Chocolate Baby Cakes with Peanut Butter and Banana
Bittersweet chocolate and peanut butter is a divine duo that I often come back to. When juicy stone fruits and berries aren't in season yet and it's time for my beloved citrus to say goodbye, I gladly experiment with the little nuts and a bar of dark chocolate. It's one of those treats that, despite its rather filling qualities, still manages to make me grab for another piece. It's heavy, you know it, but it's too good to stop.
My little baby cakes are no exception in that respect, they make a perfect dessert after a light dinner that still leaves some space in your tummy (I wouldn't serve them after a cheese spaetzle feast). But you can also see them as a chocolaty addition to your Sunday teatime table. Keep in mind, these cakes are rich. I'm not a big fan of cocoa powder in baking, I want real chocolate in my cake batter. If you're a chocolate lover, you know what I'm talking about. There's a certain depth that you can't achieve with cocoa powder. I always use the same chocolate for my baking, it has 55% cocoa, it's well balanced - semisweet, but still smooth, and it literally melts in your mouth. I like to call it a grown up treat, bittersweet and rich.
To give the chocolate-peanut combo a new touch, I mixed the nutty butter with half a pureed ripe banana, and this lifts the whole experience onto another level. I see a great future for this trio in my kitchen! This time I went for a sweet, nutty, and rich filling wrapped in a chocolate cake that is still partly molten. Depending on your preference, you can bake the cakes even shorter to leave them a bit more liquid. I found a thin layer of hot chocolate batter laying on top of the soft peanut-banana center just right.
If you'd like to dive more into chocolate and peanut, you can also try these recipes:
Chocolate Baby Cakes with Peanut Butter and Banana
Serves 6
butter, soft, 60g / 1/4 cup
granulated sugar 65g / 1/3 cup
vanilla pod, scraped, 1/2
fine sea salt 1/8 teaspoon
organic eggs 4
plain flour 45g / 1/3 cup
bittersweet chocolate (I use 55%), melted and cooled, 280g / 10 ounces
peanut butter, creamy, 80g / 3 ounces
ripe banana 40g / 1 1/2 ounces (about 1/2 banana)
Preheat the oven to 200°C / 400°F (fan assisted oven). Butter 6 6-ounce ramekins. Cut out 6 circles of parchment paper, large enough to fit the bottom of the ramekins. Then cut out 6 strips of parchment paper, long and tall enough to fit the sides of the ramekins. Line the ramekins with the pieces of parchment paper.
In the large bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a whisk attachment, beat the butter, sugar, vanilla seeds, and salt for a few minutes until creamy. Add the eggs, one at a time, mixing well in between. Add the flour and mix for about 1 minute or until well combined; then add the melted chocolate, mixing well until smooth and well combined.
In a food processor or blender, mix the peanut butter and banana until smooth. Divide into 6 portions and roll into balls.
Divide about 2/3 of the chocolate batter between the 6 ramekins. Lay 1 peanut butter-banana ball on top of the chocolate batter in each ramekin, pushing it down a little (see 1st picture). Top with the remaining chocolate batter and even out the surface. Bake for 14-16 minutes or until the tops start to become spongy, they should still be a little soft and partly liquid. You can also bake them shorter, if you prefer the chocolate center to be more liquid. Enjoy warm or cold.
A Monday Morning Juice with Grapefruit, Banana, Orange and Ginger
I have the tendency to become overly excited as soon as the temperature rises above 10°C and the sun comes through for more than a couple hours. I know it's only the beginning of March but I already feel like spring. I want to get out my summer clothes and jump around in the springy, fresh air. I want to sit outside a café with a glass of chilled white wine, enjoying the warm sun. Unfortunately, there's still a gap in temperature between my dreams and reality which I don't want to accept (sometimes) and that's exactly the problem! I'm prepared for the coldest winter and arctic temperatures, I never get a cold, but at this time of the year, a stone's throw away from the end of the cold season, I tend to be too carefree and strain my immune system.
To avoid any deficit in vitamins, I start the week off with a powerful juice made of grapefruit, banana, blood orange and ginger. For two glasses of juice (400ml in all), I squeeze 1 pink grapefruit and 3 oranges. I add 1/8 teaspoon of grated ginger and half a banana, mashed smoothly with a fork. You can use a whole one but I didn't want its taste and sweetness to be too overpowering.
It's a true energy boost, like my January's Turmeric and Ginger Blood Orange Juice!
Sweet and Spongy Banana Chocolate Bread
This is another perfect weekend breakfast treat, Banana Chocolate Bread. I like mine juicy, almost moist, with lots of big pieces of banana and bittersweet chocolate chunks. When you take the bread out of the oven, golden and warm and you cut the first thick slice off the loaf, pushing the knife through sweet banana chunks and melted chocolate, you'll understand why there's no better start to the weekend. It feels, smells and tastes just right! I never wait for the bread and chocolate to cool, I have to eat a slice immediately as soon as it's done, the chocolate still warm and liquid.
The combination of banana and bittersweet chocolate is a special one as the sweetness and the bitterness balance each other out perfectly. I love it in ice cream, cookies and cakes, but to me nothing beats this duo when their big chunks merge into a warm cake, or morning bread. For one loaf I use three big bananas and 100g / 3.5 ounces of bittersweet chocolate, I don't want a hint of their flavours, I want an explosion on the taste buds.
Banana Chocolate Bread
For a 24cm x 10,5cm / 9.5″ x 4″ loaf tin you need
butter 120g / 4.5 ounces
granulated sugar 100g / 3.5 ounces
vanilla sugar 1 package (you can also use vanilla extract)
organic eggs 2
large and ripe bananas, quartered, 3
plain flour 120g / 4.5 ounces
baking powder 2 teaspoons
salt 1/2 teaspoon
bittersweet chocolate, chopped roughly (leave a few bigger chunks), 100g / 3.5 ounces
Set the oven to 160°C / 320°F (fan-assisted oven) and line the loaf tin with parchment paper.
Combine the flour, baking powder and salt. Mix the butter together with the sugar and vanilla sugar till fluffy. Add the eggs, one at a time, and continue beating for a couple minutes. Add the bananas, beating for 10-20 seconds and stop before they get too smooth, they should be a bit chunky. Gently fold in the flour mixture with a spoon, add the chocolate chunks and fold them in, carefully as well. Scoop the dough into your prepared tin and bake for 55 minutes or until golden brown. Check with a skewer, it should come out clean.
