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Sincere Acts of Sweetness

April 8, 2007

Chocolate Peanut Butter Cloud Pie


Tracy's been my neighbor for over four year now and she's someone I've liked from the moment I met her. She's always smiling and just a ray of sunshine around our neighborhood. Recently she hosted a very large neighborhood swap meet. Not only did she help me rid my house of a ton of stuff I didn't want, I was able to pick up a bunch of stuff I could use, including my new favorite book, Food Lovers Companion. So, to show my gratitude I offered to make her something sweet.
She said she loved anything with chocolate and peanut butter. I knew just the thing! I had something similar a few years ago that a friend made for me so I tweaked the recipe and this is what I came up with. I hope you had a great birthday Tracy!

Chocolate Peanut Butter Cloud Pie
Yield: 8-10 servings

Crust
1 package (2 to 2 1/2 cups) of Oreo cookies, separated with sweet filling removed, crushed (run them through the food processor)
1/3 cup white sugar
1/2 cup butter, melted

Filling
2 8 oz blocks of full-fat cream cheese, at room temperature
1 1/2 cups creamy peanut butter (Jif is recommended - avoid all-natural types)
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 pint whipping cream, kept cold
1/2 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350F.

Mix cookie crumbs, sugar, and butter together into a spring form pan (9 1/2 or 10 1/2and press down into place. Bake for 8 minutes - Be careful not to over bake! You want this a little on the soft side so you can cut it later. Remove from oven and cool.

Beat whipped cream just until stiff peaks are formed. Add vanilla and continue mixing until stiff. Set aside.

Beat cream cheese, peanut butter, and sugar together until fluffy. Add whipped cream mixture and fold until well combined. Pour into cooled pie crust.

Melt chocolate chips in microwave. Stir occasionally until chocolate is smooth. Put a few tablespoons of the melted chocolate into a heavy duty zip lock bag. Snip the very end of the bag. Slowly pipe out a design on the top of the pie. You can also use a squeeze bottle or pastry bag instead of a zip-lock bag if you have either handy. For an even prettier design, use 1/4 cup each of dark and milk chocolate and layer the two one on top of the other. I've used two kinds of chocolate and made 4 layers.

Chill for at least 4 hours or until set.

To make it easier to cut, use a warm knife to cut through the chocolate. This is best achieved by submerging a sharp, long knife in a tall glass or pitcher of hot water. Keep a clean rag or paper towels close by too and wipe down the knife after each cut.

17 comments:

  1. Julia,
    Thank you so much for the kind words! The chocolate/peanutbutter pie you made me was a little slice of HEAVEN! I really appreciate your thoughtfulness
    Keep cookin'
    Tracy

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  2. How well does the chocolate top cut? Or would I want to use chocolate syrup if I wanted to slice and serve this easily?

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  3. Hi Kari,

    Thanks for your post! I always get such a rush knowing someone out there is reading my blog :-)

    Cutting it was a bit of an er, challenge. However, I think if I were to make it again I would either use chocolate curls, mini chocolate chips, or I'd make the same big chocolate topper again but on top of waxed paper. After it got hard, I'd break it up into slabs and finally put it on top of the pie.

    Your idea would work too, I think. The main thing is that the filling is on the soft side and drizzing chocolate syrup on top will probably cause the filling to get runny. If you go that route, I'd suggest doing it tableside. I'd also suggest either making the syrup or buying one that's not just corn syrup based.

    Here's an easy chocolate syrup recipe from Epicurious:

    1 cup water
    1/2 cup sugar
    2/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder, preferably Dutch-process
    1/4 teaspoon salt
    1 teaspoon vanilla

    Bring water and sugar to a boil, whisking until sugar is dissolved. Whisk in cocoa and salt and simmer, whisking, until slightly thickened, about 3 minutes. Remove from heat and add vanilla, then cool (syrup will continue to thicken as it cools).

    I hope that helps!
    Julia

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  4. Thanks! I found your recipe on stumble and have a peanut-butter addicted sister-in-law that I think will greatly enjoy it!

    Thanks!

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  5. this is so amazing looking, I'm going to make it next week! thank you for putting it up with such beautiful pictures

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  6. Oh you welcome Leah! You just made my whole day! Keep in mind, this pie is on the soft and creamy side, so be sure to keep it extra cold until you're ready to serve it.

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  7. I'm drooling just looking and reading the ingredient list. What a great recipe, I'm going to try this out this weekend.

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  8. My fiancee just made it for me. Delicious, indeed. Thanks!

    I agree about the chocolate topping, though -- it is hard to cut. And I think there's a bit too much Oreo crust. It's pretty thick.

    Other than that, it's nice. It reminds me of the choc-pb pie I used to order in the local restaurant all the time as a kid. But if someone's going to make it, beware: it's rich (of course).

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  9. Instead of committing Oreo Sacrilage, you can also buy a box of Nabisco Famous Chocolate Wafers and pulverize them.

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  10. AnonymousMay 06, 2008

    this looks good, i was looking for something to make my mom for mothers day and i think this might be the one. I'm not much of a baker and this seems fairly simple..

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  11. My friend loves PB and chocolate too and I have been looking for something to make for her. This looks and sounds sooo good! I am glad I stumbledupon it.

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  12. Hey Julia,

    If you're looking for a way to make a softer chocolate top, combine the chocolate chips with a half stick of butter and some corn syrup or, even better, some golden syrup if you have it. It stays softer longer, especially if you top it within 2 hours of serving it.

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  13. That looks amazing!!

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  14. Wow, that looks absolutely delicious! Great post, you did such a nice job presenting the pictures too...I am definitely going to have to try that recipe this weekend!

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  15. I've been eyeing this pie for a few months before I finally got all the ingredients together to make it (as well as the springform pans).

    I ended up switching out the reserved filling from the oreos with one of the packs of cream cheese, and only used about 4/5 of a cup of sugar in the mix (I actually ran out, though after using the specified amount in the crust), and my husband still said it was ridiculously sweet!

    That said, it's a great pie. This is actually the first pie I've made from scratch, and I was quite pleased. I think I'm going to try a banana version of this next!

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  16. So I made that banana version. Again, I used the oreo cremes instead of part of the cream cheese, and I used 3 overripe (and thus rather wet) mashed bananas instead of the peanut butter, and added a bit of lemon juice. I also used only a cup of sugar. I used some ground Saigon cinnamon as a topping.

    After being in the refrigerator overnight, the pie was still pretty soft, so I stuck it in the freezer, and it came out as a quite good ice cream pie. My husband says it has a more "mature" flavor than the peanut butter.

    Thanks you for inspiring me to bake such tasty desserts!

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  17. I'm using melted chocolate drizzle as well as melting some peanut butter and drizzling that on top as well. Mmmm, chocolate peanut butter topping!

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