Goo Goo Cluster Pie with a Coca Cola Reduction Drizzle

Goo Goo Cluster Pie with a Coca Cola Reduction Drizzle + Brown Butter Ice Cream

This is pretty much a glorified candy bar pie. With a twist of pecan pie on the side. And add in a large soda + a scoop of ice cream to boot. For all I care, you could just sub out the Goo Goo Cluster chunks with another candy treat. Do as you please, my friends. Y'all ever had a Goo Goo Cluster? Well, if you haven't, I sure feel bad for you. It comes from the South (Nashville to be exact) and contains caramel, roasted peanuts, marshmallow, and milk chocolate. Like a Snickers, but only way better. It starts off with my favorite peanut butter shortbread cookie crust. What's not to love about that? Candy. Cookies. Pie. Ice Cream. All in one bite? Whambamthankyama'am. Then, it's studded with fried, salted peanuts and candy pieces before it's filled to the brim with bourbon-flavored custard (similar to a pecan pie). After it's all said + done, and by that, I mean baking & chilling, you must drizzle the top of a slice with the homemade Coca Cola reduction... ya'know, to make it extra-southern. This pie is insane by itself, but make sure to make it super indulgent by adding a scoop of homemade ice cream. It was perfection with brown butter, but vanilla bean or bourbon would be amazing as well. It's the ultimate sweet treat indeed!! Enjoy :)

For the Peanut Butter Shortbread Cookie Crust:

1C Peanuts, Unsalted & Dry-Roasted

½C AP Flour

¼t Salt

¼t Baking Soda

¼C Light Brown Sugar, Packed

¼C Sugar

2T Unsalted Butter, Room Temperature

1 Large Egg Yolk

¼t Vanilla

For the Goo Goo Cluster Pie:

2 8oz boxes of Goo Goo Clusters or Cream-Nuts, Chopped into Chunks

3 Eggs

1C sugar + 2T Light Brown Sugar

½C Light Corn Syrup

2T Bourbon

1t Vanilla

1 Stick of Unsalted Butter, Room Temperature

½t Salt

2C Fried Salted Peanuts, Roughly Chopped (roasted peanuts may be substituted)

Prepared Goo Goo Cluster Chunks

For the Coca Cola Reduction:

2C Coca Cola (or any other soda substitute: Cheerwine would be my second choice)

Directions:

1. Spray a pie pan with Baking Pam and set it aside.

2. For Peanut Butter Shortbread Cookie Crust: Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Pulse the peanuts into the food processor and blend until a peanut butter forms, about 2 minutes (add a little oil or honey to loosen it up if it is too thick). In another bowl, whisk together flour, salt, and baking soda until incorporated. Using an electric mixer, beat together both sugars, peanut butter, and butter until well combined and mixture resembles wet sand, about 2-3 minutes. Beat in the egg yolk and vanilla, occasionally scraping down the sides of the bowl, until well blended, about 3 minutes (the mixture will be clumpy). Gradually add in the dry ingredients with your hands and beat until just combined (it will be crumbly, but do not over-mix). Gather dough with your hands, place into the prepared pan, and press evenly onto the bottom and up the sides of the dish. Bake until edges are golden brown, about 15-20 minutes. Set this aside to let it cool completely before adding the filling.

3. For the Goo Goo Cluster Pie: In the bowl of a standing mixer, add in the butter and both sugars and beat until light & fluffy, about 1 minute. In a separate mixing bowl, whisk together the eggs, corn syrup, bourbon, vanilla, and salt until smooth and incorporated. Add this wet mixture into the bowl of the butter mixture. Mix on medium-low speed until you have a smooth filling, and then add in your chopped peanuts and mix until just incorporated evenly throughout. Set your filling aside and place the Goo Goo Cluster chunks evenly into the bottom of your cooled, pre-baked peanut butter crust. Slowly pour the filling over the clusters until the whole pie has been filled to the rim. Sprinkle the top with fleur de sel. Place the pie onto a baking dish, so that it will catch any drippings or filling that has flooded over. Bake this pie at 350 degrees for 15 minutes, and then reduce the heat to 300 degrees. Lightly cover the pie with some tin foil and bake for another 20-30 minutes, or until the pie has set around the edges, but slightly jiggles in the center. Remove from the oven and cool on a cooling rack to room temperature.

