The Best Father's Day Menu: Part 1

If you haven't already noticed, we encourage dessert first ;) So, it is only fitting for me to start this blog off with a dessert!

For those of you who didn't realize, this past Sunday was Father's Day :) Thankfully, Seth's and my parents are actually friends, which makes holidays like this one much easier. Instead of splitting our time after church into very small and stressful chunks between the two families, they are both able to come over to enjoy a meal and some laughter :) The meal was specifically designed by my hubby to fit the manly men that are our fathers. He will be covering the actual meal in Part 2.

My father-in-law has what may be the world's biggest sweet tooth. Anything with sugar is his thing :) However, what he really likes is anything made from peanut butter and chocolate. So, the best dessert for the occasion was Chocolate Peanut Butter Pie. 

Ingredients:

Crust

12 pieces of chocolate graham cracker

6 TB butter

Filling

1 C cream cheese

2/3 C peanut butter (we use creamy)

4 TB sugar

3/4 C whipping cream

Topping

2 TB sugar

2 TB butter

2 oz semi-sweet chocolate

1/2 C whipping cream

To start, you are going to need to turn your graham crackers into dust. I like to break it into little pieces and pulse it in our food processor, but you can definitely also crush it by hand. Whichever way you do it, it should end up looking like this:

After you've made the crumbs, melt the butter and mix it together. Once it's all stuck together, press it into a 9-inch pie pan. After it's all spread out, bake it in the oven at 350 for 8-10 minutes. It'll look like this:

For the filling, beat the cream cheese, peanut butter and sugar until well-blended. At the same time, use the whipping cream to make whipped cream. Using a standing mixer, whisk the cream at high speed until thick enough to hold a shape. Once the cream had been whipped, fold it into the peanut butter mixture until the filling is creamy and light-colored. Spread the filling into the pie shell evenly. Here's a picture so you can see the color and consistency.

For the topping, put the cream and sugar into a sauce pan and heat. Stir until sugar is dissolved and cream starts to boil. Lower the heat immediately until cream is only simmering and leave it for 5-6 minutes. Take it off the burner and add the butter and chocolate, stirring until melted. Let cool.

Once the topping has thickened slightly, pour it on top of the filling and spread it to the edges if necessary. Chill uncovered for several hours. 

This pie was delicious! Unfortunately, I was a little too impatient and I didn't let the pie set enough. But it was still delicious. It has the perfect peanut butter-to-chocolate ratio and tasted just like a Reese Cup. So, don't get nervous about whether or not the pie will be firm, because you really can't ruin this pie!