Now that I've switched to working behind the customer service desk at work, I'm rarely on till other than doing others' breaks. But when I am, I always find it dreadful how many amazing looking food magazines they put there. The pictures on the fronts make me want to buy them all....even the low fat cooking ones. Weird. The August issue of Bon Appetit was too much for me to resist though. That pie on the front...brilliant. I'm still debating attempting it for Thanksgiving dinner. [as is obvious, no one in the family likes pumpkin pie anyway..]Inside though, are several other pie masterpieces begging to be given a shot as well. And I can never really resist peanut butter and chocolate together.
Anyway, got to try it when I finally got a day off work last week. [now waiting to get another day off....next Thursday. Gotta love 13 days in a row of work, yeah.]
But About the pie. It really was fussy with all the "mix this in mixer, then put it in the pot and cook a little, then back in the mixer for this long, then back to the pot...." and the instructions really weren't the best. I'm sure I didn't get the custard part of it cooked quite long enough. Being chilled it still turned out decently enough, but to be remembered for next time.. [because a pie this great probably actually will make it onto my rather short "to make again" recipe list.] Also, the Honeycomb candy was a disaster. It took 3 tries to get something useable. First try I burned it, second try I didn't cook it long enough before adding the baking soda for it to harden at all, and the third try, while ok, still wasn't cooked quite long enough. They didn't give any time guidelines for how long to cook it, just said "cook til it's a pale amber colour." That might work if you're using the clear corn syrup, but when you're using dark coloured stuff, it's a pale to dark amber colour the instant you mix the ingredients together.. Anyway, around 5 minutes give or take a little bit is what I eventually figured out to be close to right. It is ridiculously addictive stuff once you finally get it right.
Oh, and, don't believe it when it says a 9 inch pie. I knew I shouldn't believe it, but stupidly gave it a try anyways and it totally overflowed and I ended up making 3 tarts with all the extra filling. Not that that's a bad thing either. Also, it insists that you should use semi-sweet chocolate for the top and not to use very dark of stuff, but I used unsweetened baking squares and only added maybe a tablespoon of sugar to it and it was wonderful. 
The pie and candy are so sweet that it really doesn't need the chocolate to be very sweet at all. Anyway, the recipe had some issues, but the result was definitely worth it. Your need for a peanut butter/chocolate fix will not be disappointed. :]Peanut Butter Honeycomb Pie
