That pie was like eating Canada.

The pie in this post is my first ever "special" pie, making this my first "special" post.  And by special, I mean not one of the 52.  Because it was made in the same week as the lemon one.  And I don't want to hurt its feelings, so I'm calling it "special."  :)

So!  As I said, I made a second pie this week, to celebrate two friends' birthdays (I've decided I'm going to do that when I can... make pies for birthday cakes, that is).  Jordan and Kaitlin are both chocolate lovers, so we decided on a recipe I've been both nervous and excited for (I even sang a song called "Nervous but Excited"... yes?  Get it?  No?  Oh, watch a little SNL.)... chocolate peanut butter pie!

The recipe came from one of my former English professors (one of the most awesome ones too... shoutout!), who made up this recipe based on a pie she used to eat while lunching with her mom at a tea room.  I was really excited about the fact that it was chocolate and peanut butter in the same pie, but I was really nervous about the lack of measurements.

The entire recipe called for mixing everything and adding amounts until it "looked right," a cause for panic since A. I don't know what "looks right" and B. I'm a measurer through and through.  I don't know that I've ever cooked or baked anything from a recipe and not measured.  If it's just me throwing things in a pan, that's fine, but a recipe means directions and I hate guessing on directions!  It's part of the reason Rachael Ray gives me anxiety... I can't just glob a bunch of EVOO in a pan and call it a few tablespoons.  There are measuring cups for a reason, woman!  Gah!

At least this recipe didn't call for much baking, and at least it's nearly impossible to go wrong with peanut butter and chocolate.  Still, I made sure to keep track of every teaspoon that went into this so that I can have an actual recipe in the future.  I'm lame, I know, but I have a hard time "letting loose" when it comes to something other people are going to consume.

So anyhoo, I made the bottom crust (from scratch, of course, no cheating here), and I was ridiculously proud of the fact that I hardly needed the recipe and I whipped it out pretty dang fast... I was a crust-making machine!  I baked it in my new Paula Dean pie dish (!), but I didn't know how long to bake a crust on its own, so I just threw it in and checked on it from time to time.

Be proud, this was a big step for an over-analyzing nerd like me.

I accidentally cooked it a little too long, not where I burned it, but it was much crispier than I would've liked, and also it shrunk so it no longer touched the pretty edges (I was quite sad about this).

Once it cooled, I added a mixture of peanut butter (an entire jar!) and powdered sugar and spread it on the bottom (spread being a relative term, since the crust crumbled at the slightest touch), then added chocolate pudding (mixed with half the milk) and topping it with cool whip and crumbled Reese's cups.

Pretty, eh?

 

The slices were massively tall and super goopy and messy... nearly impossible to get a good picture!  However, it was DELICIOUS!  Everyone's favorite so far (I actually promised the ladies I work with that I would make it again just for them... and I can do that, since it's not one of the 52.  I just can't repeat recipes for the 52... rules!).  It was incredibly rich and creamy, and the peanut butter/powdered sugar mixture tasted just like the inside of a Reese's cup, which was awesome.

The only downside to the pie was that it was almost too rich... it was probably a bit too much peanut butter (gasp!  Who knew such a thing existed?) and needed more pudding to balance it out, but otherwise it was awesome.  That's actually the meaning behind the title of this entry... in the words of my friend Brianne, it was "like eating Canada."  You know, because it was "big, rich, and had universal health care."  That last part was Alison... I have fantastic friends.  Also, we were all pretty much in a food coma afterwards.  A delicious food coma.

And now that I've tried it, I'm making it my goal to recreate Perkins' peanut butter pie, which is to pie what Ricky Gervais is to award show speaches.  Genius.  Oh, yes, experimenting in this case is just fine with me, because I don't have an initial recipe to follow.  I have issues, I know.  It's okay.

Also, you know what?  With this pie, I've started doing something I've never been able to do... compliment my own cooking!  Seriously, I have a really hard time doing that.  I'm sadly an extremely self-depreciating person, and I'm working to get over it.  One of the things that actually got me the most in Julie and Julia was that both women praised their own cooking, proclaiming how great it was on the first bite.  They weren't braggy, but they weren't afraid to be happy with what they did.  I need to do this.  I need to take a bite and say, "Damn!  This is awesome!"  Because it usually is.

Confidence.

I'm working on it.

Thanks, pie, for helping me figure out my life!