This past weekend, we celebrated my wife’s impending birthday by making the treat she has been dreaming of ever since we saw Martha making it on the TV. Who says you can’t have a tart for a “birthday cake”? Oh, and it’s good too!
The reason she wanted to go this route has as much to do with her love of Reese’s Cups as it does with my tart making prowess. I can now say that I have mastered four different kinds of delicious tarts: this one, my holiday favorite (caramel pecan), our summer favorite (peach custard), and the simple one that started it all so many years ago, a simple jam.
The recipe for this one can be found on Martha’s website. I would give both the finished product and the recipe itself 5/5 stars for taste and accuracy.
Here are our notes, if you’ve any interest in making one for yourself:
Martha doesn’t say in the recipe (and I can’t remember if she does in the show), but I used a non-stick 10″ tart pan and, just to be sure, very, very lightly greased it with cooking spray. To do this you spray a little on and then gently wipe most of it off with a paper towel to leave the slightest sheen. This is just added insurance to prevent breakage when you pull away the ring at the end.
15 minutes in our oven was plenty, and we could smell the shell by then, but I wouldn’t have described it as “fragrant” in a pervasive sense: we could smell it as it came out, but don’t rely on smell to know your shell is done baking.
The peanut butter filling surprised us. From the recipe we expected it to be a little more oozy. Don’t be surprised if it takes a little bit of work to get it out to the sides. We encountered no problems here, but I wouldn’t describe this step as she does with the word “pour”. the consistency we got was similar to peanut butter cookie dough.
Martha’s described method of a gentle non-double boiler way to make the ganache is super easy and fun. The emulsion part was really neat as the glossy chocolate topping comes together before your eyes.
As you can see from the picture, we didn’t bother with the decorative swirls. The color of our ganache isn’t because we used a different kind of chocolate either (compare ours to the significantly darker one depicted on her website). We used 60% bittersweet nibs from Ghiradelli–not sure why our chocolate turned out so much lighter than hers…
We had a slice at the very moment it was ready and it was delicious. The next day, after an overnight in the fridge, it was still in great shape. It doesn’t need it but, if you care to go to the trouble, I would recommend serving it with a dollop of freshly whipped cream. The peanut brittle Martha suggests in accompaniment would also be great, but know that the cookie crust provides plenty of crunchy texture all on its own.
I enjoy baking, so you may occasionally encounter a recipe or review here.