My Inner Granny: Peanut Butter and Chocolate Pie... Oh My.....

Have you ever needed a moment of silence after eating something really good?

I had that moment at work a few days ago.

We had a pie contest (I came in 3rd with my Strawberry Pie), but this little Peanut Butter Pie on a Graham Cracker Crust by my co-worker Sasha literally stole the show.

I had a moment. Actually, I had several moments.

My life would never be the same again, and I knew I had to make this pie, or at least make something similar to this pie. Which brings us today's blog post:

Peanut Butter and Chocolate Pie... Oh My!

The original recipe calls for a graham cracker crust, peanut butter, cream cheese, powdered sugar, and cool whip, which is delicious all by itself, but I wanted to kind of add an extra element. Plus I did not have any graham crackers, so I went with a different crust and decided to add some chocolate just cuz I was feeling a little crazy in the kitchen today (and I love chocolate and peanut butter).

I'm telling you, I died and went to Heaven.

I'm glad I ended up using the Pecan Crust from the Lemon Ice Box Dessert I did last month. This pie is very very sweet and rich, so having a crust that isn't as sweet is a nice balance. This crust is very easy to put together.

You will need 1/2 a cup of finely chopped pecans.

1 1/4 cup of flour

1 melted stick of butter.

First mix the flour and nuts together, then add the butter, and combine with a fork until it's kind of all comes together into a loose pie dough.

Place the dough into your pie pan, and start spreading out to the edge of the pan. It's okay if you have a little loose flour, it'll blend in as you pat the dough down.

The picture below is what it looks like after it's all been patted down. You place it in the oven at 350 for 20 minutes, then leave it out to cool down. I'd show you an after picture, but it pretty much looks like the one below, just slightly lighter.

Plus I forgot to take a picture of the after.

Next we need to start the filling for the pie.

Start with 1/2 a cup of peanut butter.

1 cup of powdered sugar.

1 8 oz. package of softened cream cheese.

Mix well until creamy.

Next you need to get an 8 oz container of cool whip.

Mix the cool whip in with your peanut butter and cream cheese mixture until thoroughly combined.

I was thinking this would be great with strawberries, just as it is.

Actually, truth be told, it's good just by itself too.

Trust me, I know.

So anyway, it's time for the chocolate part of the filling.

Take about two cups of heavy cream.

You want to heat this to scalding.

Which means, hot enough to melt stuff, but not boiling.

Measure out about two cups of semi-sweet chocolate chips.

Add the scalding milk to the chocolate.

You really want to eye ball this. You probably will not need to use all the hot milk, but I wanted a little extra left over for when I started drizzling the top of the pie.

I put in just enough milk to cover the top of the chips.

Get your whisk and stir until thick and glossy.

It should coat the wires on your whisk, that's kind of how you know it's done.

Um, and I could eat this on its own as well.

Just saying.

The chocolate will look kind of like a thick pudding. Pour it on to your pie crust (but don't use it all, you will need it later).

Spread the chocolate out across your crust. If you want a thick layer, go with more, but I found that a thinner layer works better if you don't want something too rich.

I mean, it's rich and sweet anyway, but it's really all about what your tastes are.

Next take your peanut butter and cream cheese batter and spread it over the top of your chocolate. You don't have to wait for the chocolate to cool down too much. It's thick enough to hold the peanut butter filling. Just spread it all out to the edge of the crust.

I decided to channel Jackson Pollock and fling some chocolate over the top.

Just FYI, the chocolate may be too thick to drizzle effectively, so add some more of the hot milk to thin it all out before you start finding your inner artist.