Nov 8, 2010

Snickers Dessert Tutorial

My mom loves used to love Snickers candy bars, so when I saw this dessert in my Martha Magazine I thought it'd be perfect for her birthday.
I also thought it would make a good subject for my first ever tutorial.

Here are the instructions. My Changes are in red. All photos are mine (like Martha would claim them).

CRUST:
2 1/3 cups finely ground chocolate wafer cookies (I used chocolate graham crackers)
1 T sugar
1 stick unsalted butter, melted (really, does it matter if it's salted? I say no. Plus, I didn't have any unsalted)

 Press it into a 9 inch spring form pan, thus
Bake in a 350 degree oven for 10 minutes, or until crispy. For the life of me, I have NO IDEA why they added that last bit. What am i going to do? Take a bite of my crust to see if it's crispy? Um no. Can I tell by the color? Not so much. So I guess we'll just take their word for it that's supposed to bake about 10 minutes. They did write the recipe, after all. 
CARAMEL SAUCE:
1 1/4 Cups sugar
1/4 cup water
1 cup heavy cream
1/3 cup creme fraiche
1 cup roasted peanuts

In a medium sauce pan, heat sugar and water over medium high heat. Put a lid on it, so you don't have to wash down the sides with a wet pastry brush. Honestly, am I the only one who thinks if there's an easy way to do something, Martha will know it, but make you do it the hard way anyway? Ferills.
Cook until medium amber, about ten minutes. As luck would have it, that's how long you're supposed to bake the crust. 
This sauce tastes like burnt sugar, because that's what it is. If you want something that actually tastes good, I suggest you find another recipe for caramel sauce.
After you've burnt your sugar, take it off the heat and gently, slowly, add the heavy cream. Return the pan to the heat and melt the sugar you just set up with your cold cream. When it's all melted again, add the creme fraishe. If you don't know what that is, just slap a tablespoon of lemon juice in the bottom of your 1/3 cup measure and poor cream until you have 1/3 cup total. Let sit (12 hours, but let's be honest, who has 12 hours to let cream clot? Just wait at least five minutes, m'kay?)
Fold in peanuts.
Poor the entire mixture into the cooled crust.

PEANUT BUTTER MOUSSE:
8 oz room temp. cream cheese
1/2 cup powdered sugar
salt
1 1/4 cup smooth peanut butter
1/2 t. vanilla
1 cup heavy cream

Beat cream cheese and sugar until pale and fluffy. I don't know how much more pale cream cheese and sugar can get. I mean, they start out white, but whatever. This is seriously the best part of the dessert, so just do what they say and you'll be happy. :)
Beat in 1/2 t. salt. Add peanut butter and extract and beat until combined.
Whip cream in separate bowl until stiff peaks form. Fold into moose in three parts.
Carefully layer moose over the (yucky) caramel sauce, being careful not to mix the two. Refrigerate 30 minutes.

GANACHE:
7 oz semisweet chocolate
1 Cup heavy cream
Martha says to heat the cream in a heat-proof bowl in a small saucepan of simmering water. I say, throw it in the microwave! The Hubs says, use milk chocolate. Normally I would disagree, but in this instance, he's right.


Bring cream to a simmer. Poor over chocolate. (I was a rebel and added my chocolate to the hot cream) Let stand 1 minute. Whisk until combined. Poor over tart.
Refrigerate. Martha says for at least 30 minutes, and mine was in the freezer for a good 90 and it was still melty. It did better in the fridge overnight. 

ADDENDUM: Just make the mousse. It's the best part. :)
ADDENDUM ADDENDUM: I promise I won't mock all the recipes I review. Just the one's from Martha. 

3 comments:

Christina MC said...

How'd it taste?

sandy said...

looks divine! love your comments in red!

sandy said...

looks divine! love your comments in red!