Individual Peanut Butter and Jelly Pies

If you read the last post, you saw solution number one to Hoosband's peanut-butter-pie deprivation issues: Individual Peanut-Butter S'mores Pies.

Today I present variation number two: Individual Peanut Butter and Jelly Pies.

Not exactly a novel concept, but easy and delicious all the same.

I have to admit, growing up I was never a fan of the peanut-butter-and-jelly combo. Peanut-butter-and-honey sandwiches were the pride of my lunchbox--no jelly allowed.

But somehow, over the years, as I've sampled variations on the PB and J (especially variations that include chocolate) I've grown to find the combo not only appealing but down right addictive.

This recipe layers strawberry jelly, simple peanut-butter-custard filling, and easy chocolate ganache in homemade graham-cracker crusts to create perfectly portioned pies that effortlessly elevate a childhood favorite to something truly party worthy.

Individual Peanut Butter and Jelly Pies
2 cups graham cracker crumbs (preferably homemade)
2 T dark brown sugar or coconut palm sugar
3 T melted butter
1/3 cup strawberry jelly
1 (14 oz) can sweetened condensed milk
1/3 cup peanut butter (I used Jiff Natural)
2 egg yolks (the whites can be frozen and thawed for later use if desired)
1/2 cup heavy whipping cream
1/2 cup dark chocolate chips (I used Guittard Extra Dark)


Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit and line a 12-cup, standard-sized muffin pan with muffin liners.

Use a fork to thoroughly combine the crust ingredients. Divide the mixture evenly among the prepared cups, and use your fingers to press the mixture firmly into the bottoms and up the sides of the liners. Place a rounded teaspoon of jelly into the bottom of each prepared crust (use the bottom of the spoon to gently spread out the jelly blob if desired). Set aside.

In another bowl, whisk together the condensed milk, peanut butter, and egg yolks until very thoroughly combined. Divide the mixture evenly among the prepared crusts, and bake at 350 degrees Fahrenheit for 20 minutes. Remove from the oven and allow to cool completely.

While the pies are cooling, place the heavy whipping cream in a two-cup, microwave-safe bowl or Pyrex measuring cup. Microwave on high for one minute. Add the chocolate chips and stir until completely smooth--this will take a few minutes. Divide the chocolate mixture evenly among the pies and allow to cool completely at room temperature before placing in airtight containers to store in the fridge. The pies will keep, stored this way, for up to one week.

Makes 12 Individual Peanut Butter and Jelly Pies.

Thanks for reading! Here's to Being the Secret Ingredient in your life.

Chocolate-Covered Strawberry Cream Tart Cookies

The Setting: A lovely Valentine's Eve in chilly Indiana.

The Soundtrack: Gilmore Girls, season 5.

Steaming up the Oven: Bread.

The Scenario: A bite-sized treat to make your V-Day extra sweet.

So I've been fantasizing about these little tarts for a while now.

Initially, they were conceived more as mini-tarts than tart-like cookies. The cream layer was conceived as pastry cream, and the jam layer was supposed to be homemade strawberry jam.

I'm not gonna lie, the original concept still sounds pretty darn good.

But when it came time to finally give these little guys a shot, I couldn't find my pastry cream recipe, and I was was all out of homemade jam. I considered making more jam and going from spotty memory on the pastry cream, but store-bought jam and a no-fool, no-cook cream just sounded, well, easier.

The end result was a more cookie-like creation that could hang out longer at room temperature and be eaten with a few fewer napkins. I'll call that a win.

Chocolate-Covered Strawberry Cream Tart Cookies
These little cookie tarts use the same cream filling as my Homemade Oreos and Homemade Oatmeal Creme Pies. For a different twist, try adding the seeds of a vanilla bean to the filling and substituting orange marmalade for the strawberry jam. 

