Dark Chocolate Muffins with Peanut Butter Filling and White Chocolate Chips

For many, peanut butter symbolises America. But having such a unique taste, how else can one even describe it? It’s nutty, sweet but not sweet. It comes in crunchy and smooth varieties. Like Marmite really, you either love it or hate it. Nevertheless, my friends on the other side of the pond tell me that you only get cupcakes, not muffins, using this ingredient. So being a chocoholic I came up with this recipe. I justify to myself the high calories in this recipe by the nutritional value in peanut butter - it wards off heart disease says Harvard Medical School (Daily Mail 2009).

Makes 20 large muffins

For the muffin batter:

200g white chocolate, chopped

200g dark chocolate

250ml milk

100g butter

450g self-raising flour

1 tsp. bicarbonate of soda

2 eggs, whisked

250g light muscovado sugar

300ml yoghurt

For the peanut butter filling:

125g smooth peanut butter

1 1/2 tbsp butter, softened

65g icing sugar

1. Heat the oven to 180^oC/350^oF/Gas Mark 4. Line 20 muffin cups of a muffin baking tray with 20 muffin paper cases.

2. To make the peanut butter filling, beat the butter with the peanut butter in a bowl until smooth. Sift the icing sugar into the mixture and beat until light and fluffy.

3. For the muffin batter, melt the dark chocolate in a small pan with the butter and milk. Whilst leaving to cool, sieve the flour and bicarbonate soda into a bowl. Stir in the rest of the muffin batter ingredients including the melted chocolate mixture.

4. Spoon the batter into the muffin paper cases, filling them about one third full. Spoon in the middle of the third filled muffins a large heaped teaspoon of peanut butter. Top the peanut butter with the remaining batter.

5. Bake the muffins in the oven for 15-20 minutes until just firm to touch. Allow them to cool for 5 minutes in the tin, and then transfer to wire racks to cool completely.