Chocolate-Covered Peanut Butter Tart

I baked! Well... I baked a crust, and then cooked a filling, and melted some ganache. We were supposed to have dinner guests tonight and we never have dinner guests. One of the biggest reasons I want my own place is to have dinner parties. Well... our guests had to cancel at the last minute. I was already almost finished with my tart, though, so now we have it to eat ourselves. That's ok - it's delicious!

I finally got to use my new tart pan that I got before Christmas!



Isn't it pretty?! Shut up, it's pretty. The recipe actually called for a pan with a removable bottom, but I wanted to use this one. I'm a rebel. The removable bottom is really only important if you want to take the tart out and put it on a cake stand or something. I wanted to serve out of the pan anyway, since it's new and pretty.



Chocolate-Covered Peanut Butter Tart

Ingredients
1 C. crushed chocolate graham crackers
3 Tbsp. sugar
3 Tbsp. butter - melted
1 1/2 C. half-and-half
2 Tbsp. flour
1/4 tsp. salt
3 egg yolks
1/3 C. sugar
1/2 C. creamy peanut butter
1 tsp. vanilla
6 oz. semisweet chocolate chips
6 Tbsp. butter, cubed
1 Tbsp. light corn syrup

Method

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. In a medium bowl, combine the crushed graham crackers and 3 Tbsp. sugar. Mix in the melted butter. Press crumb mixture into the bottom of a 9" tart pan sprayed with nonstick cooking spray. Bake for 10 minutes in the preheated oven. Cool.

For the filling, combine the half-and-half, flour, and salt in a medium saucepan. Cook over medium heat until simmering, stirring frequently to avoid lumps.

In a small bowl, combine egg yolks and 1/3 C. sugar. Gradually whisk some of the hot half-and-half mixture into the egg mixture, then add the egg yolk mixture back into the saucepan. Cook and stir over medium heat until thickened and bubbly. Remove pan from heat and whisk in the peanut butter and vanilla until smooth. Pour peanut butter mixture into the crust and spread evenly. Cover and chill for 2-3 hours.

For the chocolate ganache, combine the chocolate chips and cubed butter in a small saucepan. Cook and stir over low heat until melted and smooth. Remove from heat and stir in the corn syrup. Cool for about 10 minutes. After slightly cooled, pour the ganache over the filling, and tilt pan around so it is spread evenly. Cover and chill for at least one more hour, or overnight.



The recipe itself is actually pretty easy. I'll definitely be making this again. My only problem was the crust, and I've had this problem before. I wanted to make a chocolate cookie crust, but I can. not. find just plain chocolate cookies. Like... Oreos without the cream filling. I've seen boxes of Oreo cookie crumbs before, but I haven't been able to find that for awhile now. Sooo, I went with a chocolate graham cracker crust. It's just as good, really... I'm just perturbed that I can't find plain chocolate cookies with no cream filling or fudge coating. They have to exist.

Also, my tart pan is 10" instead of 9", so I bulked up the crust mixture a little, and doubled the ganache. It's pretty hard to screw this one up, so play around with amounts to suit your taste and pan size. You could even add a little vanilla to the ganache... or cinnamon.... Hmm....



Enjoy!