Classic, No-Frills Lasagne

Okay - so i admit, i'm a little lax when it comes to updating recipes on here, but a lot of the time, i need to make something twice before i think 'ooh, that'd be a good one to put online for everyone' and get around to taking a picture of the end result. Anyway - we have here the easiest, no frills lasagne recipe. If you hadn't already guessed, i *love* Italian food, and i hate seeing things like this for sale in the frozen sections of supermarkets, or microwave ready meals - it's no way to treat food, especially not something like Lasagne!

You will need the following ingredients:

Large white onion
1 clove of garlic (crushed)
Tablespoon of Olive Oil
700g / 1.5lb Minced Beef (you can substitute with Lamb, Pork or Turkey Mince if you prefer)
2 OXO Cubes
1 can of chopped tomato's
1 tablespoon of tomato puree
1 teaspoon of dried oregano (heaped)
Pasta sheets for lasagne (preferably the ones you don't have to cook first)
Pinch of salt
2 ounces of salted butter
1 tablespoon of flour (heaped)
1/2 teaspoon of ground nutmeg
3 tablespoons of parmesan cheese
Block of cheddar cheese
1/2 pint of milk

Utensils needed:

Large Pyrex Dish
Large Saucepan w/Lid
Small Saucepan
Cheese Grater
Chopping Board

First - pre-heat the oven, set it to gas mark 4. Chop up the onion and crush the garlic with a garlic press. Take your large saucepan, put it on a medium-high heat and add the olive oil. Wait for the oil to get hot, and add the onions and garlic. Add a small pinch of salt as well. Keep stirring them until they go semi-translucent, you want them nice and sweated. Take the minced beef (or whatever you've used as a substitute), and add to the pan. Brown the meat off by stirring it through periodically. Once the meat is browned off, you want to add the OXO cubes by sprinkling them over the top, and straight away stirring them in. Add your can of chopped tomato's, and your tablespoon of tomato puree. Mix through well, and add the oregano, and turn the heat down low, and put the lid on the saucepan.

In your small saucepan, add your butter, and melt over a low heat. When the butter is starting to bubble, add your tablespoon of flour, and mix thoroughly until you have a paste. At this point, slowly add the milk, about a tablespoon worth at a time, in order to thin the paste out into the base for a sauce. This is known as a roux. Keep adding the milk until you have a sauce thats a little thinner than the desired consistency. You don't have to use all the milk either, if you like the sauce thick, that's fine, you just don't want it to thin out too much. Add a good tablespoon of parmesan cheese, and stir it in. Keep the sauce moving constantly, else it'll go lumpy, and potentially split. Add your ground nutmeg, don't put too much more than 1/2 a level teaspoon worth in as its very potent, taste wise - a little goes a long way! Keep stirring until its smooth, and take off the heat. If the sauce is a little too thick, add some more milk and stir in.

Turn off the heat on the saucepan with your meat & tomato sauce in, it should have thickened a little. Stir it through just to make sure nothing has settled to the bottom. Pour half the mix into the bottom of your dish, and layer pasta sheets over the top to cover. Then take the Bechamel and pour half of that over the pasta sheets. Put another layer of pasta sheets on top, and repeat the layer of tomato sauce, then more pasta sheets, then the last layer of bechamel. Grate a decent amount of cheddar cheese over the top, try not to leave any 'blank' patches. Take the rest of the parmesan cheese, and sprinkle liberally over the top. Place in the middle of the oven for 20 minutes - until the top goes golden brown.

Once its out - slice with a knife into however many portions, and use a serving spoon to decant it. If you find the pasta is a little al-dente for you, my advice is to get a bowl of boiling water, and drop each pasta sheet in there for a few seconds before layering. Use tongs to remove the sheets and put in place.

In either case - you should be left with something as gorgeous to look at, as this:

See? Simpler than it looks! :)

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Blizzard Bars

Since deciding to tell the entire internet that I'd gone off the deep end and onto a Real Diet for a couple of weeks, I've gotten many lovely notes, e-mails and tweets. Most are just to give a little virtual high-five and a bit of cheerleading, but a few are inquisitive. "What diet are you on?" one will ask. "What kind of results are you getting and what suggestions would you have?" inquires another.

