By Week 403. Winter 2023. I am 40 years old and standing in my kitchen — the Bench house kitchen, the one that held cancer and divorce and cinnamon rolls — and the stove is on and something is cooking and the house smells like soup and bread and this is my life. This is the life I built.
The garden is sleeping under mulch, resting for spring, and I stood in it this week and thought about dirt and time and the way both of them turn nothing into something if you're patient enough.
Mason is 12 and reading everything he can find and examining the world under a microscope with the intensity of a tenured researcher.
Lily is 10 and riding horses with the fearlessness of someone who has never considered the possibility of falling.
I made slow cooker pulled pork this week. The food continues. The food always continues. It is the thread that connects every week to every other week, every year to every other year, every version of me to every other version — the woman on the kitchen floor, the woman at the chemo recliner, the woman at the grill, the woman at the outdoor table under the string lights. All of them, connected by the food they made with their hands. All of them, me.
The pulled pork had been going all day — that’s the beauty of the slow cooker, you just let it do its thing — and by afternoon the lid was off and dinner was handled and I thought, the pot’s right there, it’s warm in here, and Mason and Lily are going to want something sweet after. So I made this. It’s the kind of dessert that asks almost nothing of you and gives you back a warm bowl of chocolate and peanut butter with a pudding layer hiding underneath, which felt exactly right for a week that was steady and ordinary and, in its own quiet way, everything.
Slow Cooker Hot Fudge Peanut Butter Pudding Cake
Prep Time: 15 minutes | Cook Time: 2 hours 30 minutes | Total Time: 2 hours 45 minutes | Servings: 8
Ingredients
- 1 cup all-purpose flour
- 1/2 cup granulated sugar
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 cup creamy peanut butter
- 1/2 cup whole milk
- 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- 1/2 cup packed light brown sugar
- 1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
- 1 3/4 cups hot water
- Vanilla ice cream or whipped cream, for serving (optional)
Instructions
- Prepare the slow cooker. Lightly grease the inside of a 3- to 4-quart slow cooker with nonstick cooking spray and set aside.
- Mix the dry ingredients. In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, granulated sugar, baking powder, and salt until evenly combined.
- Add the wet ingredients. Stir the peanut butter, milk, vegetable oil, and vanilla extract into the flour mixture until a thick, smooth batter forms. Spread the batter evenly across the bottom of the prepared slow cooker.
- Make the topping. In a small bowl, stir together the brown sugar and cocoa powder. Sprinkle the mixture in an even layer directly over the batter — do not stir.
- Pour the hot water. Slowly pour the hot water over the top of the cocoa-sugar layer. Again, do not stir — this layering is what creates the fudge sauce underneath as it cooks.
- Cook. Place the lid on the slow cooker and cook on HIGH for 2 to 2 hours 30 minutes, until the top is set and a toothpick inserted into the cake layer (not the pudding layer below) comes out mostly clean.
- Rest and serve. Turn off the slow cooker and let the cake rest, uncovered, for 10 minutes. Spoon into bowls, scooping deep to capture the hot fudge pudding pooled at the bottom. Serve warm with vanilla ice cream or whipped cream if desired.
Nutrition (per serving)
Calories: 305 | Protein: 7g | Fat: 11g | Carbs: 47g | Fiber: 2g | Sodium: 215mg