More treats featuring the OG duo – peanut butter and strawberry jam! This time it’s a creamy peanut butter mousse in a jam-lined tartlet crust. # 175: PB&J Tartlets

I’m still swimming in homemade strawberry jam, (yum) so here’s another twist on the classic childhood combo. Any excuse to use my cute little tartlet molds, honestly. They look like lil flowers!

I felt a bit like the fairies from Sleeping Beauty when prepping the dough. Chocolate! Vanilla! Chocolate! Vanilla! And before I knew it, I had turned them into tie-dye. Everyone knows that swirl is the best froyo flavor, so I’m just extending that logic to tart dough.

In an effort to make the peanut butter light and fluffy, I searched around for a mousse recipe to get the right proportions. I was originally planning to fold warmed peanut butter in with some sweetened whipped cream, but google led me astray. All the recipes I found included cream cheese! Not what I was expecting, but it was fate – I had 4 oz of cream cheese leftover from a previous bake.

The most lovely, basic sweet crust recipe. Mold-able, adaptable, and so so easy:

• 1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
• 1/8 teaspoon salt (leave out if you’re using salted butter!)
• 1/2 cup unsalted butter at room temperature
• 1/4 cup white sugar
• 1 large egg, lightly beaten
• Optional: 1 tablespoon cocoa powder (I removed a scant tablespoon of flour to make up for it)

Over here making butter art in my mixer, don’t mind me.

Since I wanted both vanilla and chocolate, I split the flour in half and did the cocoa substitution in just the second half.

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Voila!

Off to snooze in the fridge in their beeswax blankets. I’ve still only used plastic wrap once this year and trying to keep my streak alive!

A bouquet of lil molds, awaiting duty.

The little dish of flour is essential! Otherwise, you get dough everywhere and your fingers are a buttery mess.

I like them thick, but they can go a little thinner if you want a more delicate shell. If you are at the point where you can see the metal through the dough, cease and desist! It won’t hold it’s shape when you try to turn it out post-baking.

Each one turned out a little differently and this pinwheel was my favorite!

With this two-toned one as the runner up. This would be even more fun if you did 3 or 4 colors of vanilla dough! *Saving a mental note about rainbow tartlets for future occasions.*

Mousse time! No antlers, I promise.

The whipped cream makes the dense, rich peanut butter / cream cheese / sugar mixture light and fluffy. Get ready for some peanut butter clouds.

Mm-hmmm.

My favorite swirly tip made an appearance. Can’t go wrong with a classic swirl!

Did you think I forgot about the jam? Jokes on you!

Two – maybe three – bites.

I think you could make a case for how these could be lunch. They’re basically pb&j sammies.

Happy munching!

Mousse recipe from: https://www.theredheadbaker.com/peanut-butter-mousse-parfaits/