I will go over some of the issues I had putting this one together, but first I wanted to encourage you by saying if you are a woman and or you LOVE rich chocolate then you will really enjoy the final result. I have to be honest and say that I am not a huge dessert fan, or better said, I am not a sweet dessert fan, so this was a bit over the top, but Triann and Courtney both said it was incredible... I thought they were just being kind, but some of the faces they made almost made me uncomfortable so I think they were sincere.
For those of you who don't like to follow links, here is the recipe as it was written in the magazine, immediately followed by how we think it should be done :)
Double Chocolate-Peanut Butter Pudding Pie
By: Silvana Nardone
Sponsored by Chex Cereal
Ingredients:
3 cups Chocolate Chex cereal, finely crushed
5 tablespoons butter, melted
12oz semisweet baking chocolate, chopped, plus more for chocolate shavings
1 1/2 tablespoons unsweetened baking cocoa, sifted
2 cups half and half
1/3 cup sugar
1 egg plus 2 egg yolks
6 tablespoons whipping cream, plus 1 cup whipping cream whipped
1/2 cup white vanilla baking chips
1/4 cup creamy peanut butter
Directions:
1. In small bowl, stir together cereal and melted butter. Press in bottom and up side of ungreased 9 inch pie pan. Refrigerate until set, about 30 minutes. Heat oven to 350F. Bake crust 15 minutes. Sprinkle with one-third of the chopped chocolate
2. In a large heatproof bowl, mix cocoa and remaining chopped chocolate; reserve. In 1-quart heavy saucepan, heat half-and-half over medium-high heat until almost boiling. In medium heatproof bowl, beat sugar, egg and egg yolks with whisk until pale yellow. Slowly beat in half of the hot half-and-half, then pour egg mixture into saucepan. Reduce heat to medium. Heat mixture just to boiling. Cook, beating with whisk, about 1 minute or until thickened. Pour through sieve into reserved cocoa mixture; beat with whisk until smooth. Pour into crust; refrigerate for 30 minutes.
3. Wipe out saucepan. Add 6 tablespoons cream. Heat to boiling over medium-high heat. Place vanilla baking chips and peanut butter in medium heatproof bowl. Pour hot cream on top and let stand until chocolate is melted, about 2 minutes; beat with whisk until smooth. Spread evenly over chilled pie. Refrigerate until firm, about 1 1/2 hours.
4. To serve, top servings of pie with whipped cream and chocolate shavings
OK, so we had trouble right off the bat. We are known for our collection of small appliances and kitchen gadgets, but we could not for the life of us find our sieve. I ended up making a run to Fred Meyers (where I found a buy 2 kitchen gadgets, get one free coupon) and came home with a sieve, a fridge thermometer and a new ice cube tray, but I digress.
Step 1.
We have not unpacked all of our kitchen boxes yet so instead of using a Cuisinart on the Chex cereal, I used a Daniel...
Daniel did a great job but I would recommend the Cuisinart. The finer you can get the cereal the better the crust will be. It was fairly easy to mix the crushed cereal with the melted butter. I started by putting a bit at a time into the glass pie plate, but eventually poured it all in and pressed it from the middle of the pie plate out to and up the sides. Into the fridge it went for the 30 minute chill, and then into the oven. The recipe calls for 1/3 of the chocolate, would be easier just to say 2/3 cup. Again the Cuisinart would have been nice here but I used the food chopper instead (way too much work). I was able to sprinkle the "shaved" chocolate fairly evenly on the hot crust, and it was satisfying to watch it melt and Triann said the chocolate in the crust was awesome... A very nice touch.
Step 2.
First advice is to skip the first word "meanwhile". I tried doing step 1 and 2 at the same time, too tough to get the timing right. Finish step 1, then start 2. This step was a bit of work, but quite a bit of fun. I had never used any of these techniques before and the instructions were well written and easy to understand. The only trouble I had here was with the ingredients. Triann bought a pint of half and half, and neither of us could remember if that was close to 2 cups, if only we had a pee-chee with its magic conversion charts.
I found out that a pint equals 1 3/4 cups. Or at least it does if your wife uses it for her coffee first. After you pour the filling into the crust make sure you let it sit in the fridge until it is fairly solid.
Step 3.
It seemed a bit strange to boil six tablespoons of whipping cream, but it all worked out fine. The only suggestions I have here would be to double the ingredients in this step (whipping cream, white chocolate chips, peanut butter), and make sure the filling from step 2 is set hard enough that this will not sink in like it did for us. I am assuming this would allow the white chocolate/peanut butter topping to spread itself. As you can see from our pictures below this didn't work so well for us.
Step 4.
Whip Cream. I would recommend adding 2-3 tablespoons of sugar and a touch of vanilla. We used a lemon zester to shave the chocolate, but you could use a grater or butter knife and get the same results.
So there it is. An impressive dessert when everything is said and done. Some neat techniques and a satisfying experience overall. And, as everything that you will find on this blog, Gluten Free.
Thanks again to Courtney for the recommendation.
Please let us know if you try this and your impressions, and let us know if you have a certain dish you would like us to look for. We are thinking about Muffins... hmm
Enjoy
Eric and Triann
Scrambled Eggs and Brisket
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