Oh, people. I'll be honest with you. I am the worst dieter EVER. To be clear, I have followed my completely depressing regimen to the letter. Well, I may have had a few glasses of wine during an evening with some girlfriends, but we all have toddlers and getting a night out together is practically a religious holiday, so whatever. But beyond that, I feel fly. My pants situation is much more reasonable. I'm confident about my focus and resolve. A little too confident, maybe. Like, so confident that I thought it would be a tremendous idea while on said diet to make a bar cookie "for the husband's co-workers" that consisted mainly of the following ingredients:

I know. Not my brightest moment. So clearly I am not one to give reliable diet tips. Perhaps I can write a diet book called Hey, Want to Lose a Few Pounds? Then Don't Do Any of THIS!, because that is probably all the advice I am qualified to give. And the first chapter would be called "Welp, First of All, Definitely Don't Make Blizzard Bars".

Even if you've never experienced the piece of summertime Americana that is a trip to Dairy Queen in July, you  can certainly appreciate the glory of a DQ Blizzard. Cold, creamy, thick and frosty ice cream, blended with loads of tasty bits of your choosing--M&Ms, Snickers, Heath bar, Oreos, whatevs. Gah, I'm drooling on my sleeves. I am pretty much a die-hard Butterfinger Blizzard sort of person, how about you? Man, that would taste so great right now. Seriously. Way, way, better than salad. Way.

Oh, and speaking of things way better than salad, a couple of days ago, in a high-salad-consumption state, dreaming about DQ Blizzards, I couldn't get the idea of massive amounts of candy bound together by something delicious out of my cravery glands (you can have that term for free, medical community). But everyone knows people on a "diet" shouldn't go to Dairy Queen. So I did the next totally logical thing: I dreamed up a kind of blondie crazily smattered with candy bits of all sorts, a bar of epic chew and deep notes of buttery caramel and a toasty hit of malt powder. Stand. Back. DANG.

If you're down with my dieted-brain-brand of logic, what you end up with is really a candy slab bound together with a super tasty blondie batter. It's completely ridiculous! I even threw in a handful of chopped white chocolate because hey, WHY NOT. Make the combination all your own here by swapping out different candies, throwing in some chocolate chips or nuts. Or don't. I mean, I wouldn't listen to me if I were you. I made Blizzard Bars while "on a diet". I may have had more than one. I'm in no position to tell you how to be. I am, however, in the position to tell you that these are so worth it.

Blizzard Bars

For the candy, I used about two regular-sized bars each of Snickers and Butterfinger, two regular sized bags of M&Ms, one regular-sized Heath bar and about 1/4 cup of chopped white chocolate bits. I KNOW.


You can find plain malted milk powder near the hot cocoa or by the ice cream fixings under brand names like Carnation and Horlicks.

Makes 16

1 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, at room temperature
3/4 cup light brown sugar
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 large egg
1/3 cup plain malted milk powder
2 cups chopped candy bits (I used Snickers, Butterfinger, Heath bar, M&Ms, and white chocolate--see note)


Position an oven rack to the center of the oven and preheat it to 350 degrees. Line an 8x8-inch square pan with aluminum foil or parchment paper and lightly spray the pan with nonstick cooking spray.

In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder and salt.

In the bowl of a electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat together the butter, brown sugar and vanilla on medium speed until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes. Beat in the egg until well-blended. Scrape down the bowl and beat in the malted milk powder. Add the dry ingredients in two additions on low speed and beat just until combined. Stir in two-thirds of the candy bits on low speed. Give the batter a final folding by hand with a spatula to make sure there are no dry pockets and the batter is evenly mixed--it will be very thick. Turn the batter into the prepared pan and smooth it evenly. Sprinkle the remaining candy bits evenly over the top and press lightly into the batter with your palms.

Bake until the bars are deeply golden and have just begun to pull away from the sides of the pan, 35 to 40 minutes (they will still look soft in the center). Cool completely in the pan on a wire rack. Remove the slab to a cutting board and cut into 16 squares. Store in an airtight container at room temperature for up to three days.

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Strawberry Buttermilk Upside-Down Cake

I debated about telling you about this, but I'm just gonna put it all out there, people. The Piece of Cake kitchen (which is to say ME) has been on a diet. Like, an honest-to-God, excruciatingly boring, buckets of salad, no-sugar diet. Today is Day 9. Perhaps you can guess by my counting of the days that said diet has not been fun. You would be correct in guessing that. Congratulations. Take yourself out for the ice cream that I can't have.

