So ooey and gooey, this low carb Chocolate Peanut Butter Molten Lava Cake will blow your mind. You won’t believe it’s a keto sugar-free dessert! Updated recipe with a how-to video.
I am having such fun going back and tweaking old recipes like this one. This keto molten lava cake has always been one of my favourite desserts. How can you go wrong with a warm peanut butter center oozing out all over you plate?
Low Carb Chocolate Peanut Butter Molten Lava Cakes
It’s a little frightening, how much I love peanut butter and chocolate together. I have to confess, it’s something I eat almost daily, even if it’s just a little piece of really dark chocolate with some peanut butter smeared on top. It’s a flavour combination that is never far from my mind, even when I am in the midst of creating another recipe altogether. And I know I am not the only one who feels this way. Whenever I post a low carb peanut butter and chocolate recipe, they get a great deal of attention. My Chocolate Covered Peanut Butter Popsicles went completely viral and not just with the low carb set. They’re still going wild on Pinterest and it’s rather astonishing to watch. All the world is in love with peanut butter and chocolate. And why shouldn’t they be?
The world is also in love with molten chocolate cake. I don’t know who first came up with those but hand that person a trophy, please, because it’s nothing short of brilliant. Warm chocolate cake, typically with little to no flour, not quite fully cooked through. As you cut into it with your fork, the “molten” insides come pouring out onto your plate. Gooey doesn’t even begin to describe these sorts of desserts and the best part is that they usually come together very quickly. No need to bake for hours and then carefully decorate with frosting. It almost feels like cheating, to whip up individual cakes in ramekins in about 20 minutes. And they seem so impressive to people who haven’t ever made them.
And then, the marriage of the two. Dabbing a spoonful of peanut butter into the molten cake batter, so that it melts during baking and seeps out all over the plate upon cutting into it. I don’t think there is any need for my to explain my position any further. You know why this is a good idea…go make it.
What is NOT a good idea, however, is trying to take pictures of said low carb molten chocolate peanut butter cake and mistakenly thinking that whipped cream would be a good garnish. Whipped cream is a great garnish at almost any time, but not when the cake is hot out of the oven and you are trying to show how the melty peanut butter oozes out invitingly on to the plate. Why not? Because the cake is served warm. And what happens to whipped cream on warm cake? It melts. And what happens when it melts? It runs all down the sides of the cake, obscuring the view of the lovely melty peanut butter center. Grrrrr. I actually had to go back to the kitchen, sop up the melted whipped cream, transfer the cake to another plate and then try again to get good shots of the melted peanut butter center. I had two other unbaked cakes and I could have tried with those, but I was saving them for dinner that night. I wanted to see if the cake could be prepared ahead of time and cooked just before serving, in case any of you wanted to serve it to guests. And it can indeed. But that left me with the one whipped cream-soaked cake for photos. Damage control. Messy, but still infinitely delicious.
Consider using your own homemade peanut butter for these delicious keto lava cakes. Check out How To Make Peanut Butter from Texanerin Baking!
Hey, did you hear I wrote a cookbook? You can find great recipes just like this in The Everyday Ketogenic Kitchen!
Molten Chocolate Peanut Butter Cake – Low Carb and Gluten-Free
| Nutrition Facts | |
|---|---|
| Serving Size | 1 cake |
| Amount Per Serving | As Served |
| Calories 345 Calories from fat 274 | |
| % Daily Value | |
| Total Fat 30.49g | 47% |
| Carbohydrate 6.94g | 2% |
| Dietary Fiber 2.85g | 11% |
| Protein 8.38g | |
Percent Daily Values are based on a 2,000 calorie diet. Your daily values may be higher or lower depending on your calorie needs:
| Calories | 2000 | |
|---|---|---|
| Total Fat | Less than | 65g |
| Sat Fat | Less than | 25g |
| Cholesterol | Less than | 300mg |
| Sodium | Less than | 2,400mg |
| Total Carbohydrate | 300g | |
| Dietary Fiber | 25g | |
Rich, low carb flourless chocolate cake with a gooey peanut butter center. Grain-free and grain-free.
Ingredients
- 1/4 cup butter
- 1 oz unsweetened chocolate, chopped
- 3 tbsp Swerve Sweetener
- 1 large egg
- 1 large egg yolk
- 3 tbsp almond flour
- 1/4 tsp vanilla extract
- Pinch salt
- 2 tbsp peanut butter
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 375F and grease 3 small ramekins. Dust the ramekins with cocoa powder and shake out the excess.
- In a microwave safe bowl, melt butter and chocolate together, whisking until smooth. Alternatively, you can melt it carefully over low heat.
- Add the sweetener and whisk until combined. Then add the egg and egg yolk and whisk until smooth.
- Whisk in the almond flour, vanilla extract, and salt until well combined.
- Divide about 2/3 of the batter between the three ramekins, making sure to cover the bottom.
- Divide peanut butter between the ramekins, placing in center of the batter. Cover with remaining batter. Bake 10 to 12 minutes, or until the edges of the cakes are set but the center still jiggles slightly. Remove and let cool 5 to 10 minutes. Then run a sharp knife around the edges and flip out onto plates.
