a sweet treat after a long absence

Bonjour!

I really miss blogging when I can't get around to it, and lately life has been too busy (read: barf-y) to be blogging. But today I was feeling a bit better, so I wanted to share this delicious ganache tart. It's velvety smooth, super rich, and the perfect combo of peanut butter and chocolate. I used  a recipe from one of my favourite magazines Food & Drink by the LCBO. 

you know a dessert is the real deal when there are only 4 ingredients + chocolate!

 What I knew about ganache before baking this tart was that it was a) delicious and b) seemed fancy, therefore was probably hard. It's delicious and fancy, yes.... but SO easy. I had a pie crust in the freezer that I used so I didn't make the recipe's tart crust, so the tart literally took me 15 minutes to make! I ended up liking the complexity of a whole wheat saltier crust anyhow (I used Martha's pate brisee recipe), and Lisa commented that it tasted like an oatmeal cookie under the rich chocolate and peanut butter. What a happy coincidence! 

roll....

Tip: roll your pastry onto the rolling pin for easy hands-free transport to your dish

ta da!

prick the crust with a fork and pop her in the oven!

 So the tart! Follow the instructions for the crust, or use a store-bought one (no one will know!), or make the Martha kind. Up to you. Ganache is made so quickly, so you've got to make sure you can devote the whole 15 minutes solely to your treat. No in and out of  the kitchen for this one.  

I increased this recipe by 50% and I was glad I did... my tart was going to be deeper than the one in the magazine and I still wanted it filled to the top. But for consistency, I'll use measurements as listed in the recipe: You boil 1/2 C of cream and the second it is boiled, turn off the heat and remove. Then pour it over 1 C chocolate chips, and let sit for 5 minutes. When whip it up until it's smooth and gorgeous. This happens so fast you'll be amazed at how smooth you're chips become. Then all you have to do is keep whipping as you add 1/4 C peanut butter, 1 TB vanilla and 1 TB honey.

That's it. I'm not kidding. Pour and cool to set. After two long weeks of baking NOTHING (baby doesn't like sweets right now) I was almost disappointed at how easy it was... I missed my kitchen, my mixing bowls, my oven... and it was all over in 15 minutes. What a cheap treat. Literally. But good, ooooooooooo good!

CHANGES I'D MAKE NEXT TIME:
instead of 1 C semi sweet chocolate, 
I'd do half milk chocolate
& Andrew wisely suggested more peanut butter 
and trying crunchy PB. mmmm that would be good!