Sugar-Free Chocolate Peanut Tonkatsu Cakepops

This is the third year I am making a Tonkatsu bake for hubby's birthday. Previously, I made choux pastry and oatmeal cookies. This year, I decided to try a sugar-free dark chocolate peanut cakepop! 

Even the nose is made of sugar-free shortbread cookie! 

Tonkatsu always likes to pour sauce on himself to make him more palatable. 

Do note that although I used maltitol here, you may replace with regular icing sugar for the cookie nose and caster sugar for the cake and pastry cream. 

Shortbread cookie nose

Ingredients :

5g sugar (I use maltitol, you may use regular icing sugar) 

10g unsalted butter

15g plain flour 

A little strawberry emulco (may replacs with food colouring) 

Steps:

1. Mix butter and sugar together. 

2. Add sifted flour and form a dough. 

3. Add strawberry emulco a toothpick dip worth at a time until desired shade is reached. 

4. Shape into 5mm ovals and place on lined baking tray. 

5. Freeze tray while preheating oven to 150C.

6. Bake for 10-15 min. Note temperature and time may vary depending on oven. 

Chocolate cake sponge

Ingredients (makes one 7x7" square pan or 7.5"round pan) :

20g alkalized cocoa powder

36g boiling water

33g vegetable oil

22g egg yolks 

54g egg whites

1/4 tsp vanilla extract

1/4 tsp coffee kahlua liqueur (may replace with vanilla) 

45g cake flour/ plain flour or combi

83g sugar (I used maltitol but you maybuse regular caster sugar) 

1/2 + 1/8 tsp baking powder

1/4 + 1/12 tsp baking soda

1/8 tsp salt

Steps:

1. Place cocoa powder in mixing bowl. Pour boling hot water into bowl and whisk until a paste forms. Cover bowl with cling wrap and let the paste cool to room temprature. 

2. In the mean time, sift together flour, sugar, salt, baking powder and baking soda. Set aside. Preheat oven to 170C. Line baking tray with parchment paper. 

3. Add egg yolks and oil to the chocolate paste and use electric mixer to mix until well combined and buttercream-like in texture. 

4. Add in sifted flour mixture and use mixer to mix until well combined.

5. In a clean metal bowl, beat egg whites until frothy. There is no need to whip it up until meringue texture. Add to the batter, along with flavourings. Use electric mixer to mix well for 2 minutes. 

6. Bake for 25min or until skewer comes out clean. 

7. Cool completely before breaking it up into fine crumbs. 

Chocolate sponge adapted from Rose Levy Beranbaum's German chocolate cake recipe. The sponge alone may not be out of this world. But when paired with the pastry cream, it is! That's why this combo and variations of it is my default for chocolate cake requests. 

Sponge cake crumbs

Chocolate pastry cream

Ingredients:

1 egg yolk

125g milk

15g sugar (I used maltitol but you may use regular caster sugar, adjust amount according to taste) 

10g cornflour 

8g cocoa powder

1/4 tsp vanilla extract

1/4 tsp kahlua coffee liqueur 

A pinch of salt

8g unsalted butter

10g 100% dark chocolate couverture (you may use lower percentage but I am going for sugar-free, you may add more or omit according to taste) 

10g freeze-dried raspberry powder (optional, added for a little acidity) 

10-20g heavy cream (optional) 

Steps:

1. Heat milk and flavourings in a small saucepan until steaming but not boiling. 

2. In the mean time, whisk together egg yolk, cornflour, cocoa powder, raspberry powder(if using), sugar and salt together. 

3. Pour hot milk in a thin stream into egg yolk mixture, whisking the egg yolk mox continuously. Pour everything back into saucepan and cook over low heat, whisking continuously. Once mixture thickens, remove from heat and whisk continuously to smooth out. Put it back on heat and continue cooking for a couple of minutes more. 

4. Remove from heat and add butter and chocolate couverture. Add some heavy cream if you wish to lighten the texture further and increase water content of the pastry cream. Press cling wrap on surface of pastry cream and refrigerate for at least 1h.

Freshly made pastry cream! 

Tonkatsu Cakepops

Ingredients(makes about twelve to fifteen 25-30g cakepops) :

All the chocolate sponge crumbled

All the pastry cream

Some peanut butter (I use no sugar no salt added 100% peanut) 

Some ground peanut powder sifted through coarse sieve (to remove really large pieces) 

Shortbread noses

Chocolate sprinkles (for eyes) 

Steps:

1. Add pastry cream to crumbed cake to form a dough ball. Divide into balls of 25-30g each. 

2. Coat the ball of cake with a thin layer of peanut butter, and then roll it in a dish of sifted peanut flour. 

3. Shape the coated cakepop into Tonkatsu shape. Use toothpick to gouge out a depression where the nose is supposed to go. Pipe some peanut butter into the cavity amd stick on the nose. 

4. Do the same with the eyes, using chocolate ball sprinkles for the eyes. 

5. Shape the hands and feet using some peanut butter and powdered peanut mixed together. Gouge out a little peanut layer on the cakepop before using peanut butter to glue on the limbs. 

6. Keep refrigerated in airtight container. Best consumed within a week. 

A peek at what it looks like after a bite! 

With lots of love, 

Phay Shing