Humble Pie !!!

Humble ingredients make for a soft, sweet, fluffy dessert ... meet Humble Pie, folks!

This is a wonderful picnic pie ... a cold peanut butter mousse-like concoction that fills a crushed pretzel crust. Really ... pretzels. Little salted mini-pretzels get whizzed in the food processor and then mixed with brown sugar and melted butter. Pressed into place, the crust is baked to make a brickle-type lower crust, cooled completely, and then filled with a soft peanut butter, sugar, cream cheese, and vanilla froth. Dark chocolate bits are folded into the filling and the remaining chocolate powder decorates the top of the pie ... yes, from nine humble ingredients, you, too, can make summer's answer to the peanut butter cup. Chilled for a couple hours, it makes for a cool finish to a summertime meal. What's not to like, I ask you ?

This pie is going to a party this evening and it's a good thing as I can attest that after licking the spatula, I knew that if it stayed around the house I'd be sitting down with a fork and the pie ...

I found this recipe on a blog last week when I was looking for a pie that contains peanut butter and chocolate ... it came from a post done back in 2011. I'm betting it has made the rounds of the blogs over the years. I decreased the amount of sugar that was called for in the recipe and used gluten free pretzels so that I could partake without problems. I also used chunky peanut butter and 70 % dark chocolate chunks. It's neat to be able to make a rich and decadent GF dessert. Pretty psyched, folks! 

Humble Pie

Crust:

2 c. salted pretzel crumbs (gluten free pretzels work well here!)

¼ c. packed light brown sugar

¾ c. melted butter

Filling:

6 oz. cream cheese, softened

2 ½ c. chunky peanut butter

¾  c. sugar

1 tsp. vanilla

1 ¾ c. heavy cream, cold and whipped

4 oz. dark chocolate, roughly chopped

Making the Pie:

1. Preheat the oven to 350° F.
2. Combine the crust ingredients and mix to moisten the pretzel crumbs. Press into the bottom of a deep dish pie pan. 9 – 10 inch size.
3. Bake the crust for 10 to 12 minutes. Remove from the oven and cool completely.
4. Combine the cream cheese, peanut butter, sugar and vanilla in a deep mixing bowl and whip until completely smooth.
5. In another deep chilled bowl, whip the cream until stiff peaks form. Add the cream to the peanut butter mixture and gently fold until combined. Fold in the chunks of chocolate and turn the filling into the cooled pie shell. Cover with plastic wrap and place in the freezer for at least 2 hours.
6. Slice to serve and then refrigerate the leftovers.

Afterword - After knoshing this pie last evening with friends, we all decided that the pretzels have to be finely crushed, as the brickle effect that the baking of the crust achieves makes the crust super chewy and some folks didn't like chomping on the larger pretzel bits. The crust was almost toffee-like in the bites with finer crumbs and people preferred that. Everyone agreed that the pie filling was absolutely killer ... bits of chocolate and peanut bits were terrific surprises in that  soft peanut butter mousse.