I Made a Mess: Chocolate Peanut Butter Tart

Some of my counter, covered in flour, sugar, and cocoa powder

I made a mess.

It was a fun mess, but a mess nonetheless.

For dessert for Shabbat lunch, I decided to attempt this recipe. Chocolate and peanut butter is usually a pretty winning combination, even though I myself am not overly fond of peanut butter (I once legitimately got yelled at for this. I was told in no uncertain terms that, ‘Ambrosia is the food of the gods, and everyone knows that’s wine. But if it wasn’t wine, it would be PEANUT BUTTER.’ Sheeeeeesh).

I like Annie’s Eats blog. I really do. Despite the fact that she seems able to fit more into her day than I can in a week, despite that she (and her entire family) look kind of like those too-perfect fake family photos you get in the frames before you put your own picture in where you’re smiling weirdly and still have red eye (but who cares because pictures are fun!) and despite the fact that she loves using mason jars with a snooty little lemon wedge for drinking glasses and her food always looks perfect.

Especially this tart. I have no idea how she got her lines so straight or perfectly marbled or none of her crust to stick to her pan or whatever, but even with my flaws, this thing tasted pretty darn good, and that’s coming from someone who doesn’t even like peanut butter.

A few notes about this recipe:

-Since I keep kosher and was making this dessert for Shabbat lunch which is traditionally meat, I didn’t use margarine or heavy cream because I wanted to keep it pareve. I used Smart Beat margarine (I do my darndest to not use hydrogenated oils) in the crust, and I subbed Silk Sunflower drink for the heavy cream because it was the only thing in the goshdarn store (including soymilk) that didn’t have an OU-D on it.

-Ok, she says this dough will be ‘quite soft’. Understatement of the year. Maybe it was because I was working with margarine instead of butter, but this dough was suuuuper soft—like cookie batter soft. Called over the hubby expert before I put it in the fridge to chill and he said it looked ok. But even after an hour of chilling in the fridge, the idea of rolling this out with a rolling pin was laughable. We sort of smooshed it around the tart pan with a spatula (maybe chilling longer would have helped? Of course, that would entail actually planning your Fridays so you that have enough time to make a simple dessert. Planning is for suckers.)

 So. Squishy.

-Ironically, once I put it into the oven to bake, it reacted like a normal pie crust—which means those pie weights would have been helpful, since it did puff up in the oven. Live and learn.

-Annie is in love with chilling things. Maybe that’s why her dessert was more symmetrical than mine…ANYWHOO, here’s what I did: Baked the crust, stuck it in the freezer. Melted the peanut butter. Took pie crust out of freezer. Spread peanut butter. Put pie crust back in freezer. Did the whole melty cream/chocolate chip thing the way she describes it in the recipe (not my fave way to melt chocolate chips. Prefer double boiler method, but I digress! Perhaps for another post.). Took pan out of the freezer. Spread melty chocolate thing. Piped peanut butter messily and tried to make it look pretty.

End result:

 You can tell where my edges got a little too drizzly. Stuck it back in the freezer. Moved it to the fridge a couple of hours before we were ready to eat it, but it probably could have stayed in the freezer longer. And yes, it basically did taste like a giant peanut butter cup. Enjoy!

Original recipe:

Chocolate Peanut Butter Tart

Yield: about 6 servings

INGREDIENTS

For the crust:
1 cup all-purpose flour
¼ cup Dutch-process cocoa powder
¼ tsp. salt
¼ cup sugar
8 tbsp. unsalted butter, at room temperature (I used Smart Balance Margarine. Earth Balance usually works much better. Just didn't have any on hand.)
1 large egg
1 tsp. vanilla extract
2 tbsp. heavy cream ( I used pareve sunflower drink)

For the filling: 
¾ cup creamy peanut butter, divided
5 oz. bittersweet chocolate, finely chopped (Pareve chocolate chips)
¾ cup heavy cream (again, sunflower drink)

DIRECTIONS

• To make the crust, combine the flour, cocoa powder, and salt in a small bowl.  Whisk to blend.  In the bowl of an electric mixer, beat the butter and sugar on medium-high speed until light and fluffy, 2-3 minutes.  Blend in the egg and vanilla.  With the mixer on low speed, add in the dry ingredients alternating with the cream, beginning and ending with the flour mixture.  The dough will be quite soft.  Transfer the dough to a piece of plastic wrap, form into a rectangle, and wrap tightly.  Chill until firm, at least 1 hour and up to 2 days.
• Transfer the chilled dough to a well floured work surface.  Roll the dough out into a 7 x 16-inch rectangle and fit into a 4½ x 14-inch rectangular tart pan, pressing the dough into the edges of the pan.*  Trim away any excess.  Prick all over the surface of the dough with the tines of a fork.  Freeze the lined tart pan until the dough is firm, about 30 minutes.
• Preheat the oven to 350˚ F.  Line the crust with parchment paper and fill with baking beads, dried beans or rice. Bake until the edges are set, about 20 minutes.  Remove the weights and parchment and bake 5-10 minutes more.  Let cool completely, about 30 minutes.
• To make the filling, place ½ cup of the peanut butter in a small microwave-safe bowl.  Heat until fluid, about 20-30 seconds.  Pour into the bottom of the tart crust and smooth into an even layer.  Freeze until the peanut butter is firm, about 20 minutes.  Place the chopped chocolate in a medium bowl.  Bring the cream just to a boil.  Pour over the chocolate and let sit 1-2 minutes.  Meanwhile, heat the remaining ¼ cup of peanut butter until fluid.  Transfer to a plastic bag.  Whisk the chocolate mixture together until a smooth ganache forms.  Pour the ganache into the tart shell in an even layer.  Snip a small tip off of the corner of the plastic bag and pipe the peanut butter in diagonal lines on top of the ganache.  Use a toothpick or skewer to marble them gently together. Chill until well set, at least 1 hour and up to 8 hours.  Slice and serve.