The Monstrosity That is the Peanut Butter Cookie Pie!

I experiment in the kitchen.... a lot.   But as I have mentioned before, some recipes are just too good to tinker with.  For example, the Toll House Pie from the back of the Nestle bag is great.  I've tried tinkering with it a bit in an attempt to make the pie bigger and better, but honestly, it's best the way it is.

For a Chocolate Chip Pie, that recipe is great... but it gave me a little bit of inspiration.  What if we wanted a different type of cookie?  Like maybe a peanut butter cookie?  We can use the same measurements for the base ingredients, but why not give it a completely different flavor.

And in the process, I created a monster...  As you can tell from the picture, it grew a little... OK, it grew a LOT, to where is almost poured over the edges.  The cookie actually swelled to the point where almost all of the Oreo cookie crust was hidden.  I know it looks like a cookie, but that's a 9 1/2 inch wide cookie!  If you use butter in this recipe, it will swell to this size when it's fresh out of the oven, but then collaspe a bit.  That because butter has a lower melting point, so it won't resolidify until later in the cooling process, when the sheer weight of the pie causes it to collapse upon itself.  If you use butter flavored shortening, it melts later in the process, still hefts up to the size, but then will keep most of it's size when it cools down.

I used chunky peanut butter, because I like the peanut texture, but creamy works just as well.  You do have the option of adding chocolate chips, because, well, chocolate was born to mix with peanut butter.  But if you decide to add them, just use 1/2 cup since the peanut butter is the star of this dish.  I also added a little vanilla to lighten the heaviness of the peanut butter.


I'm currently experimenting with an Oatmeal Raisin, Snickerdoodle, and Chocolate Mint Cookie Pie, which I will post when I have them perfected.  But if you can think of another option, feel free to e-mail your suggestion to thatmeanswegetpie@gmail.com and I will make an attempt.

Peanut Butter Cookie Pie

Crust
1 package Oreo Cookies
1 stick (8 tablespoons) of butter

Filling
2 large eggs
1/2 cup flour
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
3/4 cup or 1 1/2 sticks of butter or butter flavored shortening, brought to room temperature
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup chunky peanut butter
1/2 cup chocolate chips (optional)
1 unbaked 9 inch pie crust

Preheat your oven to 325 degrees.

Scrape the filling off of the Oreos and place the the cookies in a large Ziploc bag. Eat discarded filling…if you really want to. Crush the cookies in the bag to your desired consistency, somewhere between very small chunks to almost powdered. Melt the butter in a saucepan over medium heat. Once butter is melted, add the cookies and stir until the cookies soak up the butter. Scoop the mixture into a pie plate and press the mixture flat until the entire plate is covered. Bake the crust in a 325 degree oven for 10 minutes, then set aside to cool while you make the filling.

Beat the eggs in a large mixing bowl until they are foamy.  Add the sugars and beat on high speed until they become creamy.  Add the flour gradually until it is incorporated.  Add the butter and beat it again until it's well blended.  Stir in the chunky peanut butter until completely mixed in.  Scoop the mixture into the pie crust and smooth out.  If you want, drag a large fork across the top of the pie to create that customary criss-cross design.

Bake in the 325 degree oven for 55-60 minutes or until you insert a toothpick and it comes out with very little cookie dough attached.

Serve warm with some whipped cream or a scoop of vanilla ice cream.  Try drizzling some chocolate sauce or some hot fudge over it all.

The Toll House Cookie Pie: Don't mess with perfection

The Toll House Pie... absolute perfection.

Go grab a big old bag of Nestle's Toll House Morsels and look on the back.  Besides the recipe for the cookies, there's a recipe for the Toll House Pie.  It's a cookie, it's a pie... the person who first concocted the idea was a genius.  The chips settle to the bottom and create a loose chocolate layer interlaced with the dough.  Spoon a little bit of whipped cream or a scoop of premium vanilla ice cream on top and you have heaven on a plate.  It's simple and downright delicious.

