Tartufo reminds me of when my friend, Amanda, and I went to Babbo Pizzeria and Enoteca(rest in peace) back in Boston. It was on the dessert menu, and we had 0 regrets in ordering it. Tartufo is an Italian dessert, translating to “truffle”. But in this case, it refers to a ball of ice cream, coated in chocolate, and usually served with nuts. In this case, I wanted to do a really fancy take on peanut butter and Oreos, and landed on using tartufo as the base inspiration. Instead of ice cream, I went with a peanut butter semifreddo, an Italian dessert literally means “half-frozen”. It is similar to ice cream, but lighter and more mousse-like. I figured with something like peanut butter, which can be rich, cloying, and heavy, lightening it was the way to go! I knew I also wanted to stuff the tartufo, so that was where the idea of going with an Oreo-based filling came about. I personally love speculoos or biscoff, so Oreo butter felt like an appropriate answer to that. Oreo butter, or at least the concept of it, takes me back to an earlier time in college, when cookie butter was super popular, and making “butters” out of different snack foods was a rising trend. I personally love using Oreo butter as a filling for things, so I figured it would be a fun surprise to incorporate that into a filling for this tartufo. I also wanted to use Oreos in at least a couple other ways in the dessert as well. So, one route I landed on was dividing the Oreo by the cookies and the filling. The filling went straight into the semifreddo in lieu of sugar. The cookies, I blitzed those into a fine crumb, which worked both as a base for the tartufo to sit on, and a coating for the semifreddo, just to make it look more truffle-like! All in all, this dessert came together rather quickly, and I was pretty happy with it!

When it came to the components, there were a few steps that needed to be taken first. The semifreddo needs to be chilled down before you can assemble the tartufo, or even fill it. So I would recommend working on that component first, then the Oreo butter, the crumbs, and then the the caramelized peanut butter wafer. The wafer, also called a croquant, it made first by caramelizing sugar, pouring that over nuts and letting that set into a thin brittle or bark. You then take that mixture, blitz it into a fine powder, sift that onto parchment, and bake it at a high temperature for a very short amount of time, just to re-melt the sugar, and let it come together into a thin, gorgeous layer. These are very delicate, and are probably the most technical component in the entire dessert. However, they add such a gorgeous color and height to the tartufo, and are what really gives it an elegant finish, coupled with the gold leaf! To round out the entire experience, we also have a peanut butter and cinnamon ganache, just to give another nostalgic, homey feeling. The ganache is served as a warm sauce, to contrast the rest of the dessert being served cold. I served mine as a tableside pour, partially due to it being more theatrical that way, and also since the dessert is cold and the sauce is hot, that could cause the tartufo to melt before it is meant to.

For the peanut butter semifreddo:
Filling from 8 Oreos(reserve the cookies for garnish)
5oz peanut butter
a pinch of salt
a pinch of ground cinnamon
1 tsp vanilla extract
2/3 cups heavy cream, whipped stiff

In a bowl, start by creaming together the Oreo filling with the peanut butter, salt, and vanilla until smooth and soft. Fold into the mixture the heavy cream, in four parts. Transfer the mixture into silicone 3-inch half sphere molds. Press holes into each using the back of a wetted tablespoon, and freeze solid, at least 2 hours, before attempting to unmold.

For the Oreo butter core:
8 Oreos
a pinch of salt
water

In a food processor, spice grinder, or blender, puree the Oreos and salt first, then add water to the mixture while blending until it becomes a loose yet pipe-able consistency(think really smooth peanut butter). Transfer to a piping bag or squeeze bottle.

For the peanut butter croquant:
1/4 cup granulated sugar
.25oz corn syrup
a pinch of salt
3 tbsp roasted peanuts
cooking spray

In a pot, heat up the sugar, corn syrup, and salt until the sugar is fully melted and reaches an amber brown color. Pour the sugar onto a sheet of parchment that has peanuts sprinkled on it. Allow the caramel to harden completely before breaking into smaller pieces and blending in either a food processor or spice grinder into a fine powder. Spray a thin layer of cooking spray onto a sheet of parchment. Using a fine mesh sieve, dust the sheet with the powdered peanut brittle. Using a 4-inch round cookie cutter, cut in circles out of the laid-out dust. Bake at 375 degrees F for 3 minutes. Allow the baked brittle powder to cool down before transferring to a dry airtight container.

For the peanut butter ganache sauce:
1/2 cup milk
1 tbsp unsalted butter
1oz dark chocolate
a pinch of cinnamon
a pinch of salt
2 tbsp peanut butter

In a pot, melt together the milk, unsalted butter, chocolate, cinnamon, and salt. Stir gently and carefully until dissolved and combined. Then add in the peanut butter to form your ganache sauce. Keep this warm, or be prepared to re-warm it, prior to serving.

For garnish:
Crushed Oreo cookies
Roasted peanuts
Gold leaf

Pipe into each semifreddo half the Oreo butter. Then press the halves together to form a full sphere. Then return to the freezer for now, but do not let them sit in the freezer, with the filling inside, for more than 30 minutes at a time, or else the filling will freeze solid. Roll the semifreddo balls in the crushed Oreos. In a bowl, place down some more crushed Oreos and peanuts first. Then place on top of that the semifreddo ball. Garnish with some gold leaf and the caramelized peanut disk. Then pour the ganache over the tartufo when time to serve.