Now if you've been around here for a while, you might be saying, "What?! This is not the Shauna we know! The Shauna we know laughs in the face of calorie counters and sleeps with a bag of granulated sugar on her nightstand!" Well. That would also be correct. However, with the cookbook manuscript now complete, it was high time for a reset. A hard reset. When you give a person with a mouth full of sweet teeth an occupational reason to eat candy and cake all the livelong day for many, many months, the result is definitely not smaller pants, I'll just tell you that right now. I'm not trying to become an Olsen triplet or anything, I just need to sort of regulate the whole situation over here, you feel me?

So I'm going hard core just for the next couple weeks, all protein and vegetables and sparkling water like a psycho Bravo Network housewife. The goal is to reduce sugar cravings (or at least get them somewhere near a non-epidemic level) and not bleed corn syrup when I cut myself shaving. After that, I'll gradually start getting back to healthy levels of dessert consumption (read: maybe not, oh, say, five flippin' times per day). Truthfully, despite being waaay out of my comfort zone, I am feeling a whole lot better already. But that doesn't mean I'm going to start throwing brownies made with black beans and Splenda or some other crazy talk at you. Evidence: a perfectly lovely Strawberry Buttermilk Upside-Down Cake. Or, as I like to call it, The Last Dessert before all this no-sugar diet nonsense started.

For your own sense of well-being, I really, really hope strawberries are as glorious where you are as they are in California right now. And if you are in California, can I get a HECK YEAH? Glittering cartons of berries are spilling over in the supermarkets right now, and if you head out to some of the smaller towns, you'll find tons of the kind of charming little ramshackle roadside fruit stands that food magazine dreams are made of. The berries taste like candy, they smell like flowers, they are absolute perfection straight up on their own.

But because I am who I am (never mind that I'm snacking on bell pepper strips, for the love of God), I feel like the thing Mother Nature intended for us to do with a pile of perfect in-season strawberries is to bake them into a tender buttermilk cake. Add a sweet-salty caramel to the mix to make those berries all glossy and jammy and OH MY GOD I WOULD KILL SOMEONE FOR A PIECE OF THIS CAKE RIGHT NOW.

Deep breath. This too, shall pass. Now go bake this cake and eat the whole thing and don't tell me about it.

Strawberry Buttermilk Upside-Down Cake

Although this cake will keep nicely in a cake dome for a few days at room temperature, it's best eaten the day it's made. Serve with some unsweetened whipped cream and die of summer happiness.

Serves 8

1 1/2 sticks unsalted butter, at room temperature, divided

2/3 cup light brown sugar

2 pints strawberries, patted dry, hulled and halved

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1/4 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 cup granulated sugar

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

2 large eggs, separated

3/4 cup buttermilk

1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar

Position a rack to the center of the oven and preheat it to 350°F. Have ready a 9-inch nonstick cake pan. If your pan is not nonstick, spray it generously with cooking spray.

In a small saucepan, combine 4 tablespoons of the butter, the brown sugar and a pinch of salt. Stir over high heat until the sugar has dissolved. Boil for 2 minutes. Pour the caramel into the bottom of the cake pan and spread into an even layer. Arrange the strawberry halves over the caramel in a circular pattern, leaving little to no space between the berries.

In a medium bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt.

In the bowl of an electric mixer, beat together the remaining 8 tablespoons of butter with the granulated sugar until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes. Beat in the vanilla and the egg yolks. Reduce the mixer speed to low and alternately add the flour mixture with the buttermilk in three batches. When just a few streaks of flour remain, fold the batter by hand until smooth.

In a clean bowl, beat the egg whites and the cream of tartar to firm peaks. Stir about a quarter of the beaten whites into the batter to lighten it, then gently fold in the rest of the whites until the batter is smooth and well-blended. Pour the batter over the fruit and smooth the top. Bake until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, 45 to 50 minutes. Let the cake cool in the pan for 20 minutes before inverting it onto a serving platter. Serve warm or at room temperature, garnished with unsweetened whipped cream.