Now I'm all for experimentation.  Nothing's better than playing around with the ingredients and coming up with a bigger and better pie recipe.  I've done that with the Peppermint Fudge Pie, and the plethora of cream pies, and the mini-pies, and the Peanut Butter Cup Pie. And with certain recipes, you think you can make it better.   Sometimes you look at it and say, "I wonder if I can improve it by doing..."

In this case of Toll House Pie, you would be wrong.

While cooking can be an art form, baking is more of a science. And this pie is much more like baking a cookie than it is about building a pie filling.  Experimenting with the mixture in a baked item can have drastic consequences.  Make one little mistake in the experiment and it doesn't turn out the way you planned.  Maybe it doesn't rise.  Maybe it's too dry or it's so runny that is spills all over the plate.  So after some testing, I can honestly say that you just don't want to mess with this recipe if you want a great chocolate chip cookie pie.

And I'm not alone.  Do a Google Search for Toll House Pie Recipe or Chocolate Chip Cookie Pie recipe.  Almost every single one of them is identical to this one, unless they suggest you squeeze a tube of pre-fab cookie dough into a pie crust.  If you live in Utah, you know that the Dodo restaurant has an awesome Toll House Pie.   Do a Google search for "Dodo Toll House Pie Recipe" and according to a number of the other food blogs out there, the recipe that they use is the exact same as the one on the bag, except the portions are  larger.  Their filling is very loose, and I believe that is due to a shorter cooking time.  If you want that consistency, reduce the cooking time by 5-7 minutes.

Beyond that, why try to mess with Chocolate Chip Perfection?  Let's use Nestle's recipe.

Now that doesn't mean that we can't vary it a bit to create different types of cookie pies, like a Peanut Butter Cookie Pie or an Oatmeal Raisin Cookie Pie... but those recipes will be posted another day.

Toll House Pie

Courtesy of Nestle

2 large eggs
1/2 cup flour
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
3/4 cup or 1 1/2 sticks of butter, brought to room temperature
1 cup chocolate chips
1 cup chopped nuts (optional)
1 unbaked 9 inch pie crust

Preheat your oven to 325 degrees.

Beat the eggs in a large mixing bowl until they are foamy.  Add the sugars and beat on high speed until they become creamy.  Add the flour gradually until it is incorporated.  Add the butter and beat it again until it's well blended.  Stir in the chocolate chips and the nuts.  Scoop the mixture into the pie crust and smooth out.

Bake in the 325 degree oven for 55-60 minutes or until you insert a toothpick and it comes out without any cookie dough attached.

Serve warm with some whipped cream or a scoop of vanilla ice cream.

So make one of these tonight and I challenge you to eat only one slice.

Waffle Brownies

So this week's recipe is a quick callback to my childhood.  My mom used to make these great chocolate... well... it's hard to say exactly what they are.  It's chewy like a brownie, but it's like a cookie and moist like a slice of cake.  And you cook them not in an oven, but in the waffle maker!

So my mom named them Waffle Brownies.  They're very easy to make and you can have the kids help from start to finish.

The glaze that she made for them is the same glaze she would pour over a bundt cake.  It's a solid, shiny frosting that congeals as it cools.  It settles into the waffle dimples to create pools of sugary goodness.  And the cocoa powder shines through the sugar to make it rich and flavorful.

Any type of waffle iron will work. I prefer the standard waffle iron because the glaze is spread more evenly, but a Belgium Waffle maker works well, too.

Waffle Brownies

Batter
1 stick butter
7 tbsp cocoa powder
1 1/2 cups sugar
4 eggs
2 cups flour
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp vanilla

Melt the butter and pour into a mixing bowl.  Add the cocoa powder, sugar and eggs and beat for 2 minutes.  Slowly add the flour, salt and vanilla and mix until well combined. 

