I have searched and searched for a peanut butter pie recipe, but have never liked anything I have come across. I really didn't want the pie to be cream cheese based because I felt like the cream cheese distracted from the true peanut butter flavor. The peanut butter chocolate combination is a classic. I decided to utilize a peanut butter custard and a layer of fudge sauce. The results were a slice of pie that immediately took me to a state of nirvana. Behold, the peanut butter fudge pie in all its glory. May it reign forever!
Ingredients
1 pie shell, baked
1 cup hot fudge sauce, plus extra for drizzling
3/4 cup sugar
1/3 cup cornstarch
1 cup milk
1 cup heavy cream
1/2 cup peanut butter chips
2 tablespoons creamy peanut butter
3 egg yolks
2 tablespoons butter
1 tsp vanilla
Instructions
1. Pour 1 cup hot fudge sauce into the baked pie shell. Spread out to cover the bottom and smooth. Set aside.
2. Combine sugar, cornstarch, milk, cream, peanut butter chips, and peanut butter in a medium saucepan. Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly ,until mixture begins to bubble. This will take several minutes. Once it bubbles continue stirring for 2 minutes. The mixture will begin to thicken.
3. Mix a little of the hot mixture into the egg yolks (do this part quickly), beating quickly to avoid cooking the yolks with the hot liquid. Stir the warm yolk mixture back into the remainder of the peanut butter mixture and cook for an additional 90 seconds.
4. Remove from heat and stir in the butter and vanilla and continue stirring until butter is melted and mixture is smooth.
5. Pour peanut butter custard (see cooking lesson) into the pie shell over the fudge sauce. Allow mixture to cool for 30 minutes before putting it in the refrigerator to finish cooling. Let it cool in the refrigerator for at least 2 hours before serving.
6. Extra fudge sauce can be drizzled over the top for beauty. Just wait until the peanut butter custard cools before adding the drizzles otherwise you'll end up with puddles.
Welcome to the world of custards! A custard is a cooked mixture of milk or cream and egg yolks. There is a wide variety of custards out there. They can be thick or thin or somewhere in between and they come in all sorts of flavors. This particular recipe would be considered a pastry cream or a confectioner's custard because it involves a starch (cornstarch). The starch in the recipe acts as a thickener, but also helps prevent the mixture from curdling when it boils. A custard ends up being a different texture than puddings and makes for a more dense pie filling. Pudding is a bit too light weight to hold up well in pie form.
Now you know a bit about custards. Next thing you know you'll be making a creme brulee!