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Lemon, Blueberry and White Chocolate Cupcakes

If you haven't noticed, I'll just throw it out there--I'm on a lemon kick, people. Maybe it's because we're nearing "summer" here in San Francisco, which really means we're just around the corner from an endless June Gloom and I'm trying to inject as much sunshine into my life as possible. Or maybe it's because I've been so on another planet lately that I keep buying lemons every time I go to the store, thinking I don't have any, and really, I already have, like, 11 rolling around in the refrigerator door. I'll let you decide.

Anyway, in addition to the overabundance of lemons over here, I also recently scored an exorbitant amount of organic blueberries at a nearly criminal price. I also am perennially in love with white chocolate, because I've got a thing for the underdog. And so it came to be on a recent afternoon--Lemon, Blueberry and White Chocolate Cupcakes.

Looking back on Ye Olde Piece of Cake archives, I am shockingly low on blueberry recipes around here. It's a shame, really. When you get them at just the right time of year, they are little juicy orbs from heaven. And thankfully, a quick rinse is all they require before consumption. I am grateful for such simplicity, since Little C recently has decided to develop a sort of Life Rider which rivals J-Lo's backstage version. The child has serious fruit preferences. If I have to drop everything to hull and quarter another strawberry, I might scream. Blueberries, I Love You.

But getting back to the cupcakes, I suppose the only difference between a blueberry muffin and a blueberry cupcake is the time of day at which one eats it. Also, frosting. But I decided to push this particular morsel decidedly into the category of cupcake by adding richness, sweetness, a tiny of bit of chew to the crumb and crispness to the edges. All good things, I assure you. Especially when all of that comes from melted white chocolate in the batter and whipped egg whites. It's all so dreamy.

I've loved the interplay of lemon and white chocolate forever--it's just a magical balance. The acidity and brightness of the lemon tempers the richness and sweetness of the white chocolate in a way that can only be found in nature. Lemon and white chocolate together is Mother Nature's greatest gift. What do you mean, white chocolate isn't found in nature? I choose to believe it is so. Lie to me.

Combine that heavenly combination with the aforementioned glorious blueberries that are everywhere right about now, and ohhhh, man.

If you're the popular type of person who gets invited to summer gatherings of all sorts, I can't think of another dessert that would be quite so perfect for bringing along. Bursts of sunshine in cupcake form, I'm telling you.

Lemon, Blueberry and White Chocolate Cupcakes

I'd recommend going organic for your lemons and your blueberries here--you'll get a flavor and color boost, and avoid zesting and folding a bunch of pesticides into the mix. Just my two cents.

Makes 18 frosted cupcakes

For the cakes:

1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon kosher salt

12 tablespoons (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature

1 cup sugar

Zest of 1 large lemon

1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract

8 ounces high-quality white chocolate, chopped bar or chips

1/2 cup half and half (whole milk works, too)

6 ounces blueberries

5 large egg whites

For the frosting:

2 sticks butter

6 ounces cream cheese

2 1/2 cups confectioners’ sugar

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

1/4 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice (from 1 large lemon)

4 ounces white chocolate, melted and cooled

Yellow food coloring, optional

Position an oven rack to the center of the oven and preheat it to 350 degrees. Line two 12-cup muffin tins with paper liners, 12 in one and 6 in the other.

Whisk together the flour, baking powder and salt. Set aside.

In the bowl of an electric mixer, cream together the butter, sugar, lemon zest and vanilla until very light and fluffy, about 3 minutes.

Melt the white chocolate in a double boiler. When it's just warm to the touch, stir it into the butter mixture on low speed, just until combined--it may separate a bit, but it will come back together. With the mixer on low, alternate adding the flour mixture and the half and half in three batches until well-blended.

Toss the blueberries with about a teaspoon of all-purpose flour in a small bowl, just to coat the berries with a light dusting of flour. Set aside.

With a handheld mixer and a medium bowl or in a clean stand mixer bowl with the whip attachment, whip the egg whites on medium high speed until they reach firm peaks, 2-3 minutes. Stir about a third of the whites into the batter to lighten it, then gently fold in the remainder of the whites. When the egg whites are almost incorporated, fold in the blueberries.

Fill the muffin cups no more than 3/4 of the way full with the batter. Bake one tin at a time until a toothpick just comes out clean, about 22-25 minutes. Invert the cupcakes onto a cooling rack, then turn them right side up and let them cool completely.

