Peanut Butter Chocolate Lava Cakes

Less than a week left to upheaving my entire life and moving to Kobe for new teaching experiences, understanding the deeper nuances of Japanese culture (LIKE, WHY THE HELL ARE THEY SO NICE?!) and yes, a form of escapism from the norms and expectations in Singapore. Though one of my greatest fears is not being able to bake in Kobe, their houses are notoriously small and my new apartment doesn’t have an oven. (YET!)

Cakes are not to be neglected in the flurry of packing, meetups and last minute errands. Finally got down to making a simple dream of molten chocolate cake -Pee Poo cake! Or officially, (but where’s the fun in that) – peanut butter chocolate lava cakes! I’d like to think of it as a cake one would cozy up to on a rainy / cold day, with Julie Kagawa’s Iron Fey series at the side. Nothing like chocolate cake to pair with a great book!

It’s dead simple, but pay attention to the steps. The eggs should be whisked to a thick, pale mixture. To enhance the chocolate flavor, I added ½ a teaspoon of espresso powder instead of the usual vanilla. Finally, a heaping glob of peanut butter in the middle of each ramekin, but I think white chocolate ganache or salted caramels would work great too. I adore Nutella, but skip it cos it’s more chocolate than hazelnut, so there won’t be much of a taste contrast in this cake. 

Finally, it’s a lava cake guys, so err on the side of underbaking to make sure you get the goo factor. Skip the powdered sugar and go straight for the vanilla ice cream! MmmMM HELLO HD’S MACADAMIA NUT BRITTLE 8-) (Sidenote : Is there such a thing as good vegan ice cream? A friend brought a pint of vegan Vanilla ice cream and it tasted just.. wrong – diluted and flavourless…)

Peanut Butter Chocolate Lava Cakes

200g dark chocolate, chopped (I used Cadbury 70% dark)

100gm unsalted butter

2 eggs

2 egg yolks

1/2 cup castor sugar

1/4 cup all-purpose flour

½ teaspoon espresso powder

4 heaping teaspoons of smooth peanut butter

1. Preheat oven to 200° C. Generously butter 4 ramekins. Coat ramekins with sugar and tap out the excess. (This step gives the cakes a sweet outer crust!)

2. In a saucepan over low heat, melt the chocolate, espresso powder and butter until smooth–stirring constantly to avoid burning. Let cool.

3. Place the eggs, yolks and sugar in a bowl and whisk with a hand mixer until thick and pale. Slowly add the cooled chocolate mixture while whisking until smooth. Gentle fold in the flour.

4. Spoon the mixture into each ramekin. Drop in a generous dollop of peanut butter into each cup and gently press the dollop into the chocolate. Spoon the remaining chocolate batter evenly into each ramekin, using up all the batter. The ramekin should be ¾ full. Place the ramekins in the oven and bake for 16 - 18 minutes until tops appear dry and are slightly puffed. Let cakes rest for about 2 minutes until warm enough to handle and turn out onto a plate for serving and gild the lily with a scoop of ice cream!

Black Sesame Coconut Mochi Donuts

Confession time. I’m a youtube junkie. I can spend hours on the internet just watching particularly jovial strangers have a good time cooking up a storm on Youtube. My current favourite channels have to be Cookingwithdog and Ochikeron. YES I AM AWARE OF HOW LATE I AM TO THE GAME, but they literally make me troll the Japanese supermarket for interesting new ingredients to see what I can put in cakes. Check out their clips here and here (love the Tokyo Banana tutorial!) That being said, my recent trip to Nihon in May fostered a new love for goma, black sesame. I’m also a huge fan of glutinous rice (mocha) flour in cakes because it gives it a springy, QQ texture like nothing else! Bet they'd be a great substitute for the chewiest brownies, mmm! 

Fingers crossed that I might be moving abroad soon, so I’m trying to deplete my current pantry store. And voila! – Sesame coconut mochi cakes with a chocolate ganache and peanut butter drizzle. The coconut flavor is twofold with coconut cream and shredded coconut bits added in. After several experiments, a 1/3 cake flour + 2/3 mochi flour ratio is the best for perfect springy but not too mushy cakes. The sesame – frosting pairing is your choice really, but peanut butter and sesame make a really nutty, fragrant power duo!