Saw peanut butter and chocolate and just had to run right over here! Fabulous and creative recipe, Carolyn. I’m drooling! You shouldn’t worry about the melting whipped cream. Peeps just loooove seeing ooey-gooey, drippy goodness! Cannot wait to make these…I share your PB & Chocolate passion. Thanks for sharing. Pinning!
UM, this is amazing! I love peanut butter and chocolate together and that PB oozing out of there?! SAAAWWOOOONNN!
What could you use if you don’t want to use any sugar alcohol, or artificial sweetener, or regular sugar, stevia is ok, ? just skip that ingredient?
YOu can sweeten with just Stevia if you like, but I think you will find the final result quite bitter. I’d at least double the stevia too.
You could try lo han guo (or kuo). It’s monk fruit and it’s natural and very sweet. Or you could try an inulin-based sweetener like Just Like Sugar. I buy bulk lo han here: http://www.znaturalfoods.com/index.php?main_page=advanced_search_result&search_in_description=1&keyword=lo+han+guo&x=-628&y=-87
What! This is up our alley!! Whipping these up soon
Pass me a glass of milk. I’m ready to dig in on this one!
I can’t un-see this cake. The picture is going to haunt me until I try making it for myself.
haha…my mission is complete!
Thank you, I am not too fond of stevia, but I’m willing to try it, and I have learned to savour unsweetened food, just their natural tastes.
Good for you! You may like this just with a bit of stevia and the peanut butter, then.
I’m totally with you on the peanut butter and chocolate obsession. Chocolate on it’s own, I can sorta pass up…but if PB is anywhere near it then better watch out. This ooey gooey cake is calling my name right now! 🙂
Looks delish, and that ingredient list looks very do-able! Yay!
Where do the 11.8 grams of carbs come from? And is stevia extract liquid or the powder?
Can’t wait to try these!!
The majority of the total carbs come from the chocolate and cocoa, but then it has a lot of fiber too, so it cuts almost in half for Net carbs. I use NuNaturals liquid Stevia
Ooey gooey deliciousness!! Nothing is better than PB and chocolate 🙂
I think I may have to make this… right now!
I just made this and its just out of the oven. Followed the recipe exactly. When it was time to take it out of the oven, there was liquid (looked like butter or some other sort of oil) on top of the cake and bubbling around the sides of the ramikins (only partially covering the top of the cake). Is that normal? They are cooling now, so maybe this will not matter but I am curious whether to expect that.
Thanks
I commented on your other question…but sometimes butter just leaches out, I don’t know why. It didn’t in mine both times I made them, but sometimes it just does. And then as you found, it absorbs back in. I can’t pinpoint the culprit but it usually works out alright in the end.
Just ate the ones I made tonight. The oil more or less reabsorbed into the cake and it had a nice gooy consistency. They were good :). But they were not very sweet at all. I used ghirardelli’s 100% cacao – could that be why? Is there another standard percentage I should be using in these recipies? Or is it just not meant not to be a very sweet dish?
Thanks again
Hi Randy…2 questions. It’s not the ghirardelli because I use that too. So what kind of sweeteners and what kind of cocoa powder did you use?
Hi, thanks for your response.
I used Hershey’s natural unsweetened cocoa powder, Wholesome sweeteners “zero” brand granulated erythritol (I think it is a whole foods brand), and ez sweets liquid stevia (though I just noticed that the stevia – which I found at our central market – is actully labelled “stevia & monk fruit”). It says it substitutes for for sugar at 4 drops = 2tsp of sugar.
thanks again for your help, I’ve really been enjoying experimenting. I made your coconut flour pancakes and they turned out great.
One other question: I am not worried about gluten – only low carb. So, do you think it would be helpful in some recipes to add in vital wheat gluten, since it doesn’t add many carbs?
Hi Randy,
I use Swerve and since it contains oligosaccharides, which are fibrous, the butter leaching out a bit in yours may be from using the Zero brand erythritol. I think the Swerve can help sop up the extra oils at times. Also, I have some of the EZSweetz stevia/monkfruit combo and I don’t think it’s sweet enough compared to the NuNaturals stevia I usually use.
As for adding in vital wheat gluten, it’s going to depend a lot on the recipe. My recipes are formulated to be without gluten at all so it’s not necessarily going to “help” anything. On occasion, it may help quickbreads or muffins rise a little better but that’s the only real benefit I can see to it.
Love this! Making these tonight!
Yum! I have made a peanut butter molten chocolate cake before but I love that this is gluten free.
I’ve never met a chocolate peanut butter dessert I didn’t like! This looks divine.
Oh my goodness! That cake is heaven for any chocolate and peanut butter lover. Just look at that peanut butter in the middle!
Hubby has requested this for his birthday cake. what size ramkekin should I use? I need to buy some on amazon today and want to be sure before I order.
Looking at amazon options…would you suggest more like a 5 oz or an 8 oz ramekin?
Can anyone else suggest a ramekin size? I’m running out of time to order from Amazon and am hoping to not have to tote three kids around to find ramekins 😉
Do you know how many ounces the ramekins you use hold? Trying to figure out what size I should buy.
