Kids Cuisine

For years, my son’s birthday cake request has actually been a pie — Peanut Butter Pie, to be exact. And this is quite a pie–silky, indulgent, incredibly rich, and good enough to have for a special day that comes only once a year.

This year, I decided to try something a little different. Instead of making one large pie, and having leftovers tempt us from the fridge for days, I decided to modify the recipe to make 4 personal-size mini-pies. Perfect! I used a jumbo muffin pan for these. If you’d like to make smaller pies, use a regular-size muffin pan. If you want to make one 9-inch pie, just double this recipe.

Kids can help in various ways with this. Younger children can crush the cookies for the crust by placing them in a resealable plastic bag, sealing it, then rolling over it with a rolling pin. Older children can make the filling. My 12-year-old piping-bag whiz had a ball filling these.

Personal Peanut Butter Pies

For crust:

• 12 chocolate sandwich cookies, crushed
• 5 tablespoons butter, melted (no substitutes)

For peanut butter cream filling:

• 1 3-ounce package light cream cheese, at room temp
• 1/2 cup creamy peanut butter
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1 1/2 teaspoons butter, at room temp
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/2 cup heavy cream, whipped and chilled
• Crushed cookie crumbs for decoration, if desired

Spray 4 jumbo muffin cups with nonstick cooking spray. Line with 2-inch by 6-inch strips of waxed paper or parchment paper (these will help you remove the pies from the pan later).

For crust: Combine cookie crumbs and melted butter in a mixing bowl and stir until crumbs absorb the butter. The mixture will appear somewhat wet; that’s okay. Divide the crumbs among the four muffin cups.

Using a measuring cup, the bottom of a glass, or a large spoon, press the crumbs firmly down into the bottom and about 1/2 inch up the side of each muffin cup. Set aside.

For filling: In a medium-size mixing bowl, beat cream cheese, peanut butter, sugar, butter, and vanilla extract until smooth. Using a large spatula, gently fold in whipped cream. This will look grainy at first, but keep turning the mixture with your spatula until the whipped cream is fully incorporated.

Spoon the filling into a piping bag and pipe into cookie crust. Sprinkle with cookie crumbs, drape loosely with plastic wrap, and refrigerate for at least 3 hours, until set.

When ready to serve, gently tug upward on both ends of each waxed paper strip until the pies lift out of the muffin cups. Serve immediately; refrigerate any leftovers.

Makes 4 personal pies