proportionate for the mini muffins. Make sure to stir in the chips by hand at the end, rather than add them with other ingredients. You don’t want pulverized chips.
One trick to make your muffins really shine is to sprinkle a few extra chips on the top of each muffin before baking for a nice visual pop.
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Flourless Mini Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Muffins
Ingredients
- 1 medium ripe banana, peeled
- 1 large egg
- heaping 1/2 cup creamy peanut butter, I recommend using classic storebought peanut butter, and not natural or homemade
- 3 tablespoons honey, agave or maple syrup may be substituted
- 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
- ¼ teaspoon baking soda
- pinch salt, optional and to taste
- heaping 1/2 cup mini semi-sweet chocolate chips
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 400F. Prepare mini muffin pans by spraying very well with floured cooking spray, or grease and flour the pans; set aside. If keeping gluten-free for health reasons, simply use cooking spray or grease the pan.
- To the canister of a blender, add first 7 ingredients, through optional salt, and blend on high speed until smoothy and creamy, about 1 minute.
- Add chocolate chips and stir in by hand; don’t use the blender because it will pulverize them.
- Using a tablespoon or small cookie scoop that’s been sprayed with cooking spray (helps batter slide off spoon or scoop easily), form rounded 1 tablespoon mounds and place mounds into prepared pans. Each cavity should be filled to a solid 3/4 full.
- Bake for 8 to 9 minutes, or until the tops are set, domed, springy to the touch, and a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean, or with a few moist crumbs, but no batter. Due to their small size and oven variance, make sure to watch your muffins closely, and bake until done. Allow muffins to cool in pans for about 10 minutes, or until they’ve firmed up and are cool enough to handle.
- Muffins are best fresh, but will keep airtight at room temperature for up to 5 days, or in the freezer for up to 4 months.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
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Flourless Peanut Butter and Chocolate Brownies — These are the fudgiest brownies I’ve ever made, and that’s what happens when there’s no flour.
They are not refined sugar free there is sugar in JIF peanut butter
Sure, there is a small amount of sugar in most commercially-made peanut butter but it’s not like you’re adding a cup of white sugar to the batter, which is the case in most muffin recipes (about 1 cup sugar per 12 muffins is fairly standard); meaning I myself didn’t add any refined sugar to the batter.
Has anyone tried the exact recipe but with sunbutter instead of peanut butter? I read somewhere I should add an extra egg if I substitute peanut butter but I don’t know how accurate that is…
Yes people have subbed with SunButter. I wouldn’t add an extra egg.
My husband just made these because I asked him to and they are super yummy and pop-able (I managed to pop three!)
We used homemade peanut butter and regular-sized choc chips and they turned out delicious :) Thanks!
Thanks for trying the recipe and I’m glad it came out great for you! Glad that homemade PB and regular chips worked great!
Have you tried anything in place of the banana? I LOVE bananas but I am allergic to them :) Would applesauce or zuchinni work?
Applesauce in this recipe likely won’t work. Zucchini is possible but I have some doubts because it’s not ‘fluffy’ like a banana is but you have nothing to lose to try!
These are delicious!!! I agree the hardest part was not eating all of them straight out of the oven. I even threw in a little flax seed and you can’t even tell. Thanks for all the great recipes!
Thanks for trying the recipe and I’m glad it came out great for you! I need to add some flax and make them even healthier :) I actually love flax – great idea!
Loved this recipe. I tried the first time with store bought PB, and the second time with homemade PB. Definitely I liked them more with homemade PB.
Thanks for trying the recipe and I’m glad it came out great for you AND that homemade PB worked out so well for you! That’s great to hear!
Hi Averie,
Love this recipe; so simple and delicious :-). I have one question though, despite following the recipe exactly why do the my muffins after having fluffed up quite well, puff down in the middle and start to look like cups after baking it for 8-9 minutes and leaving it out to cool. This is the second time I have made this recipe and both times I have had the same result.
What could be going wrong?
Thanks,
Chetan
Muffins that are underbaked tend to sink/fall as they cool. I would bake slightly longer to avoid this.
My daughter found your recipe and makes it all the time. I finally tried for the first time today. Stellar!!! I also put them in my photo for the day. Thought I would share with you as I also shared the link when I posted to facebook for others to enjoy. Thanks! I was going to share my photo but can’t figure out how to do that. Bummer.
Thanks for trying the recipe and I’m glad it came out great for you!
I want to make the chocolate peanut butter muffins without the peanut butter. Could I use cream cheese instead, if so, how much and would it still be under 100 calories?
Please read over the Baking and Recipe FAQs https://www.averiecooks.com/faq for answers to the most common questions.
can I substitute applesauce for the banana, I feel like banana is a strong flavor, even though you mention its not that noticeable…
please advise
Please read over the Baking and Recipe FAQs https://www.averiecooks.com/faq for answers to the most common questions.
I haven’t read comments so maybe someone mentioned this already- but I used natural pb with no ill effects and even cut the maple syrup (I doubled the recipe except for 4tbsp of maple syrup instead of 6). Delicious but a little flatter than yours probably are. My toddler didn’t care or notice. ;)
Thanks for trying the recipe and I’m glad it came out great for you! Some people have said they’ve had luck with natural PB, others not quite as much. Glad cutting down on the maple syrup worked too and that your toddler didn’t care or notice!
My 7 year old son found this recipe after we told him no junk food tonight. He took it upon himself to find healthy desserts and it paid off! He did most of the work and was so proud of himself. Great kid friendly dessert that helps take the sweet tooth away without all the sugar!
Thanks for trying the recipe and I’m glad it came out great for you and helped your son curb his sweet tooth. Love that he did most of the work, too! Wow, you’re lucky :)
These are so good!!! My one year old and 3 year old had 5 each! I am gluten intolerant and my daughter is type 1 diabetic. These are perfect! Thanks for doing the carb counts, it really helps save me time. I will be trying all of your other recipes. I am so glad I found this website!! Thanks a million!
Thanks for trying the recipe and I’m glad it came out great for you! LMK what else you make!
Just made these, so easy to do. I was amazed at how much they puffed up. The consistency was more muffin like. The banana flavor comes through (which didn’t excite my son), but I thought they were great. Made a double batch and will pop some in the freezer for my GF friends. Thanks for sharing Averie!
Thanks for trying the recipe and I’m glad it came out great for you!
These are amazing! They never last more than one day in our house. I am still baffled at the fact that there is no grain, yet they are fluffy. I used a more natural peanut butter, just peanuts and salt, and they were still very delicious.
Thanks for trying the recipe and I’m glad it’s a hit and never lasts more than a day! I too am still baffled as how fluffy they are without grains. A baking mystery :) Glad that natural PB is working out for you too!
I found this recipe yesterday and made it today. I used natural peanut butter since I’d already bought it before reading your recommendation haha. They still came out perfect and sooo delicious!! Thank you! (:
Glad they came out great for you even with the natural PB (some people have luck with some brands, and other brands aren’t so easy to work with) and glad everything was a success for you!