~tart shells~
1 2/3 cups all-purpose flour
7 T powdered sugar
1 tsp fine salt
1 1/2 sticks (12 T) unsalted butter, cut into cm-sized cubes and frozen for at least 5 minutes
2 T heavy cream
2-4 T water, milk, or coconut milk

~fillings~
1 batch Oatmeal Creme Pie cream, shaped into a log with a 1 1/2-to-2-inch diameter
3/4 cup strawberry jam

~topping~
3/4 cup heavy whipping cream
1 T coconut oil
1 T light corn syrup
1 cup semisweet chocolate chips (I used Nestle)
2 T chopped unsweetened chocolate (I used Ghirardelli)

To make the tart shells, process the flour, powdered sugar, and salt together in a food processor. Add the butter pieces and pulse until the mixture is sandy-looking and the largest clumps are roughly pea-sized. Turn the processor on, remove the shoot insert, and gradually pour the cream through the shoot. With the machine still on, gradually add just enough of the remaining liquid to begin to bring the dough together. Turn the dough out onto a piece of very lightly floured parchment paper and press it into a disk. Wrap the disk of dough in the parchment and refrigerate for 20 minutes.

Line three standard-sized muffin tins with paper liners and preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.

Unwrap the dough and sprinkle with a little flour if the dough seems too sticky. Place another sheet of parchment on top, and use a rolling pin to roll the dough out between the two sheets of parchment until it is about 1/8-1/4-inch thick. Use a cookie cutter or drinking glass to cut out 2 1/2-to-3-inch circles.

Press the dough circles firmly into the prepared muffin liners so that the edges come 1/4-to-1/2 inch up the sides, and prick the bottoms all over with a fork.

Bake one pan at a time at 350 for 12-14 minutes or till just cooked through and very lightly golden, rotating halfway through. Carefully transfer the tart shells to a cooling rack to cool completely.

To fill the tart shells, use unflavored dental floss to slice 1/4-inch-thick rounds of the Oatmeal Creme Pie Cream. Gently press the cream rounds into the tart shells, using your fingers to spread the cream out a little if necessary.

Top each cream-filled shell with a teaspoon-sized dollop of jam, using your fingers to spread it out evenly. If you decide to use my homemade jam recipe, the jam will be a little gushier and easier to spread with a spoon rather than your fingers.

To make the fudgy topping, place the cream and coconut oil in a microwave safe bowl and microwave for 1 minute. Add the chocolate and corn syrup, and stir until completely smooth. If there are some chunks of chocolate that still haven't melted after about three minutes of stirring, microwave  for 10 seconds and stir until completely smooth.

Let the mixture cool for about two minutes, stirring occasionally to keep it smooth and fluid. Use a spoon to gently apply an even layer of the chocolate mixture on top of the jam layer. Allow the topping to set at room temperature for 1 hour before serving. Leftover topping can be refrigerated for up to 2 weeks and eaten with a spoon whenever the chocolate craving strikes, or gently reheated and used as an ice-cream topping.

Makes about 36 cookie tarts.

Thanks for reading! Here's to Being the Secret Ingredient in your life.

Jimmie's Chocolate Shop PB&J

The Setting: A kitchen frenzy.

The Soundtrack: Not even sure.

On the Stovetop: Brownies...Strawberry Jam...various components of what should be Peanut-Butter Mousse....

The Scenario: Paying homage to a delicious dessert from my favorite Florida chocolate shop.

I have literally been dreaming about this for months.

When we were living in Florida, I pretty much could not drive down the Dania Beach stretch of US-1 without stopping into Jimmies Chocolates for a chocolate-covered marzipan and a handmade truffle or two.

It wasn't until my last trip to Jimmie's, however, that I finally dined at Jimmie's Cafe.

Knowing my love of chocolate was as big as my nine-months-pregnant belly, Hoosband surprised me with Jimmie's dinner reservations for my birthday.

Our appetizer and entrees were delicious, but the desserts, not surprisingly, stole the show.

