March is birthday month in my family. My sister Christy, then Elijah, then my sister-in-law Candice, then my husband Dan, then my niece Cheyanne, and then my niece Zahria. If one does the math, it seems my family is particularly loving in June. Which makes sense, because we're a family of educators. School is out in June. We finally relax and have time to enjoy each other. I guess we enjoy each other a lot.
Goodness, that was probably inappropriate. But see, I made this peanut butter cup pie for my love, who turned 42 today. There was a lot of selfless taste testing that went into this one, because I needed to make sure it was just right. And not poisoned. Or something.
It's a fact that I get much more excited about my love's birthday than he does. I forced him to look through my entire cake board on Pinterest. Eh. He could take them or leave them. I then forced him to look through my entire cookies & bars board. Yawn. Then I remembered bars I had once made with a recipe from Michelle, the Brown-Eyed Baker. Bingo. With some modifications to change the bars to a pie, and to put the pie over-the-top, we're celebrating with a nontraditional cake. Seriously, what could be better than chocolate and peanut butter?
In the inspiration recipe this base is topped with melted chocolate, but I had to do some fancy-ing up to that. Instead I went with a ganache, but used semi-sweet chocolate chips instead of bittersweet chocolate. My kids turn up their noses at bittersweet chocolate. We have unrefined taste around here, I guess.
Be certain to test out the chocolate chips. The package might say 'semi-sweet' but what if that was a misprint? Taste some just to be certain. Then add a cup of hot hot heavy cream and let it sit about five minutes.
I love this part...
Mmmmmm. Ganache. Better try it, though, to be sure. I spread a little bit of this over the top of the peanut butter base and popped it into the freezer for a few minutes while I chopped up the peanut butter cups.
I'd advise that you test out a few of the chopped pieces, just to make sure the bag of candy was fresh and everything. It's all about quality ingredients, and all that.
And then, more ganache. How could this be anything but good?
Let it sit in the refrigerator for a while, until the ganache layers harden. While you wait, prewash all of your dishes with your tongue before loading up your dishwasher. Really, that's easier on your dishwasher. And then......
Oh yeah. That's what I'm talking about.
So good, it kind of felt like a birthday present to everyone. Happy birthday to my love. He was worth every moment I 'slaved' over this one.
Peanut Butter Cup Pie
Modified from Peanut Butter Cup Bars by the Brown-Eyed Baker
1 c. butter
2.5 c powdered sugar
2 c. peanut butter
1.5 c graham cracker crumbs
12 oz semi-sweet chocolate chips
1 c. heavy cream
1 bag Reese's Peanut Butter Cup minis
Melt the butter, then beat with the powdered sugar, peanut butter and graham cracker crumbs. Spray a large pie pan with nonstick cooking spray, then spread the peanut butter base in the pie pan.
Pour the chocolate chips into a heat-resistant bowl. Heat the heavy cream in a saucepan until it begins to boil. Pour the heavy cream on top of the chocolate chips and allow it to rest for five minutes. Then whisk the mixture until the ganache is smooth.
Pour just enough ganache onto the peanut butter base to spread thinly. Refrigerate for 20 minutes or so. While that cools, chop the peanut butter cups. Spread the chopped peanut butter cups over the peanut butter base, then pour the remaining ganache on top. Refrigerate for an hour or more.
Enjoy!
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