I’m Not Pie-ing, We’re Officially A Nut House

Birthdays!!! Mother’s Day!!! So many things to celebrate all at once. And though this may seem like a repeat from my post of the peanut butter ball mini cake from a couple of weeks ago, what better way to celebrate then overdosing on peanutty-goodness?

It was Kevin’s birthday recently, and this year it was decided that we’d do a combined mother’s day and birthday celebration. Yeah! A reason to bake something a little larger and know that it will likely be mostly consumed! Unless it’s a total disaster, at which point I would’ve either wept while tossing it in the compost (sacrilege I tell you, sacrilege. Although at least in the compost there’s a good chance it would still be enjoyed by garbage pandas (aka raccoons for the non-Torontonians among us)), or had to endure a bunch of people making pity faces and saying things like “No – it’s really good, I swear! I’m just, you know, full from dinner or whatever”, or perhaps “Oh, I forgot until I took the first bite that I’ve decided not to eat sugar for a few weeks. I weirdly just decided on that at this exact minute. Totally unrelated I swear.” Who needs that kind of stress?

I am a lover of all things pie. Kevin on the other hand, is more stereotypically a lover of all things cake. Star-crossed lovers I know, it’s a miracle we’ve been making it work for almost 16 years 😉 . Anywho, selfishly this year I was trying to find a way to “trick” him into pie instead of cake for his birthday. Little did I know the level of enthusiasm with which my suggestion would be met (yes, you’re correct if you asked yourself whether I recrafted that sentence after the fact so that I wasn’t ending it with a preposition. You are an astute observer and I give you the head nod of grammatical approval). I had totally thought I’d have to create an airtight argument on the level of a lawyer trying to acquit a client for whom there was actual video evidence of them committing the crime (possibly also so damning as to have them saying something like “here I am, so-and-so, committing the heinous crime you see happening right now in real time. FYI – I am not to be confused with so-and-so, who may have the same name as me, but is nowhere near as dastardly”). Hopefully I’ve given you a taste of the level of convincing I thought would be required.

So what was this mystery dessert I planned on using to convince him you ask? (I’m sure you’re not really asking, since I’m obviously talking about the item seen in these photos, but for my sake, just pretend you don’t know 😉 ) Think pecan pie, but instead of pecans, peanuts and peanut butter. And instead of just peanuts, peanut butter (and sugar of course), why not throw in a little (read: a lot) of chopped chocolate just for added razzle-dazzle?

The one downside of making things like this though is that I don’t really get to test it before other people try it (I mean, if it was your birthday, and someone came out with your birthday cake/pie etc. and it was missing a piece, you’d probably feel a bit ripped-off right? Although possible future solution is to just tell everyone that I made them a Pac-Man cake/pie 😉 ), so I always get a little nervous at the first cut (in case it all falls apart or it turns out it wasn’t totally baked in the center). Luckily, no tragedy occurred this time around! (and I was a little nervous, because both this, and pecan-type pies are supposed to come out of the oven while they’re still a bit “jiggly” – think Homer Simpson running on the treadmill:

– with the intention of them setting up completely as they cool. A watched pie never sets though, so I just closed my eyes and ran away, hoping for the best).

Pie-nally, a pie that brings Kevin and I together in dessert matrimony. Makes me want to renew my vows just so we can eat this again 😉 .