Big Spoon Roasters Peanut Cocoa Banana Cream Pie

Happy holidays! I've been to the Midwest for a week and back again, but the season's festivities are not over yet. Tomorrow a crew of friends and I are headed to a West Virginia cabin to x-country ski, hot tub, play music, make delicious food, and hold our annual micropong winter classic tournament! I'm packing my sweaters and tarot cards and fiddle and ski boots and praying for snow.

One celebration that's become a marker of winter for me is the annual party at my friend Bradley's house, "The Urban Homestead," in Brentwood, Maryland. There's always great food, a well-stocked bar, an outdoor bonfire, music jams, and a living room square dance. This year, Bradley and her housemate Pete bought the house (or the homestead) they'd been renting for years, so there was an additional reason to celebrate. I'd been battling a nasty cold, but pulled it together to make it to the party and bring along this Peanut Cocoa Banana Cream Pie to add to the dessert table.



You may recall the Pumpkin & Chai Spice Nut Butter Pie I made last month, using nut butter from Durham, North Carolina's Big Spoon Roasters. This recipe uses their Peanut Cocoa Butter as a base for the filling, and is topped with fresh bananas in a graham cracker crust. It's essentially the same recipe as this Peanut Butter Banana Cream Pie, but with an exceptional chocolate, honey, coconut oil, and sea salt infused peanut butter. If you really wanted to take it up another level, you could add this chocolate ganache, but I think it's already plenty rich. For further variations, try substituting a peanut, Oreo, or pretzel crust.

This Elvis pie spin-off was a fast mover at the Christmas party-- only a few graham cracker crumbs remained when I went to collect the pie dish at the end of the night. For more information on where to find Big Spoon Roasters fantastic handcrafted nut butters (all of which would be good in a pie), visit their website, where you can also place an order to have a jar or two delivered to your door.

Big Spoon Roasters Peanut Cocoa Banana Cream Pie

Adapted From Nancie McDermott's Southern Pies

Ingredients

For crust:

1 1/2 c. graham cracker crumbs

5 Tblsp. unsalted butter

1 Tblsp. sugar

1/4 tsp. salt

For filling:

12 oz. cream cheese, softened

3/4 c. confectioner's sugar

3/4 c. Big Spoon Roaster's Peanut Cocoa Butter

2 Tblsp. whole milk

2 c. heavy whipping cream

3 bananas, sliced into 1/4-1/2 in. slices

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Pour graham cracker crumbs in a bowl and add melted butter, sugar, and salt until well mixed.

2. Pat the buttery crumbs into a 9-inch pie pan, pressing mixture into the bottom and sides to form a pie crust. Place in oven and bake until crust is lightly browned, about 10-12 minutes. Place on a cooling rack and let cool to room temperature before adding the filling.

For filling:

1. In the bowl of an electric mixer, combine cream cheese, confectioner's sugar, and peanut butter, beating until fluffy. Add the milk and the peanuts and mix well until incorporated.

2. In another bowl, using an electric mixer if desired, beat whipping cream until it becomes thick and holds medium-stiff peaks. Gently fold the whipped cream into the peanut butter mixture until well combined.

3. Add a layer of sliced bananas (about 1 1/2 bananas) to the bottom of the pie crust and pour the filling on top. Add the remaining bananas on top of the filling, around the edge of the pie. Cover pie and refrigerate at least 2 hours before serving.

Related recipes:

Banana Cream Pie with Peanut Crust and Salty Bourbon Caramel

Chocolate & Peanut Butter Pretzel Tart

Peanut Butter Banana Cream Pie with Chocolate Ganache

Pumpkin and Big Spoon Roasters' Chai Spice Nut Butter Pie

Pumpkin & Chai Spice Nut Butter Pie

Durham's Big Spoon Roasters did not yet exist when I lived on the Carolina Piedmont. Since I moved away, though, I've heard murmurs about the handcrafted nut butters from various food sites and magazines and friends who can't get enough of the stuff and I wondered how I too could get my hands on a few jars. As I was browsing the Big Spoon website, deciding which of the flavors--from Chai Spice to Peanut Cocoa I most wanted, I realized that the nut butters--those two in particular would make perfect pie ingredients.



So I emailed the owner Mark to tell him my idea, and the next week, a box showed up on my door with those two flavors packaged inside. Though the Chai Spice--a peanut and almond butter with local wildflower honey, salt, and chai spices-- could make a delicious pie filling almost all by itself (or in a Chocolate & Peanut Butter Pretzel Tart or a Peanut Butter Banana Cream Pie or... the possibilities are endless--stay tuned!), I decided to start with the seasonal and perhaps unsuspected pairing of pumpkin. Chai spice and pumpkin pie spice are kissin' cousins as is, and I thought the smooth pumpkin and slightly grainy nut butter would compliment each other's textures and flavor well. I had also done a similar butter 'n' orange-veggie in this Sweet Potato Speculoos Pie, adapted from a Pumpkin-Nutella version from Sally's Baking Addiction.

The duo got along just splendidly, the nut butter adding a hint of honey and a darker, richer flavor to the fairly standard pumpkin pie base. The consistency was thick and hearty, a substantial slice that would also work well substituting sweet potatoes for the pumpkin purée. Though I added bourbon to my whipped cream, in my humble opinion it never hurts to throw in a dash in the pie itself. This recipe is definitely in the running for what will be on my dessert table this coming Thanksgiving, though I've yet to bake with that Peanut Cocoa butter...

You can check out where you can buy Big Spoon Roasters nut butters near you here, and if there's nowhere close, you can also order online.

