Complexity: ★★★★☆
For Donkey Kong's little buddy Diddy, a dish with peanuts is a no-brainer. In Donkey Kong 64, the newer Donkey Kong Country games, and the Super Smash Bros. series, Diddy Kong wields his "peanut popgun," a wooden pistol that fires explosive peanuts!
What better pairing than peanuts and chocolate? Rather than simply making an ordinary chocolate and peanut butter cake, I made the aptly-named "monkey bread" - a type of dessert which consists of small balls of dough assembled into the shape of a cake, glued together with sticky caramel. Its named "monkey bread" because everyone eats it by pulling it apart and picking at it with their fingers, much like a monkey!
Each dough ball is filled with peanut butter, dunked in a chocolatey coating, and the whole thing is drizzled with chocolate ganache and sprinkled with crushed peanuts. This dish has an element of childlike fun which I think is fitting for the mischievous and rambunctious Diddy!
INGREDIENTS
Dough:
1 cup whole milk
2 ¼ tsp active dry yeast
¼ cup granulated sugar
¼ cup unsalted butter, melted
1 egg, beaten
2 tsp pure vanilla extract
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp cinnamon
½ tsp nutmeg
1 tsp salt
Peanut butter
Coating:
¼ cup granulated sugar
2 tbsp cocoa powder
½ cup brown sugar
⅓ cup unsalted butter, melted
1 cup unsalted peanuts, crushed into bits
Ganache:
½ cup semi-sweet chocolate, chopped
½ cup heavy cream
PREPARATION
Gently heat milk in a small saucepan, but do not bring to a boil. Remove from heat and sprinkle yeast and a pinch of the sugar on top of the milk. Allow to sit for 5 minutes until foamy.
Meanwhile, sift together flour, the remaining sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, and salt in a large bowl.
Whisk melted butter, egg, and vanilla into the yeast mixture. Make a well in the centre of the flour mixture and pour in the liquid ingredients. Mix with a wooden spoon or your hands until a sticky dough is formed.
Turn out onto a floured surface and knead for five minutes until soft and elastic.
Form into a ball and add to a greased bowl. Cover with plastic wrap and allow to rise in a warm place for about an hour, until doubled in size.
Meanwhile, line a sheet tray with parchment paper. Scoop peanut butter by the ½ teaspoon onto the tray, making about one or two dozen mounds of peanut butter. Place tray in freezer until the peanut butter is hard.
Once doubled in size, uncover dough and knead a few times to remove air bubbles. Grease a regular sized bundt pan.
Mix granulated sugar and cocoa powder in a small bowl. Grab small lumps of dough and form them into balls around the frozen peanut butter pieces (feel free to include chocolate chips or pieces of banana as well!). Roll in the cocoa sugar mixture and place in the prepared bundt pan, filling about half way up to leave room for further rising. Repeat until all dough is used.
Cover bundt pan with plastic wrap and allow dough balls to rise a second time, about half an hour. Meanwhile, preheat oven to 350°. In a small saucepan, combine butter and brown sugar until a thick, sticky caramel is formed.
Sprinkle crushed peanut bits over the dough balls and drizzle with caramel. Bake in preheated oven for 30-40 minutes until dough balls are fully risen and golden brown. Cover with tinfoil if it is browning too fast or is getting too dark/burnt.
Allow to cool in the pan for about 10 minutes before inverting onto a platter or cake stand.
Chop semi-sweet chocolate into small pieces and place in a glass heatproof bowl. Warm cream in a small saucepan very gently; do not scald or bring to a boil. Pour hot cream into chocolate, stirring, to create a ganache. Pour over the dough balls, and sprinkle with more crushed peanuts.
