# 295: Pies and Guilty Pleasures
Twin Peaks Pies, Guilty Pleasures and a Recipe for Peanut Butter Chocolate Layer Pie
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Twin Peaks and Cherry Pie
If you are a Twin Peaks fan, undoubtedly you know of the presence pie has in the series and Dale Cooper’s infamous quote, Damn good pie! I love the words so much I include at the beginning of Pie Camp: The Skills You Need to Make Any Pie You Want, the third book I am so honored to have been asked to write.
“Damn good pie!” —Dale Cooper, Twin Peaks, 1990
When I am asked to make Twin Peaks themed pies—twenty-eight of them in fact—for the wedding of a close friend’s daughter, I send the bride to be pictures of my ideas. Chevron strips resembling the red curtains of The Black Lodge to top each pie.
The final touch is a pastry marquee with the names of the bride and groom. So as not to have one epic pie making marathon a day before the wedding with all the steps to make the pies, I plan for stages and begin preparations well in advance of the big day.
Dough: Multiple discs of dough made, frozen and ready to be defrosted and rolled when needed.
Fillings: Ingredients for cherry and other fruit fillings measured into ziplock bags and frozen.
Tops: Twin Peaks chevron tops and wedding marquees pre-made and then baked.
Bake: Fruit filling added to rolled out doughs and baked.
Decoration: Tops and marquees added.
With everything parsed out like this assembling the pies is a piece of—dare I say type it?-CAKE! All of this is detailed out for you step by step in Pie Camp.
Honestly, I was more nervous about the ninety-minute drive to the wedding venue than making all the pies and having them ready to roll.
Guilty Pleasures: From Plastic Wrap to Peanut Butter Chocolate Layer Pie
We all have them. Plastic wrap is one of mine as the amount that I use in recipe development for books, Pie Camps and Art of the Pie workshops always leaves me feeling guilty…but not in the most pleasurable way. Switching to beeswax wraps alleviates some guilt but, when using them to wrap dough, there are some tricks.
Beeswax wraps are not impervious to air so be sure to double wrap your dough if you’ll be keeping it in the fridge for longer than an hour or so. This way it won’t dry out.
If you are freezing dough, add a final layer of foil around the double wraps.
Wash wraps in warm water so the coating will not melt off. Air dry.
Replace wraps when they get thin which, if you use regularly, might be about once a year.
Old wraps can be composted or added as fire starter.
But I’m sure you know that this is not the kind of guilty pleasure of which I’m thinking. Chocolate tops that list! I like mine dark and not overly sweet but somewhere in the 65-72% range. Years ago a medical professional tells me that an ounce of dark chocolate every afternoon is just fine. Sometimes I have two and feel guilty…in a pleasurable way as chocolate releases endorphins that makes one feel good.
I like chocolate chips, too…especially the little mini ones. On the way to and sometimes from a visit to my acupuncturist, I stop at the store and treat myself to a favorite GF Chocolate Chip cookie. I mean one wouldn’t want to become peckish on the ninety-minute drive each way. Right?
And have you ever tried mixing chocolate chips directly into the peanut butter jar and eating them right off the spoon? Oh, that’s the ticket! The only thing is that one spoonful never seems to be enough and, being that the two ingredients are at eye level above my baking counter, I give in to their calling more often than I care to admit. My mom loved these flavors too and used to “hide” Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups in the cupboard over her baking counter, too. Like mother, like daughter. Yes? I also top vanilla ice cream with peanut butter & chocolate chips and think she would of liked this combination, too.
In the meantime find some happiness for yourself, enjoy a guilty pleasure and remember that there’s always light at the end of the tunnel no matter what the challenge.
If you care to share your own guilty pleasures with the group, you know we’d ALL love to hear! 😀
JANUARY 2025 PAID SUBSCRIBER ONLY ZOOM SESSION
Our January Paid Subscriber Session will be a shared session on the importance of Baking Therapy. Have a favorite recipe or story you would like to share? Join Bosco and me on Friday January 24th at 8AM Pacific via Zoom and let’s share recipes and the stories of how they have helped us through challenging as well as happy times. And no worries if you don’t have a recipe to share. Bring a cup of tea, a mug of coffee and your smile!
I’ll be sending out the Zoom link to paid subscribers one hour before our January 24th session.
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What I’m Reading
Small Fires: An Epic in the Kitchen by Rebecca May Johnson
From the dust jacket:
Why do we cook? Is it just to feed ourselves and others? Or is there something more revolutionary going on?
This is a food book like no other I have read.
What I’m Listening To
A Song for You written by Leon Russell and performed by Ray Charles
What I’m Baking
And what, pray tell, sent me down this rabbit hole today you ask? That would be the recent passing of David Lynch the creator of Twin Peaks. Mr Lynch is quoted as saying: "I get ideas in fragments. It's as if in the other room there's a puzzle - all the pieces are together. But in my room, they just flip one piece at a time into me.”
That’s kinda what a layered pie is like…a puzzle that fits together and this Peanut Butter Chocolate Layer Pie is the ultimate in delicious layers that fit together. Or, you could use this equation Chocolate+Peanut Butter+Baking=Guilty Pleasure!
RECIPE: PEANUT BUTTER CHOCOLATE LAYER PIE
For Paid Subscribers, here’s the recipe I created to celebrate my mom’s love of these two flavors. Enjoy!