 Pumpkin & Chai Spice Nut Butter Pie

Ingredients
Nothing-in-the-House Pie Crust, halved
2 c. (15 oz.) pumpkin purée, canned or fresh (sweet potato purée would also be delicious)
3 large eggs, lightly whisked
1/2 c. heavy cream
1/2 c. light brown sugar
1 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 tsp. ground ginger
1/4 tsp. cardamom
1/4 tsp. cloves
1/4 tsp. nutmeg
1/2 tsp. salt
2/3 c. Big Spoon Roasters' Chai Spice Nut Butter

Directions
1. Prepare half of the Nothing-in-the-House pie crust as per the directions, reserving the leftover egg for an egg wash. Chill dough at least 1 hour before rolling out and fitting into a greased and floured 9-inch pie pan. Let chill for 15 more minutes in the fridge. Meanwhile, preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

2. In the bowl of a standing mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, add pumpkin purée, whisked eggs, heavy cream, brown sugar, spices, and salt and mix well to combine. Add the Chai Spice nut butter and stir just until incorporated.

3. Pour filling into the chilled pie crust and distribute evenly using a rubber spatula. Bake 40-45 minutes until filling is well-set. Let cool and once at room temperature, chill pie until you're ready to serve. Serve chilled or at room temperature with a dollop of bourbon whipped cream.

Related Recipes:
Drunken Pumpkin Bourbon Pie with Mascarpone Cream
Pumpkin Ginger Cheesecake Pie
Sweet Potato Speculoos Pie

Williamsburg Peanut Butter Cream Pie

As I child, I was obsessed with Colonial Williamsburg. On our first visit, my brother and I collectively got to play harpsichords, fire a cannon, don revolutionary garb, make cheese and polish silver (fun!). On a subsequent vacation, when our parents' offered us a choice between Busch Gardens and Colonial Williamsburg, we chose Williamsburg, hands down. And when we got back home, we put on a living history demonstration in our backyard with hoops and fifes, bonnets and tri-corner hats, to show off all we had learned.

So when I finally picked up a copy of the long coveted Nancie McDermott's Southern Pies, the first recipe I tried in it was naturally Williamsburg Peanut Butter Cream Pie. The recipe is a variation on a peanut butter pie served at Williamsburg's Shields Tavern. I'm not sure if it's an original 18th century recipe--we figured it probably wasn't when we remembered that George Washington Carver had, in fact, invented peanut butter and was born in 1864--but perhaps there was some variation of ground peanuts used in the Virginia colony. Nonetheless, there's something about this pie that gives it a nostalgic quality, whether through childhood memories jogged by the peanut butter flavor, or via the old-timey custard like-grandma-used-to make filling, I'm not sure.

Here's my take on Nancie's recipe, altered slightly...

Williamsburg Peanut Butter Cream Pie
from Nancie McDermott's Southern Pies

Ingredients:
For Crust:
1 1/2 c. crushed chocolate wafer cookies (I could not find plain wafers, so I ended up using whole Oreos, as in the crust for Nutella Icebox Pie)
1/2 c. butter, melted
2 Tblsp. sugar (could probably do without since Oreos are quite sweet)

For Filling:
1/2 c. sugar
1/3 c. cornstarch (I used tapioca flour, as we were out of cornstarch)
2 c. milk
3 egg yolks
1/2 c. creamy peanut butter (I used natural, which added a nice texture, but chose according to your preference)
2 tsp. vanilla extract

Topping:
1 c. heavy cream
1 Tblsp. powdered sugar
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1 tsp. Bourbon (optional)
3/4 c. coarsely chopped, dry-roasted, salted peanuts

Directions:
For crust:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Combine the crushed cookies (also crushed with a food processor), butter, and sugar in a food processor and blend until well incorporated. Pat filling into a 9- or 10-inch greased pie plate. Bake crust for 10 minutes, then set aside to cool. 

For filling:
In a small bowl, whisk together sugar and cornstarch (or tapioca flour). In a medium saucepan, combine the milk and egg yolks, and stir well. Add the sugar and cornstarch mixture to the egg yolks and milk and stir to mix them well. Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly until the filling is thick and smooth (will coat the back of a spoon), 10-12 minutes. Transfer to a medium bowl, set aside and let cool.

When the custard has cooled to room temperature, beat with an electric mixer or whisk until creamy and thickened. Add the peanut butter and vanilla, beating until well incorporated. Scrape the filling into the baked pie crust and smooth the surface. Cover and refrigerate until cold and firm, at least one hour. 

For topping:
Combine the cream and sugar in a medium bowl and whip with an electric mixer (or whisk, if you are fast and strong!). When it has thickened enough to hold stiff peaks, beat in the vanilla and bourbon (if using), and cover or partially cover the peanut butter filling with the whipped cream. Sprinkle the chopped peanuts over top and serve cold.

This is a delectably rich icebox pie that capitalizes on the perfect synergy of peanut butter and chocolate.  I brought mine to a show (hence the bad lighting for the photos--apologies!) and we enjoyed it late-night in January at the bar with beers and honky-tonk. It would also work just as well, though, at a summertime afternoon tea, or as a special treat at two nerdy kids; backyard living history demonstration...

It's An Old New England Custom...

...To eat pie for breakfast. Tay from Winooski, Vermont sent in these photos from the Rotary Pie For Breakfast at the Cambridge Winter Fest in the Lamoille Valley of Vermont. Here's what she had to say:

It was delicious, I had elderberry/apple, raspberry, pizza, and part of a slice of peanut butter pie.

Thanks for the photos Tay and for keeping the tradition alive!