{"id":4241,"date":"2011-02-07T13:31:03","date_gmt":"2011-02-07T20:31:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.skilletchronicles.com\/content\/?p=4241"},"modified":"2011-02-08T13:21:18","modified_gmt":"2011-02-08T20:21:18","slug":"chocolate-and-peanut-butter-tart-recipe","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.skilletchronicles.com\/content\/chocolate-and-peanut-butter-tart-recipe\/","title":{"rendered":"Chocolate and peanut butter tarts"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Chocolate cream pie was always the ultimate treat when I was a child.\u00a0 No matter the occasion, my Dad asked for one of my Mom’s pies piled high with beautifully browned meringue in the place of a more conventional cake.<\/p>\n

I have never been a big pie baker, however.\u00a0 The crust intimidated me for years before I learned that a food processor would do a far better job of cutting butter into the flour than I ever could.\u00a0 Even then, the dough had to be rolled out and mine always stuck to the pastry board until I realized that I actually was using too little flour on the board in my fear of using too much.\u00a0 I won’t even talk about my failures with meringue.<\/p>\n

So when I was inspired to make chocolate pie\u2013actually tarts\u2013for Valentine’s Day, I decided to keep it simple enough even for the pie-phobes among us.\u00a0 The crust is a peanut butter cookie dough pressed into the pans rather than rolled out\u00a0 The filling is a rich pot de creme<\/em> quickly made in a double boiler, which is easy to improvise.\u00a0 The topping is straight out of an iSi cream whipper<\/a>, although it’s not hard to whip cream with a wire whip or electric mixer.<\/p>\n

Think of these tarts as deconstructed peanut butter cups with much better ingredients.\u00a0 Deep, dark chocolate beats out wimpy milk chocolate in my book any day.<\/p>\n

DARK CHOCOLATE TART WITH PEANUT BUTTER COOKIE CRUST<\/strong>
\nMakes 1 9-inch tart or 3-4 individual tarts<\/em><\/p>\n

CRUST
\n\u00bc cup dark brown sugar, packed
\n2 tablespoons granulated sugar
\n4 tablespoons cold butter
\n\u00bd cup natural peanut butter
\n1 large egg
\n\u00bc teaspoon vanilla
\n1 cup unbleached all-purpose flour
\nPinch of salt<\/p>\n

FILLING<\/p>\n

2 3.5-ounce bars dark chocolate (70 percent cacao preferred)
\n2 cups heavy cream
\n\u00bc cup granulated sugar
\n6 egg yolks
\n1 teaspoon vanilla<\/p>\n

Whipped cream for topping<\/p>\n

CRUST: In the work bowl of a food processor fitted with a metal blade, whirl the brown and white sugars together for a minute or so until very fine.\u00a0 Cut the butter into half inch cubes.\u00a0 With the motor running, drop the butter through the feed tube into the work bowl and process for about 20 seconds.\u00a0 Add peanut butter and whirl until mixture is smooth and creamy.\u00a0 Add the egg and vanilla and mix just until incorporated.\u00a0 Add flour and salt and pulse a couple of times until incorporated.<\/p>\n

Dump the contents of the food processor onto a large sheet of plastic wrap spread on the counter.\u00a0 The mixture will be very crumbly.\u00a0 Use the plastic wrap to bring the crumbs together into a smooth, flat disk.\u00a0 Wrap tightly and refrigerate for at least an hour or overnight.<\/p>\n

Press the dough evenly into the tart pan by hand, making sure to keep it fairly thin, about 1\/8-inch thick, all over.\u00a0 Cover crust with plastic wrap again and chill for 1 hour more.\u00a0 Twenty minutes before baking, preheat the oven to 375 degrees.\u00a0 Remove crust from refrigerator, prick all over with the tines of a fork and bake on the lower shelf of the oven for 10-15 minutes, until golden brown.\u00a0 Let cool on a rack while you make the filling.<\/p>\n

FILLING:\u00a0 With a serrated knife, chop chocolate bars into very small pieces.\u00a0\u00a0 Mix cream, chocolate and sugar in the top half of a double boiler suspended over boiling water.\u00a0 (If you don’t have a double boiler, bring a couple of inches of water to a boil in a saucepan and suspend a\u00a0 heat proof bowl above the water.\u00a0 The bowl should be large enough to sit on the rim of the pan without touching the water.)\u00a0 Stir mixture with a wooden spoon or silicone spatula until chocolate melts and bubbles begin to form on the surface.\u00a0 Beat eggs lightly in a small bowl.\u00a0 Stir about half a cup of the hot chocolate mixture into the egg yolks to temper them, then stir the yolk mixture back into the chocolate in\u00a0 the double boiler.\u00a0 Stir in vanilla.\u00a0 Continue cooking and stirring until the custard thickens, about 5 minutes.\u00a0 If you have any lumps, pass the custard through a mesh strainer.\u00a0 Otherwise, pour directly into the tart crusts.<\/p>\n

Let tarts cool, then cover loosely with plastic wrap and refrigerate until about an hour before serving.\u00a0 Whip cream, garnish tarts, and serve.<\/p>\n

Aleta Watson<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Chocolate cream pie was always the ultimate treat when I was a child.\u00a0 No matter the occasion, my Dad asked for one of my Mom’s pies piled high with beautifully browned meringue in the place of a more conventional cake. I have never been a big pie baker, however.\u00a0 The crust intimidated me for years … Continue reading Chocolate and peanut butter tarts<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4241","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.skilletchronicles.com\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4241","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.skilletchronicles.com\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.skilletchronicles.com\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.skilletchronicles.com\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.skilletchronicles.com\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4241"}],"version-history":[{"count":19,"href":"https:\/\/www.skilletchronicles.com\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4241\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4260,"href":"https:\/\/www.skilletchronicles.com\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4241\/revisions\/4260"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.skilletchronicles.com\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4241"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.skilletchronicles.com\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4241"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.skilletchronicles.com\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4241"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}