For the frosting, in the bowl of an electric mixer beat together the butter and cream cheese just until smooth. Beat in the confectioners’ sugar, vanilla and lemon juice. Finally, beat in the melted white chocolate, just to combine. Beat in a few drops of food coloring for a creamy yellow hue, if you wish. When the cupcakes have cooled completely, frost them generously.

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Chocolate and Peanut Butter Whoopie Pies

So I know my last post also had a little something to do with chocolate and peanut butter. This clearly reveals my OCD tendencies (note the two recipe posts before this chocolate and peanut butter explosion were both lemon-related--I was having a lemon moment, people). But hey, we're friends, I can reveal such things. Like how I'm the sort of person who will get hooked on a particular combination of ingredients from the Whole Foods salad bar and I will go back to the same Whole Foods to assemble said salad every single day for, like, five days straight and I'll feel fantastic about it. Or I will settle on a certain pants and top combination that just feels so right that I will do a teeny load of laundry every night just to wear the same outfit for many days in a row. Not very green of me, I suppose, but I tell myself that having the magical outfit be clean on sequential days cancels out the crazy. So.

Anyway, let's not talk about my weird eating and dressing habits. Let's talk about how Fathers' Day is coming up and boy, you'd better come up with something good this year. May I recommend these very masculine whoopie pies, for instance?

There's just something so Dad-ish about the combination of chocolate and peanut butter, AMIRITE? It's just so very solid and substantial and dude-ish. And given the fact that the husband nearly ate them all when I made them should tell you something. This would be a good time to brag mention that the husband is also THE BEST father I've ever, ever seen. Like really, truly. He is kind but firm, endlessly entertaining, infinitely more patient with Little C than I. Plus, he is easily the hottest dad at the playground at all times. Besides his excellent fathering, he also eats at least one serving of everything I bake, but when boyfriend plows through a batch of something like he did with these whoopie pies, I know I've really hit on the sort of thing that can only begin to reward him for fighting the good fight of fatherhood the way he so tirelessly does.

So if you've got a dad or dad figure like this in your life, whip up some dang good whoopie pies for the guy. Or hey, while you're here and all, why not check out a few more recipes that also make for spectacular homespun gifts for deserving dudes?

Chubby Hubby Brownies

Best Cocoa Brownies

Chocolate Malt Marshmallows

Brewers' Blondies

Gingerbread Beer Cake with Bittersweet Chocolate Frosting

Glazed Root Beer Float Bundt Cake

Chocolate Chunk Cookies with Cherries and Pecans

Chocolate-Peanut Butter Whoopie Pies

To make the most decadent whoopie pies, use the darkest, richest cocoa powder you can get your hands on for the cakes. For the creamiest, most addictive filling, I prefer commercial peanut butters here (like Skippy). These can be made a day ahead—just refrigerate them in an airtight container and bring them back to room temperature before serving.

Makes 8 4-inch pies

For the cakes:

2 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 cup dark unsweetened cocoa powder

1 1/4 teaspoons baking soda

3/4 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, at room temperature

1 cup light brown sugar

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

1/2 teaspoon instant espresso powder

1 large egg

1 cup well-shaken buttermilk

1/2 cup mini semi-sweet chocolate chips

For the peanut butter filling:

1 cup smooth peanut butter

1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, at room temperature

1 cup confectioners’ sugar, sifted

1/4 teaspoon salt

Position the oven racks to the upper and lower thirds of the oven and preheat it to 350 degrees. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone baking mats. 

In a large bowl, sift together the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda and salt.

In the bowl of an electric mixer, beat together the butter, brown sugar, vanilla and espresso powder until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes. Beat in the egg. Reduce the mixer speed to low and stir in the buttermilk. The mixture will look funky—curdled, terrible. But press on, it will smooth out when the dry ingredients are added.

Keeping the mixer on low, gradually add the dry ingredients.  Increase the speed to medium and beat just until the batter is completely smooth, about 30 seconds. Fold in the mini chocolate chips by hand.

Scoop the batter onto the prepared baking sheets into level 1/4 cup portions, 8 scoops to a sheet (a standard ice cream scoop is perfect for this task). Bake until the tops of the cakes spring back when lightly touched, 12-15 minutes. Let cool on the pan for five minutes before removing to a wire rack to cool completely.

To make the filling, beat together the peanut butter, butter, confectioners’ sugar and salt on medium-low speed until smooth. Crank the speed up to high and beat until lightened in color and texture, about 1 minute. Dollop the filling onto half the cakes (1/4 cup of filling per whoopie), and sandwich with the remaining cakes. 

