Peanut Butter Honeycomb Pie and Pi(e) Day!

The first time I celebrated Pi(e) Day was as a sophomore at Berkeley in a hippie co-op full of math magicians and culinary geniuses—all pie, all day, and for some of the following day too. It was the most supreme and comforting display of nerdery, revived again in my recent life at the hands of DC's resident pie enthusiast. Every year—from her previous homes to here—Emily organizes a Pi(e) Day event, and the one she put together yesterday was a smorgasbord of sweet and savory, all heralding math, pie, and a fantastic local farm and education center that benefited from the cover cost. And boy was it ever delicious.

Spaghetti pie, chocolate hazelnut tarts, salty caramel chocolate pie, hot 'n' spicy chili pie, butterscotch meringue: I arrived totally starving and left completely wired and with a head full of ideas for new recipes and collaborations. The gals from The Runcible Spoon were there sharing a sweet craft and their latest beautiful zine (breakfast themed!), and Emily and Elizabeth's lovely pie book had a li'l cameo too. Most of my conversations with strangers ended up being about people's personal pursuits, and it was so nice to spend one of these last few days in DC hearing about—and eating!—all the creative projects that folks are working on. 

I ended up bringing four offerings to the event, three tried-and-true classics and one new recipe: labneh tart with sesame brittle, Floriole's chocolate ganache meringue tart, super tangy lemon tart, and this big ol' beastly peanut butter honeycomb pie. I only had the chance to run a piece of honeycomb through the smears of filling and crust left on the pie plate, but that was enough to know that I'll definitely be making this again. Creamy and rich, this pie hails from one of my very favorite pastry chefs who has never done me wrong. Kim Boyce knows what's up, and this ode to insanity brings out the very best in sweet, salty, crunchy, and creamy contrasts. Just don't wait until Pi(e) Day next year to make it. And, of course, a big thanks goes out to all the people who worked so hard to make DC's Pi(e) Day such a stellar and inspiring event—y'all keep this city alive!

Peanut Butter Honeycomb Pie

Adapted from Kim Boyce for Bon Appétit

I only made a few tweaks to this: upped the nutmeg, swapped the powdered sugar for cornstarch because I was concerned about it setting, omitted the salted peanuts she calls for in the end. It was a big hit at Pi(e) Day and not nearly as annoying to make as it seems! You need to allot two or three hours to set the custard, but all the individual pieces come together in about a half hour or so.

Crust
9 full-size graham crackers, broken up
1/4 cup light brown sugar, packed
1/4 teaspoon flaky sea salt
1/8 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg (bumped this up to 1/4 teaspoon)
6 tablespoons butter, melted 

Filling
8 large egg yolks
12 tablespoons sugar, divided
1 1/2 cups whole milk
1 vanilla bean, split lengthwise (or 1 teaspoon vanilla extract)
12 tablespoons (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
1 cup creamy peanut butter (natural is fine!)
1 teaspoon cornstarch, sifted
1/2 teaspoon flaky sea salt

Honeycomb
1 1/2 cups sugar
3 tablespoons corn syrup
1 tablespoon honey
1 tablespoon baking soda, sifted
 
Chocolate Glaze
2 ounces bittersweet chocolate (do not exceed 61% cacao), chopped
2 1/2 tablespoons unsalted butter

1. Make the crust:  Preheat oven to 325. Finely grind graham crackers, sugar, salt, and nutmeg 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-inch pie pan. Bake until golden brown, about 15 minutes. Let cool.

2.  Make the filling: Mix yolks and six tablespoons of sugar in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a whisk attachment (or you can use a handheld mixer). Beat at high speed until ribbons form, stopping once to scrape down sides of bowl, about two minutes.

3.  Combine milk and remaining six tablespoons sugar in a large saucepan; scrape in seeds from vanilla bean and add bean to pan. Bring to a simmer over medium heat, 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 custard to a boil over medium heat. Remove pan from heat and whisk vigorously for one minute. Return custard to mixing bowl and beat on high speed until cool, about four minutes. Mix in butter, one tablespoon at a time. Add peanut butter, cornstarch, and salt; beat to blend. Scrape filling into cooled crust; smooth top. Chill until set, two to three hours.

4.  Make honeycomb: Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or foil. Combine sugar, corn syrup, honey, and 1/4 cup water in a heavy, deep saucepan. Stir over medium-low heat until sugar dissolves. Increase heat to high and bring to a boil. Once boiling, cook without stirring, occasionally swirling pan and brushing down sides with a wet pastry brush, until sugar turns pale amber, about seven or eight minutes. Working quickly, remove pan from heat and add baking soda (mixture will foam up dramatically), and whisk quickly just to combine. Immediately pour candy over prepared sheet (do not spread out). Let stand undisturbed until cool, about 20 minutes. Hit candy in several places with the handle of a knife to crack into pieces

5.  Make glaze and assemble:  Once pie is set and cool, stir chocolate and butter in a small heat-proof bowl set over a saucepan of simmering water until melted and smooth. Drizzle some of the chocolate glaze over the peanut butter filling, then pile pieces of honeycomb on top, then drizzle remaining chocolate glaze over the honeycomb. This pie is a beast to cut with the honeycomb on top, so if you’re worried about slice presentation, just drizzle the chocolate on the pie, and top each slice with honeycomb and more chocolate. Finally, I only used about half the honeycomb. The rest we are dipping in chocolate and snackin’ on!