The Pie I Had To Make

I have such conflicted emotions about January being over. On the one hand, snow. Like two feet of the crap or more. Lots and lots of snow. So, yay! Bring on February – it’s closer to March and spring starts in March. On the other hand, if January is over, then my vacation is really over. Dangit. But back on that first hand, February is a nice short month and the daylight is getting longer. Yay February. Then again, January was Pie Month!

If you aren’t already reading The Peche, you should be. You should be reading it for the storytelling, the photos, and if for nothing else, for Pie Month. Chris & Karen decided to dedicate the month of January and make and post as many different pies as they could. That’s right – no diet food for January, not at The Peche. No. They made pie and made no apologies for it. And I love that.

While almost all of the pies looked delightful, one particular pie jumped out at me and did a little dance and sang me a Barry White song. It was the Peanut Butter Cream Pie with Caramel, Chocolate Whipped Cream & Deep Dark Fudge. Ohhhhhhhh, yeah. The only problem for me? It was posted on January 10th, just 12 days before I intended to squish into a bathing suit in Aruba. There was no room for me and that pie in my tankini. The pie would have to wait. Finally this weekend it was time!

The first thing I love about this pie? That’s not just a regular graham cracker crust. Oh no! It’s a graham cracker crust with peanut butter in it. Uh huh.

The second thing I love about this pie? It’s flexible. Chris & Karen got the original recipe from Kelly at Evil Shenanigans, and then they had their way with it. They added caramel sauce to the crust. I didn’t make any caramel sauce, but I do still have some Scharffen Berger baking chunks which I am parsing out in small, thoughtful quantities only. (my precious!!!!) So, I artfully arranged a few of them on the bottom of the crust before I poured in the filling.

While the pie cooled, I considered my other options. I remembered Wendi over at Bon Appetit Hon raving about Abby Dodge’s Killer Chocolate Sauce and figured I couldn’t go wrong. I whipped up a batch (more Scharffen Berger!) and let it cool but not harden before I swirled a little over the top of the pie.

I made the Chocolate Whipped Cream (with Scarffen Berger cocoa, but of course!) to Kelly’s specification and gazed upon my beautiful creation!

I served it with more chocolate sauce swirled over each slice and prepared to be dazzled. And I was! That crust is crazy good. The chocolate and peanut butter of course belong together. The texture is surprising light – making it all too easy to eat more than one slice. Hey, I’m not putting a bathing suit on again for a long time! Bye-bye January – hello pie!