Tuesday, May 6, 2008

TWD - peanut butter torte



Peanut butter and chocolate – a match made in heaven!! Peanut butter and chocolate are two of my favourite foods and they both featured in this week’s TWD challenge – peanut butter torte. The torte is almost like a cheesecake – a biscuit base with a cream cheese and peanut butter filling, topped with chocolate ganache. I love peanut butter and am guilty of often being caught with my finger or a teaspoon in the jar. And of course, I love chocolate as well, so I was pretty excited about this challenge.

Not really having anything special to make this for, I decided to quarter this recipe and make mini tortes instead. I made them in cupcake cases and then peeled off the cases. The base was a mixture of oreo cookie and melted butter. Oreos are an American cookie and have only recently become available in NZ. This was the first time I had bought them – I cant say that I really liked them, but then I don’t really like bought biscuits anyway. They made the perfect base though and I would definitely use them again where I need a chocolate biscuit base.

The filling was a mixture of cream cheese, peanut butter and whipped cream, studded with a mixture of chopped peanuts, chocolate chips and a touch of espresso powder and cinnamon. I forgot to buy salted peanuts like the recipe called for, so just used raw peanuts which I lightly roasted. I used lite peanut butter as well, just to make myself feel marginally better about eating the finished product. I would have used lite cream cheese, but it doesn’t seem to set up as well as the full fat stuff.

After the filling is chilled inside the crust, it is topped with a ganache and chopped peanuts. I loved this torte. I actually think the wee individual ones look really cute and are less intimidating to eat. This is quite an American dessert I think – peanut butter and chocolate is not a combination you see very often in NZ.

I would definitely make this again! Check out the other TWDers tortes here.

15 comments:

steph- whisk/spoon said...

this is totally an american dessert, and i'm glad you liked it! :)

i love oreos...since my mother would never buy them for us as kids, they have this "forbidden treat" kind of appeal to me!

Engineer Baker said...

I love how overstuffed your little tortes look!

CB said...

Love the idea of making mini tortes but I think I'd screw up the math! haha. Great job!
Clara @ I♥food4thought

Beth said...

your mini tortes are super cute! great job

Sweet and Savory Eats said...

Great job on the mini tortes. Very smart since this is so rich.

Peabody said...

Yours looks like it is bursting with peanut butter flavor.

CRS said...

Great job! They look like Chipwiches, and if you froze them, probably would taste like it too.

Marie Rayner said...

I love you wee little torte! How cute! I really enjoyed this recipe, but then as a North American I am not afraid of peanut butter or of pairing it with something sweet!

Heather B said...

I love your mini tortes! So packed with yumminess! I made the mini's too! Loved the perfect portion size! Great job!

Jaime said...

funny how there are such big differences in regional foods huh? i think it's so cute that you refer to the oreo cookies as biscuits :)

your mini tortes look great!

Gretchen Noelle said...

Cute minis! It is so interesting how different cultures have their own things. Great job this week!

Rachel said...

LOoks great, Tammy!

Shari@Whisk: a food blog said...

Your torte looks delicious! I think you're the first person I've heard of that doesn't like Oreos. =)

Cakelaw said...

All I can say is - yum!

Melissa said...

Funny...I never realized how American peanut butter was! Yours looks great!