A Recipe Gem from Tampa Treasures

After treating my father-in-law to sauerbraten and crumb cake (see previous posts), the pressure was on to come up with a gratifying Father's Day meal honoring the "World's Greatest Dad" in our house.  I picked up a few New York strip steaks at The Fresh Market and whipped up a chocolate peanut butter pie. I grilled the steaks and they were flavorful, but the star of this dinner was dessert.

Randomly pulling a cookbook off the shelf, I leafed through the Tampa Junior League's Tampa Treasures, a beautifully photographed cookbook I bought when I lived in Tampa in the early '90s.  I landed on this recipe because it's a million degrees outside and a chilled pie sounded refreshing; my husband loves peanut butter and just about anything with a graham cracker crust; and it contains chocolate.  Sounded like a winner to me. 

Considering it was the first time I made this recipe and I didn't screw it up, I thought you might like to make it this summer for the peanut butter lovers in your life.  The only thing I did differently was add shaved dark chocolate to the top.  You must prepare it ahead, so plan accordingly.  Also, if you don't have a double boiler, which I don't, just put the chocolate in a stainless steel bowl over a pan of simmering water, or melt it slowly in the microwave.

Chocolate Peanut Butter Pie

1 C graham cracker crumbs
3/4 C lightly salted peanuts, coarsely chopped
3/4 stick butter, melted
1/4 C sugar
6 ounces semi-sweet chocolate (I used 1/2 bag of chocolate chips)
3 ounces sour cream, room temperature
4 ounces cream cheese, softened
1 C sifted powder sugar
1 3/4 C heavy cream, divided
1 C smooth peanut butter
2 T vanilla extract

Night before:  Preheat oven to 450 degrees.  Combine crumbs, peanuts, sugar and butter; press into a 9-inch pie pan or springform pan.  Bake 7 minutes; cool.  Melt chocolate in top of double boiler over warm water; thoroughly beat in sour cream.  Pour chocolate mixture into crust; smooth; chill.  Beat cream cheese and powdered sugar until light and fluffy.  Add 1/4 cup cream, peanut butter and vanilla, combining well.

In chilled bowl with clean beaters, beat remaining cream until soft peaks form.  Stir one-third of cream into peanut butter mixture; gently, but thoroughly, fold in remaining cream.  Fill pie shell; refrigerate overnight.  Serve chilled.