Fudgy Peanut Butter Chip Muffins

I know it's been a while since I posted, but I have an excellent excuse: I was on vacation last week, and my son turned one year old! I still can't believe it's been a whole year since Andrew was born. He is by far the best thing I've ever cooked up in my entire life!

We ate lots of excellent meals last week, so I have a lot of catching up to do. I thought I'd start with these muffins, which I actually made a few weeks ago and just didn't thrill me enough to post about right away. In theory, these should have been delicious -- chocolate muffins studded with peanut butter chips, does it even get any better than that? Unfortunately, these failed to live up to my expectations. They didn't puff up the way a good muffin should, and they were way too oaty for my tastes. I wasn't crazy about the texture, and I didn't think the chocolate flavor was strong enough. But I thought I'd post about them anyway, since the lack of proper muffin tops issue was probably my fault, and someone out there could probably do some tweaking and make these delicious. I'll tweak from here until forever when it comes to cooking, but I'm too scared to improvise when it comes to baking.

Fudgy Peanut Butter Chip Muffins
Source: Old-Fashioned Bake Sale

1/2 cup applesauce
1/2 cup quick-cooking rolled oats
1/4 cup butter or margarine, softened
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup packed light brown sugar
1 egg
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 cup cocoa powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 cup peanut butter chips

1. Heat oven to 350 degrees. Line muffin cups with paper bake cups.

2. Blend applesauce and oats in small bowl. Beat butter, granulated sugar, brown sugar, egg and vanilla in large bowl until well blended. Add applesauce mixture; blend well. Stir together flour, cocoa and baking soda. Add to butter mixture, blending well. Stir in peanut butter chips. Fill muffin cups 3/4 full with batter.

3. Bake 22 to 26 minutes or until wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool slightly in pan on wire rack. Serve warm.