It’s been a couple of weeks since Ben and I moved into our new home, and yet I still feel like I’m surrounded by boxes. Making a new space feel like your space takes time, and a lot of late nights. But things are coming along.
The biggest challenge of our new flat is having a smaller kitchen. Not so much in size, but in countertop and storage space, so we’ve had to get a bit creative in our kitchen storage, and make sure to keep everything super organised.
So my first bake in our new home is an old favorite for a site called Tracey’s Culinary Adventures. I first started making it when I moved to the UK, before I could find Reese’s cups anywhere. As I’m sure you all know, I’m pretty much obsessed with chocolate and peanut butter.
This pie is so easy, and requires minimal baking. The hardest part is waiting for the pie to chill before you can eat it!
Ingredients
For the crust:
- 1 3/4 cups chocolate cookie crumbs ( I used Oreos and removed the filling)
- 6 Tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
- 3 Tablespoons brown sugar
- pinch salt
- 6 oz cream cheese, at room temperature
- 3/4 cup icing sugar
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1 1/4 cups smooth peanut butter
- 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
- 2 cups heavy cream
- 1 oz semisweet or dark chocolate, finely chopped
- 2 tablespoons peanut butter
Directions
1. First make your pie crust: Preheat oven to 350°F (175°C) . Stir together the cookie crumbs, brown sugar, and salt. Pour over the melted butter and use a fork to blend into a wet mixture. Press this mixture into the bottom and sides of a 9-inch deep dish pie plate. Place the pan into the fridge for 15 minutes to set, then put into the oven to bake for 8-10 minutes. Remove and let cool completely.
2. Next, make the filling: In the bowl of your mixer, beat together the cream cheese, icing sugar, and salt. Before you add in the salt, taste your peanut butter. If your peanut butter is pretty salty to begin with, you won’t want to add any more to the filling, because it’ll make it wayyyy to salty. I find that the Tesco own label peanut butter has enough salt already and usually leave it out. Skippy peanut butter seems to work the best! Once the mixture has been beaten well, add in the peanut butter and vanilla and beat for a couple of minutes until it’s all blended together well.
3. Put the whisk attachment onto your mixer, then in a clean bowl, whisk the heavy cream until it is light and fluffy. Take about 1/3 of the whipped cream and add it to your cream cheese mixture by hand to help lighten it. Then use a spatula to gently fold in the rest of the whipped cream until all of stripes are gone and it’s evenly blended.
4. Pour the filling into your cooled pie crust, then place in the freezer to chill for 4 hours. If you want to freeze it longer, make sure you cover it with plastic wrap.
5. To decorate, melt the chocolate and peanut butter separately (You can melt the peanut butter on low heat on the stove top), then put each into a ziploc bag. Snip the corner of the bag, then quickly zig-zag across the top of your pie. Don’t worry about being precise, the faster you do it, the better it works!
pajama baker 