Peanut Butter Pie

Are you a peanut butter nutter? Does the sound of Reese's Pieces get you drooling? Did you rush out to buy the Whittaker's Peanut Butter chocolate when it first hit shelves? 

If you answered yes to any (or let's face it, probably all) of those questions, then this is the recipe for you. Another delectable dessert treat from my 'tart' collection. I can practically whip up the pastry with my eyes closed these days, and with the use of a food processor it takes hardly any time at all. This recipe uses the same pastry as my rich Salted Caramel Tart, and my often requested After Dinner Mint Tart. 

Despite the three different layers, it's painlessly easy, but profoundly impressive. After the pastry layer is a not-so-sweet creamy peanut butter buttercream frosting, then topped with a luscious chocolate ganache. Then sprinkled with roasted salted peanuts. 


Ingredients (Serves 12):

Pastry  

• 1 1/2 cups of plain flour
• 1/4 cup cocoa
• 1/4 cup of icing sugar 
• 180 grams cold butter, diced
• 1 egg yolk 
• 3 tbsp chilled water
• greaseproof paper
• baking beads or rice 

Peanut Butter Layer

• 90 grams butter
• 3/4 cup icing sugar
• 1 cup of good quality smooth peanut butter - I used the new Mother Earth range

Chocolate Ganache 

• 150 ml cream
• 75 grams Whittaker's 72% Dark Ghana Chocolate
• 75 grams Whittaker's Creamy Milk Chocolate
• 1/4 cup of roasted salted peanuts, roughly chopped

Make the pastry: 

Put flour, cocoa,  and icing sugar into the blender, pulse a couple times, to 'sieve' and combine. 

Add diced butter, pulse till it resembles breadcrumbs. 

Add egg yolk, and 1 tbsp water, pulse. Continue adding two more spoonfuls of water until it starts to come together into a ball (You may only need two spoonfuls depending on the size of your egg yolk). 

Tip pastry onto a floured board and gently knead for a couple of minutes so that it feels smooth. Wrap in cling film and refrigerate for 30 minutes. 

Preheat your oven to 180 degrees celsius and grease a 30 cm fluted tart tin, or 8 mini fluted tart tins. Remove pastry bake to the floured board, or a piece of greaseproof baking paper. Roll the dough out to form a circle slightly larger than your tin, about 5 mm thick. Use the pin to transfer the dough to your greased tin, press gently and roll over the top to cut the excess from the edges. 

Cover the pastry with a piece of greaseproof baking paper and fill with baking beads or uncooked rice. Bake for 15 minutes. Remove the paper and baking beads/rice and cook for a further 15 minutes (10 for mini tarts). 

The pastry should be pulling away from the sides of the tin. Remove from the oven and cool in the tin. 

Make the peanut butter layer:

Place butter and icing sugar into a mixing bowl. Beat with an electric mixer till smooth and creamy. Add the peanut butter to the bowl and mix again. 

Spread the peanut butter over the cooled tart base. 

Make the chocolate ganache: 

Warm the cream over a low heat in a small saucepan. When it begins to boil, turn the heat off and drop the squares of chocolate in. Stir once then set aside so the heat of the cream melts the chocolate. After 5 minutes stir the chocolate till smooth and glossy. 

Allow to cool a little, but not set. Then pour over the peanut butter layer. 

While still runny sprinkle the chopped peanuts over the top. 

Chill for an hour before serving. Will keep in the fridge for up to a week, unless of course you eat it first. 

Try these other delectable treats.

Salted Caramel Tart

After Dinner Mint Tart