Chocolate Peanut Butter Mousse Cake Recipe!

[britneyelise]

Chocolate Peanut Butter Crunch Cake

Chocolatier Magazine Nov. 2002

Yield: 12 servings
Difficulty: *** (out of 3)
Prep: 2 1/2 hours plus chilling

Chocolate Cake:
1/2 cup all purpose flour
1 tsp. Baking Soda
1/4 tsp. salt
2 TBSP. Cocoa powder
1/3 cup boiling water
4 TBSP unsalted butter
3/4 cup light brown sugar
1 large egg
1/3 cup sour cream

Crunch filling:
4 oz bittersweet chocolate, chopped
1/2 cup creamy peanut butter
1 1/4 cup crushed piroutte cookies or toasted rice cereal

Chocolate Mousse:
7 oz bittersweet chocolate, chopped
1/3 cup whole milk
1/3 cup granulated sugar
2 tsp. vanilla extract
1 cup heavy cream

Peanut Butter Mousse:
1 cup heavy cream
8 oz cream cheese, softened
1 cup confectioners sugar
1/2 cup creamy peanut butter

Ganache Glaze:
6 oz bittersweet chocolate
3/4 cup heavy cream

Garnish:
2/3 cup peanuts

1. Make chocolate cake: Position rack in the center of oven and preheat to 350 degrees F. Butter the bottom of a 9" round cake pan. Line the bottom with parchment.
2. In a small bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda, and salt; set aside.
3. In another small bowl, whisk together cocoa powder and boiling water until smooth; set aside.
4 In bowl of electric mixer, using paddle attachment, beat butter and brown sugar at medium-high speed until well blended and light, about 2 minutes. Add egg and vanilla extract and beat until blended, scraping down sides of bowl with rubber spatula as neccessary. Add flour mixture at low speed and mix unti blended. Add cocoa mixture and mix at low speed until blended. Scrape down sides of bowl again. Add sour cream and mix until blended. Scrape batter into prepared pan and smooth top. Bake cake for 18-22 minutes, until toothpick inserted into center comes out clean. Cool cake in pan on wire rack for 15 minutes. Unmold cake and cool completely.
5. Butter bottom and sides of 9" springform pan. Place cooled cake in the bottom of pan (there will be a gap between the sides of pan).
6. Make Crunch Filling: Place chocolate and peanut butter in top of double boiler over barely simmering water. Heat, stirring frequently, until melted and smooth. Remove from heat and fold in crushed cookies or rice cereal. Spread filling over top of cake in pan just up to edge of cake. Refridgerate cake while you make mousse.
7. Make chocolate mousse: Put chocolate in food processor until finely chopped.
8. In a small saucepan, combine milk and sugar. Cook over medium heat, stirring until sugar dissolves and milk comes to a boil. Remove from heat.
9. With motor of food processor running, pour hot milk through feed tube. Process until chocolate is completely melted. Scrape down sides of bowl and add vanilla; process until blended. Scrape mixture into large bowl and cool for 5 minutes, until tepid.
10. In bowl of electric mixer, using whisk attachment, beat cream until soft peaks form. Gently fold one-third of whipped cream into chocolate mixture. Fold in remaining cream. Remove cake from refrigerator and scrape chocolate mousse over crunch filling, letting it fill gap between cake and sides of pan.
11. Make peanut butter mousse: In bowl of electric mixer, using whisk attachment, beat cream until soft peaks form. Refrigerate until ready to serve.
12. In another bowl of mixer, using paddle attachment, beat cream cheese and confectioner's sugar until creamy, about one minute. Add peanut butter and mix until blended, scraping down sides of bowl as neccessary. Gently fold in whipped cream. Srape peanut butter mousse on top of chocolate mousse layer, smoothing it into an even layer. Freeze cake for at least 3 hours, until firm.
13. Make Ganache glaze: Place chocolate in medium bowl. In small saucepan, bring cream to gentle boil. Pour over chocolate and let stand for 30 seconds, to melt chocolate. Whisk until smooth.
14. Assemble cake: Run paring knife around side of pan to loosen cake and remove side of springform pan. Remove bottom of pan and peel off paper. Tranfer cake to plate or cardboard cake round. Pour ganache glaze over top and sides of cake and spread using a small, offset metal spatula. Pat chopped peanuts onto sides of cake. Refrigerate cake for at least one hour, until softened, before serving.
15. To serve cake, use a hot knife to cut into 12 slices, garnish with peanut brittle if desired.

Have fun!


Re-posting this per a member's request. It is to die for!

Shannon

[Kayaksoup]

:eek: :D
Looks so good....

[greysangel]

oh no! I may have to try this one and see if it beats my tried and true :D

JeAnne

[RebeccaT]

OH


MY


GAWD!


that looks too amazing for words... and I can only imagine how gorgeous it looks when sliced! I MUST find an occasion to make this!!!

