Snickers Pie

Confession: I don't like peanut butter and chocolate together.

But I made a Snickers Pie.

Glorious, glorious!

A friend of mine had had a death in the family, and I wanted to do something nice for her. And I've been hooked on pies... so I asked her what her favorite pie was and I thought she said a Snickers Pie. Later she told me it was called something else- like peanut butter chocolate pie or something (no caramel). But I thought she said Snickers Pie.  Afterwards I looked online for a pie recipe matching her description, but I couldn't find any that sounded just right.  So... I combined several elements from several different sources.

The end result? An oreo cookie crust with a layer of caramel, a layer of chocolate filling, and finally a layer of peanut butter mousse, topped with drizzled chocolate and chopped peanuts.

But I don't like chocolate and peanut butter together??  Well, I was mostly concerned that I wouldn't like the peanut butter mousse. I'm weird about peanut butter. But when I was making it, it just smelled so good. I knew I would eat this pie.  And I did! I couldn't finish all of my piece- it was just too rich, but it was delicious!

I was so proud of this pie. If you do make it, be forewarned that it's a hard pie to cut. When refrigerated the caramel at the bottom becomes very hard.

What you need:

Crust:  oreo cookie crust from Brown eyed Baker http://www.browneyedbaker.com/2013/03/14/grasshopper-pie-recipe/

24 Oreo cookies, crushed into crumbs

3 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted and cooled

Caramel : Cook’s Illustrated Cookbook

1 cup water

2 cups sugar

1 cup heavy cream

pinch salt

2 tbsp unsalted butter, chilled

Chocolate Filling : Cook’s Illustrated Cookbook

2 large egg yolks

1 tbsp + ⅓ c heavy cream

⅓ c whole milk

5 oz. semisweet chocolate, chopped fine

2 tbsp unsalted butter, cut into 4 pieces

Peanut Butter Mousse: Eat your vegetable blog

http://eatyourvegetable.com/snickers-pie/

8 ounces creamy peanut butter

8 ounces cream cheese, room temp

1/2 to 1 cup powdered sugar (I used 1 cup because I was using natural pb)

1 tablespoon vanilla extract

1 cup heavy cream, chilled

Garnish : Eat your vegetable bloghttp://eatyourvegetable.com/snickers-pie/

1/3 cup chocolate chips, melted

a handful of peanuts, roughly chopped

What to do:

Make the Crust: Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Combine the Oreo cookie crumbs and the melted butter in a medium bowl and toss with a fork until the crumbs are evenly moistened. Transfer the crumbs to a 9-inch pie plate. Press the crumbs evenly into the bottom and up the sides of the pan, forming a crust. Refrigerate the lined pie plate for 20 minutes. Bake for 10 minutes, until the crust is fragrant and set. Cool completely on a wire rack.

Make the caramel :

1. Pour water into medium saucepan; pour sugar into center of pan, taking care not to let sugar crystals touch side of pan. Cover and bring to boil over high heat. Uncover and continue to boil until syrup is thick and straw-colored and registers 300 degress, about 5 minutes.

                             

This is what it looks like when you first put the sugar in
and you wonder how this is going to work.

2. Meanwhile, bring cream and salt to simmer in a small saucepan over high heat. (If cream reaches simmer before syrup reaches 350 degrees, remove cream from heat and set aside.)

3. Remove sugar syrup from heat. Carefully pour about one-quarter of hot cream into sugar syrup (mixture will bubble vigorously); let bubbling subside. Add remaining cream; let bubbling subside. Whisk gently until smooth, then whisk in butter. Let cool until warm. Pour about 3/4 cup over your crust and transfer to freezer to firm up; pour the rest of the caramel into a glass jar and let cool. It will keep in the refrigerator for at least 2 weeks.

And this is what the caramel looks like in the oreo cookie crust. I know, it already looks delicious.

Make the chocolate filling :

Whisk egg yolks and 1 tbsp cream together in bowl. Bring milk and remaining ⅓ c cream to simmer in a small saucepan. Off heat, stir in chocolate and butter, cover saucepan, and let stand until chocolate is mostly melted, about 2 minutes. Gently stir mixture until smooth, then stir in egg yolk mixture. Pour chocolate filling evenly over chilled caramel in crust. Bake at 300F until tiny bubbles are visible on the surface and chocolate layer is just set, about 25 minutes. Cool for 30 minutes on rack, then refrigerate for about 3 hours.

Make the Peanut Butter Mousse :

Beat peanut butter and cream cheese until smooth. (If you're using natural peanut butter, the mixture may look a little curdly, but it will smooth out when you fold in the cream.) Beat in powdered sugar to taste along with vanilla. In a separate bowl, whip chilled cream to stiff peaks. Fold into peanut butter mixture in 4 additions. Spread over the chilled pie.

Garnish  :

Drizzle melted chocolate over the top and sprinkle with chopped peanuts.