We are thick in the throes of the holidays, my friends! How’s everyone holding up? A packed Thanksgiving calendar left my social battery pinned on empty for a few days, but I’m recharged and ready to take on Christmas.
I promised to report back on my new Peanut Butter Pie recipe, and friends, it was delicious! It was not beautiful—more on that in a minute—but it was scrumptious.
Up until the ganache part, everything went well according to the recipe as written. (I’ll update the notes on the recipe.) I did weigh the ingredients instead of using measuring cups, but this looks like it will be a forgiving recipe if you don’t have a scale and make your best guess with a measuring cup.
The ganache, well, I went off recipe, and it was a bit of a hot mess—or to be more specific—a too rapidly cooling mess. I tried to melt the chocolate in the microwave instead of running two double boilers, and it was not hot enough to blend super smoothly with the heavy cream and sugar mixture. It solidified into fudge candy—not a horrible thing to be sure—instead of the pourable fudgy delight it was supposed to be. I was able to fix it enough to spread it on top of the pie by reheating it in the microwave and stirring in a little heavy cream to thin it a bit. Don’t get me wrong—it was still delicious, but it wasn’t as pretty as it could be.
Next time I make this pie, because I will make it again and again, I’ll make it in my 9X9 inch baking dish instead of a round pie plate. This is a very, very rich dessert, and a regular size slice of pie was too much to eat in one sitting. Making it in a square dish will make it easier to cut into smaller pieces. Also, I don’t think this particular ganache recipe makes or breaks the pie. Any chocolate sauce—or even melted chocolate—you like to use will work fine. The pie needs some sweetness to cut through the salty richness of the peanut butter and cream cheese filling. The day after Thanksgiving, I had a slice of pie with Hershey’s Syrup drizzled over the top, and it was delicious.
If you want to give the ganache a try, you need to use a high quality semi-sweet block chocolate. At the Whole Foods near me, the block chocolate is in the same section of the store as the fancy cheese. I will follow the recipe to the letter next time and see if I get better results.
I highly recommend making this recipe over the holidays. I plan to make it again for New Years Day and give the ganache another try. I’ll report back!
We talked about my mother-in-law’s Kentucky Derby pie a couple of Thanksgivings ago. This was her go-to pie to give as gifts to her neighbors and friends. We made a couple to take to the staff of her assisted living home on Thanksgiving Day. These are the easiest pies in the world to make, and you can find the recipe for them here.
Have a wonderful holiday season!
Until next time,
Karla