Where did this week go?  All of a sudden it was Saturday, and I realized I never posted anything this week.  Sorry about that.  I was talking to one of my very close friends today, who by the way, I never have time to talk to anymore…and we were venting about the end of the school year.  She calls it the “100 days of May” – I think that’s it anyway, and has to do the fact that there are a million things to do before school is over.  We are cut from the same cloth – there is no resting – and she has three kids.  The only difference is that I work full-time, and she works part-time – but that doesn’t mean she has free time.  She fills it up just like I would with school activities, volunteering, and anything else she can get her hands on.  We used to joke that we would buy houses next door to each other and she would take care of my kids.  She knew I would never stop working, and she is Super Mom.  Too bad that never came true – we are at least in the same time zone, but an airplane ride away.  Well – her kids get out of school in just a couple of weeks, I told her she was in the home stretch…and I am just a week after that.  Soon summer will be here, and we will be dealing with a whole different set of chaos!

So, I am sure you are all wondering what I did with that delicious honeycomb I made.  The wait is over!  Now, unfortunately I never got to eat the entire pie put together – because this was a dessert I made for my younger daughter’s school auction…but I am telling you, that I sampled every bit of the way, and this is a winning recipe.  The peanut butter center was so creamy and amazing, I swear I liked the bowl clean.  I changed the recipe slightly from the Bon Appetit version, because I really thought it needed a chocolate cookie crust.  I think it really cut the sweetness of the filling.  Some friends of mine ended up with the pie that night, and they were pretty pleased.  One of them asked my husband how he stays so thin…the secret is in the stress.  Did you know that stress actually melts the pounds away?  Well I wouldn’t recommend it for a diet, but it seems to work in our house.

So – on this beautiful Memorial Day weekend (yes, it is sunny and 75 degrees here!!), sit back and relax – after you make this pie that is…I am heading to the kitchen now and toast to my friend Marti.  I am ready for summer!

Ingredients

Crust

• 1 box of chocolate wafer cookies
• 6 tablespoons (3/4 stick) butter, melted

Preparation

Crust

Preheat oven to 325°. Finely grind cookies in a food processor.Transfer crumb mixture to a medium bowl. Add butter and stir to blend. Use bottom and sides of a measuring cup to pack crumbs onto bottom and up sides of 9″ glass or metal pie or tart pan. Bake until golden brown, about 15 minutes. Let cool.

Filling

Mix yolks and 6 Tbsp. sugar in the bowl of a stand mixers fitted with a whisk attachment. Beat at high-speed until ribbons form, stopping once to scrape down sides of bowl, about 2 minutes.

Combine milk and remaining 6 Tbsp. sugar in a large saucepan; scrape in seeds from vanilla bean and add bean. Bring to a boil, stirring to dissolve sugar. Remove bean. With mixer running, gradually add hot milk mixture to yolk mixture. Scrape mixture back into pan. Clean bowl. Whisking constantly, bring to a boil over medium heat. Remove pan from heat; whisk vigorously for 1 minute. Return custard to mixing bowl, beat on high-speed until cool, about 4 minutes. Mix in butter on Tbsp. at a time. Add peanut butter, powdered sugar, and salt; beat to blend. Scrape filling into cooled crust; smooth top. Chill until set, 2-3 hours.

Topping

Stir chocolate and butter in a medium bowl set over a saucepan of simmering water until melted and smooth.

Drizzle some of the chocolate glaze over the peanut butter filling, making a circle in the middle of the pie and leaving a 1″-2″ plain border. Pile pieces of honeycomb and salted peanuts on top, then drizzle remaining chocolate glaze over.

For a printer-friendly version of this recipe, please click here: Peanut Butter Honeycomb Pie