There are few emotions that I don’t know how to process into words, leaving me utterly speechless. I’ll share two of them with you today, one of them is loss of life – my friend Jennifer Perillo lost her husband in a sudden heart attack. The other emotion, the abundance of love, is best left to Diane and Todd to show you.
xoxo Jaden
p.s. My good friends, Maggy and Erika, have started a nonprofit called “Bloggers Without Borders” specifically designed for us to band together to help those in unexpected situations like this. They are organizing an online auction, full of wonderful prizes. Would you consider donating a prize? You can contact Maggy and Erika directly.
This Peanut Butter Pie is for Mikey…..when Adam and Joanne heard the news and watched the video, they asked if they could make the pie to honor Mikey.
How to make peanut butter pie
For the crust, you will need melted butter and chocolate cookies.
In a food processor, process the chocolate cookies into crumbs, add them to a small bowl then pour in the melted butter and use a spoon to combine.
Pour the crumbs into a pie dish or a spring form pan. (Note, using a spring form pan will aide in presentation, but use what you have). Firmly press the crumbs into the bottom of the pan or dish and about 1-inch up the sides.
Next, pour melted chocolate into the base of the pie and smooth it out into an even layer.
Coarsely chop about a 1/4 cup of peanuts.
Then, sprinkle them over the melted chocolate. Place the pan into the refrigerator while making the filling.
Next, whip up some heavy cream and reserve in the refrigerator for later.
Now, make the filling. You will need 1 cup of room temperature peanut butter, we used creamy, just as Jennifer’s recipe suggests, but use chunky if that is all you have on hand.
Add the peanut butter to 8 ounces of room temperature cream cheese. (8 ounces of cream cheese is one whole package).
Then, use a hand or stand mixer to combine the two.
Pour in one 14-ounce can of sweetened condensed milk and blend with a hand mixer or stand mixer.
Then, add confectioner’s (powdered) sugar slowly to the mixture – careful not to go at too high a speed or else you might find yourself covered in sugar!
Next, add in 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract.
Then, 1 teaspoon of lemon juice. This really brightens up the flavor!
Now, go get the whipped cream you reserved from earlier. Add about 1/3 of the cream to the filling and blend. Don’t worry too much about folding at this point, this is just a way to loosen the filling so we can easily fold in the rest of the cream.
Now, we fold. This really lightens up the filling. Here is how to do it: Add the rest of the whipped cream and carefully fold it into the loosened filling. To do this, take a spatula and start in the middle of the bowl, pull it back out towards the side, slide it up the side of the bowl and let the mixture fall back onto itself. Turn the bowl, and repeat until all the whipped cream has been incorporated.
Pour the filling into the dish, smooth out the top, sprinkle with extra chocolate and/or peanuts, then refrigerate for at least 3 hours before serving.
Serve as is or whip up an extra batch of cream and spoon over a slice of pie.
Enjoy!
#apieformikey
So many have made this pie for Jennie and Mikey, here are just a few:
Return to Sunday Supper
Tartelette
Create Celebrate Explore
Little Miss Dids
Baked Bree
Pixelated Crumb
Flour Child
the Little Kitchen
Gluten Free Girl
Not Without Salt
Family Fresh Cooking
Kitchen Travels
Not nearly enough peanut butter pie
See lots more peanut butter pies made for Jennie and Mikey here.
Follow the twitter stream for #apieformikey here.
See the Facebook page started in Jennie and Mikey’s honor here.
Peanut Butter Pie
Ingredients
- 8 ounces chocolate cookies
- 4 tablespoons butter, melted
- 4 ounces finely chopped chocolate or semi-sweet chocolate chips
- 1/4 cup chopped peanuts
- 1 cup heavy cream
- 8 ounces cream cheese
- 1 cup creamy-style peanut butter
- 1 cup confectioner's sugar
- 1 14 oz can sweetened condensed milk
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 teaspoon freshly squeezed lemon juice
Instructions
- Add chocolate cookies to the bowl of a food processor and process until crumbs form.
- Add cookie crumbs to a small bowl and combine with melted butter, mix well.
- Firmly press the mixture into the base of a pie pan or spring form pan. Press the mixture about 1-inch up the sides of the pan.
