Peanut Butter Pie With Chocolate Ganache

Total Time: 5 hrs 38 mins Preparation Time: 30 mins Cook Time: 5 hrs 8 mins

Ingredients

• Servings: 12
• 1 1/2 cups chocolate wafer crumbs
• 1/3 cup butter or 1/3 cup margarine, melted
• 1/2 cup whipping cream
• 1 (8 ounce) package cream cheese
• 1 cup smooth peanut butter
• 2 tablespoons soft butter
• 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
• 1 cup icing sugar (no lumps)
• 6 ounces bittersweet chocolate (usually imported)
• 1/2 cup whipping cream
• 6 miniature peanut butter cups, halved

Recipe

• 1 preheat oven to 350°f.
• 2 make crust first.
• 3 in a small bowl, combine crumbs and melted butter and then pat into a 9" pie plate.
• 4 bake until firm and solid; 8 minutes.
• 5 let cool.
• 6 now make filling.
• 7 in medium-sized bowl, whip cream.
• 8 place in fridge until you need it.
• 9 now, in a large bowl, beat softened cream cheese until fluffy.
• 10 next, beat in peanut butter, then butter and vanilla.
• 11 beat in icing sugar until nice and fluffy.
• 12 retrieve whipping cream from fridge.
• 13 fold about one-quarter of the cream into mixture to lighten it up, then fold in remainder of cream.
• 14 use a light hand-- but you don't want any streaks of cream to show either.
• 15 fill baked crust with peanut butter mixture.
• 16 cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate until it firms up, about 3 hours.
• 17 to make chocolate ganache topping, finely chop chocolate bar (you can substitute 6 squares of semisweet bakers chocolate) and place in a small bowl.
• 18 in a small pot, heat cream just until bubbles form.
• 19 pour over chocolate and stir until chocolate melts.
• 20 let cool, then spread over pie.
• 21 take the 12 miniature-peanut-butter-cup halves and arrange them evenly around the edge of the pie.
• 22 i tilt them so the inside shows.
• 23 cover and refrigerate at least 2 hours before serving; i always make this a day ahead.