Thanks for posting, Shannon!

[claire797]

I think Sneezles posted this last year too and I remember her saying it was AMAZING. Thanks for the reminder.

[valchemist]

yes, I think she did too. and she gave it a great review, as I recall.

[greysangel]

I'm just curious...why would you need to put the cooked cake into a springform pan? As it looks like you are just layering a cake and cooling between each layer and then drizzling the choccie over the top. Am I missing something?

j

[britneyelise]

JeAnne,

The mousse layers need time to set up before you can pour on the chocolate. If you just assmeble it on a plate, the mousse will not be as thick and it will run over before it has a chance to set up. Know what I mean? Let me know if that wasn't confusing enough ;) !

Shannon

[greysangel]

yes but if there's a gap around the edges (they say that in the recipe), than what difference does it make whether it runs off to the side within the gap or without the gap?

Oh who cares...I'm sure it's going to taste delicious :D

j

[britneyelise]

If I remember it correctly the gap is barely noticable at all. Verrrryyyy tiny, just enough to slip the bottom cake in there. The directions make it seem as if it is the hoover dam! It's not though, its barely enough to work with.

It is sooooooooo good, my mouth is watering for it.

Shannon

[JennieL]

Thanks Shannon!

I can't wait to try it!:) :D

[LaurenP]

My DH favorite cake is chocolate with peanutbutter frosting. This goes the extra mile.... or two. Sounds wonderfull!!!!

[Pico]

Wow! I'll be anxious to see more reviews. :)

[CompassRose]

I made this yesterday, a half-recipe.

It was delicious, and knock-your-sox-off decadent. It was also quite easy and speedy to put together, considering the result.

I made the cake on Saturday in my cute little 7" springform, and just left it there (my bad, as I forgot to remove the parchment). The cake rose alarmingly, making me think I'd have to split it and make TWO cakes (oh, the horror). However, once it cooled, it sank to half its height, alarming me even more. As it happened, I needn't have worried. The cake was perfect, tender and moist and not even heavy. (Much better, incidentally, than the Chocolate Sour Cream Layer Cake I tried out of Urvater's Chocolate Cake book for an elaborate cakely production at work. That turned out dense as a brick. Sadly, that whole cake was an exercise in not quite working -- none of the elements really meshed.)

But enough of that, and back to the peanut-butter cake. Stored the cake "well-wrapped at room temperature", and assembled Sunday morning.

For the whole thing, I used natural peanut butter, a very nice kind with nothing but a little lecithin added, which greatly improves it somehow, and a mixture of about 2/3 Callebaut milk chocolate (left over from previous project), and 1/3 Lindt semisweet -- just chopped the lot together, and scooped out my ounces as I needed them.

The layered part went together very easily, considering. The crunch part, of course, is like falling off a log, but even the mousses were pretty simple (though of course they aren't "real" mousses but whipped ganache. It's amazing how much less intimidating "mousse" looked when I realised that.) I cheated a bit on the PB mousse -- I'd forgotten to buy cream cheese, so used instead a mixture of Quark and a spoonful of lowfat sourcream to make it "creamy" tasting (Sacrilege! My only -- undeliberate -- caloric reduction -- must've taken all of, whoa, maybe twenty or thirty cals apiece off the whopping 850 per slice total!) I also, armed with my "whipped ganache" knowledge, added the PB mixture to the mostly-whipped cream, and beat it in rather than folding -- which worked very well.

I was glad to have the peanuts for the edges, since, oddly, there was barely enough ganache for the sides. Ah. Not oddly. I see now that it is a Chocolatier recipe. I thought it was BA, which is notorious for recipe lines like, "This makes an extra two litres of ganache, but of course it keeps well refrigerated, and is divine over ice cream or simply spooned out of the jar for lunch." Because no one's fridge is complete without a bowlful of ganache, in case...) Anyway, the peanuts disguised any shortfall there, and the top looked loverly.

Result: A. and I both pronounced it delicious. I normally find mousse cakes a bit unassertive in texture, but the crunch bottom adds a welcome note of contrast. The flavour, of course, is pure Reese Cup for Grownups, and I think the milk/dark chocolate mix was, in this instance, highly successful in that regard. My only comment is that with the crunch bottom (which sets up quite like a crunch chocolate bar), one really doesn't need to bother with the cake! It would have been quite fine without... something to keep in mind, perhaps, if making this beast in the summer months! ;)

Anyway, the remainder is neatly sliced up and back in the freezer, and will be stashed away to treat another day. It was fun to make, just enough finicking to make it interesting, not so much as to be tiresome.