I don’t know in ounces but they hold about 1/2 cup water.
4 oz ramekins hold 1/2 cup of liquid. Amazon has plenty of them for sale 🙂
I’m really excited to try this, but I’m gluten free and not paleo. My body reacts VERY negatively to any artificial sweeteners. Do you have recommendations and/or conversion amounts for other sweeteners? I’m open to agave, honey, even just plain old sugar as a “sometimes food.” Help? This looks DELICIOUS!
Just as a quick question, have you tried erythritol (Swerve is mostly erythritol)? It’s not an artificial sweetener…erythritol is found in fruits and vegetables. It’s really no more processed than sugar. But if you prefer, you can use regular sugar or coconut sugar in the same amount. Agave or honey is liquid so that’s tricky because you have to adjust for the extra liquid.
This recipe looks great. I would like to replace peanut butter center with something else (I do not like the taste of peanut butter – I’m a strange one, I know). I’m thinking a chocolate center would be awesome. Or maybe a strawberry?
Could you suggest how I could go about making such a replacement? It has to be low carb.
I’d put a tbsp or so of sugar-free strawberry jam in the center. Not sure about a chocolate version. I’ve been meaning to test out a version of true molten chocolate cake but haven’t had time!
Thanks for the strawberry jam suggestion. That’s a good idea. Yes, a true molten chocolate cake is what I was after. What if there is nothing added to the center? i.e. just leave it as chocolate only and bake it so that the edges are set, but the center is jiggly. That’s exactly how a regular molten chocolate cake is made. The biggest difference here is that a regular molten cake calls for flour to be added. I wonder if almond flour would suffice?
Right, that’s what I was thinking too. Except I think you need to underbake it even more than my current recipe calls for. I wouldn’t do any almond flour, I would just bake until it was just setting around the edges. But you could try either way.
I’m curious what purpose the flour serves in the regular recipe? I searched around and every recipe that I found had flour in it. So I’m guessing it must be providing some texture to the cake or must otherwise be contributing in some important way to the end result. Just a guess, though.
I just found a recipe that does not use flour: http://zoebakes.com/2011/04/11/flourless-chocolate-lava-cake-for-passover/
This seems like it would ensure success:
“As a bit of insurance you can add 1/2-ounce chunk of chocolate to the center of the cake, this will be nice and runny, no matter if you are a minute over. Just press it into the top of the cakes, just beneath the surface (a bit farther down than this picture shows).”
The only thing I wonder about is when this chunk of chocolate is added. The picture seems to show the chocolate being added after taking out of the oven (i.e. cake is baked). But, basically the chocolate could serve as a replacement for the peanut butter in your recipe and make this a molten chocolate cake. It should work.
I think it sounds good. I would put the chocolate in before baking, just as I did with the PB.
I tried this one yesterday. The recipe is nice, but I found that Stevia added a bit of a bitter aftertaste. I think this would turn out great if either xylitol was substituted for the Stevia or maybe just more Swerve. Placing the chocolate pieces in the center, worked great and resulted in a nice molten cake.
Thanks for posting this recipe!
I use NuNaturals liquid stevia and do not find any bitter aftertaste, but every palate differs. We need to adjust the sweetener to our own tastes.
I am trying this today. But for ANdy, here is a recipe for the chocolate molten cake you wanted
http://mariamindbodyhealth.com/molten-chocolate-cakes-coffee-ice-cream/
Thank you, Diana!
Sharing this one today Carolyn on FB!! Looks so sinful but it’s not!!! You rock!
Thanks! I just shared your single serve flax muffin on G+!
If anyone tries this using honey for the sweetener, let me know how much you used, please!! Thank you!
I decided to make just ONE of these for my boyfriend as a treat. Surprisingly worked out to one egg minus part of the egg whites (by weight), but certainly wouldn’t recommend attempting!! haha I stuffed a sugar-free Reese’s mini-cup into the top and sprinkled on some roasted walnuts. A-MAZING!! 🙂
I am having a hard time finding Unsweetened Chocolate. Is there a brand you recommend???
Where do I purchase the NuNatural Liquis Stevia?
I get mine online at Amazon but many stores carry it now.
I’ve been eyeing this recipe for many months and finally decided to give it a try. I’ve loved every recipe of yours I’ve ever tried so I knew this one would be amazing too! WAS IT EVER!!!! Wow! What an explosion of yumminess! Not only is this chocolate and peanut butter dream cake amazingly delicious, it’s also very filling. Sometimes after eating one serving of a dessert, I have to make myself practice self control and not have seconds. Not with this one. One serving is definitely enough. Thank you so much, Carolyn, for all your hard work with these recipes!
All of these comments kill me! It is not her job to modify her recipe to your intricacies. If you want to change the sugar alcohol, change it! If you’re allergic to nuts then, maybe this recipe isn’t for you! Good grief. I made this recipe exactly as directed and it came out absolutely perfect. Happy birthday to me! Thank you thank you thank you, it was wonderful!
I made this for tonight’s dessert. In my husband’s words; “it’s perfect”. Great recipe! Now we just have to fight over the third serving lol