Gluten-free Peanut Butter Chocolate PieMy good friend Christiane moved to London several months ago and is coming back for the holidays to visit. I love visiting with Christiane because she make me laugh. It’s hard to be stressed out when you’re laughing your ass off. So in honor of her visit I am making her a pie and dusting off an article I wrote about her ages ago.
First let’s talk about the pie. This is not just ANY pie. This is gluten-free peanut butter chocolate pie. I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE peanut butter pie. Once my friend Angie and I got a peanut butter pie from Baker’s Square cut it down the middle and each ate half. A tad glutinous? Maybe. Worth it? Absolutely! (Of course that was before I committed to good health and no gluten.)
This peanut butter pie has no flour; the crust is made from dry roasted peanuts, what could be more perfect for a peanut butter pie? I hope you will make this pie and share it with a good friend.
But first here is the article about Christiane, I wrote this before she moved to London.
Breaking up is hard to do?
When you’ve been married for over thirty years like I have, one of the things you THINK you miss is the roller coaster ride of the single gal’s love life: the heady romance of a new love, the tragic drama of the first fight, the titillation of the first make up session. To experience these sensations now I must live vicariously through my single friends.
Friends like Christiane. She is a five foot eleven and a half inch, blue eyed, blonde haired, German, thirty-something, former run-way model who has an affinity for short, old, English guys. She is looking for love in all the wrong places. Like London.
Christiane met her perfect guy. He lives in London, has tons of money and is older, shorter and much less attractive than her. They embarked on a whirl-wind romance that played itself out all over the globe: Boston, New York, London, Germany and of course where we live, Nowheresville, West Florida. He wined and dined her, bought her clothes and plane tickets, emailed, called and SMSed on a regular basis. There was only one small problem. He just couldn’t seem to be faithful to her no matter how little he tried.
Well, being the reasonable (and somewhat loony) girl that she is she forgave him the first time. And the second. And the third. And then she got tough. She broke up with him.
Or at least she tried.
The first attempt was an SMS (it’s a new world, who am I to judge?) She carefully explained that she could not live with this, she would always cherish the time they spent but now it was over. To that heartfelt SMS he replied “I’m going to eat dinner and go to bed, I’ll call you in the morning”
When morning came, she explained that although she cared very deeply for him she could not live with suspicion and jealousy. Her heart is pure and she expects no less from the man she loves. To this he replied “you’re just grumpy, I’ll call you later.”
Days and weeks and months of emails, phone calls, text messages ensued. Firmer stronger words did Christiane voice about how it was over, truly over. He flew to Germany to persuade her she was the love of his life. (Here she back slid a little but who can blame her?) Upon returning to the United States and her senses she told him in no uncertain terms “That’s it, we are done!” His reply? It went something like this “You only say this to me because you love me so much and yet you are in denial” Back and forth they jousted. Christiane to him “we’re through!” Him to Christiane “you’re so in love with me you can’t think straight.”
Finally Christiane stopped replying to his messages, stopped answering the phone and stopped replying to his emails.
It’s been a day or two of no further communication. I guess he finally took her subtle hints.
Or maybe not.
First let’s talk about the pie. This is not just ANY pie. This is gluten-free peanut butter chocolate pie. I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE peanut butter pie. Once my friend Angie and I got a peanut butter pie from Baker’s Square cut it down the middle and each ate half. A tad glutinous? Maybe. Worth it? Absolutely! (Of course that was before I committed to good health and no gluten.)
This peanut butter pie has no flour; the crust is made from dry roasted peanuts, what could be more perfect for a peanut butter pie? I hope you will make this pie and share it with a good friend.
But first here is the article about Christiane, I wrote this before she moved to London.
Breaking up is hard to do?
When you’ve been married for over thirty years like I have, one of the things you THINK you miss is the roller coaster ride of the single gal’s love life: the heady romance of a new love, the tragic drama of the first fight, the titillation of the first make up session. To experience these sensations now I must live vicariously through my single friends.
Friends like Christiane. She is a five foot eleven and a half inch, blue eyed, blonde haired, German, thirty-something, former run-way model who has an affinity for short, old, English guys. She is looking for love in all the wrong places. Like London.
Christiane met her perfect guy. He lives in London, has tons of money and is older, shorter and much less attractive than her. They embarked on a whirl-wind romance that played itself out all over the globe: Boston, New York, London, Germany and of course where we live, Nowheresville, West Florida. He wined and dined her, bought her clothes and plane tickets, emailed, called and SMSed on a regular basis. There was only one small problem. He just couldn’t seem to be faithful to her no matter how little he tried.
Well, being the reasonable (and somewhat loony) girl that she is she forgave him the first time. And the second. And the third. And then she got tough. She broke up with him.
Or at least she tried.
The first attempt was an SMS (it’s a new world, who am I to judge?) She carefully explained that she could not live with this, she would always cherish the time they spent but now it was over. To that heartfelt SMS he replied “I’m going to eat dinner and go to bed, I’ll call you in the morning”
When morning came, she explained that although she cared very deeply for him she could not live with suspicion and jealousy. Her heart is pure and she expects no less from the man she loves. To this he replied “you’re just grumpy, I’ll call you later.”
