As preparations for the season’s festivities are slowly creeping onto our agendas, I’ve made a delicious festivity worthy dessert today, which would not be out of place on any Thanksgiving or Christmas table. This delicious and pleasant to look at tart combines flaky vegan pastry with sticky, salted peanut-flavoured caramel sauce, a layer of decadent chocolate ganache and crunchy roasted peanuts. It’s not hard to make and it’s guaranteed to put a smile on your face, especially if, like us, you are a devoted peanut butter lover.
Both Duncan and myself didn’t get to try peanut butter until really late in life and it’s funny as while we love it these days, we both remember being really underwhelmed at first. I grew up in communist Poland, so peanut butter – being an American staple – was not something you could buy at all, full stop. Duncan’s childhood could not be more different but it sounds like suburban Melbourne was also slow to embrace this great plant-based invention. Speaking of inventing peanut butter, a white Canadian bloke (Marcellus Gilmore Edson) is credited with it, but it turns out that a paste made out of peanut has been a popular condiment in African communities for centuries and the person who made it mainstream was a peanut obsessed African American agricultural chemist George Washington Carver. Sources are split on this but given how these things tended to go in the past, I know what my money is on! Duncan has had his first foray into peanut butter in the US when hiking with his American friend Travis. He was telling me about this recently as he remembers being so underwhelmed by it back then and now his breakfast of choice is a banana and peanut butter cinnamon bagel. Hilarious! I love it too, especially when combined with raspberry jam or chocolate, hence you’ll find so many peanut butter themed desserts on this site (peanut butter mousse, PB banana bread and peanut butter brittle being my favs). I hope you’ll like it too and if you are allergic to peanuts, swap them out for almonds (and almond butter) or sesame seeds (and tahini). Enjoy! x
180 ml / ¾ cup maple syrup or other liquid sweetener 180 g / ¾ cup peanut butter* 80 ml / 1/3 cup vegan single cream* (I used Oatly) ½ tsp salt, adjust to taste 75 g / ½ cup roasted peanuts, chopped
CHOCOLATE GANACHE
170 g / 6 oz 70% dark vegan chocolate 180 ml / ¾ cup vegan single cream* (I used Oatly)
CHOCOLATE GANACHE ASSEMBLY
For a simpler pastry, you could follow this recipe instead.