Sesame Coconut Mochi Donuts

•   150g 
glutinous rice flour

•   75g cake flour

•   60g black sesame powder

•   
1 teaspoon baking powder

•   150g white sugar sugar

•   180g coconut / cream


•   80g butter, melted

•   
2 eggs, beaten

•   1 ½ teaspoons vanilla extract

•   2 teaspoons black sesame seeds

•   ½ cup shredded coconut

1.    Pre-heat the oven to 350 degrees. Lightly grease your donut pan with oil.

2.    In a large bowl, whisk together the two flours, baking powder, sesame seeds and shredded coconut.

3.    In a medium bowl, whisk together the sesame powder,sugar and melted butter, then whisk in the beaten eggs until smooth. Whisk in the vanilla extract and coconut cream until mixed well.

4.   Combine the wet and dry ingredients until mixed well. Bake for 8 – 10 minutes until the top is slightly puffed and cracked.

Baker’s Notes

1.  A lot of my toppings / glazes are made in small batches, so I eyeball it and don’t have a recipe. For the glaze, I merely mix a 1 : 4 condensed milk : peanut butter till spreadable, and add more milk to thin. The condensed milk provides an extra depth of creamy sweetness!

2.  In Singapore, you can easily buy the chocolate cereal balls from Phoon Huat stores islandwide.

Ultimate Chewy Peanut Butter Cookies

Saturdays at the ‘school’ I work at are always hectic, teachers are speeding about from class to class with breaks spent trying to clear huge stacks of marking piles. The other day I was desperate for a snack and was stretched for time and quickly snatched up some peanut butter Oreos for an energy booster without realizing it.

I hate(d) peanut butter. The smell was ghastly and reminded me of brown puke. Nutella, peanut butter and Speculoos are delicious and popular in the United States, but my childhood breakfasts consisted of half boiled eggs seasoned with soya sauce and pepper, porridge and my absolute favourite – buttered toast and Chin Mee Chin kaya. (hands down the best in Singapore!)

So perhaps my time was due as I crunched into the sugary, chemically laden cookie, SOMETHING MAGICAL HAPPENED. The beauty of peanut butter and chocolate finally dawned on me and I literally ( YES, LITERALLY) stopped in my tracks to stare at the other single cookie in my hand, albeit in wide eyed amazement. Also much to the amusement of other teachers who were dashing to their classes.

Cookie recipes aren’t usually featured here because I love baking cakes, but this cookie is TO DIE FOR. Tall and puffy with a chewy interior, studded generously with chocolate chips.  I took a leaf from Alton Brown’s ‘The Chewy’and used bread flour which gives the cookie such a chewy texture! To get their puffy, pillow texture, baking powder is used in lieu of baking soda. A handy tip : baking Powder PUFFS and baking Soda SPREADS. The spices – cinnamon, allspice and ginger are optional, but they give the cookie a different flavor dimension.

Because I like ‘em chewy but not gooey, I baked them for about 10-12 minutes at 175C. The texture is sublime, almost like a peanut butter brown sugar truffle. Best enjoyed with cold milk and a Jenny Colgan novel!

Chewy Peanut Butter Cookies (Makes about 16 43g cookies)

1 large egg
1/2 cup light brown sugar, packed
1/2 cup creamy peanut butter (not natural or homemade, too runny)
2 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup bread flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon cornstarch
¼ teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon cinnamon

¼ teasp ginger

¼ teasp allspice
¾ cup chocolate chips 

DIRECTIONS:

1.    To the bowl of a stand mixer (or large mixing bowl with electric mixer), combine egg, brown sugar, peanut butter, butter, vanilla, and beat on medium-high speed until smooth and creamed, about 5 minutes. Mixture doesn't get as fluffy as you may be used to when typically creaming ingredients for cookies. Stop and scrape down the sides of the bowl.

