Pie

Peanut Butter Pie
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Peanut Butter Pie

My husband loves peanut butter (and so do I). We had guests coming last weekend and I knew they liked peanut butter. Right now it is like surface of the sun hot out there so I thought an after dinner treat of cool, sweet peanut butter pie might just be the ticket! This was so cool, smooth and delicious! This was adapted from a Southern Living recipe.

for the crust

  • 16 whole chocolate graham crackers (to make 2 cups crumbs)
  • 7 Tbsp unsalted butter, melted

for the peanut butter filling

  • 8 ounces cream cheese, room temperature (I used low fat)
  • 1 cup creamy peanut butter
  • 3/4 cup powdered sugar
  • 1/4 tsp salt (optional)
  • 2 tsp vanilla extract
  • 1 cup whipping cream

Instructions

  • Preheat the oven to 350F.
  • In a food processor, blend the graham crackers until finely ground. 
  • Transfer the crumbs to a bowl and mix with the melted butter until uniform and clumpy.
  • Add the crumb mixture to an 9-inch deep dish pie plate. Press them into the bottom and up the sides to form a crust. I like to use a cup measure with a flat bottom to do this.
  • Bake the pie crust for 10 minutes, then remove and allow to cool completely.
  • To make the peanut butter filling, wipe out your food processor and add the cream cheese, peanut butter, powdered sugar, salt, and vanilla extract to the bowl. 
  • Process until uniform.
  • In a separate bowl, whip the heavy cream until stiff peaks form. 
  • Add the peanut butter mixture, starting with a little bit, to the whipped cream and fold it together until there are no streaks.
  • Pour the peanut butter filling into the cooled pie crust, and chill in the refrigerator for at least 3 hours, or up to overnight.
  • Sprinkle with mini peanut butter cups cut in half

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Peanut Butter Pie
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Peanut Butter Pie

I have been baking. A lot. My husband had mentioned that his mom had tried to make a peanut butter pie once and it did not turn out quite right but that it tasted good so I made a mental note. He had one of THOSE days yesterday so I whipped this up because, you know, pie makes everything better. It is meant to be served cold but he could not wait and I have to admit it was really good warm out of the oven. I got the idea looking at different recipes and loosely followed a James McNair recipe. This has a very cheese cake type of texture. His recipe called for it not to be baked but I think this was an old recipe before raw eggs was a bad thing.

Ingredients

Crust

Use a food processor to make fast work of the cookie crumbs. Figure 8 ounces of cookies equals 2 cups.

2 Cups fine cookie crumbs, Chocolate Graham crackers
8 tablespoons butter, melted

Preheat oven to 350. in a medium sized bowl combine cookie crumbs and butter. Spread into a buttered 9 inch pie pan. Press crumbs to pack evenly on the sides and bottom of pan.

Bake for 10 minutes to set crumbs. Set aside to cool

Filling

Cookie crumb crust
8 ounces cream cheese, at room temperature
3/4 Cup smooth peanut butter
6 tablespoons butter, room temperature
2 egg yolks
1 can (14 oz) sweetened condensed milk
1 teaspoon Vanilla extract

Directions

Prepare crust and cool.

Combine cream cheese, peanut butter, butter and egg yolks in large bowl and beat until fluffy. Drizzle in condensed milk and beat until smooth. Stir in vanilla. Pour into the pie shell.

Cook for about 20 minutes at 350 or until inserted knife comes out clean.

Refrigerate until well chilled. You could serve this with warm chocolate sauce if you want to go over the top.

Apple Galette
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Apple Galette

This is a perfect fall dessert. Comes together quickly. From http://www.theviewfromthegreatisland.com

Ingredients
For the pie crust
1 1/4 cups all purpose flour
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, cold
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp granulated sugar
1/4 cup ice water


For the apple filling
2.5-3 medium-large apples, sliced and peeled
2 Tbsp brown sugar
1/2 tsp ground cinnnamon
1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
1 pinch salt
1 Tbsp honey (plus extra for drizzling over the finished galette, if desired)
1 Tbsp unsalted butter, cold or room temp, cut into small pieces


Instructions
For the pie crusts
To make the pie crust, add the flour, butter, sugar and salt to the bowl of a food processor. Pulse several times until the butter is broken up and no large pieces remain.
Slowly add the ice water through the top of the food processor and continue to pulse until the dough comes together in a single lump.
Remove the dough from the food processor. Roughly shape into a disk about an inch thick. Place in the fridge until ready to roll out for the galette.


