Peanut Butter Pie!

So it was my annual Thanksgiving dinner on Saturday night, I do think it was my best ever! The turkey was amazing, the soup turned out just fine, and the pies were all pretty good!

This recipe is from Maggie Beer's cookbook 'Maggie's Kitchen'. It has a number of wonderful recipe's in it, and, as I have previously posted, I really do feel that all her cooking is very approachable & 'common sense-ish'. She does amazing recipes very simply, which mean that even someone with meagre cooking skills could easily make this pie.

This pie requires minimal baking (the base for 10 mins), but substantial fridge time - a minimum of 4 hours, ideally overnight. I then pull it from the fridge when I'm serving the main course, giving it a chance to come to room temperature a little, before slicing & serving it up.

I absolutely intend to make this again, the only thing I would do differently is perhaps use 50% chocolate from the top. I found the 70% chocolate (I use Lindt) to be a bit too dark for my tastes, and I am a dark chocolate fan! I think something lighter, with a bit more sweetness, would have been better. Entirely a matter of taste of course!

Maggie Beer's Peanut Butter Pie

the crust

180g wheatgerm biscuits (I used Digestives, but Arrowroot, or Breton crackers would work well to)
90g unsalted butter, melted
3 tsp caster sugar

the filling
1 cup (250ml) pure (thin) cream
1/2 cup (75g) caster sugar
320g cream cheese, chopped, at room temperature
375g crunchy salt-free peanut butter

the topping
150ml thickened cream
150g dark chocolate (70 percent cocoa), chopped
20g unsalted butter

Method
Preheat oven to 180 deg C.

Pulse the biscuits in a food processor until they all crumbs. Add sugar and melted butter and pulse to combine, then press into the base of a 22cm springform cake pan. Bake for 10 minutes. Set aside to cool.

For the filling, place the cream and sugar in a saucepan and simmer over low heat for 3-4 minutes, stirring until the sugar dissolves. Make sure you keep stirring until it dissolves, or else the sugar will form into sort of rock crystals, and will not be usable.

Blend the cream cheese and peanut butter in food processor until combined. Add the cream mixture and pulse to combine (or mix in by hand). Spoon the filling on top of the pie crust and leave to cool.

Now at this point, I popped it in the fridge for an hour or so. This is only because I had forgotten to get chocolate for the topping, and had other things I needed to do before popping to the shops. I think refrigerating for an hour or so works well. But it isn't in the recipe instructions.

For the topping, bring the cream to just below boiling point in a saucepan over high heat. Place chocolate and butter in a heatproof bowl, then pour the hot cream over. Leave for 3 minutes without touching. Then gently stir to melt the chocolate and butter into the cream. Pour the topping over the pie.

Chill the pie in the fridge, uncovered, for 4 hours or longer.

I put a piece of baking paper over the top as my fridge was packed w/ a heap of different things, and I didn't want any of the smells to get in. Again, this isn't in the recipe instructions.

I would suggest serving very thing slices . . . it is pretty rich!