Peanut Butter Chocolate Lava Cakes

The ultimate dessert decadence!

Warm and fudgy chocolate LAVA CAKES exploding with melty peanut butter Peanut Butter Chocolate Lava Cakes

Let’s discuss the elephant in the room.

Why is there not a peanut butter lava cake recipe on my blog yet? Rich, moist, fudgy, gooey, and warm chocolate cake exploding with melty peanut butter that literally pools out from the center at first bite. And then topped with cold vanilla ice cream that melts down the sides. What is wrong with me that I’ve never made this masterpiece at home and WORSE that I’ve never shared such decadence on this so-called “peanut butter loving” blog? I mean, just watch:

This blog hasn’t even lived until this peanut butter chocolate lava cake day. Welcome to the best dessert on earth. The great news is that this recipe makes 4 individually sized peanut butter chocolate lava cakes and the bad news is that this recipe makes 4 individually sized peanut butter chocolate lava cakes. Let’s be honest here. Self control fades fast when you have 4 chocolate lava cakes in the house.

Warm and fudgy chocolate LAVA CAKES exploding with melty peanut butter Peanut Butter Chocolate Lava Cakes

I’ve talked about it a few times before, but I worked at Chili’s back in college. The good ol’ days throwing sizzle sauce onto those hot fajita skillets, pouring margaritas on the rocks, serving with a smile, spilling BBQ sauce onto a woman’s beautifully crisp white blazer… wait, what? Yes. That happened on my first day. I am haunted every time I see a woman sporting a white blazer.

So I’ve had a few Chili’s molten lava cakes in my day. While the molten cakes came to the restaurant frozen, a quick zap in the microwave made that chocolate completely ooze out with the first bite. Molten cakes are obviously a crowd favorite, but believe me when I say this: they’re 78,479x better made at home. When they’re hot from the oven, made fresh with pure chocolate and lots of butter.

First thing’s first. They may look all fancy and complicated but peanut butter chocolate lava cakes are super easy and I’m not just saying that to sell you on ’em! You make a quick batter, you stuff peanut butter inside, and you bake them for just over 10 minutes. All the work is done in your oven, where a high oven heat cooks the outside of the mini cakes but leaves the center slightly gooey.

Let’s quickly walk through the recipe with pictures so you know what you’re doing when you make these. Which needs to be very soon because (1) Valentine’s Day and (2) peanut butter + chocolate + lava cake.

Warm and fudgy chocolate LAVA CAKES exploding with melty peanut butter Peanut Butter Chocolate Lava Cakes

↑ Can I dive in?

The base of these chocolate lava cakes is made from butter melted down with pure chocolate. I’m going to repeat this as much as possible: use QUALITY chocolate. Absolutely no cheap stuff and definitely no chocolate chips. You will be dreadfully disappointed if you use lower quality chocolate. I prefer Ghirardelli or Lindt. The quality of butter doesn’t matter as much; I use store-brand all the time. Just make sure you use unsalted butter, like most of my recipes. (Why? Because it gives you full control over the salt content.)

While high-quality chocolate and butter make up the base of these peanut butter chocolate lava cakes, the most important ingredient is egg. There are 2 whole eggs and 2 egg yolks in this recipe (so 2 egg whites and 4 egg yolks)– an entire egg yolk in each cake. The egg yolks are what provide unique moisture and richness to each cake and the egg whites help give structure, combining all the ingredients into one smooth batter and 4 sturdy cakes.

There are no chemical leaveners in these peanut butter chocolate lava cakes. There is only a little flour, because we don’t want to dry out the cakes. For the sugar, I don’t use much of it. Ok, there’s some for taste– but don’t expect a super sweet chocolate cake. I adapted this lava cake recipe from Food and Wine, who use granulated sugar to sweeten. However, in my recipe testing, I prefer to use confectioners’ sugar over granulated sugar. I found the cakes to taste grainy with granulated.

Warm and fudgy chocolate LAVA CAKES exploding with melty peanut butter Peanut Butter Chocolate Lava Cakes

You’ll need ramekins. I use the same size for these lava cakes as I use for last year’s chocolate fudge cakes recipe (–> that recipe only makes 2 cakes. I love it for our occasional husband/wife ditch-the-technology date night!) Here are the 6-ounce ramekins I use and suggest you pick up as well. Perfect size for these lava cakes. You’ll want to grease each ramekin with a little non-stick spray and a dusting of cocoa powder. This preparation helps seamlessly release the baked lava cake from the ramekin onto the plate for serving.

Spoon creamy peanut butter inside! A couple heaping teaspoons per cake. Do not use natural style peanut butter, do not use crunchy peanut butter, do not use any other nut butter. The best, in my peanut butter lava cake experience, are commercial brands like creamy Jif or Skippy. Trust me on this.

Take a moment to stare at this:

Warm and fudgy chocolate LAVA CAKES exploding with melty peanut butter Peanut Butter Chocolate Lava Cakes

This is actual melty peanut butter from inside the inverted lava cake. And I’m actually fainting as I re-live this moment.

It’s a peanut butter chocolate lava phenomenon.