Kitchen Mission: Peanut Butter Pie

Hello everyone in blog world! Today I am bringing you a wonderful Peanut Butter Pie recipe from The Bride & Groom: First and Forever Cookbook by M.C. Barber and S.C. Whiteford. We received this beautiful cookbook from my hubby's mom last spring. It is not only easy to use and practical for the novice entertainer, but it is also pretty enough to put on display in your kitchen. Anyways, my husband has an intense love for anything chocolate-peanut butter, who doesn't? So since I was feeling rather domestic this weekend I tried out the peanut butter pie recipe from our pretty little cookbook. It turned out so great that I just had to share it with all of you! Ladies and gentlemen get your pie pans ready...

Peanut Butter Pie Sealed with Kisses
Serves 6 
Crust:
30 vanilla or chocolate wafers
1/3 cup lightly salted Dry-Roasted Peanuts
2 tbls unsalted butter, melted
Filling: 
3/4 cup smooth peanut butter, room temperature ( I actually used reduced fat and no one could tell)
1 1/2 cups heavy cream
3/4 cup powdered sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
18 chocolate kisses (I used chocolate covered peanuts because I did not have kisses on hand)
Chocolate syrup for drizzling


 Put the rack in the center of the oven and preheat to 325 degrees F.
 For the crust:
    Combine wafers and peanuts in the bowl of the food processor, fitted with the steel blade. Process until it finely ground. Add butter (melted) and pulse a few times until butter is incorporated. With your fingers, firmly press the wafer mixture into the bottom and up the sides of a 9 inch pie pan. Bake until you can smell it, approximately 15 minutes. Place on a wire rack and cool completely.


 For the filling:
    While crust is baking and cooling begin the filling. 
Put peanut butter in a medium bowl and set aside. Combine the cream, powdered sugar, and vanilla in the bowl of a stand mixer (using the whisk attachment). Beat on medium-high speed until soft peaks form, approx. 1 1/2 minutes. When the cream is ready it will slowly fall forward when lifted by the whisk. You could also use a hand mixer for this step.


With a rubber spatula, gently stir about half of the whipped cream mixture into the peanut butter. Then transfer the mixture into the remaining whipped cream and beat on medium-high speed just until incorporated. Do not over mix.

Pour the filling into the cooled pie crust and spread until even. Arrange chocolate kisses (or chocolate covered peanuts) around the outside edge of the filling. Refrigerate until firm, at least 3 hours or overnight. Slice and serve with a drizzle of chocolate sauce. 

Good luck and happy baking!!

Maybe it is a holiday thing...

Every holiday and family get together something strange and interesting happens to me and my kitchen. All of a sudden I come under the delusion that I am a great chef. Somehow the holidays make me believe that my cooking will suddenly become perfect, beautiful and tasty. However, the delusion never seems to manifest itself in reality. Last Christmas I made spice cakes and left out the stick of butter. Today was no exception, I made too-salty deviled eggs that were beautiful when I left the apartment and a mess when I arrived at the brunch. The list of mishaps is too long for my liking. I suppose I should not expect a miracle when I don't cook on a regular basis. I am more of a fair weather cook. When I cook I like to have lots of time to go slow, enjoy some wine and enjoy myself. The only problem with this is that during the week I have neither the time nor the energy for this cooking method and my weekends are when I enjoy dinners out with my hubby. So now to my point ...a resolution (yes in April)!! I refuse to be the relative who brings food to family events and has it "forgotten" in the fridge when it comes to dinner time. I am going to make it my goal to try at least one new recipe a week. After all, practice makes perfect. I will let you all know how they turn out. When I come across a good recipe I will share it with my blog buddies! Wish me luck and God bless my husband for having no idea what his stomach is getting into. Here goes nothing...tonight I will start with potato pancakes. 

A beautiful Thanksgiving meal...my job was chopping. I look like I had something to do with that turkey though!