Peanut Butter Chocolate Brownie

Dark chocolate gooey brownie combined with peanut crunch and peanut butter cups.

What do you do, when you have super simple (don’t tell anyone) brownie recipe and got some peanut butter cups. Yeah we don’t get peanut butter cups everywhere in India so it get a special stature. I have read quite a few peanut butter recipes in books and on internet. So I thought to give it a go, to combine chocolate and peanut butter flavor. I wanted to play with the textures too and I roasted the peanut in oven with some salt until golden brown. These brownies are special for one more reason that it achieves that salty, sweet, chocolaty and butter balance. I layered brownie, then roasted peanuts with chopped peanut butter cups followed by milk chocolate ganach. How good is that??? Heaven!! That’s the work.

Now we have a new favorite brownie and don’t mind baking them every now and then.

2 ½ Cup Plain Dark Chocolate Chopped

1 Cup unsalted butter

3 Eggs

1 ¼ Cup Light Brown Sugar

3/4 Cup  Flour

1/2 Tps Baking Powder

1/2 Tps baking Soda

1 Cup gm Peanut (Skin Removed)

1 Cup Chopped Peanut Butter Cup

½ Cup Chopped Milk chocolate

½ cup Heavy Cream                      

Preheat the oven at 190 ºC. Grease and line a square baking tin.

Spread 2 Tablespoon salt on the baking tray and spread the peanut on it. Roast for 10-12 min at 210 ºC or until golden brown. You don’t want them to get brown. Remove the salt and set aside.

Melt the plain chocolate and butter in microwave for 2 min but keep string it every 30 sec or you can melt them in heavy base saucepan.

Beat Together eggs and sugar then beat in the melted chocolate mixture.

Shift together flour and baking powder and add this is in wet mixture. Add walnuts and mix to bring everything together.

Pour the batter in the baking tin and spread the roasted peanuts and chopped peanut butter cups evenly. Press this layer with light hands in the batter.

Bake for 40 minute at 190 ºC until cake feels just firm on the crust but soft underneath. Please do not overcook or the brownies will be dry. Leave to cool in the tin

Warm the heavy cream in a heavy bottom pan and add chopped milk chocolate and tip a tablespoon butter and mix well. Remove from heat and let it thicken a bit

Spread the cooled ganach over the cooled brownie and cut into square.

Molten Lava Cake - Oozy surprise

Welcome to chocolate indulgence. Molten lava cupcake is all about super rich chocolate taste and an encapsulated molten center in its super gooey texture.

Let me begin with asking you a question. Do you like surprises?

Who does not!!! And that’s exactly I adore about lava cup cake. Best enjoyed just out of oven and when you cut into it and molten chocolate oozes out….Yummmm!!

I don’t know why but I just feel excited every single time. The joy get triple fold when your home baked lava cup cake behaves the same. I have to admit I used to intermediated thinking about how the bake such a thing. I have gone through lot of recipes of lava cake but I was just scared to try them as most of them are too technical for me. Then I stumbled upon this super duper simple recipe…and wasted no time in embracing it my own. Simple chocolate cake better play with some simple trick and Viola!!! Done.

Try this out…take my words you will love it.

¼ cup   Chocolate chips

¼ cup   Cherry filling

2 cups   Refined flour

1 tsp   Baking powder

¾tbsp   Sodabi-carb
1cup   curd
A few drops  Vanilla essence
1cup   Milk
¾cup   White butter
¾cup   Caster sugar
6 tbsp   Cocoa powder

1. Preheat oven to 170*C. Grease a cake tin and line it with butter paper. Mix the chocolate chips with cherry filling and keep aside.

2. Sift flour, baking powder, soda bicarb and cocoa powder together. Heat the milk till it is lukewarm.
3. Whisk the curd, caster sugar, butter and vanilla essence together till smooth and frothy.

4. Fold in the flour mixture alternating with milk. Mix quickly but gently to a smooth batter.
5. Pour into well-greased muffin moulds and spoon chocolate chips & cherry filling mixture in the centre and bake on the center rack for 8 minutes.
6. Check the cake, remove cake from the oven and after a few seconds, demould it and serve

Heart On The Plate – Literally

Last year around this time I was busy for many days thinking, evaluating and planning about a recipe in my head. It was nothing different but a cake. The difference was in the level of challenge. I wanted to raise the bar for myself not just because I wanted to challenge myself but to present a cake like never before. The cake had to be super special as it was a surprise for my dear husband on his birthday. So I decided to do a moist double layer cake with hazel nut praline filled between  the layers and chocolate ganache icing on top (Don’t worry it might sound lot of things but it’s not that complicated), and off course in heart shape ;).

Sponge Cake:

1¼ cups (185g) plain flour

6 eggs

¾ cup (165g) caster/superfine sugar

60g butter, melted

Preheat oven to 180°C (350°F).

Grease 2 medium size heart shape cake tin (Chose the shape as you like) and line the bases with butter paper or spread very small amount of flour and spread as thin layer covering the sides completely.

 Sift the flour 3 times. Set aside.

Place the eggs and sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer and beat for 8–10 minutes or until thick and pale and tripled in volume.

Sift the flour over the egg mixture and gently fold through. Use a metal spoon to fold the flour through the egg mixture with a gentle cutting, lifting and folding action.

Fold through the butter. Pour lf the mixture into each tin and bake for 25 minutes or until the cakes are springy to touch and come away from the sides of the tin. Cool on wire racks.

Ganache Recipe:

200 grams) semisweet or bittersweet chocolate, cut into small pieces

1/2 cup (120 ml) heavy whipping cream

2 tablespoons (20 grams) unsalted butter

Place the chopped chocolate in a medium sized heatproof bowl. Set aside. Heat the cream and butter in a small saucepan over medium heat. (Can also heat the cream and butter in the microwave.) Bring just to a boil. Immediately pour the boiling cream over the chocolate and allow to stand, without stirring, for a few minutes. Stir gently (as you do not want to incorporate air into the ganache) with a spoon or whisk until smooth.

Hazel nut Praline:

50g caster/Superfine sugar

100g hazelnuts, chopped

Place the sugar and nuts into a saucepan over a medium heat and caramelise gently, stirring to coat the hazelnuts.

When the sugar turns golden brown, pour the mixture out onto a butter paper greased with butter, spread out and leave to cool. Once cooled and set, smash the praline into pieces with a rolling pin.

Soaking Syrup

¼ Cup hot water

add 2 tbs Honey in the hot water and let it cool

Now the most fun part, assemble the cake. Soak both the cakes with honey syrup. Spread a thin layer or ganache on the smoother sides of both the cakes. Keep one of the cakes upside down on a wire rack. Have the ganache facing up as this will the foundation for you cake. Spread hazel nut praline on covering it completely. Now place the other cake above it ganache facing down to make the sandwich.

Press lightly.

Cover the cake completely with remaining ganache. Start from spreading from center and then cover sides for a smoother finish.

Sprinkle remaining praline on the sides and cover the sides evenly. Leave the cake for few minutes to set and then move gently to the serving tray or cake stand.

And dark, rich, luscious and hearty cake is ready.

Do bake with heart and soul and it shows. Have a great time baking.