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Chocolate-Swirled Peanut Butter Banana Bread

This recipe began as so many wonderful things do. Which is to say the sort of partial sentences that the husband dreads hearing when I'm in the kitchen. It usually goes like this:

WIFE (from the kitchen): Hmmm!!

HUSBAND (from the living room): What's that?

(A brief pause.)

WIFE (introspectively): "Oh, I just I wonder what would happen if I..."

HUSBAND (mumbles): Oh, geez.

WIFE (curt, determined): Shush.

(A long period of pan and utensil clanging as WIFE throws together God knows what. HUSBAND pokes fun from the other room.)

Annnd....scene.

Now, in all fairness to the husband, sometimes these mad scientist moments don't turn out so well for any of us. Such as when the recipe itself is a failure in the technical sense, not rising or baking properly and generally just causing a whole lot of dirty dishes and frustration for no payoff. And of course I get all mopey and difficult to live with after said failures. Like, even more difficult to live with than usual. Big time difficult. Pretend you are shocked at this news.

Other times, things start out promising, and then the result is less than palatable, which of course needs to be confirmed by the husband. Like, oh, say, Guinness Marshmallows. I know, I know. Just. Listen. There was dark cocoa and gingersnaps involved too so I thought it might end up all complex and edgy and interesting. Which it was, for a few hours. But as the marshmallow cured, however, the whole thing strangely began to taste a lot like the smell of certain Maltese taxicabs I'd ridden in during my summer semester abroad. In short, wholly undelicious. That's what I get for trying to be edgy and interesting, I suppose.

But this time, I was destined to get it right. Bananas, peanut butter and chocolate. There's no way this could not go well. Right? So basically I married some techniques from a few favorite recipes to arrive at this unbeatably moist, tender, flavorful banana bread-chocolate cake combo. And of course, chocolate chips. Because, duh. Obvi.




A chocolate syrup comes together quickly on the stovetop (with agave nectar in place of corn syrup, though you could use either). The syrup is then blended into a portion of a pretty tradition banana bread batter that already has those aforementioned chocolate chips tucked in. Both batters are sort of layered and swirled together and when baked, marry quite happliy. Not unlike devoted husbands who sample all their wives recipes and nod approvingly (except for pretending to like stinky, funky, oddly bitter beer marshmallows, no one should expect that of one's spouse, really).





Chocolate-Swirled Peanut Butter Banana Bread
Use the darkest, richest cocoa powder you can get your hands on--I like Valrhona. And as always for banana bread, the more ripe the bananas, the better the flavor and moisture of the finished product. 
This recipe is one of those genius things that only gets better as it sits. Store it in a cake dome or covered container at room temperature for up to 1 week.
Makes 1 loaf
For the chocolate syrup:
1/4 cup sugar1/4 cup dark unsweetened cocoa powder1/4 cup hot water1/4 cup agave nectar (or light corn syrup)1/8 teaspoon salt
For the batter:
2 cups all-purpose flour 3/4 teaspoon baking soda3/4 teaspoon salt1/3 cup creamy peanut butter4 tablespoons unsalted butter, at room temperature1/2 cup granulated sugar1/4 cup light brown sugar2 large eggs, at room temperature1 cup mashed ripe banana (about 2 large)1/4 cup sour cream1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract2/3 cup bittersweet or semi-sweet chocolate chips
Position a rack to the lower third of the oven and preheat it 350 degrees. Spray a 9-by-5-inch loaf pan with cooking spray and line it with a strip of parchment paper or aluminum foil about 8 inches wide to create a sort of "sleeve" that will make removing the loaf easier later. 
To make the chocolate syrup, whisk together the sugar, cocoa powder, hot water, agave nectar and salt. Set the pot over high heat and bring the syrup just to a simmer, stirring occasionally until the syrup is smooth. Remove the pot from the heat and set aside to cool.
In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda and salt.
In the bowl of an electric mixer, beat together the peanut butter and butter on medium speed until creamy. Add the sugars and beat until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes. Beat in the eggs one at a time. Scrape down the bowl.
Whisk together the mashed bananas, sour cream and vanilla in a small bowl. Beat into the butter mixture. 
Reduce the mixer speed to low and stir in the dry ingredients. When just a few streaks of flour remain, stop the mixer, add the chocolate chips and gently fold the batter until everything is incorporated.  
Transfer about a third of the batter (a little less is better than too much) to a medium bowl. Add the chocolate syrup and stir until well-blended. 
Spread half the banana batter into the bottom of the prepared pan. Top with half the chocolate batter. Use a spoon to scoop and swirl the batter. Repeat with the second half of both batters.
Bake until a toothpick comes about clean but not dry (a few moist crumbs is ideal), about 75 to 85 minutes. Let cool in the pan on a wire rack for about 15 minutes before removing the loaf from the pan to cool completely. 

