Relish: Peanut Butter & Chocolate Chip Yogurt Bundt Cake
Relish is a monthly series by contributor Jon Schelander-Pugh. Check out his bio below to learn more about who Jon is!
Last month I shared the Chocolate Guinness Cake recipe, and I had intended to venture to another genre of food, but a couple things happened to change my mind: I picked up a wonderful mini-bundt cake tray at a garage sale for $2, I made my own yogurt and peanut butter, and I found a recipe for peanut butter yogurt bundt cake. Clearly, Fate was beckoning.
The original recipe I found was shared by Patricia Scarpin on Technicolor Kitchen, and that is a variation of a recipe she found in Lauren Chattman’s Cake Keeper Cakes recipe book. After considering some different options, I made my own alterations and now present to you what I believe is a deep-yet-classically-flavored cake.
While I did make my own peanut butter and yogurt for this recipe, you can certainly use ones from the store. Just make sure the yogurt is plain, and the peanut butter is unsweetened. The cake is sweet as it is, and my peanut butter contains no sugar. Also, I believe you’ll find using pure maple syrup results in a better flavor than if you use the cheaper maple-flavored corn syrup.
While I used mini-bundt cake molds, this recipe is typically made with a 12-cup bundt pan. The original recipe also came with instructions for making a chocolate ganache. However, I found that this cake was sweet enough that I only wanted some chocolate chips on top for a garnish and a chocolate drizzle for a lighter flavor. I found this recipe on Food.com for chocolate sauce worked really well. Their recipe makes a crazy-huge amount of chocolate syrup, so unless you are going through a chocolate milk phase, you can cut it way down.
Here’s what I did: mix together ¼ cup cocoa powder, ½ cup white sugar, and a dash of salt (optional) in a pot; slowly mix in ¼ cup water and then a ½ teaspoon vanilla extract; boil for 3 minutes while constantly stirring; cool until room temperature and strain to remove grit; and then drizzle on anything and everything! Or at least your bundt cake…and your breakfast cereal…and your ice cream……
The batter from this recipe is perhaps the most beautiful batter I’ve ever made or even seen. While I cannot recommend eating this silky-smooth batter due to its raw egg content, if you are to accidentally get some in your mouth you may just find yourself accidentally getting more in your mouth.
This cake is also really good if you just sprinkle on equal parts cocoa powder and powdered sugar. With normal sized bundt cakes, try placing Hershey’s Kisses periodically around the top plus the cocoa powder & powdered sugar mixture.
| Peanut Butter & Chocolate Chip Yogurt Bundt Cake |
- 1 cup plain yogurt
- 3 large eggs
- 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
- 2 tablespoons pure maple syrup
- 2 ¼ cups unbleached all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- ¼ teaspoon fine sea salt
- ½ cup unsalted butter, softened
- 1 cup smooth peanut butter
- 1 ¼ cup brown sugar, packed
- ½ cup semi-sweet chocolate baking chips
- Preheat oven to 350ºF. Grease and lightly flour your bundt pan.
- Using a fork or a whisk, combine the yogurt, eggs, vanilla, and maple syrup in a medium bowl.
- In another medium bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt with a fork or whisk.
- In the bowl of a mixer or a large mixing bowl, add the butter, brown sugar, and peanut butter. Using a standing mixer or electric hand mixer, cream for about 3 minutes on medium-high. You may wish to start mixing on low because there is a tendency for the brown sugar to go flying.
- With the mixer on low, add a third of the dry mixture to the creamed mixture, then half of the wet mixture, then another third of the dry mixture, then the last of the wet mixture, and finally the last of the dry mixture. Scrape the sides of your bowl between additions.
- Turn the mixer on medium-high and beat the mixture for about 1 minute. Reduce to low and add the chocolate baking chips, mixing until all the chips have mixed in (15-30 seconds).
- Scrape the batter into your prepared bundt pan and bake for about 40-45 minutes. It should rise and turn a golden-brown, plus a chopstick or skewer inserted halfway between the outside and inside walls of the pan should come out clean.
- Cool in the pan for 10 minutes, then turn out onto a wire rack to cool the rest of the way.
- Top with chocolate syrup, a mixture of cocoa powder & powdered sugar, or another chocolatey idea of your own and serve.
Marissa
I’m not a baker but I must try this over the weekend. Looks and sounds delicious! I’ll send an update to let you know if my kitchen and I survived. ;)