4. Place the cooled pie into the freezer (you might want to cover with tin foil) and let it sit, undisturbed, overnight. The pie filling should be super gooey and runny, this is a good thing, don’t worry.

5. For the Coca Cola Reduction: Pour the coke into a pot and cook over low (just barely medium heat) until it reduces into thick soda syrup. This process took a long time for me almost an hour.

6. Serving the Pie: The next day, remove from the freezer and cut into slices. Place onto a plate and let it warm for 5-10 minutes. This gives the pie time to defrost and makes the caramel-y filling begin to ooze out. Drizzle the top of the pie with some of the Coca Cola Reduction and enjoy the gooey goodness. We added a scoop of ice cream on top of ours, and it was perfection (we had three homemade ice creams in our freezer: brown butter-bourbon, southern buttermilk, + malted vanilla bean).

"Elvis" Yeasted Banana Bread Beer Doughnuts with Creamy Peanut Butter Glaze, Crumbled Bacon, & a Drizzle of Honey

"Elvis" Yeasted Banana Bread Beer Doughnuts with Creamy Peanut Butter Glaze,
Crumbled Bacon, & a Drizzle of Honey

Happy Easter, y'all! I hope that you got to catch up with friends and family, or even better, do an Easter egg hunt. I especially love Easter because of the food. I mean, I guess that goes without saying for any holiday celebration, they each revolve around a certain cuisine, course, or classic food traditions. In my family, we have always done an Easter brunch after attending our church's morning service. I live for brunch, like literally. Some classic recipes that we usually make are quiches, french toast casseroles, cinnamon rolls, eggs benedict, and a honey baked ham. Well, these doughnuts I'm featuring today should most certainly make that beloved list. Now, you're probably a little hesitant to make these, mainly because of the strange flavor combination, but trust me it works. You know how I know that? Elvis "The King" Presley had a fondness for peanut butter, banana, & bacon sandwiches, so much so that he would binge eat, sandwich after sandwich. That's my kinda man, my friends. If you can't trust me, trust Elvis... he's got culinary street cred. Now onto my recipe, I knew I didn't want to make the classic sandwiched treat. I had to rejuvenate it with a little twist and a whole lot of flavor. Enter the Elvis Doughnut. I knew from the get-go that I wanted to make a light + pillowy yeasted doughnut, no heavy or dense cake variations allowed. I scoured the internet looking for a banana flavored yeasted doughnut recipe, but to no avail. So, I had to play around with my favorite recipe, which proved to be quite the task. I kept thinking about what I could add that would banana flavor, but wouldn't compromise the lovely texture that comes from yeast + proofing. The dough includes three elements of banana... mashed ripe bananas, banana extract, and BANANA BREAD BEER. You heard me right, I found a Banana Bread Beer at my local grocery store and it tastes exactly like banana bread (epic). The only thing that you have to do is measuring out the required amount and let it become flat in the refrigerator overnight (or you can whisk the crap out of it to speed up the process). Doughnuts are already delicious, but then you add a flavored beer, and it becomes untouchable. After you fry them up, you've got to dunk n' double dip them into the Creamy Peanut Butter Glaze, so they are nice + covered.  I personally like to submerge the entire doughnut, let the excess glaze drip off, and then allow the thin coating to harden. The next step is just another dunking, but this time, you want a thick layer on the top of the doughnut. This will help to keep the toppings from falling off, and well, it also tastes so much better! Now y'all know me well enough by now that we are bacon-lovin' people. So, we fried up a whole mess of thick-cut bacon until they became extra crispy, and then we finely chopped them into homemade, rustic bacon bits. And these bacon bits cover a lot of real estate, "doughnut real estate" to be exact. All that's left for you to do is drizzling the honey for the final garnish. Who knew that these flavors could work so harmoniously with each other? Well, apparently Elvis did, and boy was he right!! Enjoy :)

Look at that thick & creamy layer of peanut butter glaze...

There's nothing more satisfying than a big 'ole stack of doughnuts!

