Peanut Butter Pie

My mom bakes, and always has. If I learned anything from my mother and grandmother, its how to roll out cookies. Sadly, I didn't pay very close attention, and cookies is as far as my baking expertise went before I left home. I had certainly learned to appreciate a good brownie, a moist cake and a flaky pie crust - but I had no idea how to make my own.

Well folks, lets thank China for leaving me with time on my hands and a total lack of good pie. For Dave's birthday, he asked for Peanut Butter Pie. I am not sure how I stumbled across this recipe, as most of this food blogger's other recipes are far too high in calories to be worth it. But Dave loves peanut butter deserts in any form, this somehow found its way into my recipe file.

And in the process of making the pie, I learned a few things.

1: I learned that the pre-Thanksgiving apple pie fiasco was less due to the dripping apples and more due to the drips of butter falling from my oh-so-flaky, buttery crust. The same quick remedy - turning off the oven, scrubbing it down with the fans on high, and then coating the rack with aluminum foil - went ultrafast this time.

2: Our oven is capable of reaching temperatures higher than 350.

3: It doesn't seem to hurt this pie crust to bake it at 500.

It came out of the oven feeling flaky, smelling good, and tasting wonderful. But presentation still must be learned. This is an awfully mottled and uneven pie crust:

Still, once you fill it with peanut butter custard and meringue, the appearance of the crust becomes less important.

And yes, that's an awfully flat meringue. Apparently, I need to practice my meringues as well as my crusts. My food photography could use some work as well. But the pie tasted so good that our small family polished off half of it in one sitting!

Here's the recipe. And although it is hardly a China-friendly recipe, it does rely primarily on ingredients I stock on my shelves and so worked well in our kitchen. Enjoy!

Pie Crust
Mix:
2 C. flour
1/2 C. ground almonds
1 t. salt
1 heaping t. brown sugar

Cut in:
1 C. butter, cut into 1/2" cubes and frozen at least 15 minutes**

Use your hands, if the butter is too cold to cut. But be careful not to overknead - those clumps of butter are what make the crust flaky (and the oven smokey!)

Sprinkle:
3-6 T. cold water

Add the cold water sprinkles or tablespoons at a time, and mix until the dough clumps together.
Form the dough into 2 round discs, and refrigerate for 1 hour.
After an hour, bring out one disc of dough and allow it to adjust to room temperature for 10-15 min. During that time, flour your workspace and your rolling pin. It worked well for me to wet the space just before flouring it.
Roll out the crust to a circle large enough to fill your pie plate.
Poke it with plenty of holes, and bake it at 350 until brown.

Peanut Butter Pie
Now that your crust is in the oven, begin work on the custard.

In a saucepan, combine:
2 egg yolks
1 1/2 C. milk
3/4 C. sugar
5 T. flour
1/4 t. salt

Stirring constantly, allow this to bubble and thicken.

Remove it from the heater, and add:
1/2 t. vanilla
1/8 t. cinnamon
1/8 t. cayenne
3/4 C. peanut butter - we used unsweetened, chunky and it was perfect

Your custard's done, so now move on to the meringue.

Beat:
2 egg whites
1/8 t. salt

When the eggs starts to get fluffy, add:
4 T. sugar

Now I've always been told that you should beat meringue until peaks form and it becomes glossy. With this meringue, that took me a crazy-long time, and it still came out of the oven flat. If you've got a good meringue, I may suggest you sub it in.

Assemble your pie - crust, custard and then meringue - and pop the whole thing in your 350 degree oven to bake until those peaks begin to brown.