INTRODUCTION
My Mom and I were looking for something simple and easy to bake together, and we came across this interesting recipe from Trisha Yearwood.  The recipe is super easy and results in a bunch of highly delectable and easily shareable bars of peanut butter and chocolaty goodness!

SOURCES
You can find the original recipe here:
https://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/trisha-yearwood/no-bake-chocolate-pretzel-peanut-butter-squares-2254342

YIELD
I found that the recipe makes about 24 or so bars.

INGREDIENTS

• 1.5 sticks (12 tablespoons) butter, melted
• 2 cups pretzel rods, crushed into crumbs (small or large pretzel rods are alright)
• 1.5 cups confectioners' sugar 
• 1.25 cups smooth or chunky peanut butter
  
  • ​1 cup of peanut butter is for the base layer / crust
    
  • ​1/4 cup of peanut butter is to be added to the chocolate topping
    
• 1.5 cups milk chocolate chips 
• A 13" x 9" Baking Pan

DIRECTIONS 

1. Add the pretzel rods to a food processor and blend until they become crumbs.  If you do not have a food processor, you can likely put the pretzels in a plastic bag and smash them until they become a finer powder of crumbs.  
2. In a medium sized bowl, add the melted butter, pretzel crumbs, confectioners' sugar and 1 cup of the peanut butter and stir together until well combined using a rubber spatula.  
3. Press the mixture evenly into the bottom of an un-greased 9 x 13 inch pan that is around 2 inches deep
4. Combine the chocolate chips and the remaining 1/4 cup peanut butter in a microwave-safe bowl.
5. Microwave the chocolate chips and peanut butter in 30-second intervals, stirring in between, until the chocolate and peanut butter are melted and smooth; about two intervals should be enough.
6. Mix the melted peanut butter and chocolate together to bled well, then spread it over the peanut butter-pretzel layer.
7. Cover the dish with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 1 hour.
   
8. After the bars have had time to cool, remove them from the refrigerator and cut them into squares.  I cut mine into 24 squares.  

ENJOY!

THE BACKSTORY
After making my first ever pie from scratch, a delicious strawberry cream pie, I was filled with a sense of accomplishment and a desire to make even more pies!  With this in mind, I thought I would be a bit adventurous and set out to create my own pie recipe from scratch... 

The strawberry cream pie's silky smooth whipped cream filling got me thinking, I wonder if you could make a pie with Greek yogurt?  I posited that it may be possible to make a "healthy" pie that was just as delicious as any other pie recipe out there.  Using Greek yogurt as the starting point, I thought I could incorporate some other items that you might eat for breakfast. 

In this recipe I started things off by adapting a graham cracker crust recipe to instead use Honey Nut Cheerios / Belvita Breakfast Crackers.  I then made a creamy yogurt filling with some coconut, honey, vanilla protein powder, and of course I finished things off by making a topping with some dark chocolate almonds and some toasted cinnamon donuts! 

In the end the pie turned out to be pretty delicious, and you could not even tell that is was actually healthy, except for the toasted donuts ;)

I call this the "O"de to Breakfast Pie, which is my attempt at a play on words to reference the Honey Nut Cheerio Pie Crust.  I hope you enjoy!

SOURCES
I used a recipe from the Food Network for a Graham Cracker Crust, and adapted it to suit my ingredients. 
https://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/food-network-kitchen/graham-cracker-crust-3326018

PIE CRUST INGREDIENTS

• 2.5 Cups of Honey Nut Cheerios
• 1 Package Belvita Breakfast Biscuits [4 crackers]
  
  • I used Toasted Coconut flavor
• 6 Tablespoons Melted Unsalted Butter [I used mine straight out of the refrigerator]
•  9 Inch Pie Dish

PIE FILLING INGREDIENTS

• 2 Cups Vanilla Greek Yogurt
  • I used Fage Trublend Vanilla yogurt with no added sugar or sweeteners because it had lower sugar content.  
• 1 Scoop of Vanilla Protein Powder (31 g scoop)
  • I used Isopure Vanilla Protein Powder, but I am sure you could use any other protein powder just fine.  
• 1/4 cup Chopped Coconut
  • I thought this might help thicken the pie filling and give it some nice texture
• 3 Tablespoons of Honey
  • I added this to the filling to make it a little sweeter, and to be honest I did not really measure how much I put in.  
• 1 teaspoon Cinnamon.  (I also estimated this amount here, but I added a couple dashes of cinnamon).  

