Peanut Butter Cream Pie - the holidays come early

A few weeks ago in Bernal Heights shop Heartfelt, we made the rookie mistake of looking at a cookbook on an empty stomach thus we have a new addition to our burgeoning collection. It is called Mrs. Rowe's Little Book of Southern Pies by Mollie Cox Bryan. We decided as a little blog/holiday project (which I wanted to call "Branny and Zoe" . . . but someone shot down that idea) we would try to bake one new pie a week (as long as our arteries continue to pump).

We were invited to an early Thanksgiving dinner (long story) and we decided to go whole hog and start with a peanut butter cream pie (also, we figured this way we wouldn't eat it all by ourselves). We started by making our chocolate wafer cookie crust. We didn't have the requisite food processor so we used a handy bottle of wine to crush the cookies and then added in a stick of melted butter and a half cup of sugar.

We smushed the crust into a 9 inch glass pie dish and baked it in a 350 degree oven for 15 minutes. Meanwhile . . .
I made a custard by cooking 2 cups whole milk with 1/3 cup corn starch, 2 egg yolks and 1/3 cup sugar and a pinch of sugar. Mix all the ingredients and stir constantly over low heat for about 10 minutes. This being my first venture in custard-making, it was VERY exciting when it began to thicken - I felt very accomplished. Once it thickens remove from the heat and let cool. Once cool, whisk to thicken a bit more and then add in 1 cup peanut butter and 1 teaspoon vanilla.

Make sure the crust and the custard are cool and then scoop the custard into the crust, smooth and place in the fridge.
While the pie is chilling . . . whip up some cream (we used 3/4 cup cream and when it formed soft peaks we added in 1/3 cup confectioner's sugar and 1 teaspoon vanilla). Plop the whip cream on top and shmear it around evenly.

Sprinkle some salted peanuts on top.

Get yourself a quality dishwasher . . .

success