Food & Wine (November 2014)
Hey there!
Do you like delicious things?
Do you especially like really delicious things?
How about crazy-delicious things? You're pretty much on board for those, right?
Please do keep reading, then, to hear all about this Black-Bottom Peanut Pie.
This pie is from Marcus Samuelsson's very cool Swedish/Ethiopian/Southern Thanksgiving feature in Food & Wine (the same one that included that Moroccan-Spiced Turkey with Onion Jam).
If this recipe were instead found in, say, the First United Methodist Church Cookbook from Bandana, Ky., it would not be called a "Black-Bottom Peanut Pie."
It would be called "Candy Bar Pie."
Or actually, "Snickers Pie."
Because that's pretty much exactly what it tastes like. And it's AMAZING. (Samuelsson himself even says he was inspired by his nostalgic childhood love for Snickers bars.)
So call it whatever you want: This pie is awesome.
The Nilla wafer crust. The bottom layer of cooled, hardened bittersweet chocolate. The lip-smacking filling, like nougat but even better, thanks to the molasses. The crunchy peanuts.
It's all just incredible. Our guests devoured this pie.
And so should you.
>> Read the full Thanksgiving 2014 recipe index
>> Read about this year's biggest Thanksgiving trends
Black-Bottom Peanut Pie
Food & Wine (November 2014), recipe by Marcus Samuelsson
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(This photo: Food & Wine/Paul Costello)
Active time: 20 mins | Total time: 1 hrs 20 mins plus 4 hrs cooling time
Servings: Makes one 10-inch pie
INGREDIENTS
CRUST
1 stick unsalted butter
One 11-ounce box vanilla wafer cookies
1/2 cup sugar
2 vanilla beans—split lengthwise, seeds scraped
FILLING
8 ounces bittersweet chocolate, finely chopped
1 cup heavy cream
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup light corn syrup
6 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted and cooled
4 teaspoons molasses
3/4 teaspoon kosher salt
3 large eggs
2 cups unsalted roasted peanuts
DIRECTIONS
MAKE THE CRUST: Preheat the oven to 350°. Melt the butter in a saucepan over moderately low heat and cook, swirling, until browned, 9 minutes; let cool. Process the cookies, sugar and vanilla seeds in a food processor until finely ground. Add the browned butter and pulse until the crumbs are evenly moistened; transfer to a 10-inch glass or ceramic pie plate and press the crumbs over the bottom and up the side to form the crust. Bake for 12 minutes, until lightly browned and set; let cool completely. Increase the oven temperature to 375°.
MAKE THE FILLING: Put the chocolate in a small heatproof bowl. In a small saucepan, bring the cream to a boil and pour it over the chocolate. Let stand for 1 minute, then stir until smooth; pour into the cooled crust and let sit for 10 minutes.
In a bowl, whisk the sugar, corn syrup, butter, molasses, salt and eggs, then stir in the peanuts. Pour the filling over the chocolate. Transfer the pie to a foil-lined baking sheet and bake for 10 minutes. Reduce the oven temperature to 325° and bake the pie for 50 minutes longer, until the filling is almost set. Transfer to a rack and let cool completely, 4 hours.
