Gale Grand has a decadent recipe for Peanut Butter Pie. I made 1.5x the original recipe for both the filling and the crust, but added my own twist with a thin layer of ganache—and not just any ganache either, but a dark chocolate espresso ganache. The flavor was spectacular! The nutty crust and intense chocolate-espresso were the perfect complements to the creamy peanut-butter filling.

For an interesting variation, try Chocolate Peanut Butter Cheesecake or Chocolate Espresso Peanut Butter Bars, the latter with a cream-free peanut butter spread similar to Alton Brown’s peanut butter pie filling.

The Crust

The crust tastes similar to nutter butter, but with a crunchier crumbly texture and better flavor. Perfect. Chocolate lovers: resist the urge to replace the graham crackers with a chocolate crumb. The chocolate will come later and in style.

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Emeril Lagasse’s Best Ever Coconut Cream Pie made with Alton Brown’s homemade coconut milk and a Whole Foods Whole Wheat Crust. Absolutely scrumptious. A few remarks about the procedure:

1. The shredded meat of two coconuts was sufficient for my purposes (see No. 3).
2. Eight ounces of fresh coconut meat, one cup of whole milk, and one cup of coconut "juice"—the water inside the coconut—made just slightly less than 1.5 cups of coconut milk. (Yes, I know, it's not exactly Alton Brown's recipe—but hey, Alton Brown's recipe isn't exactly traditional either.) Next time use 9 oz of shredded coconut and 2.25 cups milk-water.
3. Cheesecloth works great when it's time to squeeze out the milk. Also, I didn't toss the leftover coconut from the milk process, but included it in the pie (one cup). I'm not sure if using fresh coconut would make much difference, but if I get a third coconut next time, I should toss the used coconut and use fresh flakes.
4. A video on YouTube suggests exposing the coconut to an open flame keeps the brown skin attached to the shell.

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