Weight Watcher Peanut Butter Muffins

A small-batch peanut butter muffin recipe from the Weight Watchers playbook. Just four muffins, designed for portion control without making you bake a dozen and stare at a pile of leftovers. Self-rising flour cuts the ingredient list, skim milk lightens the fat, and chunky peanut butter brings real flavor without piling on calories.

The trick that catches first-timers is filling the empty muffin cups with water. Most muffin tins are designed to bake six or twelve at a time. Leaving cups empty when you only fill four creates uneven heat distribution that can scorch the bottoms of your filled cups. Water in the empty cups keeps the pan tempered and gives you even baking.

The recipe asks for a quick stir, not a thorough mix. Overmixing develops gluten in the flour and gives you tough, dense muffins instead of light, tender ones. Lumpy batter is the goal.

Pro Tips

• Use room-temperature peanut butter so it folds evenly into the batter without forming pockets
• Don’t beat the batter. Stir just until the dry ingredients are moistened
• Fill the empty cups with water as the recipe says. Skip this and the bottoms of your filled muffins overcook
• Pull the muffins from the tin within a couple of minutes after baking. Bottoms steam soggy if left too long

Variations

• Mash a quarter of a banana into the batter for peanut butter banana muffins
• Drizzle the cooled muffins with a thin sugar-free chocolate glaze
• Substitute almond butter or sunflower seed butter for the peanut butter