The Great American Pie Tour

As Easy as Eating Pie

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As presented in Grafton's Valley Messenger. Read Latest Edition

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A friend of the Cold Brew Café confided in us he longs to drive across the United States, stop at all the diners along the road and just eat pie. Oh boy, what a great trip that would be! But, we thought, why go all the way to the States when we could do that for him right here in South Grafton! This is our tour of America’s most beloved food: pie.

Peanut Butter Pie

For every thought you have about peanut butter pie there IS a peanut butter pie! Were you thinking, ‘chocolate peanut butter pie’? Yes! ‘Peanut butter cup pie,’ yes, yes! Were you thinking ‘peanut butter chiffon with a chocolate curd’? Yes, yes, yes! Were you thinking simple, simple, simple? We were thinking that very same thing! Peanut butter pie comes in so many shapes and sizes were not sure where to start! So, first, let’s talk about the obscure origin of peanuts! This one is a circuitous trek!

The Incans of Peru utilized peanuts as sacrificed offerings and interred them with mummies to help in the afterlife as early as 1500 B.C. 1400 B.C. people in South America produced earthenware shaped like peanuts and used peanuts to decorate jars. To produce a drink, tribes in central Brazil also grind peanuts with maize.

Brazil is where peanuts were first found by European explorers. When the Spanish first started their expedition of the new world, peanuts were farmed as far north as Mexico. The peanuts were brought back by the explorers to Spain, where traders and adventurers spread them throughout Asia and Africa. Beginning in the 1700s, African Slaves were the first to bring peanuts to North America.

After the Civil War, when Union soldiers discovered how much they loved them, they brought them home and peanuts started gaining in popularity. This protein-rich diet was the main source of nutrition for both armies.

When PT Barnum's circus wagons toured the nation in the 1870s and street vendors shouted, "hot roasted peanuts!" to the spectators, peanut popularity increased again.

In 1895, the eventual “Cereal King”, John Harvey Kellogg was the first to patent peanut butter, an easily digestible paste for his patients at the Battle Creek Sanitarium. The public first purchased peanut butter in 1904 at the St. Louis World Fair.

Georgia claims the largest crop of peanuts and our peanut butter pie recipe originally hales from there.

We will be chopping peanuts…a lot of them! And using homemade peanut butter for our pie. We will try our favourite Nice Biscuit crust and our chocolate crust as well, to find, what we believe will be, the best Peanut Butter Pie! We hope you’ll join us at Cold Brew Café for this pie and other savouries and sweets.

Find us on Facebook @coldbrewcafeaustralia for our progress, "tips and secrets” and other updates in making chess pie. Search #greatamericanpietour to find our past posts and pies on the Great American Pie Tour and look for the final Chess Pie recipe in the next week’s printing of the Valley Messenger.

 

Peanut Butter Pie Recipe

The joy of this recipe is its ease, its shelf life, and its ability to be easily multiplied! One packet of Digestives will make two crusts. Refrigerated, this pie will last for days if you wait to put on the whipped topping. We use the creme fraiche in the whipped topping as a stabiliser, and it gives a lovely flavour, but it is optional. With a stand mixer this is the easiest pie! With a hand mixer a bit time consuming but still very do-able.

Crust

200g Digestives (½ packet)
3 tablespoons (37g) sugar
⅛ teaspoon salt
5 tablespoons (71g) Butter

Method

Adjust oven rack to lower-middle position and heat oven to 160 ℃.
Process digestives in food processor until finely ground, about 30 seconds (you should have about 11⁄4 cups crumbs). Add sugar and salt and pulse to combine. Add melted butter and pulse until mixture resembles wet sand.
Transfer crumbs to 9-inch pie plate. Press crumbs evenly into bottom and up sides of plate. Bake until crust is lightly browned, 15 to 18 minutes. Allow crust to cool completely.

Filling

3⁄4 cup (44g) confectioners' sugar
3⁄4 cup (180g) creamy peanut butter
171g cream cheese, softened
¼ cup heavy cream

Method

Whip 3/4 cup cream on medium-low speed until foamy, about 1 minute. Increase speed to high and whip until stiff peaks form, 1 to 3 minutes.

Using stand mixer fitted with whisk, mix 3/4 cup confectioners’ sugar, peanut butter, cream cheese, and cream on low speed until combined, about 1 minute. Increase speed to medium-high and whip until fluffy, about 1 minute. Transfer to large bowl; set aside. Gently fold whipped cream into peanut butter mixture in 2 additions until no white streaks remain. Spoon filling into crust and spread into even layer.

Whipped Topping:

¾ cup pure cream
2 tablespoons confectioners’ sugar
2 tablespoons creme fraiche

Method

In clean-empty mixing bowl whip, add ingredients and mix on medium-low speed until foamy, about 1 minute. Increase speed to high and whip until stiff peaks form, 1 to 3 minutes. Spread whipped cream evenly over filling. Refrigerate until set, about 2 hours.
Sprinkle with 3 tablespoons fine chopped peanuts. ENJOY.

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