TOPPING INGREDIENTS

• 4 Plain Cake Entenmann's Donuts
• 1/4 cup Chopped Walnuts
• A "Dash" of Cinnamon
• 3/4 Cup Dark Chocolate Almonds

 
DIRECTIONS 

​MAKE AND BAKE THE PIE CRUST

1. Preheat the oven to 350°F.
2. Add the Honey Nut Cheerios and Belvita Biscuits to a food processor and pulse them together to break up the ingredients to a fairly fine powder. 
3. Chop the butter into smaller cubes (cold from the fridge), and put it in a microwave safe dish.  Microwave the butter on high for about 40 seconds to melt.  You can take out the butter and stir it with a knife, and if it is not fully melted just pop it back into the microwave for a little while longer to fully melt it, just be careful not to burn it!
4. Add the melted butter into the food processor (make sure the cover is on) and then pulse the ingredients together until the mixture has darkened and it is clear that the butter has coated all of your crumbs.   
5. Place your pie crust mixture into the 9 inch pie dish and gently spread it over the bottom and up the sides of the pie dish.  
6. Bake the pie crust in the oven for about 10 - 13 minutes.  I baked mine for about 13 minutes, and it may have just barely started to burn, but it came out well and held together just fine.  
7. Remove from the oven and let cool on a wire rack for at least an hour [or until it is cool to the touch].

PREPARE THE PIE FILLING

1. Add the Greek Yogurt, Protein Powder, Coconut, Honey and Cinnamon together in a bowl and mix the ingredients together.  Feel free to add some other things to your filling if you so desire, but be careful not to add too much liquid, because this might interfere with the pie filling setting.  
2. After everything is mixed together just put the pie filling aside until you need it.  If you are not going to use it for a while, put the pie filling in the fridge until you need it.  

MAKE THE CRUMBLY PIE TOPPING

1. Preheat the oven to 425°F.
2. Add the Donuts, Walnuts, and Cinnamon to a food processor.  Pulse the ingredients together until the donuts make about pea size crumbs.  
3. Evenly spread the donut mixture out onto a sheet pan and place it into the oven.  Bake the pie topping for about 5 minutes until the crumbly donut mixture becomes crispy.  [I would advise that you use your nose to help you make sure that it does not burn!]  Take out the crumbly donut mixture and set it aside until you are ready.  
4. Add the Dark Chocolate Almonds to the same food processor (you do not need to wash the food processor in between uses) and pulse them into a finer powder. Set this aside.  

ASSEMBLE THE PIE

1. After the pie filling has cooled, place a handful of walnuts on the bottom for some added crunch.
2. Spoon the creamy yogurt filling mixture into the cool crust using a rubber spatula and level out the top. 
3. Add the dark chocolate almond crumble evenly over the top of the pie.  
4. Add the donut crumble mixture to the top of the pie and make sure it is evenly spread.   
5. I put the pie into the freezer overnight to try and firm up the yogurt filling.  When I took the pie out the next day to cut it up, I realized it was frozen solid like a rock!  I would recomment that you take the pie out of the freezer at least a few hours before you would like to serve it, so that it is easier to cut.  
6. After you have served your first helping of pie, keep the pie covered and refrigerated until you are ready to serve again.  

ENJOY!

​THE BACKSTORY
​Technically speaking, I guess I've made pies before, but I feel like I cheated.  You see, the only pies I ever made before this one were Pumpkin and Pumpkin Pecan pie for Thanksgiving and for both of these pies, I am pretty sure I just used store bought pie crust.  Now don't get me wrong, I am not saying there is anything illegal with store bought pie crust, but I figured if I had a baking blog I had to at least make my own pie crust once.....

So, I decided I would try my hand at making my first ever pie from scratch, and use fresh strawberries from the farm right up the street.  

SOURCES
I used a recipe from the Wild Wild Whisk Baking Blog, and made a few small adaptations.  I've also got some helpful tips and advice to supplement the original recipe.  
https://wildwildwhisk.com/strawberry-and-cream-pie/


PIE CRUST INGREDIENTS

• 1 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
• 2 rounded tablespoon granulated sugar
• 1/4 rounded teaspoon kosher salt
• 5 ounce unsalted butter - cold (Essentially 1 and 1/4 sticks of butter)
• 3 tablespoon cold water
• Extra flour for rolling
• Parchment Paper*
• Dry Baking Beans**

CREAM FILLING INGREDIENTS

• 8 oz cream cheese - room temperature
• 1 cup heavy whipping cream - cold
• 1/3 cup granulated sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract (or almond extract)

FRUIT TOPPING INGREDIENTS

• 1 lbs fresh strawberries
• 1/4 cup granulated sugar

 
*Parchment Paper:  For this recipe, you will use the parchment paper to help in the blind baking process.  Essentially, you will cover the pie crust with some parchment paper and then use some baking beans to weight down the parchment paper, which will help the pie crust bake and not rise up.  
**Dry Baking Beans:  These are used with the parchment paper above to help you "blind bake" your pie.  You may be wondering what kind of beans to use...I just used some dry Navy Beans and they worked fine.  Here is what Wikipedia says about Blind Baking:  