- Melt the chocolate in the microwave: Place the chopped chocolate into a microwave-safe bowl, but reserve 1 tablespoon to add at the end. Place the bowl into the microwave for 20 seconds. Stir, then put it back into the microwave for another 20 seconds and stir again. Continue to heat then stir until the chocolate is just melted, now add the reserved chocolate from earlier and stir until it is completely smooth.
- Pour melted chocolate over the bottom of the cookie crust and spread into an even layer. Sprinkle chopped peanuts over the chocolate then place the pan into the refrigerator while preparing the filling.
- Pour heavy cream into a large bowl and whip, either with a hand mixer or stand mixer until soft peaks form. Place whipped cream into the refrigerator.
- Add cream cheese and peanut butter to a large bowl, beat on medium speed until combined. Next, add condensed milk and beat until incorporated then, slowly add confectioner's sugar until incorporated. Add vanilla extract and lemon juice and increase speed to medium high, beat until filling is smooth.
- Stir 1/3 of the reserved whipped cream into the filling. Fold in the remaining whipped cream.
- Pour filling into prepared pie pan/dish, smooth the top and sprinkle with additional chocolate or peanuts. Refrigerate for at least 3 hours before serving.
Did you try this recipe? Please leave a star rating in the recipe card below and leave a review in the comment section! I always appreciate your feedback and I know other readers do, too!
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I love peanut butter and chocolate together. Thanks for sharing this!
I do have a couple of questions about this recipe. Are we supposed to use natural or hydrogenized (e.g., Jif & Skippy) peanut butter? They are not always interchangeable in cooking.
Also, can the pie be frozen? A whole pie is too much for two people so I would like to cut slices and freeze them if possible. Thank you!
Yes! You can freeze 🙂
I adore peanut butter and this is amazing way to make great dessert with this ingredient! Absolutely gorgeous!
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I’m truly touched by the love that exudes from this site..its beautiful. Long may love reign in this world xx
I wanna try this recipe too. I love peanut butter. Thanks for posting. 🙂
I made my pie this past Saturday and shared with friends! They loved it.
An amazing story and sentiment. Thank you for sharing.
A beautiful and heartfelt pie. Thanks!
We used to get a peanut butter pie at European Street Cafe in Jacksonville, FL and just seeing these pics evoked those memories. Alexis will be making this soon. Excellent step by step pics and instructions, Jaden, but what else is new? You rock.
The pie is beautiful and look delicious. The pie is cool, but it warm everyone heart.
This looks so good! I can’t wait to try this recipe. So perfect for fall (or the end of summer)! Yummy! Thanks for sharing!
It’s a beautiful pie and I love what the entire community has done for Jennie. Truly amazing!
I’ve never seen a peanut butter pie recipe I wanted to try until now. It’s a beautiful pie and a beautiful post. Love makes the world go round. Just as we celebrate new life at the beginning we celebrate the love forever remembered at the end. Thank you for sharing.
Great tribute. A good reminder that life is short and we should be thankful for each moment we have with the ones we love.
Excellent post & nice tribute. Thanks for the great recipe to try with my family.
My eyes still tear up every time I come across a peanut-butter-pie post… and I didn’t even know Mikey. Such a heart-breaking loss for Jennie and her family. Thanks for posting about the Bloggers without Borders. I’ll check it out. xo, Dawn
This is a wonderful tribute. I too, recently had an unexpected loss. I lost my Dad to a heart attack in the middle of the night. I think I will make this not just for Mikey, but for my Dad as well. Thank you for sharing this!
I cried when I read her blog post. Just made me want to hug my hubby/children a little tighter when they started to leave!
A beautiful pie, for such a beautiful person. Jennie is all I thought of when I made my pie last week. When I shared it with my family, it felt like I was doing something – a little thing, but something – to honor his memory and her love for him.
This pie is beautiful. Great post overall as well.
Thank you Katrina! Joanne and I had a lot of fun making this pie. We both were very happy to be working on it together.
Even though I’ve been following this story for a while, I just sobbed all over my keyboard. Beautiful. And a lovely reminder to appreciate today and remind the people we love how we feel about them.
What a beautiful reminder to hold those close to you a little tighter. Thanks Jaida!