For the galette
Preheat oven to 375F and line a large baking sheet with a piece of parchment paper.
Toss the sliced apples with the brown sugar, spices, and salt. Set aside.
Sliced apples for apple galette
Place the pie dough on a lightly floured surface, and roll it out into a large circle about 14 inches in diameter. It should be fairly thin, but not too difficult to handle without tearing.


Rolling out galette dough
Gently move the rolled out dough to your prepared baking sheet. Put about half of the sliced apples into the center of the circle of dough, and spread them out evenly, leaving about 1 and a half inches of space all around for folding the dough over the apples. You can simply place all the apples into the center of the dough and spread them out evenly, or you can take the other half and arrange them in an overlapping circular pattern.
sliced apples on dough for an apple galette
Drizzle 1 Tbsp of honey over the apples and dot with the butter. Fold the excess pie crust over the filling.

Lightly brush the edge of the pie dough with milk or cream, and sprinkle with coarse sparkling sugar, if desired.
Place the galette in the oven and bake for about 40-45 minutes until the pastry is golden brown and the apples are cooked through.
baked apple galette with plate of apples
Drizzle or brush another tsp or 2 of honey over the finished galette while still warm for a glossy top. Serve warm with a scoop of vanilla ice cream.

Key Lime Pie
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Key Lime Pie

I have been doing a lot of cooking but sometimes I forget to get out the camera. I made this for company one weekend and we liked it so much that I made it the next night! It is the perfect ending for a spring or summer meal. You can use regular limes. When I cannot find them I use key west lime juice. This is a recipe I found on the blog from Honest & Tasty.

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INGREDIENTS

Graham Cracker Crust:
  • 7 tablespoons Butter, melted
  • 11 full Graham Crackers (to make just about 2 cups graham cracker crumbs)
  • ¼ cup Sugar
  • ¼ teaspoon Sea Salt
Pie Filling:
  • 1½ tablespoons Zest from key limes (reserve a pinch of this zest as an optional sprinkling on top of the pie)
  • 3 Egg Yolks
  • 1 can (14 ounces) Sweetened and Condensed Milk
  • ¾ cup Key Lime Juice (from approximately 1 pound of key limes)
For Whipped Cream:
  • 1 cup (8 ounces) Heavy Cream
  • 1½ tablespoons Sugar

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INSTRUCTIONS

Preheat oven to 350ºF (176ºC).
For Graham Cracker Crust:
  1. Make graham cracker crumbs in food processor or place graham crackers in plastic bag and crush until they turn into crumbs.
  2. Put butter in a med-large mixing bowl and mix in graham cracker crumbs, sugar, and salt until combined.
  3. Put mixture into a 9-inch pie dish and pat it down with your fingers to make the crust. Bring the crust up the edges as well.
  4. Bake for 10 minutes or until very lightly browned.
  5. Allow to cool while preparing pie filling.
For Pie Filling:
  1. Whip most of the zest (reserving a pinch for sprinkling the top of the pie to garnish) and egg yolks in a large mixing bowl for 2 minutes or until thickened.
  2. Add sweetened and condensed milk and mix for 3 minutes or until thickened.
  3. Add lime juice and mix until combined.
  4. Pour mixture into pie crust.
  5. Place in oven for 15 minutes. Pie will rise slightly but the filling won’t change color.
  6. Allow to cool for ½ hour at room temperature before cooling completely in the fridge for at least 2 hours. You can also place it in the freezer instead of the fridge to cool it quicker. Just remember to remove it before it turns into ice cream!
For Whipped Cream:
  1. Use an electric mixer to whip together cream and sugar for a few minutes until stiff peaks form. Top the pie with whipped cream and optional zest before serving.
  2. Enjoy!!