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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I made these yesterday and they didn’t turn out so good. I didn’t have mini muffin pans so I used a mini cupcake maker and I only made half. I detest peanut butter so I left that out and I made everything else as instructed. After 10 minutes they were done. My sister tasted one and said it was disgusting. My dad tasted one and said ‘it went wrong, didn’t it?’. I tasted it and quite like it (but I think that was me forcing myself to like it coz I made them and didn’t want to waste them). They weren’t cakey, they were like squidgy and banana-y and really not very nice. I’m wondering, was it the absence of peanut butter that could’ve caused it or something else. Please help I want to make these again, they just look so adorable.
You left out PB, a very critical ingredient. And you made them in a cupcake maker, not an oven. I’m not surprised they didn’t turn out like mine. Try again following my recipe and I know you’ll have much better results!
My bad! I can be a bit stupid sometimes. But I really don’t like peanut butter.. is there another substitute I can use? Maybe chocolate spread or something?
I made these again using 7 spoons of nutella and they were delish! Got my family’s approval too. :)
Great, glad it was a success this time!
These muffins were great. I also tried the chocolate version but I think these were my favorite. I also made them in a regular size muffin tin. I got 6 muffins from the receipe. Which one is your favorite? Thanks again Averie for such great , healthy deserts.
I like both the regular and the chocolate version, just depends on my mood! Thanks for trying both and so glad you’re happy with the recipes!
looks so good! But technically not sugar-free or soy-free since you are using JIF. Just wish I could use natural PB to make this recipe a little healthier! Maybe I could throw in a few tablespoons of corn starch or GF flour to counteract the looser consistency of the natural PB?
Please read labels carefully before saying that this recipe is soy free. Using JIF peanut butter adds soybean oil (SOY) to this recipe as well as soy in chips. Use Peter Pan if you want soy free peanut butter. Reading labels is so important important before posting recipes for allergies. This is not a soy free recipe using JIF.
My version of living on the edge is to try a recipe for a whole lotta people without trying it on my own family first. Luckily for me, this worked out great! I wanted a gluten-free recipe to serve for a meeting and these turned out great. Yay!
Thanks for living on the edge and trusting that my recipes would deliver and glad this one did not disappoint! Thanks, Kris!
I gotta tell ya … I think I’m addicted. These are meltingly good.
I know :) And they get better the 2nd day if you can bring yourself to save a few. And have you tried the chocolate version? https://www.averiecooks.com/2014/05/flourless-double-chocolate-peanut-butter-mini-blender-muffins.html
The beauty of you waiting a year to make them is that I came out with the choc version, and no waiting for you :) LMK if you try that and which you prefer!
If you use Nestle Chocolate Chips these will not be soy free as they contain soy lecithin. Your recipe on top of page says Nestle, recipe in text says just semi sweet chocolate chips but they will need to be soy free/dairy free chips.
I just made these using my Pampered Chef mini muffin tin. I got 24 beautiful domed muffins! I am amazed at this recipe. It’s quick, easy and clean eating! Well, you know. I did not flour dust my pan, as I am allergic to wheat, but they popped right out! Thanks so much for this recipe!
These look fantastic!! And easy–the best of both worlds :)
One question, do you think I could sub maple syrup for the honey? And if so, would you adjust the amt?
I think you could sub and just use the same amount. The flavor will change of the muffins, but the texture and everything else *should* work :)
I made these instead of cookies today, but noticed when I printed the recipe for the double chocolate, it was missing the 1/3 cup coco powder. I caught it in time and they turned out wonderful! I thought you might want to know about the omission.
Thanks for LMK you tried them and they turned out great! About 5 minutes after I hit publish on the post, I realized I had omitted the 1/3 c cocoa in the ingredients section and went in and added it. So not sure where you printed it from, or when (if you printed within the first 5 mins of the recipe going live yesterday that would explain it) but it’s correct now and nearly immediately after I published it, I edited it. So it’s all set and glad you loved the muffins!
I was Pinteresting for a recipe for muffins that were marginally healthy and involved bananas. I found this recipe and was super skeptical, despite your precise descriptions and loverly pictures. Anyhoo, 15 minutes later, I was VERY HAPPILY SURPRISED. Thanks for the awesome recipes. I’ll be reading your stuff and combing your archives forever!
Thanks for trying them and glad that your skepticism was proven wrong :) I know, I’ve baked a ton and this is one of those no way, it can’t really be…type recipes that even fools me! Thanks for your newfound support!
Not quite sure how you got 17 minis out of this. I have the same size pan as the one you linked to, and I only got seven out of the batch. Which makes sense to me, because it’s only 1 banana with one egg and the peanut butter. Did you double your recipe to get the 17?
They’re good, but the number you got is messing me up, because if you got 17 but I only got 7, my muffins are suddenly 200+ calories a piece, which isn’t bad except I could definitely eat 2 in one sitting. They all puffed up nicely so I could’ve filled them slightly less and maybe gotten 8. I don’t know.
In case anyone is thinking about it too, I used carob chips and they were just as delicious.
Maybe my banana was bigger than yours; or you maybe really filled your mini pan full (I didn’t); or the difference in chips did it (I get more from any recipe when I use mini chips; they seem to help in stretching batters a bit farther for some reason). When you’re dealing with mini food, and a smallish-batch recipe to begin with, even an extra 1/2 tsp of batter per muffin can really effect overall yield. Just slight tweaks could have a big impact but no, I didn’t double it and I know hundreds of people have written to say they’ve made these and I haven’t heard of this exact situation before but maybe just make those tweaks for next time and see what happens! Glad you enjoyed them!
I made these last night and they were awesome! I used vanilla bean paste, natural peanut butter, and vegan chocolate chips. I only got 14, but I filled the cups a little fuller. I don’t think there was a huge difference with the natural pb! Will make again and maybe add cocoa!!! Thanks!
That’s great to hear that natural PB worked just fine for you! And yes to adding some cocoa next time. Sounds like a plan :) Glad you loved them!
These are so great!! They are much less banana-y after they cool. These were also my son’s first taste of peanut butter and he LOVED them! I’m going to make a second batch tonight, some without chocolate for the baby because these are perfect for breakfast and snacks.
Now that you mention it, I can imagine that little ones would really love these! Something about them being good toddler food too :) Any yes, less banana-ey after they cool, I agree! Thanks for trying them!
For those having sticking issues and not wanting to use flour (i.e. you want to keep these gluten free), try picking up some mini parchment muffin liners. I use them every time I make mini muffins, they are amazing!! You can find them here:
https://www.amazon.com/PaperChef-Culinary-Parchment-Mini-Baking/dp/B003FXT3HA/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1395675634&sr=8-1&keywords=mini+muffin+parchment
These look fantastic but I’m allergic to bananas. Any suggestions for a good substitute?
Very tricky since it’s so instrumental in this recipe…you could try an extra egg and/or 1 egg + 1 yolk. I don’t know if it will work because I haven’t tried it. I bet you could get away with pumpkin here too but not sure if you’re a fan and they were take on a pumpkin-ey taste but I know that would likely work. LMK what you try!
Cannot wait to make these! Love that they are flour less!