[CompassRose]

Rumour has it that this is great for breakfast, fresh outta the freezer. I have a feeling there won't be any left for me when my next "cheat" day rolls around on the weekend. :rolleyes:

[lindrusso]

So, I'm planning to make this cake for my son's birthday next week, but my mind cannot wrap around what it's supposed to be.

It has just one cake layer with lots of stuff on top?

Does the mousse (or, as Katharine said, maybe more of a ganache) set up very firmly - enough to stand up to having ganache spread over it?

I thought this was going to be a layer cake with different mousse layers between the cake layers, but now I see it's a little different than that........

I wish there were a picture......I'm such a visual person. Nothing on the website, though...............

Any thoughts and/or advice welcome. :)

[funnybone]

Does the mousse (or, as Katharine said, maybe more of a ganache) set up very firmly - enough to stand up to having ganache spread over it?




I have not made this cake, but having made something similar in the past, the layer should be firm enough for the ganache. I think the recipe calls for it to be frozen, so that will make it firm.


A neighbor is planning a progressive dinner and wants us to do the dessert - this looks like something to make for it! :)

[helene]

My kind of cake. I should make it for father's day.

Is has everything we like: peanut butter, chocolate, cream cheese.

Yummy!!!

[lindrusso]

Mmmm....this is soooooo gooooood.........

This cake has many different steps and requires a lot of chilling time, but it's really not difficult to put together if you take it slowly, step by step.

I agree that the cake layer gets a bit lost. However, the layers came up pretty much to the very top of my springform pan, so you'd have to construct it free-style if you want a thicker cake layer.

http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1336/539682195_4070ab1fce_m.jpg

http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1248/539682189_d6ebe2f30d_m.jpg

I've become quite a chocolate-peanut butter fanatic lately and this definitely satisfies that craving and then some!

[Gracie]

Has anyone been able to compare this to BA's (Oct 03) Chocolate Peanut Butter Mousse Cake (taste-wise or OMG-ness wise - they're clearly 2 different cakes.

This one from BA is to die for - reviews can be found on this old thread (http://community.cookinglight.com/showthread.php?t=47645&highlight=mousse)- and this one sounds just as decadent.

Chocolate-Topped Peanut Butter Mousse Cake BA Oct 03
12 Servings

1 1/2 cups finely ground cream-filled chocolate sandwich cookies (about 16 cookies) - Doubled the crust, so 3 cups ground Oreos
1/4 cup (1/2 stick) unsalted butter, melted - doubled - 1 stick
12 oz cream cheese, room temperature
1 1/4 cups powdered sugar
1 1/2 cups creamy peanut butter (do not use old-fashioned or freshly ground) - Simply Jif
1/4 cup chopped lightly salted dry-roasted peanuts - used Reese's peanut butter cups
2 tbl whole milk - used 1 1/2% because that's what I had on hand
2 3/4 cups chilled heavy whipping cream

6 oz semisweet chocolate, chopped used Nestles choc chips

Butter botton of 9-inch-diameter springform pan. Mix cookie crumbs and melted unsalted butter in medium bowl, until cookie crumbs are evenly moistened. Press crumb mixture into bottom of prepared springform pan. Using electric mixer, beat 12 oz cream cheese and 1 cup powdered sugar in large bowl until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Beat in creamy peanut butter, chopped dry-roasted peanuts, and whole milk. Beat 2 cups heavy whipping cream and remaining 1/4 cup powdered sugar in another large bowl until peaks form. Fold whipped cream into cream cheese-peanut mixture in 3 additions. Transfer mixture to prepared springform pan and smooth top. Cover pan with plastic wrap and refrigerate overnight.

Bring remaining 3/4 cup heavy whipping cream to boil in heavy medium saucepan over medium-high heat. Remove cream from heat. Add semisweet chocolate; whisk until chocolate is mleted and smooth. Cool to lukewarm, about 15 minutes. Run thin knife between cake and pan sides to loosen. Release pan sides. Using hot metal spatula or knife, smooth top and sides of mousse cake Place cake on rack set over rimmed baking sheet. Pour chooclate mixture over ake, allowing it to run over sides and using spatula to help cool completely. Refrigerate mousse cake until chocolate is set, about 1 hour. (Peanut butter mousse cake can be made 3 days ahead. Keep refrigerated.) Cut cake into 12 wedges. Transfer to plates and serve.

Loren

[sneezles]

Mmmm....this is soooooo gooooood.........


I agree that the cake layer gets a bit lost. However, the layers came up pretty much to the very top of my springform pan, so you'd have to construct it free-style if you want a thicker cake layer.



Great pictures of your cake! It's been ages since I made that but I have made it twice and it is soooooo goooooood!!!!!

I always just thought of the cake layer as the crust (and a way to get the other layers to my mouth!) and was more interested in the other layers!:p The difficulty is having the patience to wait out the chilling time!;)

May have to make this for Father's Day/DH's Birthday/Anniversary which are all next week!