The Daily Times

I have seen a host of peanut butter pie recipes in my cookbook adventures and most of them are close to the same. I really like today’s version due to the addition of the chocolate and the peanuts. It isn’t a difficult pie to prepare; it simply requires patience and timing. It’s worth it.

You might consider adding peaches and cream mold to your holiday menu. Like the pie, it can be done at least a day ahead.

There’s no reason not to use a cake mix for novelty cakes such as the pumpkin spice cake. Save your time consuming ‘from scratch’ cakes for red velvet, German chocolate, Italian cream and the like. If every cake I made had to be ‘from scratch’ we would eat a lot of cookies. Don’t make the caramel icing on a rainy day and plan to spend some time with it. The end result is so delicious.

Chocolate Peanut butter Pie

1 cup graham cracker crumbs

1⁄3 cup honey roasted peanuts, very finely chopped

6 tablespoons butter, melted

11⁄2 cups whipping cream, divided

1 (14 ounce) can sweetened condensed milk, divided

11⁄2 cups semi sweet chocolate chips

2 (3 ounce) packages cream cheese, at room temperature

3⁄4 cup creamy peanut butter

Chopped honey roasted peanuts for garnish

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a medium bowl, whisk together the crumbs, nuts and butter. Press the mixture firmly into the bottom and up the sides of a 9-inch pie pan. Bake the pie crust until a tiny bit of color shows around the edges. It isn’t necessary to brown completely. Chill while preparing the next layer.

Microwave 1⁄2 cup whipping cream 2 minutes. Stir in chocolate chips and blend until melted. Add 1⁄2 cup sweetened condensed milk and blend thoroughly. Cool; then pour into the chilled crust. Return to the refrigerator. Chill one hour or until the chocolate layer is firm.

In a medium bowl, beat remaining condensed milk, cream cheese and peanut butter until well blended and smooth.

In a medium bowl, beat remaining whipping cream until stiff peaks form. Fold whipping cream into the peanut butter mixture one-third at a time. Spoon mixture over the chocolate layer. Sprinkle with additional chopped peanuts, cover loosely and chill 2 hours.

Peaches and Cream Salad

2 (3-ounce) packages peach Jell-O

13⁄4 cups boiling water

1 cup ice water

1⁄2 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 (29-ounce) can sliced peaches, coarsely chopped and very well drained (May substitute 2 (16-ounce) packages frozen peaches or fresh peaches)

1 (8-ounce) carton Cool Whip

Combine gelatin and boiling water. Stir until completely dissolved. Add ice water, cover with plastic warp and chill until the mixture is the consistency of egg whites. Whisk until smooth then fold cool whip into the Jell-O mixture one-third at a time. Stir in the peaches. Line a mold with plastic wrap. Spoon mixture into the lined mold. Cover with plastic wrap and chill until firm. Unmold onto a serving platter, garnish with peach slices.

Pumpkin Spice Cake with Caramel Icing

1 Duncan Hines spice cake mix

1⁄2 cup melted butter

1⁄2 cup half and half

3 eggs

1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice

1 cup pumpkin puree

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 (3.4 ounce) box Jell-O vanilla instant pudding mix

Grease, flour and line with waxed paper a 9x13 baking pan. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Add all ingredients to the cake mix and mix gently until well blended. Turn the mixer to medium speed and beat exactly two minutes. Bake 35 to 40 minutes or until a cake tester inserted into the center comes out clean. Cool completely.

Caramel Icing

16 ounces light brown sugar

1 cup granulated sugar

1 cup evaporated milk

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 stick butter at room temperature

In a heavy saucepan, bring sugars and milk to full boil stirring constantly. Boil, without stirring, exactly 5 minutes or to 232 degrees on a candy thermometer. Remove from heat, add butter and vanilla. Cool to room temperature. Beat until the mixture loses its gloss and begins to mound when dropped from the mixing spoon. Quickly, spread over cake. The icing will harden as it cools.