Culinary Concoctions by Peabody

“What is the stuff in the fridge that looks like raw cookie dough?” My husband asked with hopeful anticipation.
“It’s a Peanut Butter Torte…you’ll like it.”
And with that my husband finally got to eat something he liked…peanut butter and chocolate.
As you can see from the pictures I changed mine up a bit. First off I did not use Oreo cookies like the recipe called for, I used Mother’s Peanut Butter Gauchos…I was going for more peanut butter than chocolate on this one. I also omitted the cinnamon, nutmeg and chopped peanuts on the inside of this dish because I knew my hubby would not be going for that. And for presentation I did a couple smaller ones in mini spring forms but the one you are seeing was made using a cylinder.
The Peanut Butter Torte chosen by Elizabeth of Ugg Smell Food is extremely easy and other than the refrigeration time can be put together fairly quickly. This dessert is very rich. I really could only eat a few bites each time I went to eat it. And you know if I think it is rich, it is rich!
Be sure to check out the other TWD Peanut Butter Tortes.

Peanut Butter Torte
¼ cup unsalted peanuts
½ c. mini chocolate chips (or finely chopped semi sweet chocolate)
24 Mother’s Peanut Butter Gaucho cookies, finely crumbed or ground in a food processor or blender
½ stick (4 tablespoons) unsalted butter, melted and cooled
Small pinch of salt
2 ½ c. heavy cream
1 ¼ c confectioners’ sugar, sifted
12 ounces cream cheese, at room temperature
1 ½ c salted peanut butter – No surprise…I used Jif
2 tablespoons whole milk
4 ounces bittersweet chocolate finely chopped
Getting ready: center a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 350°F. Butter a 9-inch Springform pan and place it on a baking sheet lined with parchment or a silicone mat.
Put the Peanut Butter Gaucho crumbs, melted butter and salt in another small bowl and stir with a fork just until crumbs are moistened. Press the crumbs evenly over the bottom and up the sides of the spring form pan (they should go up about 2 inches on the sides). Freeze the crust for 10 minutes.
Bake the crust for 10 minutes, then transfer it to a rack and let it cool completely before filling.
Working with a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment or with a hand mixer in a large bowl, whip 2 cups of the cream until it holds medium peaks. Beat in ¼ cup of the confectioners’ sugar and whip until the cream holds medium-firm peaks. Scrape the cream into a bowl and refrigerate until needed.
Wipe out (do not wash) the bowl, fit the stand mixer with the paddle attachment if you have one, or continue with the hand mixer, and beat the cream cheese with the remaining 1 cup confectioners’ sugar on medium speed until the cream cheese is satiny smooth. Beat in the peanut butter, and the milk.
Using a large rubber spatula, gently stir in about one quarter of the whipped cream, just to lighten the mousse. Still working with the spatula, stir in the crunchy peanut mixture, then gingerly fold in the remaining whipped cream. Fold in the mini chocolate chips.
Scrape the mouse into the crust, mounding and smoothing the top. Refrigerate for at least 4 hours, or overnight; cover with plastic wrap as soon as the mousse firms.
To Finish The Torte: put the chopped chocolate in a heatproof bowl and set the bowl over a saucepan of simmering water. Leave the bowl over the water just until the chocolate softens and starts to melt, about 3 minutes; remove the bowl from the saucepan.
Bring the remaining ½ cup cream to a full boil. Pour the cream over the chocolate and , working with a a rubber spatula, very gently stir together until the ganache is completely blended and glossy.
Pour the ganache over the torte, smoothing it with a metal icing spatula. Scatter the remaining ½ cup peanuts over the top and chill to set the topping, about 20 minutes.
When the ganache is firm, remove the sides of the Springform pan; it’s easiest to warm the pan with a hairdryer, and then remove the sides, but you can also wrap a kitchen towel damped with hot water around the pan and leave it there for 10 seconds. Refrigerate until ready to serve.