Days and weeks and months of emails, phone calls, text messages ensued. Firmer stronger words did Christiane voice about how it was over, truly over. He flew to Germany to persuade her she was the love of his life. (Here she back slid a little but who can blame her?) Upon returning to the United States and her senses she told him in no uncertain terms “That’s it, we are done!” His reply? It went something like this “You only say this to me because you love me so much and yet you are in denial” Back and forth they jousted. Christiane to him “we’re through!” Him to Christiane “you’re so in love with me you can’t think straight.”
Finally Christiane stopped replying to his messages, stopped answering the phone and stopped replying to his emails.
It’s been a day or two of no further communication. I guess he finally took her subtle hints.
Or maybe not.
We'll have to have some pie and find out!
Gluten Free Peanut Butter Chocolate Pie
Crust
1 ¼ cups salted dry roasted peanuts
½ cup sugar
¼ cup unsalted butter, melted
6 ounces semi-sweet chocolate chips
¼ cup heavy cream
Filling
¾ cups milk
¾ cups half and half
2 large eggs
1 cup powdered sugar
2 tablespoons cornstarch
Pinch of salt
4 ounces cream cheese, cut in pieces
¾ cups creamy peanut butter
1 teaspoon gluten-free vanilla
Topping
1 ¼ cups heavy cream
2 teaspoons powdered sugar
Chocolate for grating on top – optional
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Put peanuts and sugar in food processor and pulse until ground up. Pulse in melted butter. Press evenly into the bottom of a 10 inch spring form pan. Make sure you even it out. Bake 15 minutes. It will start to brown and be pretty set. It will still be a little soft when it comes out of the oven, don’t worry it will firm up. Set aside to cool slightly.
While crust cools, melt chocolate and cream together in microwave, stirring every 30 seconds until smooth. About 1 -2 minutes. Spread over crust and put in the freezer while making the filling.
Whisk the milk, half and half, eggs, powdered sugar, cornstarch and salt in a medium saucepan. Cook over medium heat, whisking constantly until comes to a boil. Continue to cool until it becomes the consistency of pudding, 1 or 2 more minutes. Take off the heat and whisk in the cream cheese, peanut butter and the vanilla. Spread evenly over the chocolate and refrigerate 4 hours or until cold. Can be made a day ahead.
Whip the cream with the powdered sugar and top pie when cold. Spread over the pie and grate some chocolate on top if desired.
Serves 8 (or 2 if it’s Angie and me!)
Gluten Free Peanut Butter Chocolate Pie
Crust
1 ¼ cups salted dry roasted peanuts
½ cup sugar
¼ cup unsalted butter, melted
6 ounces semi-sweet chocolate chips
¼ cup heavy cream
Filling
¾ cups milk
¾ cups half and half
2 large eggs
1 cup powdered sugar
2 tablespoons cornstarch
Pinch of salt
4 ounces cream cheese, cut in pieces
¾ cups creamy peanut butter
1 teaspoon gluten-free vanilla
Topping
1 ¼ cups heavy cream
2 teaspoons powdered sugar
Chocolate for grating on top – optional
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Put peanuts and sugar in food processor and pulse until ground up. Pulse in melted butter. Press evenly into the bottom of a 10 inch spring form pan. Make sure you even it out. Bake 15 minutes. It will start to brown and be pretty set. It will still be a little soft when it comes out of the oven, don’t worry it will firm up. Set aside to cool slightly.
While crust cools, melt chocolate and cream together in microwave, stirring every 30 seconds until smooth. About 1 -2 minutes. Spread over crust and put in the freezer while making the filling.
Whisk the milk, half and half, eggs, powdered sugar, cornstarch and salt in a medium saucepan. Cook over medium heat, whisking constantly until comes to a boil. Continue to cool until it becomes the consistency of pudding, 1 or 2 more minutes. Take off the heat and whisk in the cream cheese, peanut butter and the vanilla. Spread evenly over the chocolate and refrigerate 4 hours or until cold. Can be made a day ahead.
Whip the cream with the powdered sugar and top pie when cold. Spread over the pie and grate some chocolate on top if desired.
Serves 8 (or 2 if it’s Angie and me!)
4 comments:
I hope your friend found a good mate, or at least found freedom from that awful guy!
By the way, this pie looks just amazing.
I just made this pie this evening for my gf wife. It is a really easy recipe and your instructions were equally easy. I will most likely be posting some photos of the finished product tomorrow when it has time to completely cool down.
BTW, my wife couldn't wait and she sneaked a piece this evening, she was very pleased, but thinks it needs just a bit more peanut butter.
Thanks for the recipe!
My Name/URL on my previous comment contained a typo, I fixed it.
Sorry.
Im going to have to make this for hubby! He will LOVE!! Thank you :)
Post a Comment