Chocolate Peanut Butter Tart

Myron is more of a baker, but wile he’s in Hong Kong I must make due with my own abilities. I made a strawberry tart a month or so ago. After the success of that it wasn’t a giant leap to think of the combo of chocolate and peanut butter.  I looked at some other recipes, and I didn’t really like any of them on their own. The best one had a crust that also had peanut butter in it. Too much for me. No balance, so the recipe is kind of a combo other ones I put together for my use. I used an 11 inch tart pan, so the crust recipe is the Culinary Institute of America’s doubled. 


Tart crust


ingredients


2 sticks unsalted butter, room temperature

1/2 cup sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 large egg yolk

3 cups cake flour, sifted, plus extra for dusting


With a mixer cream together the butter, sugar, and vanilla extract, scraping down the bowl with a rubber spatula as needed, until smooth and light in color, about 2 minutes. Add the egg yolk and blend until smooth, 1 to 2 minutes more. Add the flour all at once, mixing on low speed until just blended, about 30 seconds. 


The dough will be very crumbly when you remove it from the mixer. Use a gentle touch to press the dough into a disk. Wrap the dough tightly and refrigerate for 20 minutes before rolling. Roll the dough out into a circle. Try to get it about 2 inches bigger than an 11” tart pan. fit it into the pan, and remove the excess from the edges. You shouldn’t need to grease or dust the pan there is enough butter in the dough to take care of that.


Use a fork to poke holes in the dough. The dough could puff up in a way we don’t want wile you blind bake it, so use a pie weight or put dry beans in some aluminum foil to make one. Put the crust in a 400 degree oven for around 15 min till it starts to brown. 
You can take the weight out just before this so it can cook evenly. 


Let the dough cool completely wile you make the peanut butter mouse.


Peanut Butter Mousse


ingredients 


7 tbs cream cheese
1/2 cup peanut butter
1/4 cup sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
3/4 cup heavy whipping cream, whipped to soft peaks




Beat the heavy whipping cream to soft peaks. Separately, beat all the other ingredients in another bowl till combined. Fold in the heavy whipped cream. Spread it into the tart and smooth the surface. Refrigerate while you make the ganache.


Ganache


3 oz milk chocolate
2 oz bittersweet chocolate
1/3 cup heavy cream
1/8 tsp vanilla




Melt all of these together in a double boiler over the stove, and stir until combined. Be careful not to burn the chocolate. I don’t have a double boiler, but a big coffee mug in a shallow pot of water works fine for me. Transfer to a bowl and let cool for a couple of minutes. Pour it over the tart, and refrigerate until it sets.