A Creamy Peanut Butter Pie for Mikey
(And Jennifer, and their girls.)
The internet let out a collective sob this week as news came of the sudden death of the husband of a fellow food writer and blogger, Jennifer Perillo. She had been tweeting last Sunday morning about preserves, putting up marinara sauce and plans for summer holidays. That afternoon, he was gone. It was a shocking and sad reminder of how fragile life is, and how any of our worlds can change in a minute. And we don’t always see it coming.
The flurry of love and support from the food community made me proud and teary and happy – everyone longed to do what they could. And so with heavy hearts, bakers all over the world are making peanut butter pies today in memory of Mikey – a request Jennie made, that as she spends Friday reflecting on the love and life that was gone in an instant, we all celebrate life by baking Mikey’s favourite pie and hugging the ones we love. Done.
When you can’t do anything else, you can bake a pie.
Funny – it’s almost the same peanut butter pie I requested for my birthday last year, and that my Mikey made for me. (I think his looks better than mine, actually.) I haven’t topped it with chocolate and peanuts yet – it’s destined to come along to a barbecue tonight with good friends we haven’t seen in far too long, and we need to stop for prosecco and peanuts on the way. (It seems fitting to post this quickly and get on over to share it with friends.)
Food Network has posted a round-up of the hundreds of pies that are being baked today with Mikey and Jen and their daughters in hearts and thoughts. Lots of great words are accompanying those pies. I wish I could come up with better words. I think they’ve all been said.
Tod and Diane created a beautiful video. One of the best I’ve seen.
And as I type, W is intermittently crawling into my lap with books he’s learning to read, and reading to me. Those are important words. That’s the whole point.
I didn’t have chocolate cookie crumbs, but did have a couple sleeves of those oatmeal peanut butter Pirate sandwich cookies – W asked for them for our car trip, but they didn’t get eaten. Perfect. Blitzed them in the food processor with some melted butter. All you need are crumbs and enough butter (or oil) to hold them together if you squeeze the crumbs in your hands.
I didn’t have icing sugar either, but sweetened condensed milk is plenty sweet, so added 1/4 cup regular sugar instead. It worked just fine.
You can find Jennie’s original recipe at her website.
Creamy Peanut Butter Pie
1 1/2 cups chocolate or graham cookie crumbs
1/4 cup butter, melted
1/2 cup finely chopped chocolate or semi-sweet chocolate chips
1 cup whipping cream
8 oz cream cheese, at room temp.
1 cup creamy peanut butter
1/4 cup sugar
1 – 14 oz can sweetened condensed milk
1 tsp vanilla extractchocolate shavings or sauce and chopped salted peanuts, for garnish
In a small bowl, stir together the cookie crumbs and butter; press into the bottom and up the sides of a pie plate or 9-inch springform pan.
Melt the chocolate in the microwave or a small bowl, and pour over the bottom of the crust. Refrigerate it while you make the filling.
Beat the cream until stiff peaks form; set aside. Place the cream cheese and peanut butter in a deep bowl and beat on medium speed until light and fluffy. Beat in the sugar, sweetened condensed milk and vanilla, beating until the filling is smooth.
Gently fold 1/3 of the whipped cream into the filling mixture, then fold in the remaining whipped cream. Pour the filling over the crust and refrigerate for three hours or overnight before serving topped with chocolate and crushed peanuts. Serves 8-10 friends.
August 12 2011 06:05 pm | dessert
Peanut Butter Pie for Jennifer's Mikey - Sass & Veracity — Sass & Veracity on 12 Aug 2011 at 6:53 pm #
[...] Dinner with Julie [...]
Laurie from Burnaby on 12 Aug 2011 at 10:50 pm #
How sad to lose a loved one. We’re still reeling from the loss of Derek K Miller, here. Much love to those who cared about him.
Natalie on 13 Aug 2011 at 10:29 am #
I prefer crushed gluten-free cookies, but chocolate or graham cookie are ok too
Anita on 13 Aug 2011 at 11:36 am #
What a sweet and thoughtful tribute.
natalie - ga on 13 Aug 2011 at 2:03 pm #
so sad…. hugs!
erin on 14 Aug 2011 at 8:05 pm #
My sympathy to Jennifer and her family. Thank you for this post, Julie, it made me run downstairs to kiss my husband and hug my boys a little closer.
Cheryl on 16 Aug 2011 at 2:49 pm #
This pie is so addictive. I can see why it was Mikey’s favourite, and your own request.