One in particular, a rich chocolate torte layered with sweet strawberry jelly and creamy peanut-butter mousse, doused in decadent dark chocolate ganache, has been haunting me ever since.

This, finally, is my attempt, slightly more freeform and sans snazzy ring molds.

It starts with a fudgy brownie--not my recipe, my favorite from Martha Stewart's Baking Handbook (Martha's is my ultimate brownie go-to, but I'm sure your favorite recipe for fudgy--not cakey--brownies would be perfect, too!).

Pouring the batter into a 12-cup, standard-sized muffin pan instead of a brownie pan and cutting down the cooking time to 25-30 minutes makes 12 perfect little canvases for a peanut-butter masterpiece. The centers cave in, creating eager and receptive wells for the jelly.

I used muffin liners this time, but I'll omit them and butter the muffin cups when I do this again. The liners can be a bit of a hassle to remove before assembly of the dessert.

You could just buy strawberry jelly, but if you have a Vitamix or similarly awesome blender, this homemade jam is both simple and scrumptious. 

Strawberry Jam
The pectin in the apple seeds thickens and gels the mixture as it cools. You really need a beast of a blender to process the seeds and skins of the apples into oblivion for a pleasant texture. If you don't have one, you could always strain the jelly over cheesecloth after cooking--you will want to use cheesecloth so that you can squeeze excess juice out of the pulp...or you could simply omit the apples and use commercial pectin.

2 large apples, washed and quartered (do not remove skins or seeds)
2 cups frozen strawberries
1 1/2 cups sugar

Process the apples in the blender on high speed until they resemble applesauce. Add the frozen strawberries and process on high speed until the mixture looks like a smooth strawberry sorbet.

Transfer the mixture to a medium-sized saucepan and add sugar. Cook on med-high heat for 30 minutes, stirring occasionally. Use a splatter guard if desired. Reduce heat to med-low and cook one hour, stirring occasionally.

Cool completely and transfer to an airtight plastic container to store in the fridge for up to two weeks.

The next step is peanut-butter mousse... or semifreddo... or... frozen custard?

Let's just say the idea was mousse, but it sort of became more of an ice cream along the way...which is fine 'cause it's pretty darn tasty and cute to boot. Just use an ice-cream scoop to place the perfect mound of peanut-buttery goodness atop the jam.

The mousse idea may be revisited in future attempts, but for now....

Peanut-Butter Mousse-ifreddo

4 large eggs, separated

1/2 cup granulated sugar, divided

1/4 tsp kosher salt

1 tsp pure vanilla extract

1/4 cup peanut butter

1/8 tsp cream of tartar

1/4 cup heavy whipping cream

Whisk yolks with 1/4 cup sugar and salt over a double boiler till light in color and thick and creamy in texture, about 10 minutes. Place in an ice bath to cool.

Stir in peanut butter. Mixture may seize up a bit.

Whip egg whites with 1/4 sugar and 1/8 tsp cream of tartar over double boiler till stiff peaks form. Place in a water bath to cool.

Gently whisk 1/4 of the meringue into peanut butter mixture, and then very gently fold in the rest.

Whip cream till stiff peaks form and fold into the peanut butter mixture. Transfer the mixture to an airtight plastic container, and stash in the freezer for at least one hour, stirring after 30 minutes. The "mousse" can be stored in the freezer for two weeks.

The crowning glory is the perfect marriage of chocolate and cream known as ganache. Mine is as easy to make as it is to devour.

Chocolate Ganache

1/2 cup heavy whipping cream

1/8 tsp instant coffee or instant espresso granules (not ground coffee)

6 oz mini semisweet chocolate chips

Place cream in a microwave-safe cup or bowl. Microwave on high for 60 seconds.

Stir in instant coffee.

Place chocolate chips in a mixing bowl. Pour cream over chips and whisk until smooth and uniform.

Cooled ganache can be stored in an airtight container in the fridge for two weeks and microwaved for 30 seconds to be spoonable again.