Archive for: peanut butter
Sweet chocolate and salty-sweet peanut butter will always be a winning combination in my book, and these Mini Chocolate Peanut Butter Cupcakes are a great example of it. These bite-sized cupcakes were inspired by the desire to add even more chocolate to a chocolate-covered peanut butter cup. The cupcakes each have a whole mini chocolate covered peanut butter cup (I used Reese’s, but there are plenty of brands that make similar sized candies) inside of a brownie-like chocolate cake batter. This gives you a good dose of chocolate, a good dose of peanut butter, and a baked good that manages to have the perfect ratio of those two elements.
To make these, I whipped up a relatively small batch of a fudgy chocolate cake batter. I filled each mini muffin cup almost half way up with batter, then pressed a miniature peanut butter cup into the center. The miniature peanut butter cups are the snack sized pb cups that typically come individually wrapped in foil. Then, I added a bit more batter to each one just to ensure that the peanut butter cups were fully enclosed in batter. I used small paper liners in my mini muffin cups, but if you are using a nonstick pan, the bite-sized cupcakes should pop right out after baking.
The finished cupcakes had a dark chocolate flavor and the sweet-salty peanut butter center that I was hoping for. The cake is fudgy and moist, although there is really only a thin layer of cake around the peanut butter cups. The cake is an excellent contrast in color and texture for the peanut butter cup in the center. Be warned: these are addictive, and because of their small size it is very easy to eat two at a time.
I felt that these little cupcakes were rich enough that they didn’t need any icing to top them off. Of course, if you get the urge to take them really over-the-top, you can top them with a bit of chocolate or peanut butter buttercream. These cupcakes are best when baked in mini muffin cups. If you don’t have a mini muffin pan and really want to try them in a full sized muffin pan, I recommend filling the pan only halfway up with batter, creating a flatter than standard cupcake to maintain the fudginess of the cake and the ratio of chocolate to peanut butter.
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The combination of peanut butter and jelly – or PB&J – reminds me of the brown bag lunches I took to school as a kid. They were definitely my favorite type of sandwich, and I am still a fan of the flavor combination in any form because salty, sticky peanut butter always seems to pair perfectly with sweet, fruity jam. These Peanut Butter and Jelly Sandwich Cupcakes are a twist on that classic lunchbox sandwich, a more adult cupcake that still embodies those childhood flavors. I would call these an “adult” cupcake because they’re not your typical, buttery cupcakes.
The cake was inspired by a very French type of cake made with ground almonds (I’ve also used macadamia nuts), and instead of almonds, I’ve used peanuts here. Since they use peanuts instead of peanut butter, these little cakes have a very clear peanut flavor to them instead of a strong peanut butter flavor. This means that the overall flavor is a little more subtle than many peanut butter cakes. Salted, roasted peanuts are the best choice for this recipe because they impart the most flavor. If you’re not going to use salted peanuts, add a generous pinch of salt to the batter to help highlight the nuts’ flavor. The cakes also have a light, fluffy crumb that is reminiscent of sponge cake and are not too sweet – which makes them perfect for filling with a layer of fruity jam. I used strawberry here, but you can use grape, raspberry or any other flavor you like.
You could leave the cakes filled with jam and serve (or eat) them as-is, but I wanted to make them a little more decadent with a smear of cream cheese frosting and a sprinkle of coarsely chopped peanuts. The cream cheese adds some additional richness and a bit of extra sweetness to the cupcakes. They’re a little different than those classic sandwiches, but they’re least as tasty as those PB&Js you ate as a kid.
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Bananas go very well with both peanut butter and with chocolate, and when you put those three elements together in one cake, the result is irresistible. And irresistible is just how I would describe a slice o this Chocolate Peanut Butter Topped Banana Snack Cake. The snack cake consists of a layer of moist banana cake that is topped with a thin layer of salty-sweet peanut butter and drizzled with melted chocolate.
I was inspired to create this cake after making a batch of my Peanut Butter Tasty Kakes, a homemade version of a popular snack cake made by the East coast-based Tasty Kake company. Those cakes have a plain sponge cake layer as a base, and I wondered what other flavors I could add to the cake for some variety. Some overripe bananas slated to be baked into banana bread caught my eye, and instead I made a banana cake base. The cake is very moist and tender, with a great banana flavor to it. There is some sour cream for added richness, and it keeps the cake moist along with mashed bananas.
