Sunday Bake | Chocolate and Peanut Butter Pie

Pie. What a wondrous thing. This was my first dabble into the world of American cream pies and oh myy was it a good one. Yes its slightly rough round the edges, but did it taste good? Damn right it did! I made the pie for Craig after he not so subtly mentioned how much he reallllly wanted a pie that evening. I'm not gonna lie though, I'll go with any excuse if it means baking! Especially a new recipe.

I used a recipe from the Hummingbird Bakery book Cake Days, with a few alterations. It was so easy to make, and although it took a while to set in the fridge the actual assembly time was minimal! You will need a hand-held whisk though, unless you want to kill your arm!

 Ingredients:

250g Double-Chocolate Digestives (or any other double-choc biscuit you can find)
50g Unsalted Butter
3 tbsp Cornflour
160g Caster Sugar
550ml Whole Milk
3 Large Egg Yolks
180g Smooth Peanut Butter
80g Dark Chocolate
500ml Double Cream
50g Icing Sugar

Method:

1. Firstly, line a 22cm/9in spring-form cake tin with baking paper so it'll be easier for you to turn out. Then blitz the biscuits in a food processor until they are rough crumbs. Melt the butter and add this to the biscuits, then blitz again until both ingredients have come together in a rough paste. Tip the mixture into the lined tin, and press evenly over the base and up the sides using the back of a spoon. You want to try and get this as even as possible, but it is quite tricky to know whether its even. Once you're happy with it, chill it in the fridge for around 40 minutes.

2. Next you need to make the filling. Mix the cornflour and sugar in a saucepan, then mix together the milk and egg yolks and pour this into the pan. Cook over a low heat, whisking continuously until thickened. It won't seem to be doing anything for a while and then it will suddenly thicken, so stick with it! Once thickened remove it from the heat and stir in the peanut butter. Place the chocolate in a bowl and pour over about a third of the hot peanut butter filling, mixing well until the chocolate has melted and the filling is smooth and even. Pour the chocolate filling into the chilled biscuit base and cover with cling film to stop a skin forming. Then place back in the fridge for 30-40 minutes to set. Also cover the remaining peanut butter filling with clingfilm and set aside to cool to room temperature.

3. In another bowl, whip 250ml of the double cream using a hand-held whisk until it is thick and forms soft peaks. Fold this into the completely cooled peanut butter filling, ensuring it is mixed in well. Remove the pie from the fridge and top with the filling, then place it again back in the fridge for 40-50 minutes.

4. The final stage is to whip the remaining 250ml cream with the icing sugar until it forms almost stiff peaks and spoon onto the set pie filling. I then grated chocolate over the top just for added decoration.

Adapted from The Hummingbird Bakery 'Cake Days'.

It's a really great dessert to whip up for a dinner party, and can be made well in advance! Just keep it in the fridge until you need it. I hope you liked this recipe and it's inspired you to make a pie. :)

Aimée
Xxxx

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