Out of all of the pies that I've made to date, none of them impressed my friend Kevin. They were all relatively good, but none stood out for him. It turns out that he doesn't eat fruits except watermelons. I can't make a pie out of that! So I bluntly asked him one day: "What do you want?" He wanted a chocolate peanut butter pecan pie. I kept thinking of the word 'heavy' over and over. I had my doubts but I had a game plan. After a few weeks of trial and error, I came up with...
...Peanut Butter Chocolate Mousse Pie with Hazelnuts!
The crust consists of chocolate cookie crumbs and butter, lined with a mixture of peanut butter, almond milk, and crushed hazelnuts, topped with chocolate mousse. It's not too sweet nor it is heavy but it tasted great! I don't know how to decorate this pie without garnishing with chocolate flakes or whipping cream, none of which I'd add. It literally looks like a chocolate swirly (pun fully intended). I like this pie but it definitely isn't my favorite. Nothing beats the apple pie!
Many of my guy friends including Kevin, however, loved it! Obviously, they don't care how it looks but they thought it was the best pie I've made to date. It was so good that Kevin bought one.
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| Yes, he ate all but one slice. |
I've never made a cookie crust or a mousse prior to this, so I'm glad this turned out well. What I really like is the fact that I can make it in an hour. Below is the recipe:
Crust:
-1/4 cup of cold melted butter
-1 1/4 cup of chocolate cookie crumbs
Chocolate Mousse:
-150g bittersweet chocolate
-140mL (1/2 cup + 1 tbsp) egg white
-1 tbsp sugar
-Dash of cayenne pepper
Peanut Sauce:
-1/4 cup + 3 tbsp smooth peanut butter
-1/4 cup + 1 tbsp Silk almond milk
-100g hazelnuts
Crust:
1. Preheat the oven at 375°F.
2. Melt the butter using a double boiler to ensure it doesn't burn. Turn down the heat if needed.
3. Put the melted butter in the fridge for 5 minutes. If it's too warm, the crumbs will stick to your hands.
4. Mix the cookie crumbs with the butter and transfer it evenly on a 9" pie plate.
5. Bake the crust for 8 minutes before taking it out and let it cool.
Chocolate Mousse:
6. Add sugar to egg white and mix.
7. Whip the egg white until soft peaks form.*
8. Melt the chocolate using a double boiler and add in with cayenne pepper. This can be done at the same time as step 7. Water should not be boiling but warm enough to melt the chocolate.
9. Mix 1/3 of the egg white with the melted chocolate.**
10. Fold in the rest of egg white in the chocolate one scoop at a time. You may need to re-whip the egg white if it's turning into liquid.
Peanut Sauce:
11. Crush the hazelnuts with a ziploc bag and a rolling pin.
12. Mix the peanut butter with almond milk until very smooth.
13. Add hazelnuts to peanut butter and stir.
Final Steps:
14. Add peanut sauce to the crust.
15. Add the chocolate mousse and decorate it.
16. Leave the pie in the fridge for a couple of hours. Take it out and let it sit for 20 minutes before serving.***
*When whipping egg white, you'll incorporate air better and faster if you rotate the whisk around the horizontal axis. If you rotate it around the vertical axis, you're just mixing the egg white and not incorporating air. Soft peaks are formed when there's a peak at the end of the whisk but droops.
**Melted chocolate will turn into a clump if too little egg white comes into contact. Mix in too much egg white and you'll have a thinner layer of mousse. 1/3 of egg white should be sufficient to work with the melted chocolate and turn it into a mousse.
***If you don't let the pie sit for at least 20 minutes in room temperature after taking it out of the fridge, this is what's gonna happen...
Your veins will pop out trying to lift the close-to-frozen cookie crust out of the plate and the slice will look like a mess.
In case you were wondering why I used hazelnuts instead of pecans: I'm cheap but hey, hazelnuts go better with chocolate than pecans!