Honestly, the cake is excellent on its own without any topping and you could simply stop this recipe there (it’s a great alternative to banana bread!). But if you want to make the cake more decadent, spread a thin layer of peanut butter over the still-warm cake and allow it to set up, cooling as the cake cools. When the peanut butter layer is set, carefully spread a thin layer of dark chocolate over the top to finish it off. The effect is almost like having a candy bar on top of your banana bread – but much, much better.
This cake is best stored in a cool place to keep the topping from melting on a hot day. The cake can even be stored in the refrigerator, although the cake will start to dry out (as do most baked foods) if you store it in the refrigerator for too long. Chill the cake slightly just before serving if it’s hot out, and wrap any leftover pieces for storage in the freezer if you don’t think you’re going to finish it all up in a day or two. If the weather is cool, however, the cake can simply be stored for a few days in an airtight container.
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This is a cookie that will appease both peanut butter lovers and chocolate chip fans: a peanut butter chocolate chip cookie. You can certainly throw a handful of chocolate chips into just about any peanut butter cookie dough (or dip the cookies in chocolate!) to get this flavor combination, but peanut butter cookies and chocolate chip cookies have different textures to them and this cookie delivers something encompasses elements of both types.
The cookies are big and tender, with a hint of crispiness on the edges and a slight chewiness to them that is more like a chocolate chip cookie than a straight peanut butter one. They don’t have an overly strong peanut butter flavor to them and I like to use crunchy peanut butter to get the addition of little pieces of peanut in the finished cookies. Smooth peanut butter will work just as well. I used a national brand (JIF, to be specific) but these cookies should work out well with natural peanut butter, too. If you are using unsalted peanut butter, you may want to increase the salt in the cookies by 1/4 teaspoon to highlight the peanut butter flavor a bit more.
These cookies keep very well and are a great change of pace from your average peanut butter cookie. I like dark chocolate chips in these, but milk chocolate chips also really compliment the peanut butter flavor of the cookies and will sweeten things up just a little bit. To really take a batch of these cookies over-the-top with peanut butter and chocolate, keep an eye out for mini peanut butter cups (Trader Joe’s carries them) and mix those in along with the chocolate chips.
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Peanut butter pie is, quite honestly, something that I didn’t think would appeal to me the first time I had it. I like peanut butter, but a pie with a super-creamy peanut butter base actually sounded like it would be a bit (or a lot) too much. When I was a pie judge at the American Pie Council’s Pie Contest last year, however, I had the chance to try several peanut butter pies and was very impressed with the flavor and texture of them. I still love apple pies, but a whole new pie category was opened to me after that.
There are all kinds of peanut butter pies out there, from creamy, mousse-like pies to dense, fudge-like pies. This pie is a bit candy-like and reminds me of a huge Reese’s peanut butter cup. As you can imagine, it’s a big hit with kids. It is a little bit of a twist on a recipe I saw Alton Brown make on an episode of Good Eats a couple of years ago. The pie is made with homemade peanut butter, sweetened and thickened with some confectioners’ sugar and smoothed with a bit of butter. That sounds too simple to work, but the deep flavor of the homemade peanut butter gives the pie a lot of body and a freshness that you definitely wouldn’t get from store-bought peanut butter. The filling is poured into a dark chocolate-lined crust and drizzled with plenty of extra chocolate. The dark chocolate keeps it from getting too sweet, while the crust adds a nice crunch and texture. A graham cracker crust will work (and you can see I’ve used one in the photo above), but a chocolate crumb crust is even better.
The pie filling will thicken up in the refrigerator and the pie should be served cold. It is dense and creamy, but still has a bit of texture from the peanuts in the homemade peanut butter. Slice it with a warm knife (run it under hot water and quickly dry it off before using) to get very clean slices. The pie is rich, so serve it in small slices. To lighten up the pie if it feels a bit too candy-like for your taste, serve it with a bit of very lightly sweetened whipped cream for a mousse-like feel.
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