Chocolate & Peanut Butter, a match made in Heaven. As good little Weston Price followin' sugar hatin' unprocessed foodies, we have to get our peanut butter cup flavor fixes the homespun route. We must conjure up low carb alternatives with nut flours, healthful saturated fats, sugar substitutes, and pure unadulterated cacao. Our desserts don't come easy and don't come cheap. There's no vending machine button for this stuff.
But the payoff for some serious kitchen time is so worth it..
So sorry to keep y'all in suspense about this low carb, sugar-free, gluten-free and dairy-free (whew!) Chocolate Peanut Butter Tart recipe. The photo for my initial test run is apparently the most popular image at my flickr album. I was just tweaking the recipe to provide a couple of options for ingredients. After some tinkering, I hit upon two different fillings with slightly different consistencies, only one of which requires xanthan gum. Xanthan gum acts as a no carb replacement for the cornstarch used in typical pudding recipes. It is a specialty ingredient that I've blogged about before. Xanthan gum costs around $13 for a small bag that will last you for years if you're a low carber (not a high starch gluten-free baker!). There are many applications of this natural gum thickener, some of which include thickening your low carb smoothies to a luxurious "milkshake" consistency, and making cranberry sauce. It's an innocuous ingredient with a strange name. Just a tiny pinch goes a long way!
Now let's talk dessert! The recipe I made the first time yields a more loose "pudding" tart, with a light tasting lower fat filling. It makes a dainty pie, with a creamy texture and crunchy crust (which could be doubled for more peanut buttery goodness). This is the version you see in the following photograph.
Below is the more decadent "silk" pie filling, topped with a layer of sugar-free peanut butter chocolate ganache! It makes a larger, more impressive tart. The crust is less sweet and a bit cakey, which balances out the intensity of the rich chocolate. I'll be making this version from now on, just because of how utterly satisfying it is. A tiny slice is all you need to feel like you're being naughty! With desserts like these, who needs sugar?
To make either of the recipes completely sugar-free, use xylitol in place of honey if you can tolerate it. I can handle xylitol in normal portions (one cookie, one piece of pie, etc.), but had to ingest it regularly for a few days to "adjust" to it. Xylitol works much better than erythritol in cookie-type recipes that do not contain much moisture. How you count the carbs in xylitol is up to you. Some people count half, because it does not have a glycemic index of zero like erythritol. I buy xylitol locally at Whole Foods (instead of ordering it) for convenience. It retails for a better price than erythritol, so per pound it is the same price as ordering online (unless you buy in bulk). Xylitol is a great stand in for erythritol in a pinch if you need your sweet "fix"!
Chocolate Pudding Tart with Peanut Butter Cookie Crust (Dairy-Free)
Serves six to eight
Ingredients:
Peanut Butter Cookie Crust:
2 tablespoons nonhydrogenated shortening (or unsalted butter)
1 cup roasted salted peanuts
2 tablespoons honey
1/2 teaspoon aluminum-free baking powder
1/4 teaspoon pure stevia extract
Chocolate Pudding Filling:
1 can coconut milk
1/8 teaspoon sea salt
3.5 ounces unsweetened chocolate, chopped
1/2 cup erythritol OR 3 tablespoons honey
3 egg yolks
3 tablespoons cocoa powder
1/4 teaspoon xanthan gum
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 tablespoon coconut oil or nonhydrogenated shortening (or butter)
1/4 (scant) teaspoon pure stevia extract
Preparation:
For Crust
Melt shortening or butter. Whisk in honey and stevia extract. Grind peanuts in a food processor or Magic Bullet, until you get as fine a meal as possible. It will be the consistency of a crumbly paste. Add peanut paste, baking powder, and vanilla. stirring until you have a smooth dough. Press into a greased 9 inch pie plate lined with parchment paper. Bake for 15-20 minutes at 275 degrees, or until browned around the edges. Leave crust in oven and turn off the heat while you prepare the chocolate and start heating the coconut milk.
For Filling
Chop the chocolate bar finely. In a sauce pan over medium low heat, whisk coconut milk, erythritol or honey, and salt until mixture bubbles around the edges. Remove tart crust from oven and place in freezer to cool. In a separate bowl, stream 1/3 cup reserved coconut milk into cocoa powder, whisking to form a paste. Continue whisking while adding egg yolks. Measure out 1/2 cup of hot coconut milk mixture and stream into cocoa mixture, whisking. Turn down heat to low and slowly pour cocoa mixture into saucepan, continuing to whisk. Cook for about three minutes, stirring continuously, until mixture thickens and coats the back of a spoon (to see what this looks like click HERE). Your finger should …
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