Whole Wheat Peanut Butter and Banana Nutella Swirl Muffins

Is it Monday already? That weekend went by way too quickly!

Did you guys have a good holiday weekend? In addition to being Easter yesterday, it was also our wedding anniversary – 6 years! It seriously feels like just yesterday I was stressing over wedding vendors and the guest list As has become our tradition, we went out to lunch and then cooked dinner at home together. I made cupcakes to celebrate too, I’ll tell you more about those later this week!

Oh, and also? Since the season 3 premiere of Game of Thrones was on last night, HBO was having a free preview weekend. That means instead of the super productive Saturday I had planned, I had a Girls marathon! Cranked through the entire season – not sure if I should be proud or ashamed of that… It was so much darker than season 1, but I still loved it.

In between episodes, I also spent a few minutes whipping up these amazing Peanut Butter and Banana Nutella Swirl Muffins. I’d seen them on Jessica’s blog a few months ago and made a mental note that they had to happen the next time we had brown bananas hanging out on the counter. I may have purposefully been a little overenthusiastic in my banana buying the past few weeks in the hopes that some would become dark brown and speckled before we could eat them just so I could finally make this recipe. It definitely didn’t disappoint!

I figured with peanut butter chips and Nutella in the muffins, I needed some way to justify them as breakfast, so I replaced some of the all-purpose flour with whole wheat. Whole wheat and bananas balance out the peanut butter chips and Nutella – that’s how this works, right? I used white whole wheat flour and I swear, you’d never have guessed these were whole wheat. The muffins are light and tender, with lots of banana flavor. The Nutella swirl, not surprisingly, was my favorite part – so pretty and just a little decadent. I sent these off to work with Shane because I couldn’t keep my hands off of them, and I’m already looking forward to the next time I find brown bananas on the counter.

Whole Wheat Peanut Butter and Banana Nutella Swirl Muffins
adapted from The Novice Chef

1 cup white whole wheat flour
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
4 medium ripe bananas, mashed (about 1 3/4 cups)
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup packed light brown sugar
1 large egg, at room temperature
1/4 cup canola oil
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1/2 cup peanut butter chips
apprx 1/4 to 1/3 cup Nutella

Preheat oven to 350 F. Line two muffin pans with paper liners.

Whisk the whole wheat flour, all-purpose flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt together in a medium bowl. Combine the mashed bananas and both sugars in a large bowl and whisk until incorporated. Add the egg, canola oil and vanilla to the banana mixture, whisking until evenly combined. Add the dry ingredients in three additions, mixing just until incorporated (I started with a whisk and switched to a rubber spatula at the end). Stir in the peanut butter chips.

Divide the batter evenly among the muffin cups, filling each about 3/4-full. Spoon roughly 3/4 teaspoon Nutella on top of each muffin then swirl into the batter using a toothpick. {Note: I heated the Nutella for about 15-20 seconds in the microwave first to make it more fluid and easier to swirl.}

Bake the muffins for 18-20 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Transfer the muffin pans to wire racks and let the muffins cool for a few minutes in the pan before removing them.

Makes 15-18 muffins