Chocolate Peanut Butter Silk Pie

Ritz Carlton's 'Falling in love' cream pie (Chocolate peanut butter silk pie)
Published at http://www.suntimes.com/recipes/pies/452183,apie070207.recipe

CRUST:
1½ cups finely ground chocolate graham cracker crumbs (Chocolate Teddy Grahams work well)
1/3 cup sugar
6 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted

GANACHE:
½ cup semi-sweet chocolate, chopped
½ cup heavy cream

PEANUT BUTTER SILK FILLING:
1 cup heavy whipping cream
1½ cups cream cheese, slightly softened
3/4 cup sugar
1½ teaspoons vanilla extract
1 cup peanut butter

GARNISH
2 Reese's Peanut Butter Cups

For crust: Combine graham cracker crumbs and sugar. Add melted butter; mix to combine. Press evenly into 9-inch pie tin. Bake at 350 degrees for 6 minutes; allow to cool.
For ganache: Place chocolate in bowl and set aside. Warm cream to just below a boil and pour over chopped chocolate. Whisk to combine and melt chocolate until mixture is smooth.
Pour approximately 2/3 of ganache on bottom of cooled pie crust; chill until ready to fill.
For peanut butter silk filling: Whip heavy cream to medium-firm; set aside. In mixer with the paddle attachment, cream the cream cheese and sugar, scraping down the bowl and paddle as necessary. When mixture is smooth, add vanilla extract and mix to combine. Add peanut butter; paddle until incorporated and fluffy, again scraping down the bowl and paddle as necessary. Remove from mixer and fold in whipped cream by hand with a spatula.

To garnish, spread into chilled pie shell; smooth the top. Drizzle remaining ganache on top of pie.
Cut peanut butter cups into triangles. Arrange on top.

Chill pie until set.

Marjorie Hyland, The Ritz-Carlton Chicago

Notes: Okay, so this may be one of the most indulgent desserts one could ever find. I was googling chocolate peanut butter cream pies and looking for what I have had at restaurants a few times as a peanut butter ice box pie (and other names). Anyhow, I found this and it looked good. Good is an understatement, it is amazing. Process Notes: instead of just using triangles to garnish, I crushed about 4-6 reese's cups and topped the pie with them following it with the drizzle of ganache- over-indulgent, maybe, but if you have come this far, why not take it just a step further! Enjoy!