Baking blind (sometimes called pre-baking) is the process of baking a pie crust or other pastry without the filling. Blind baking a pie crust is necessary when it will be filled with an unbaked filling (such as with pudding or cream pies), in which case the crust must be fully baked. It is also called for if the filling has a shorter bake time than the crust, in which case the crust is partly baked.[1] Blind baking is also used to keep pie crust from becoming soggy due to a wet filling.  [Wikipedia]

DIRECTIONS 

GET THE FRUIT FILLING READY

1. Wash the strawberries in water and cut the leaves off of the top.  After you have washed the strawberries, cut the bigger ones into quarters and halve the smaller ones.
2. Put the strawberries in a bowl and toss them with 1/4 cup of sugar.  Cover and refrigerate until you need them for the final step.  

​MAKE THE PIE DOUGH

1. Add the flour, sugar and salt in a small bowl and mix together with a whisk. After you have mixed things together a bit, transfer the dry ingredients to a food processor fitted with a dough blade (essentially a plastic blade, there is a picture above).  
2. Cube the cold butter and add it to the food processor with the flour mixture. Pulse the ingredients together several times until the butter is about pea / bean size.  This is not an exact science, so don't worry if the mixture is not perfectly homogeneous.  
3. After the ingredients are mixed well, turn the food processor to the “on” position and drizzle the cold water over the dough mixture through the water hole.  As you add the water you will see that the dough mixture will start to pull together, as it does you can turn the food processor off.  If things are not mixing that well, you may need to stop the food processor in between and get a spatula to get the flour at the bottom to mix up.
4. Take the pie dough out on the counter and shape it into a disk. Wrap it in plastic and rest it in the refrigerator for an hour.

PREPARE THE PIE CRUST IN THE DISH

1. After you have let the pie dough chill in the fridge, take it out of the fridge and let it sit out for a few minutes to get warmer and more pliable.  After the dough has softened use a rolling pin to roll the dough into a circle that is about 2” larger than your pie dish. Feel free to use extra flour to keep dough from sticking to the counter and roller. *Note: I found that that as I was rolling the dough it started to break apart at the edges.  Eventually I honed my technique and found that gently applying pressure in the center of the dough and then carefully rolling outward with less pressure helped keep the crust together.  
2. After you have rolled out the pie dough, carefully place the dough over the pie dish, and lightly press the dough into the bottom and side of the pie dish.  Let the excess pie dough hang over the side.
3. Trim some of the excess dough if is necessary, and use it to fill in any gaps or holes that may have formed when you pushed it into the dish.  Make sure to leave enough pie dough on the edges so that you can fold it under itself, and make your pie crust pattern. (see photos above for some visual cues).
4. Cover the prepared pie dough with plastic wrap and freeze for 10 - 15 minutes.

BAKE THE PIE CRUST

1. Preheat the oven to 425°F.
2. Take the frozen pie crust out of the freezer and poke some holes with a fork (pierce the dough completely) on the bottom and side of the dough so that air beneath the crust can escape; this will help prevent the dough from over "puffing" and forming giant air bubbles.  
3. Line the frozen pie crust with parchment paper, large enough to cover the crust completely.  
4. Add pie weights or dry beans (I used dried Navy Beans) on top of the parchment paper, enough to fill to the top.  Trim any excess parchment paper to prevent it from burning.  
5. Bake the pie crust for 20 minutes and then remove from the oven.  
6. Carefully remove the pie weights / baking beans, and bake for another 8 - 10 minutes (or until it is golden brown.)  I baked mine for twelve minutes and it got a little bit burned, so be careful!
7. After the second bake, remove the pie from the oven and let it cool completely on a wire rack, for about 2 hours.  Really you just want to make sure it is cool enough so that the the filling does not melt when you put it in.  

PREPARE THE CREAM FILLING

1. In a stand mixer bowl (or using a handheld electric mixer), beat the heavy whipping cream to make some whipped cream.  After about 3 - 4 minutes it should start to look like whipped cream and form stiff peaks. Transfer the whipped cream to another bowl and set aside.
2. In the same stand mixer bowl, cream the cream cheese with the sugar and vanilla (or almond) extract until smooth.  I also decided to add in a dash of cinnamon.  
3. After all of that is mixed together add the whipped cream back in, and set the mixer on “stir” to gently mix everything together, or fold the mixture by hand using a spatula until everything is thoroughly mixed.
4. Cover and refrigerate the filling until needed.

ASSEMBLE THE PIE

1. Spoon the creamy filling mixture into the cool crust using a rubber spatula and level out the top. Then arrange the strawberries on top of the cream into whatever pattern you would like.  
2. Feel free to drizzle the strawberry juice over the top of the whole pie, or reserve the juice to drizzle over the pie when it is served.
3. Keep the pie covered and refrigerated until you are ready to serve.  

ENJOY!