Food for Lost finale
The Lost-themed dinner turned out well. This post will contain no spoilers, so feel free to read it, Emily.
I ended up going kind of southwest-themed for the main course, including green chiles, some jack cheese, cornmeal, and cayenne pepper to the dough. It was tasty.
The best part was dessert. I don’t think it’s a spoiler to say that Hurley likes chocolate and peanut butter, so I’ll post the recipe here. I ended up modifying the recipe from epicurious.com in order to make it a bit lighter (I reduced the butter, egg yolks, and used fat-free cream cheese instead of full-fat). It’s still extremely rich, though, and very cooling on a hot night. I could have lightened it further by using fat-free Cool Whip instead of real whipping cream, but you’ve got to have standards, people.
I also made it in pie form instead of bars, because I didn’t have a square baking dish.
Hurley’s Frozen Chocolate Peanut Butter Pie
Chocolate layer:
- Nonstick cooking spray
- 7 oz good quality bittersweet (not unsweetened) chocolate, chopped
- 1/2 stick butter
- 1/2 of a ripe banana, well mashed
- 1/4 cup granulated sugar
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 1 egg + 2 egg whites, lightly beaten
- 1 tsp vanilla
Peanut butter layer:
- 4 oz fat-free cream cheese, softened
- 1/2 cup reduced-fat creamy peanut butter
- 3/4 cup confectioners sugar
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 1/2 cup chilled heavy whipping cream
- 1 tsp vanilla
- Preheat oven to 350F. Line an 8- or 9-inch pie plate with aluminum foil, leaving overhang off the edges. Spray the aluminum foil with nonstick cooking spray.
- In a double boiler or a heat-proof bowl on top of a pan of simmering water, melt chocolate, butter, sugar, and salt, whisking frequently until smoothly melted. Remove top vessel and whisk in egg, banana, and vanilla.
- Pour batter into pie plate and bake for abut 15 minutes, until the edges are slightly puffed. Transfer to a rack and cool completely.
- Make peanut butter layer: Mix cream cheese, peanut butter, confectioners sugar, and salt in a bowl with an electric mixer and medium speed until well-blended, about 4 minutes. Beat cream with vanilla in a clean bowl with clean beaters until it just holds stiff peaks, then gentle fold into peanut butter mixture until just combined.
- Spread peanut butter mixture evenly on top of chocolate layer and freeze for 1-2 hours, until firm but not frozen solid. Using a warm, sharp knife, cut into wedges. Cover with foil and return to freezer until well-frozen.
- To serve, use foil overhang to remove entire pie from pie plate. Using a warm, sharp knife, re-cut the wedges. Carefully remove all foil and serve.