Baking with the Boys

Peanut butter and chocolate…mmm….I am old enough to remember the old Reeses commercials.  Two great tastes that taste great together!  This week’s recipe was Peanut Butter Torte chosen by Elizabeth of Ugg Smell Food.  I love peanut butter and chocolate together.  Well, I love chocolate and a lot of flavors together.  When I was pondering what to do with my cream cheese and cream left overs I started to think of my other favorite chocolate flavor combos….so many, chocolate + mint, chocolate + coffee, chocolate + vanilla…then I saw the oranges sitting innocently on the counter and a second torte was born.

I only made half of the peanut butter torte.  I figured my little family of four (plus grandma who comes over for dinner and dessert on Sunday nights) didn’t need 86 lbs of peanut buttery creamy goodness, especially after Ulrike of Kuchenlatein posted the WW points.  OUCH!  Of course, none of this stopped me from taking what little cream cheese (2 oz!) and whipped cream was leftover and making three little orange chocolate mini-tortes. 

The only real change I made to the peanut butter torte was to skip most of the chopped peanuts.  I like peanut butter but regular peanuts?  not so much.  Instead of the nuts, I made a little peanut butter ganache for the final topping.

When I saw the oranges I thought of swiss orange chip ice cream.  When I was a kid my mom always took me to Swensens ice cream parlor and swiss orange chip was her favorite.  I subbed in semi-sweet chocolate for the peanut butter, used a little less powdered sugar and added some orange zest and orange extract.  Fabulous.  Although, if I made it again, I would probably use bittersweet chocolate instead. 

We all tried dibs and dabs of both until we were STUFFED.   This one got rave reviews.  Too bad there wasn’t enough left to share with the co-workers.  Maybe next time folks.

To see if everyone else stuffed themselves silly, check out Tuesdays With Dorie here.

I cannot compete with the many gorgeous food photos on the blogs.  So, I am going in the opposite direction with some realism.  Here’s what cooking in my kitchen really looks like. 

 Helper (with crazy hair) showing off the splash of sugar when the cream cheese tumbled into the bowl.  He may have enjoyed a few “sample” oreos during crust construction.

  Mom hoping entire contents of torte don’t soon spray all over kitchen.  Counter is cluttered enough.

  Finally, washing up or flooding the counter.  Depends on your perspective.