Chocolate Peanut Butter Pie: For the Birthday Girl, By the Birthday Girl

I know it might seem strange to some, but I love baking so much that I made my own birthday "cake" this year. I wasn't sure what kind of treat I wanted to make, so as usual I poked around Pinterest and asked myself: "If I could have anything for my birthday, what would I want?" I am always a sucker for chocolate and peanut butter in any form, so now I just have to figure out the perfect way to combine them.

Over the weekend, my mom got me tickets for my birthday to see Phantom of the Opera with Jeff. It was both of our first times seeing it. We were absolutely stunned by the amazing sets that rotated flawlessly with each scene change. And now I find myself listening to the music and garnering a whole new appreciation for the story. It can be hard to follow your first time so I feel like I'm understanding so much more now.

Anyway, before the play, we got dinner (and dessert) from a restaurant a few doors down from the Boston Opera House. We shared a few small plates and settled on a chocolate peanut butter mousse for dessert. We knew we were in for a treat when our adorable waitress fawned over how amazing it was.

Ok, so it was pretty awesome. But I knew I could do better. I prefer when there's a crunchy bottom followed by a strong peanut butter punch rather than creamy throughout with chocolate overwhelming the pallet. I found a recipe pretty quickly on Pinterest and got to work Monday night.

The first step in this recipe was to make an Oreo cookie crust. Jeff and I try to stay away from overly processed foods, so we went over the organic section and found some Newman O's instead that would do just the trick. I don't have a food processor, so clever me thought to use our Ninja Blender to pulverize the cookies. It worked out pretty well, but was such a pain in the butt to clean!

With my crushed up "Oreos", I was ready to make the crust. I should have measured how much of the cookie crumble I had because the recipe called for 2 cups and looking back I had much less. I therefore added way too much butter because of this and will not be making that mistake next time. Butter was oozing out of the bottom of the spring-form pan in the fridge while I let everything set afterward--oops!

The recipe called for a 9-inch spring-form panned but it just looked too big for the amount of crust I was going to end up with, so I opted for a 6-inch pan. I would highly recommend this! I personally loved how tall it was so that every bite was jam-packed with flavor. Also, I lined by pan with parchment paper which made everything easier; I definitely suggest the extra step.

While baking the crust, I made the peanut butter mousse filling. It was so incredibly easy to just blend together peanut butter and cream cheese and then fold in the whipped cream. The hard part came while waiting for it to set in the fridge. By this time, it was already 7:30 at night so I knew I wasn't going to be able to wait 3 hours to put the chocolate ganache on it. That would have to happen on my birthday.

And now...we wait.

I never realized how simply easy making chocolate ganache is. Just boil cream and stir in chopped up chocolate. Easy peasy! After pouring the chocolate over the peanut butter that was well set, I sprinkled a little kosher salt on the top of the chocolate and put it back into the fridge. This time we only had to wait 15 minutes for the chocolate to solidify a little.

I used 60% dark chocolate

Waiting for the cream to boil to make some sweet, sweet chocolate ganache!

Cool down already!!

After dinner from my favorite take-out place, Jeff lit my candle and I made him sing Happy Birthday to me! It was the sweetest ending to a fantastic day. And I have so many leftovers still that I've had to bring them into work to pawn off the devilishly delicious and fattening treat onto my coworkers.

You can see all the butter on the crust...but honestly, who cares?

Special guest Jeff's hand.

Pawning off the extras to my coworkers! Excuse the horrible hack job but there's no better way to cut these!

Chocolate Peanut Butter Pie

Recipe adapted from Food & Wine

Serves 8-10

Chocolate Crust

1/2 stick unsalted butter, cut into tablespoons

8 ounces chocolate wafer cookies, finely ground (2 cups)

Peanut Butter Filling

8 ounces cream cheese, softened

1 cup chunky peanut butter

1/2 cup sugar

2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

1 cup well-chilled heavy cream

Kosher salt

Chocolate Topping

4 ounces semisweet chocolate, chopped (1/2 cup)

1/2 cup heavy cream

Garnish

1/4 cup Chopped Peanuts, chopped

1/4 cup semi sweet chocolate, chopped

MAKE THE CHOCOLATE CRUST: Preheat the oven to 375°. Melt butter and stir into the cookie crumbs. Press the cookie crumbs over the bottom of a 9-inch springform pan and 1 1/2 inches up the side. Bake the crust for 10 minutes, or until set; the crust will continue to firm up as it cools.

MEANWHILE, MAKE THE PEANUT BUTTER FILLING: In a large bowl, using a handheld electric mixer, beat the cream cheese with the peanut butter, sugar and vanilla extract until blended. In another large bowl, using the same beaters, whip the chilled cream until firm. Fold one-third of the whipped cream into the peanut butter mixture to loosen it, then fold in the remaining whipped cream. Spoon the filling into the crust, smoothing the surface. Sprinkle lightly with salt and refrigerate until set, about 3 hours.

MAKE THE CHOCOLATE TOPPING: Place chopped chocolate in a medium bowl.  Heat cream over medium heat until simmering.  Add cream to chocolate and stir until melted.

Spread the chocolate topping over the peanut butter filling and refrigerate until just firm, about 15 minutes. Sprinkle the chopped peanuts and chocolate around the edge of the pie. Carefully run a thin knife around the pie crust to loosen it, then remove the springform ring. Using a sharp knife, cut the pie into wedges. Run the knife under hot water and dry it between each cut.