double chocolate loaf with peanut butter cream cheese spread.

With my obsession with Pierre Herme's recipes lately, the two books I've gushed so much about just a few months back, Baked: New Frontiers in Baking and Baked Explorations, have been left untouched for quite a while. I thought that it was about time I made a reacquaintance.

The double chocolate loaf was a breeze to whip up because it uses the muffin method of stir and dump. I thought that with that much sugar in the recipe, the loaf would turn out really sweet but I was wrong. Still, if I could have cut down the sugar by a bit so the intensity of the chocolate would be stronger.

Although the batter was reasonably thick, most of my chocolate chunks ended up sinking to the bottom. I would advise you to toss them in a bit of flour before folding them in.

The accompanying peanut butter cream cheese spread was one of the main reasons I chose to bake this. What would life be without P.B? Anyway, the spread was more like cream cheese laced with peanut butter instead of PEANUT BUTTER cream cheese, you get what I mean? I would very prefer a 50-50 ratio of peanut butter to cream cheese. But that's the peanut butter fiend in me speaking.

The book recommends using creamy peanut butter but I went with chunky just to add a little crunch to break the monotony of creamy smoothness.

Double Chocolate Loaf
makes a 9 x 5 inch loaf
adapted from Baked Explorations

For the loaf:
3/4 cup dark brown sugar
1 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 1/2 cups plain flour
3/4 cup sugar
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
3/4 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
2 eggs + 1 egg yolk
3/4 cup buttermilk
1/2 cup oil
1 tsp vanilla extract
8 ounces dark chocolate, coarsely chopped

For the spread:
5 ounces cream cheese, softened
2 tbsp peanut butter
1/3 cup granulated sugar

For the loaf: Preheat oven to 350F. Prepare a 9 x 5 inch loaf pan.

Combine brown sugar, sugar, cocoa powder, flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt in a bowl.

In a separate bowl, whisk together the eggs and egg yolk to blend, then add the buttermilk, oil and vanilla. Whisk until combined.

Stir the wet ingredients into the dry, mixing just until combined. Stir in the chopped chocolate.

Pour the batter into the prepared pan and bake for about 1 hour 10 minutes, or until a skewer inserted in the centre comes out mostly clean but still with crumbs attached. Let the loaf cool in the pan for 15 minutes, then turn it out onto a wire rack to cool completely.

For the peanut butter cream cheese spread: Cream the cream cheese, peanut butter and sugar together in a bowl until incorporated and lightened up.