A Dessert that Quite Happily Sticks to the Roof of Your Mouth

Here we are, the sun is shining, the birds are singing, and it's Tuesday, and yet another Tuesdays With Dorie Challenge day!!! One of my most favourite days of the week, and the day I, along with umpteen other dedicated bakers, get to show you all what I have done with this week's Dorie challenge. We're some 200 plus strong now, and growing at an alarming rate, and we're all baking and eating our way through the most delicious baking book ever written, Baking, From my home to yours, by the best selling cookery book author, Dorie Greenspan. This week's challenge, Peanut Butter Torte on pages 282-283, as chosen by Elizabeth of Ugg Smell Food.

I could hardly wait to get stuck in to this one for several reasons, the main one being I love peanut butter in any way, shape or form. Life just wouldn't be worth living if there was not a big jar of Skippy in the cupboard, or two or three! It looked to be a fairly easy recipe to execute and I had all the ingredients to make it without sending Todd to the store. (What is it about men and grocery stores????? He absolutely hates going, and when he does have to go, he inevitably comes back with the wrong thing, unless I guide him through it step by step, thank God for mobile phones! If you are ever in the shops and you see a dazed looking man wandering up and down the aisles with a mobile phone glued to his ear, that would be Todd!!!)



I decided at the outset that having that much peanut butter torte around was going to be too tempting for me, and so I would cut the recipe in half. After reading the recipe through I knew that would not be a problem as the ingredients could very easily be reduced and I just happened to have a small stash of Oreo cookies in the larder . . . Oreo's not being native to this country, and only available in a few select stores. OH, it did pain me to have to crush them all into crumbs . . . I do confess to saving out one or two to be eaten later on with a cold glass of milk . . . and yes . . . I DO eat the middle first!



ON a side note here . . . when I was a girl I loved to eat peanuts and open them up and see the little man inside. To this day, I never eat a peanut but what I don't do the same thing. Am I nuts (no pun intended) or can anyone else see the little man inside?

I didn't have a bunch of small spring form pans, but I did have a bunch of 3 1/2 inch wide stainless steel cooking rings that I had bought one time when I was making a Gary Rhodes recipe. (He loves those rings) They were one of my first cookery purchases that I made over here, and I can remember feeling very proud of them at the time. They represented quite a tidy little investment for me, as we were not very well heeled financially at that moment. They are just rings and have no bottom, but that was not a huge problem as I just used aluminum foil and created my own bottoms on them. In no time at all had four lovely little chocolate tart bases chilling away in the freezer.

After baking them in the oven however, I did face somewhat of a challenge. Perhaps the shiny stainless steel of the rings was too smooth a surface. I don't know . . . but all, save one of them, had sunk down into a single layer in the bottom of the rings. I ended up with one tart base and three big flat smushed oreo cookie disks . . . problem for some perhaps, but not so with me. Life has always taught me that given lemons you make lemonade and so I decided to make one small Peanut Butter Torte with that one successful base, and with the rest some dishy parfaits! Simple solution . . . crush the bases up and use them to line some pretty glasses, and then layer on the mousse mixture.



That mousse mixture was fabulous. I could have just eaten it alone by the spoonful, and I was awfully glad that I had no children around to fight me for the bowl and beaters! I had no problems whatsoever with it, as it went together beautifully and in no time at all was chilling in my glasses and tart. I could hardly wait to make the ganach to spread over the top. Four hours seemed like a very long time (let alone overnight) to wait, patience not being one of my strongest virtues, but thankfully with having made smaller versions, it did not take that long to set up and within only a few hours I was boiling cream, chopping chocolate and pouring it over top of the most luscious looking creations ever!



Some might call this failure. I would call this a successful re-invention, and I have the evidence to prove it. They say the proof is in the eating and this picture speaks for itself.



Make this NOW! Don't delay another day.



*Peanut Butter Torte*

Ingredients:
1 ¼ c. finely chopped salted peanuts (for the filling, crunch and topping)
2 teaspoons sugar
½ teaspoon instant espresso powder (or finely ground instant coffee)
¼ teaspoon ground cinnamon
Pinch of freshly grated nutmeg
½ c. mini chocolate chips (or finely chopped semi sweet chocolate)
24 Oreo cookies, finely crumbed or ground in a food processor or blender
½ stick (4 tablespoons) unsalted butter, melted and cooled
Small pinch of salt
2 ½ c. heavy cream
1 ¼ c confectioners’ sugar, sifted
12 ounces cream cheese, at room temperature
1 ½ c salted peanut butter – crunchy or smooth (not natural; I use Skippy)
2 tablespoons whole milk
4 ounces bittersweet chocolate finely chopped

Getting ready: center a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 350°F. Butter a 9-inch Springform pan and place it on a baking sheet lined with parchment or a silicone mat.

Toss ½ cup of the chopped peanuts, the sugar, espresso powder, cinnamon, nutmeg and chocolate chops together in a small bowl. Set aside.

Put the Oreo crumbs, melted butter and salt in another small bowl and stir with a fork just until crumbs are moistened. Press the crumbs evenly over the bottom and up the sides of the spring form pan (they should go up about 2 inches on the sides). Freeze the crust for 10 minutes.

Bake the crust for 10 minutes, then transfer it to a rack and let it cool completely before filling.

Working with a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment or with a hand mixer in a large bowl, whip 2 cups of the cream until it holds medium peaks. Beat in ¼ cup of the confectioners’ sugar and whip until the cream holds medium-firm peaks. Crape the cream into a bowl and refrigerate until needed.

Wipe out (do not wash) the bowl, fit the stand mixer with the paddle attachment if you have one, or continue with the hand mixer, and beat the cream cheese with the remaining 1 cup confectioners’ sugar on medium speed until the cream cheese is satiny smooth. Beat in the peanut butter, ¼ cup of the chopped peanuts and the milk.

Using a large rubber spatula, gently stir in about one quarter of the whipped cream, just to lighten the mousse. Still working with the spatula, stir in the crunchy peanut mixture, then gingerly fold in the remaining whipped cream.

Scrape the mouse into the crust, mounding and smoothing the top. Refrigerate for at least 4 hours, or overnight; cover with plastic wrap as soon as the mousse firms.

To Finish The Torte: put the chopped chocolate in a heatproof bowl and set the bowl over a saucepan of simmering water. Leave the bowl over the water just until the chocolate softens and starts to melt, about 3 minutes; remove the bowl from the saucepan.

Bring the remaining ½ cup cream to a full boil. Pour the cream over the chocolate and , working with a a rubber spatula, very gently stir together until the ganache is completely blended and glossy.

Pour the ganache over the torte, smoothing it with a metal icing spatula. Scatter the remaining ½ cup peanuts over the top and chill to set the topping, about 20 minutes.

When the ganache is firm, remove the sides of the Springform pan; it’s easiest to warm the pan with a hairdryer, and then remove the sides, but you can also wrap a kitchen towel damped with hot water around the pan and leave it there for 10 seconds. Refrigerate until ready to serve.



You can see all the delicious other creations on the Tuesdays With Dorie page. I really recommend you have a good look! Seriously . . . looking at food porn does not cause you to put on weight . . . I promise! (Next week's recipe selection will come from Dianne of Dianne’s Dishes )