Source: Adapted from Baking From My Home To Yours by Dorie Greenspan

From time to time someone will ask me to review a product. Oddly enough, most of the time it is not food related(wtf?) But when I saw a jar of Blake Makes Peanut Butter Dulce De Leche, it was I who was the one wanting to get a jar and review it. Peanut Butter Dulce De Leche! Are you kidding me? YUM. I signed up on his blog to receive a free sample in the mail. A few days later, two cute little jars arrived at my mailbox.
I knew right away when I heard about the PBDDL that I wanted to do something with bananas. I love banana and peanut butter(it’s the Elvis in me) and I love Caramel and bananas. So Peanut Butter Dulce De Leche sounded like a winner combo to go with bananas…and it was.
This is an very moist cake that I usually make with cream cheese frosting but decided to mix it up a bit. I did have problems with my frosting. I had beautiful Italian Meringue Buttercream, right up until the point that I added the PBDDL. Apparently the frosting was not in favor of that. It still worked out nicely and the taste was spot on so I overlooked my temperamental frosting.
Sadly right now this is not available to the public but I am hoping that it will be one day.

Banana Cake

Ingredients:

2 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1-1/2 cup sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
½ cup shortening
8 ounce Mascarpone cheese
2 eggs
1/4 cup buttermilk
1 cup mashed bananas

Cream together the sugar, shortening and Mascarpone cheese. Add eggs one at a time, scraping down after each addition. Add vanilla extract and mix for another 30 seconds. Add banana and buttermilk. Mix together all dry ingredients, then combine sugar mixture with dry ingredients. Pour into 9 x 13 inch pan and bake at 350 degrees for 30 to 35 minutes.

Peaut Butter Dulce De Leche Italian Buttercream Frosting

1 cup sugar
1/4 cup water
5 egg whites
1/4 cup sugar
2 cups unsalted butter , room temperature, cut into tablespoons
4 TBSP Peanut Butter Dulce De Leche(or regular Dulce de Leche)

Assembly:
Cut cake into two equal rectangles. Spread 3 TBSP peanut butter on top of bottom layer. Add a layer of buttercream on top of the peanut butter. Place second layer on top. Frost cake with remaining frosting. If you like, drizzle caramel over top of cake.

The problem when you have a picky eater for a husband is that he doesn’t eat 90% of the things I make. And since I refuse to have a blog solely dedicated to all things peanut butter and chocolate, from time to time he gets annoyed. He gets annoyed that when he comes home and asked me what I baked today I have to usually tell him, �something you wont eat.� In my defense his list of things he wont eat is much larger than his list of things he will eat. So last week when I was in a frenzy of baking all things he doesn’t eat, I got the sad puppy dog eyes and the ever popular, �did you make anything I can eat?�

So in order to appease him I went looking for something with chocolate and peanut butter. I have seen many a time on many a blog the World Peace cookies. They have been done and done again and so I wanted to change them as I felt there was no need to beat a dead horse into the ground. Staring into the pantry was a half a bag of peanut butter chips and so I went with that.

Sadly I enjoyed them way more than he did. He likes soft cookies and well these are really made more for dunking in milk than eating straight out…in my humble opinion. He did gladly eat them but the guilt did pang me and I ended up making him something else too.

I will be making him doughnuts next week so that should put a smile on his face. And speaking of doughnuts, make sure to get your fry on by participating in Helen and I’s Doughnut Day. To get more info go here. Please remember that this has to be a NEW post about a doughnut or something in the doughnut family.

Peanut Butter World Peace Cookies

1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour

1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1 stick plus 3 tablespoons (11 tablespoons) unsalted butter, at room temperature

2/3 cup (packed) light brown sugar

1/4 cup sugar

1/2 teaspoon fleur de sel or 1/4 teaspoon fine sea salt

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

4 TBSP peanut butter

6 ounces peanut butter chips

1. Sift the flour, cocoa and baking soda together.

2. Working with a stand mixer, preferably fitted with a paddle attachment, or with a hand mixer in a large bowl, beat the butter on medium speed until soft and creamy. Add both sugars, the salt and vanilla extract and beat for 2 minutes more. Add the peanut butter and beat for another minute.

3. Turn off the mixer. Pour in the dry ingredients, drape a kitchen towel over the stand mixer to protect yourself and your kitchen from flying flour and pulse the mixer at low speed about 5 times, a second or two each time. Take a peek � if there is still a lot of flour on the surface of the dough, pulse a couple of times more; if not, remove the towel. Continuing at low speed, mix for about 30 seconds more, just until the flour disappears into the dough � for the best texture, work the dough as little as possible once the flour is added, and don’t be concerned if the dough looks a little crumbly. Toss in the peanut butter chips and mix only to incorporate.