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Why Salt Is Important in Baking

When I first starting obsessively baking in earnest, I was living in a breezy little apartment four blocks from the beach in Santa Monica. Newly married and childless, I slept past 8:00 a.m. more often than not and baked at all hours since I wouldn't be woken at the crack of dawn by tiny feet pattering on the floors. I also wore way too many tank tops with my bra straps peeking out and had a thing for aviator sunglasses that were too big for my face. So it wasn't all rosy. But none of this is actually my point.

My point is that when I first started baking, I didn't fully appreciate the importance of salt when whipping up sweets. Now I know that salt is my best friend in the kitchen, the Gayle to my Oprah. Sometimes salt plays a crucial role in the chemistry of a recipe. In bread baking, salt controls yeast growth and has a strengthening effect on the gluten in the dough. In pastry-making, it helps cut the oily mouthfeel of buttery doughs and encourages browning.

But mostly, salt is about making things more delicious. It's the key to waking up flavors, creating balance and making desserts totally crave-worthy, giving everything that little edge that makes you take one more bite. For someone with a serious sweet tooth, I seriously have the hots for salt. And I love it so much so that I have three kinds in the Piece of Cake kitchen at all times. As your friend, I suggest you consider doing the same. Of course, all of these salts pull double duty for savory recipes, too. Here are my salty essentials.

Fine Sea Salt. This is what I use in place of table salt in my recipes. Most recipes, unless they specify kosher salt or another type of salt, use your standard-issue table salt where salt is called for. I like fine sea salt because it has the same level of saltiness as table salt, but without the sort chemical-y tinniness that regular iodized table salt can have. It's an overall cleaner flavor. It's also great for baking because it's fine-grained, so it will fall easily through a sifter with your dry ingredients and it dissolves easily. Love it.

Kosher Salt. I think this kind of salt has kind of become trendy in the home kitchen because all the chefs on food TV shows tend to use it. And I don't know about you, but I love to pretend I'm a TV chef when I'm alone in the house. Sometimes I even talk to myself. But that is neither here nor there.

Kosher salt has long been an essential in professional kitchens. It has a coarser grain than your typical table salt, and it's perfect for picking up a big pinch with your fingertips and really feeling how much salt you're adding to your food. Like the aforementioned fine sea salt, it also has a fabulously clean, non-astringent salty flavor.

Something really important to remember about kosher salt is that not all brands are created equal. Morton kosher salt, for example, is made in such a way that it actually ends up denser and twice as salty as Diamond brand kosher salt. Diamond kosher salt is the gold standard of professionals, and is often the kind with which recipes calling for kosher salt are tested. To use Diamond kosher salt in place of table salt, roughly double the amount. For Morton, use the same amount as you would table salt. For baking, kosher salt is best in recipes where's there's a lot of liquid, so you can be sure the large grains will dissolve.

Fleur de Sel. Another salty buzzword as of late, this is basically a fancy French way of saying "sea salt" (literally translated as "flower of salt"--ooh la la). Like so many things food-related, the French do this one just un petit peu better than the rest of us. Fleur de Sel is typically hand-harvested, skimmed off the surface of bodies of salt water. It's a flaky, large-grained salt that has the most beautifully clean and complex salty flavor, an extra-special level above kosher salt. This is the kind of salt you'll find in specialty shops in nifty little containers. It begs for special occasions. This isn't the kind of salt you toss by the handful into pasta water, people. It's the glamorous sort of finishing salt you see sprinkled on things like sea salt caramels and other high-end confections. It adds saltiness, visual appeal and a tiny bit of crunch. It makes you feel fancy. So dreamy, and the final essential in my kitchen's salty trifecta.

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