These fondants came about because I got a request to make “Reese’s Cup Bread”. Apparently there was a TikTok trend of someone making essentially banana bread, but using Reese’s Cups instead. Now, I love chocolate and peanut butter as much as someone who loves chocolate can love them together, but I do not really have an interest in making a loaf cake out of chocolate-peanut butter candies. That being said, I did do some thinking about what a Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup is made of, and realized that I could actually make a chocolate fondant, or a lava cake, using them! Conveniently enough, peanut butter contains protein and a little starch in them. The protein being important here, since we are making these 100% gluten-free, relying on the limited starch and high protein content in peanut butter to act as a gluten substitute. The fortunate thing here is that with a molten cake, the interior crumb structure does not matter at all. So long as the exterior can get cooked and form a crumb-shell around that liquid center, you can get away with not using gluten to stabilize the cake! The thing I love about chocolate fondant is that it is a relatively simple dessert to make. I scaled down this recipe to just two servings, since everyone might have different shaped or sized ramekins, but if you simply have to divide this recipe among two containers, it limits the amount of variations between baking attempts. I wish that I had more to say in this recipe, since I normally can talk for at least two paragraphs, but it is a really straightforward 5-ingredient recipe, and the only real challenge I could imagine, besides not eating these too quickly, is being gentle with the unmolding process. Be sure to let the cakes cool slightly before inverting them onto the plates. Otherwise, you will end up with chocolate soup instead of a cute chocolate-peanut butter fondant.

Makes 2 servings:
1/4 cup semisweet chocolate
2oz Peanut Butter Cups + more for the centers
2 tbsp butter, with more for lining the ramekins
a pinch of salt
1 egg

In a heatproof bowl, melt the chocolate, peanut butter cups, butter, and salt over a double boiler. Once everything is melted completely, take the bowl off heat and stir in an egg. Line two ramekins with butter and divide the batter evenly among the two. Press one or two peanut butter cups into the centers of each ramekin. Bake the cakes at 375 degrees F for 12 minutes. Allow the cakes to cool slightly before inverting them onto a serving plate.