Plug in your waffle iron.  Once it's fully heated, spray the waffle iron with non-stick spray.  Add the batter to the iron.  You can either make small brownies with a tablespoon of batter, or 3 or 4 tablespoons to fill an entire section.  Close the lid, cook for 1 1/2 minutes, then check for doneness.  If needed, cook for 1 more minute.  Remove to a cooling rack and repeat until the batter is gone.

Frosting/Glaze
4 tbsp cocoa powder
2 tbsp oil
2 tbsp corn syrup
3 tbsp water
2 cups powdered sugar

Add the cocoa powder, oil,water and corn syrup to a small saucepan and cook on medium heat for 3 minutes.  The mixture should be a little shiny.  Remove from heat and add the sugar.  Mix until thoroughly combined.  If it's too thick, add a little more water.  Too thin?  Add a little more powdered sugar. Spoon some glaze onto each cookie and spread with the back of the spoon.

For a colored glaze for a holiday like Halloween, remove the cocoa, replace with the same amount of powdered sugar and enough food coloring to obtain the proper shade.

You can also add 1/2 teaspoon peppermint extract for a Mint frosting (this works with the chocolate version, or the colored version, especially in Christmas colors)

So make some desserts with the kids with the waffle iron.

Soft, Chewy Ginger Cookies and how to cure a certain type of Nausea

We have an announcement... there's going to be a new addition to the That Means We Get Pie Household.  Our third kid is officially on the way!

He or she will be arriving sometime in March and it's too early at this point to know what the sex of the baby will be, but the preparations have begun.  Time to go to Costco to stock up on the diapers.  Time to prepare the nursery.  Time to dig out the old baby carrier/car seat out of the basement again and to lug the boxes of maternity closes into the bedroom to see if Liz still likes the style.

And speaking of Liz, I feel for her situation right now.  By the 7th week of all her pregnancies, the morning sickness kicks in.  But it's not morning sickness, it's morning, mid-day, afternoon, evening and occasionally midnight sickness.  With the first boy's pregnancy, it lasted about 2 months, but for the second's, it lasted the entire 9 months.  And along with that, her sense of smell has enhanced by ten.  So I have to be REALLY careful about what and when I cook, because just the wrong smell will trigger a race to the bathroom.

Now since she can't have the normal regiment of medications, we have to find new ways to calm her stomach.  One of the more homeopathic methods is to eat ginger.  It has a natural stomach calming agent.  But the problem is that eating it raw is not that appetizing.  And Liz doesn't care for the crystallized ginger, so we must find alternatives.  Ginger ale works well, as long as there's real ginger in it.  A number of the store-bought brands have ginger flavoring, not real ginger, so we need to check the ingredients carefully. 

But I can make these ginger cookies in large batches and they really help her out.  They are moist, not like the crispy gingersnaps.  They are flavorful because of all of the other spices.  And they are encrusted in sugar, so it definitely satisfies the sweet tooth..  I'll add an extra teaspoon or two of ginger to help satiate Liz's stomach.

Now if you're not cooking for a pregnant lady, you can use the recipe below.  They taste wonderful and if you keep then in a airtight bag or container, they'll stay chewy for a week or two. 

Ginger Cookies
Makes about 20

3/4 cup butter flavored shortening, softened
1 cup brown sugar
1 egg
1/4 cup molasses
2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons ground ginger
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
3/4 teaspoon ground cloves
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon water
Some white sugar for rolling

Dump the shortening and sugar into a mixer and beat until creamy.  Add the egg and molasses into the mixer and mix for another 2-3 minutes.  In a separate bowl, add the flour and all of the spices and stir to combine.  Slowly add those try ingredients to the wet ingredients and mix until completely combined.  Add water to loosen the dough a little.  Then roll the dough into 1 1/2 inch balls in your hands.  Then take each ball and roll it around in some sugar on a plate until the exterior is coated.

Place them on a ungreased cookie sheet, bake a 350 degrees for 8 minutes, then check, and cook for another 3 minutes.

So make some of these cookies, eat a half a dozen and say it's to help settle your stomach.