4. Turn the dough out onto a work surface, gather it together and divide it in half. Working with one half at a time, shape the dough into logs that are 1 1/2 inches in diameter. Wrap the logs in plastic wrap and refrigerate them for at least 3 hours. (The dough can be refrigerated for up to 3 days or frozen for up to 2 months. If you’ve frozen the dough, you needn’t defrost it before baking � just slice the logs into cookies and bake the cookies 1 minute longer.)

Getting Ready to Bake:

5. Center a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 325 degrees F. Line two baking sheets with parchment or silicone mats.

6. Using a sharp thin knife, slice the logs into rounds that are 1/2 inch thick. (The rounds are likely to crack as you’re cutting them � don’t be concerned, just squeeze the bits back onto each cookie.) Arrange the rounds on the baking sheets, leaving about 1 inch between them.

7. Bake the cookies one sheet at a time for 12 minutes � they won’t look done, nor will they be firm, but that’s just the way they should be. Transfer the baking sheet to a cooling rack and let the cookies rest until they are only just warm, at which point you can serve them or let them reach room temperature.

Source: Adapted from Baking: From My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan, Houghton Mifflin Company, November 2006

Since I enjoyed turning Almond Joys into bread, I thought I would try once again to take a candy and make it into a baked good. This time around I thought I would be kind and make something my husband would eat. Since Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups are high on his lists of favorite candies, I decided to pay tribute to those. Now, I don’t nearly enjoy Reese’s as much as Almond Joy, though they are good for portion control because I only am able to eat two before I start to get peanut butter overload. This cake however is a different story. Not thinking I would really even eat anything more than a piece, I cleared a whole mini cake no problem.
The recipe is nothing new. I have already made this cake a year or so ago, the  difference being the use of the peanut butter chips. The other difference is the use of my mini(4-inch diameter) tart pans. I used those to give the cake a more peanut butter cup look. If you get too much rise on your cake you can always trim off the top with a bread knife(that’s what I had to do). If you don’t have little tart pans, you could simply bake it in the rectangular pan and then cut out circles with a cookie cutter. It wont have that cute peanut butter cup shape but will be tasty nonetheless.

Peanut Butter Cup Cake

Peanut Butter Peanut Butter Chip Cakes(recipe follows)
Chocolate Glaze(recipe follows)
peanut butter cups, chopped, for garnish

Peanut Butter Peanut Butter Chip Cake

2 ounces unsalted butter
1 cup all purpose flour
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 cup tightly packed brown sugar
3 ounces creamy peanut butter
1 large egg
1 egg yolk
1/4 cup sour cream
1/4 cup hot water
1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract
1/2 cup peanut butter chips

Preheat oven to 325F.

Grease three 9 x 1 1/2 inch pans.(I personally used just one 9 x 13 pan). Line your bottoms with parchment. Set aside.

Combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.

Mix together brown sugar, peanut butter and butter for two minutes. Add egg and egg yolk and mix for another 2 minutes. Scrape down the sides and mix for another minute.

Add half of the flour mixture and mix until incorporated about 20 seconds. Then add the sour cream, mixing again for 20 seconds. Gradually add the remaining flour mixture.  Add the hot water in a slow, steady stream and mix on low to combine, about 30 seconds. Add the vanilla and mix for another 10 seconds. Add the peanut butter chips and use a rubber spatula to finish mixing the ingredients until thoroughly combined.

Divide the cake batter into the prepared pans, spreading it evenly. Bake for about 22 minutes. If you have 4 inch diameter tart pans like I used, it takes the same amount of time to bake the cake, if not a few more minutes. Use a knife to see if it is done.

Source: Death by Chocolate Cake by Marcel Desaulniers

Chocolate Glaze

6 ounces semisweet chocolate
4 TBSP unsalted butter

Break chocolate into small pieces and place in a small stainless steel bowl over a pot of hot(not boiling)water. Melt the 4 TBSP butter in a small saucepan, and skim off the white foam that rises to the top. When chocolate is just melted, stir in the clarified butter(discard the white solids left behind). Set aside until chocolate is 86F.

To Assemble: Place cakes on a wire rack. Place rack on top of a cookie sheet so that the extra chocolate has a place to drip onto.Pour chocolate glaze over cake and using a narrow metal spatula, quickly pared it evenly over the top and sides of the cake. Allow chocolate to set to firm consistency before serving. Garnish with chopped peanut butter cup.