If you are planning on starting all good things after the Epiphany (which is when all good intentions begin in Italy, after the Befana), I suggest that before you start that diet, if you plan on sinning a little beforehand, you may as well sin really well and make this decadent and indulgent tart to really go out with a bang! If you love dark chocolate, peanut butter and the velvet flavour of good English toffee, and the idea of putting these together sounds like a good idea, then you really should try this tart.  In Australia, this may be made in a square pan, cut into squares and called a slice. You could do a chocolate biscuit base (to avoid making pastry) and then this wouldn’t even need to go into the oven.  But, remember yesterday’s post how I said I was trying a new chocolate pastry base?  Well, I woke this morning with an empty chocolate pastry shell waiting to be filled, and so after much thinking about the filling, I looked at an old American cookbook I was given in 1997 and came up with this!

While you could make your own peanut butter, and caramel, I bought  both the peanut butter and toffee, smashing the toffee into crumbs in the blender.

*Please note, that after tasting this recipe, my opinion is that it is a sickly sweet bomb!  It would be better made in a square tin (as I mentioned earlier), using a simple biscuit (cookie) & butter base, then cutting it into squares after it has set in the fridge for a couple of hours. I would also add less ganache…. while true chocoholics will love the generous layer of dark chocolate ganache, for me it was just all a bit too much.

Chocolate, Toffee & Peanut Butter Tart

Pastry

• 300g plain flour
• 150g almond meal
• 150g butter
• 150g sugar
• 80g grated dark chocolate
• 2 eggs
• 1 tablespoon rum
• pinch nutmeg & cinnamon
• pinch salt
• 2 tablespoons cocoa

• 1/2 Cup sugar
• 30g butter
• 3 teaspoons liquid glucose
• 2 tablspoons water
• 1/4 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
• 3/4 teaspoon salt

• 1 container crunchy peanut butter
• 1/4 container smooth peanut butter (or blend crunchy peanut butter to smooth consistency)
• 600g good quality dark chocolate (chopped in small pieces)
• 450ml cream

1. To make the pastry, cream butter and sugar together in an electric mixer. Add the flour, almond meal, grated chocolate, cocoa, nutmeg, cinnamon and salt.  Add eggs and rum and mix until dough comes together.  Knead a little with extra flour, cover with plastic kitchen wrap and refrigerate for at least an hour.
2. Grease tart dish with vegetable fat (I use Crisco) and line with rolled out pastry.  Use a fork to poke holes in base, line with baking paper and weigh with baking weights. Place in oven at 180°C for 15 minutes. Remove weights and paper, and continue to cook another 10 minutes or until pastry shell is cooked. Let cool.
3. If you wish to make your own toffee, stir sugar, butter, liquid glucose and water over low heat in a saucepan. Bring to the boil. Cook, stirring occasionally, until mixture begins to brown. Reduce heat to medium. Cook until golden brown. Remove from heat. Stir in bicarbonate of soda & salt until well combined (mixture should be the colour of peanut butter). Immediately dollop onto a greased baking tray, spreading out as thinly as possible with a heatproof spatula or wooden spoon. Cool completely for 30 minutes. Finely chop.
4. Spread crunchy peanut butter over base of pastry shell.
5. Cover with toffee crumbs.
6. Make dark chocolate ganache by heating cream to a simmer, then pour over chopped chocolate. Stir until smooth consistency without lumps.  You can also heat both in a microwave proof bowl in the microwave oven, stirring at intervals until desired consistency is achieved.
7. Pour chocolate ganache over toffee.
8. Place smooth peanut butter in a plastic bag and heat in microwave for about 30 seconds.  Cut a small hole off corner of bag and ‘pipe’ a swirly pattern on top of ganache.  Using a skewer, drag it back and forth through peanut butter and chocolate ganache to achieve a swirly pattern.
9. Refrigerate until set, at least an hour.