2.    Add the flour, baking powder, cornstarch, spices and optional salt, and beat on low speed until just incorporated, about 1 minute.

3.   Roll out the dough into 43g balls equally.

4.   Place dough balls on a large plate, cover with plastic wrap, and refrigerate for at least 3 hours, or for up to 5 days, before baking. Do not bake with warm dough because cookies will spread and bake flat and thin.

5.     Preheat oven to 175C. Place dough mounds on baking sheet, spaced at least 2 inches apart.

6.    Bake for about 10 – 12 minutes, or until tops are just set. It's okay if cookies are glossy, pale, and slightly underdone in the center because they firm up as they cool. Allow cookies to cool on baking sheets for about 5 minutes before serving. 

Baker’s Notes

1.    Supermarket brand peanut butter (Skippy!) is recommended because the natural kinds might be too watery for these cookies.

2.    I highly recommend using bread flour for the best ‘chew’ factor. All purpose flour in my previous batches resulted into a flatter batch.

3.   Cornstarch or corn flour gives the cookie an additional melt in the mouth texture.

4.   You can mix up the spice ratio, but I love this combination because the chewy cookie is like a PB – Speculoos hybrid! WHAT’S NOT TO LOVE?

Peanut Butter Chocolate Oatmeal Chunkies

This is for saying goodbye. 

These batch of cookies are for my Primary 6 students, a parting gift of sorts, for our last lesson together. I'm not a fan of peanut butter (actually LOATHE the stuff), but I know my kids love them. Oats, chocolate and peanut butter make for a fantastic, kid friendly, protein rich snack for them. Crispy on the outside, chewy inside, perfect to wash down with a glass of milk! 

The older my students get, the snarkier their comments can get. But ultimately, this is my way of thanking them for being so hardworking, thoughtful and driven. For being my inspiration and motivation for coming to work to teach, for teaching me how to listen, for showing me what it's like to look through the world through another pair of eyes. 

At times, the best part of the job is learning from them as much as they do from me. 

Chunky PB & Chocolate Chip Cookies (Adapted from Baking, from my home to yours)

Wrapped airtight or piled into a cookie jar, the cookies will keep at room temperature for about 4 days. Wrapped and frozen, they’ll be good for 2 months. Makes 20 big cookies 

·        1.5 cups old-fashioned oats

·        1/2 cup all-purpose flour

·        1/2 teaspoon baking soda

·        1 teaspoons ground cinnamon

·        Pinch of freshly grated nutmeg

·        ¼ teaspoon salt

·        4 ounces (113g) unsalted butter, at room temperature

·        ½ cup (125g) peanut butter (not natural)

·        1/2 cup white sugar

·        1/2 cup (packed) light brown sugar

·        1 large eggs

·        1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

·        130g chopped bittersweet chocolate

1.) Position the racks to divide the oven into thirds and preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Line your baking sheet with parchment paper. 

2.) Whisk together the oats, flour, baking soda, spices and salt.

3.) Using a hand mixer, in a large bowl, beat the butter, peanut butter, sugar and brown sugar on medium speed until smooth and creamy. Add the eggs one at a time, beating for 1 minute after each addition, then beat in the vanilla. Reduce the mixer speed to low and slowly add the dry ingredients, beating only until blended. Mix in the chips.

4.) If the dough is not chilled, drop rounded tablespoonfuls 2 inches apart onto the baking sheets. If the dough is chilled, scoop up rounded tablespoons, roll the balls between your palms and place them 2 inches apart on the sheets. Press the chilled balls gently with the heel of your hand until they are about ½ inch thick.

5.) Bake for 13 to 15 minutes, rotating the sheets from top to bottom and front to back after 7 minutes. The cookies should be golden and just firm around the edges. Lift the cookies onto cooling racks with a wide metal spatula—they’ll firm as they cool.

6.) Repeat with the remaining dough, cooling the baking sheets between batches.

Baker's Notes

1.) Do use supermarket peanut butter, the natural stuff isn't sweet enough!

2.) I like to chill my dough for a minimum of 6 hours, this allows for a richer taste