We are back! Original Recipe Time: Chocolate-Peanut Tart!!

 

Hi everyone!  This is Jesse, here, with a new original recipe, and also a few words about where the hell we've been!  2022 has been a really spotty year for HD&C.  I've been working on other, non-food-related jobs.   Nate's been working full time as a pasta-maker, and also full-time as the father of two future juvenile delinquents.  And Tarver's professional commitments are mounting, plus he's got his daughter to deal with.  So anyway, it's been a bad year for content.  We are proud of what we've done, but we really haven't done enough.  Not for our tastes, anyway.  But we are looking to get back in the saddle soon, and this is me, making the decision to get out ahead of my massive backlog of blog articles to write, and I'm opening with an easy and fun one: 

Original Dish Time

Okay, so a while back, I was asked to consult for a colleague's restaurant.  He wanted to know why dessert sales were sluggish.  They were going through pastry chef after pastry chef, and it was a catch-22.  Desserts didn't sell, so they couldn't really give the PC a better budget, so the desserts didn't really improve, so the desserts didn't sell.  At least, that was the apparent truth.  My read, after 3 shifts, was that their dinner portions were so large, it didn't matter HOW good the desserts were, they weren't going to move.  Since generous portions were a core part of their identity, the whole thing was a non-starter.  So this is definitely an operative demonstration of the fact that sometimes, a consultant can come in, figure out what the issue is, and it doesn't help one bit.  I mean, it didn't matter.  They still have great sales, they are still making money hand-over-fist, and I was moved on to another project.

But before I got shifted off that project, they asked me to see about updating some of their desserts.  They had a peanut-butter pie, and I started thinking about peanut butter and pie.  I was off the project before I could really do anything, but the seed was planted.  This was years ago.  I've had the idea for this pie, which looks like it was designed by a 9-year-old that skipped lunch, kicking around in my head since like 2015.  It actually came together pretty well!  Here we go!

The Concept: I like pie.  I like peanut butter.  But when I hear 'peanut butter pie,' I just get this shudder like I'm at some Methodist church picnic in central Illinois, in 1990.  I like the flavor of peanut butter, but I think it works best (at least as far as desserts go) as an accent flavor to chocolate.  In large quantities, it can be pretty overpowering.  Plus, in this age of ascendency of nut allergies, having a filling with peanut butter in it really increases the chance of accidental peanut exposure.  Peanut butter is sticky, and tends to leave residue.  One dishwasher not paying attention, and you've got a potentially dangerous situation on your hands.  Those are the reasons I tend to avoid peanut butter in the professional kitchen.  

Instead, I wanted to make a simple chocolate ganache tart, and then top it with some goodies: mini-peanut butter chips, mini-marshmallows, and chopped peanuts.  The most difficult part of this was sourcing the mini-peanut-butter chips and mini-marshmallows.  Of course, I found them both on Amazon.  I had to buy a quart of PB chips, and it was like 26 bucks, but hey, now I have 31oz. of peanut butter chips on hand.  Also, I seem to remember, sometime in my childhood, having mini-marshmallows (micro, really) that were soft, but the ones I found (Jet-Puft, by Kraft) were dry, like cereal marshmallows.  A bit of a let-down, but they still did what I was looking for, which was provide a visual and textural element to the tart.

The base components were super-simple.  A tart shell made of short dough, and a ganache tart filling.  Really easy, familiar territory.  Here''s the breakdown.

The Crust: For the crust, I used a recipe given to me by Tarver 'Superking' King.   

27.6 oz. AP flour
0.6 oz salt
3 oz sugar
1# butter (yes, really)
2 oz. yolks
4 oz. water

The method is standard.  Chill butter, grate butter, incorporate into dry ingredients until crumbly, add liquid, allow 30' rest to hydrolize, roll out on well-floured surface, and place in buttered false-bottomed tart pan.  Trim, add pie weights (I use parchment paper and dry beans), and bake (350F) until dry and starting to color.  Start checking it after 10'.  You want the crust to be fully cooked, because the filling cooks at a lower temp, so the crust won't ever get crustier than it is at the outset.  

What makes this dough unique is that it has a simply crazy amount of butter in it.  It makes a great, tender shell, but it can be a little hard to work with.  When you rest it, rest it in the fridge, but if you let it rest too long, you'll need to let it temper a bit.  Once you get it at a good working temp, it's not so bad, but you'll need a lot of bench flour.  The good news is, if you need to make a patch, there's so much butter, the dough adheres to itself pretty well.  Also, as with any pie crust that you're blind baking, keep a little scrap dough on hand to seal any cracks or holes that happen while baking (this trick has saved my life many times, particularly with quiche).  

The Filling: For the filling, and I'm not even ashamed, I turned to the Food Network website.  Why?  Because I didn't need to re-invent the wheel, because those recipes are well-tested (and tend to work), and most of all, because it was the first thing that came up when I googled 'chocolate tart,' and my bookshelf was far.  Here's the link.  Yeah, it's Tyler Florence.  I'm not worried about it.  The method was straight-forward.  Heat milk and cream to a simmer, pour over chocolate, and let it sit a minute, then stir.  (Standard ganache method, for those who haven't been in a professional kitchen.)  Then, stir in eggs, salt, and sugar, and bake.  The recipe calls for 325F, but 300F is better (at least in my oven).  I really wanted the filling to be dense and silky, so low-and-slow was the way to go.  I pulled the tart when there was just a little, barely perceptible wiggle in the filling, like I was making a creme brulee.  It should carry up just fine, plus, this tart is served at cool room temp, so the chocolate will solidify.

The Topping: Once the pie is out of the oven and (mostly) cool, you can top it.  It's best if it's a bit warm, so the garnish will adhere, but you don't want it to be hot enough to start melting the PB chips.  I didn't measure anything for the topping, I just added a liberal sprinkling of PB chips, marshmallow bits, and chopped peanuts.  If your peanuts are unsalted (or lightly salted), you may want to add a light dusting of fleur de sel, but this is totally up to the cook's discretion. 

The Result: Damn.  This was excellent.  I consider it a permanent part of the repertoire.  The only thing I'd change is that I wish the micro-marshmallows were better, but honestly, the product just plain might not exist.  This is what a Snickers bar would taste like if it had any class.