Black Bottom Peanut Butter Pie

Someone special asked for this. Sounded so good … I was into it! I mean, who doesn’t like chocolate and peanut butter in a salty crust!

Recipe is right out of Baking Made Easy, and this was really easy! I noted the magazine gave Kate Wood credit. So, I had to check her out! If you’re curious here she is. She has some good eats! I often like to speed up a recipe, impatience. Most often it turns out well. This is one! Enjoy a really tasty cheesecake-like pie with a smidge of chocolate ganache.

Recipe

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Yep, the only baking is the pie crust for 10 minutes.

2 Cups crushed salted pretzels-not finely ground See photo.
1/4 Cup packed dark (or light) brown sugar
1/2 Cup butter-melted
1/4 to 1/2 Teaspoon salt if butter is unsalted (1/2 is for really salty)
5 Ounces semi-sweet chocolate broken into pieces (Use milk chocolate for a more peanut butter cup taste.)
2 1/4 Cups heavy whipping cream-divided
8 Ounces cream cheese-room temperature
1 Cup powdered sugar-more for chantilly cream
1 Cup creamy peanut butter

Crust:

In a medium sized bowl mix the pretzels, brown sugar and melted butter. Pour into a 9 inch pie plate and press to the edges to form an even layer of crust. Bake for 10 minutes. Remove when baked and set aside to cool.

Ganache:

Break up chocolate into a heat proof bowl and set aside. Heat 5 ounces of heavy cream in a saucepan until it just reaches a boil but not a rolling boil. Pour this over the chocolate and cover the bowl with plastic wrap to maintain heat. After 5 minutes hand whip the melted chocolate and cream to a smooth consistency. Pour over cooled crust and refrigerate or freeze to speed up hardening.

Filling:

Whip all the remaining whipping cream until just beyond a soft peak. Set aside.

Beat together the cream cheese and the peanut butter. Add three cups of the whipped cream (you will have some left over) and fold. You can use the mixture on low for folding but just until incorporated.

Pour into ganache covered pie crust (ganache must be cold and hard). Freeze all for about 1 hour.

With the left over whipped cream garnish the pie before or after cutting. You may wish to add a little powered sugar to garnish cream. Just hand whip in, say, a tablespoon or less.

May be served at room temperature or cold. Refrigerate leftovers.

After ganache layered