Chocolate Peanut Butter Tart with Oatmeal Cookie Crust

  • Chocolate Peanut Butter Tart with Oat Cookie Crust

    Trying to find a way to satisfy your peanut butter, chocolate and oatmeal cookie cravings all at once?  Look no further, bakeasaurus.

    This tart is basically like the Incredible Peanut Butter Chocolate Ganache Pie (which we all fell hard and fast in love with), but baked onto an oatmeal cookie instead of the PB-graham cracker crust.  (Don’t knock the original- PB smooched into graham cracker crumbs is a dessert all on its own, if you think about it.  But oatmeal cookie crusts are also exceedingly good.  Give it a go.  You’ll see.)

    I made this dessert into little tarts, but you can turn it into a big tart (to share with others or just to share more with yourself) or even bars.  The recipe makes extra cookie batter and extra ganache, which is a most excellent problem to have (given that you can just bake actual cookies and freeze the rest of the batter and ganache for later).  Enjoy!

    Adpated from my Incredible Peanut Butter Chocolate Ganache Pie (from bon appetite) and Chocolate Oatmeal Marshmallow Cookie Sandwich recipes…

    OATMEAL COOKIE CRUST:

    1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour

    3/4 teaspoon baking powder

    3/4 teaspoon salt

    1/2 teaspoon baking soda

    2 1/4 cups old-fashioned oats

    3/4 cup roasted peanuts, chopped

    3/4 cup semisweet or bittersweet chocolate (4 ounces), chopped into chocolate chip-size chunks

    3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature

    1 1/2 cups dark brown sugar, packed

    1 egg

    1 teaspoon vanilla extract

    PEANUT BUTTER FILLING:

    8 ounces cream cheese, softened (1 cup)

    1 cup peanut butter

    1/2 cup sugar

    2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

    1 cup well-chilled heavy cream

    1/2 cup salted roasted peanuts, chopped

    Dash of salt

    CHOCOLATE GANACHE TOPPING:

    4 oz. bittersweet chocolate

    1/2 cup heavy whipping cream

    2 tablespoons roasted peanuts, chopped

    1. COOKIE CRUST:
      1. Preheat oven to 350°, and grease a 9 or 10″ tart pan, several smaller tart pans, or a foil-lined 9 x 9″ baking pan; set aside.
      2. In a medium bowl, whisk flour, baking powder, salt and baking soda together.
      3. In a large bowl, combine oats, peanuts and chocolate chunks.
      4. In a separate large bowl, beat butter and sugar together for about 2 minutes, scraping down sides of bowl once or twice throughout. Add egg and vanilla, and beat to blend for 30 seconds. Gradually add flour mixture, beating just to blend. Stir in oat mixture with a wooden spoon until just combined.
      5. Press enough dough into bottom of prepared tart pan(s)/ baking pan to create about a 1/3″ thick base or raw dough.  (Use remaining dough to make cookies or freeze for later use.)
      6. Bake crust for about 20 minutes, until golden brown and center has begun to set.  Allow pan(s) to cool on cooling racks.
    2. FILLING:
      1. In a large bowl, beat the cream cheese with the peanut butter, sugar and vanilla extract until combined.
      2. In another large bowl, whip the heavy cream until firm peaks form. Fold 1/3 of the whipped cream into the peanut butter mixture, then fold in the remaining whipped cream. Spread the filling evenly over the cooled oatmeal cookie crust(s).  Sprinkle lightly with salt and refrigerate until set, about 2 hours.  (You might have extra filling, depending how thick your tart pans are.  If so, just eat or freeze for later use.)
    3. GANACHE TOPPING:
      1. In a small saucepan, bring heavy cream to almost a boil and pour over chocolate in a medium bowl. Allow to sit for 5 minutes, then whisk until chocolate is melted and smooth. Allow to cool until almost room temperature, stirring occasionally.
      2. Spread the chocolate ganache topping over the chilled & set peanut butter filling, sprinkle chopped peanuts overtop, and refrigerate until just firm, about 15 minutes.

    Tips:

    • Make sure you use a thin layer of cookie crust, or it will puff up and bake on the edges but not so much in the middle.  If your cookie crust does look puffy while it’s baking, feel free to remove from the oven and flatten slightly with a spatula sprayed with non-stick spray; then return to finish baking.
    • If you’d like more crunch in your life, use chunky peanut butter or add chopped peanuts to the filling before spreading.
    • Toast the peanuts for more flavor (not that this recipe is short on flavor, mind you).  Stick on a pan into a hot oven and bake for 10 minutes or so… chop before baking.
    • Skip the peanuts in the oatmeal cookie crust if you’d like one less step to follow.  Trust me- there’s enough PB in the dessert to keep you happy.
    • Ganache chocolate options can include semi-sweet, or dark… I used a rich, dark chocolate for this recipe but it’s your call.
    • Enjoy!

     

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    December 29th, 2013 | More Sweets Please | No Comments | Tags: , , ,

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