Homemade Bacon Bits

For the Yeasted Banana Bread Doughnuts:

2 Very Ripe Bananas, Thoroughly Mashed

1C + 2T Banana Bread Beer, Flat (all of the carbonation has to be removed)

2T Milk Powder

¼C Sugar

2 ½t Active Dry Yeast

2 Whole Large eggs, Beaten

1 Stick + 2T Unsalted Butter, Browned & Cooled

1t Vanilla & Banana Flavored Extract (add the banana if you want a really strong flavor)

4 ½C AP Flour

¼t Salt & Cinnamon

A pinch of Freshly Grated Nutmeg

1Q Canola, For Frying

For the Peanut Butter Glaze:

1 ½C Confectioners’ Sugar, Sifted

4T Homemade Peanut Butter

1t Vanilla Extract

4T Whole Milk (or a little more if it is too thick)

Pinch of Salt

For the “Elvis” Doughnuts:

Yeasted Banana Bread Doughnuts, Fried

Prepared Peanut Butter Glaze

Crispy Bacon Pieces, For Topping (we used about 2-3lbs of bacon for 24 doughnuts)

Honey, For Drizzling (optional)

Directions:

1. To Flatten the Beer:Measure out the banana bread bear and leave open overnight, or pour beer into a bowl and whisk vigorously to remove some carbonation.
2. For the Mashed Bananas Component: Place the ripe bananas into a mixing bowl and mash until only little pieces of bananas remain. Heat a sauté pan over medium heat and add the mashed bananas to the pan. While cooking the bananas, use a rubber spatula to keep the mixture moving, so there will not be any burnt spots. This process will help remove extra liquid from the bananas (it should be thicker).  I cooked my mixture for 10 minutes, but it could require another 5-10 minutes if you have bigger or riper bananas. Remove the reduced banana mash to a mixing bowl and let it cool completely.
3. To Make the Dough: In a mixing bowl, whisk together the flour and spices. Once the beer has rested, whisk in 2T of milk powder (since I substituted beer for milk, I added milk powder for a little creaminess). Warm the beer and milk powder is nice and warm, but not overly hot. Add sugar to milk. Stir to dissolve. Add yeast into a small bowl. Pour beer/milk/sugar mixture over yeast. Stir gently, and then let it sit for 10 minutes. Stir the brown butter and beaten eggs into the cooled bananas, along with the vanilla and banana flavored extract (if you are using it). Add the banana mixture to the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a dough hook. With the mixer on medium-low speed, pour in the yeast mixture. Allow the dough hook to stir this mixture for a couple of minutes, making sure it’s thoroughly combine. With the mixer still going, add ½C increments of the flour mixture until it is all gone. Stop the mixer, scrape the bowl, and then turn the mixer on the same speed for 5 minutes. After 5 minutes, stop the mixer and scrape the bottom of the mixer. Turn on the mixer for 30 seconds. Turn off the mixer off and let the dough sit, undisturbed, for 10 minutes. After 10 minutes, transfer the dough to a lightly oiled bowl. Toss the dough to coat, then cover with plastic wrap and place straight in the fridge. Refrigerate for at least 8 hours, or overnight.
4. To Make the Doughnuts: Remove the bowl from the fridge and turn out the dough onto a lightly floured surface. Roll out to ¼inch thickness. Using a 3inch cutter, cut as many rounds as you can, then roll out the remaining dough and once again cut as many as you can (repeat until you can’t anymore). Cut holes out of each round using a 1-½inch cutter. Cover with a large tea towel and place in a warm place in your kitchen. Allow the doughnuts to rise undisturbed for at least one hour. They should be visibly puffier and appear to be airy.
5. To Fry the Doughnuts:Heat the canola oil in your deep fryer to 375 degrees. One to two doughnuts at a time gently grab the doughnuts and ease them into the hot oil. Allow them to cook 1 minute on each side; they will brown very quickly. Remove the doughnut from the oil with a slotted spoon, allowing all the oil to drip off. Place the doughnut immediately on paper towels, for about 5 seconds, and then flip it. Allow the doughnuts to cool slightly.
6. For the Peanut Butter Glaze:Add all of the ingredients and whisk until smooth. Once it is ready, immediately glaze the doughnuts, by dipping each doughnut into the glaze until submerged. Remove from the glaze, and then turn right side up on a cooling rack over a cookie sheet (to catch extra glaze). Top the glazed doughnuts with a thick coating of crumbled bacon. Just a tip: we like to double dip our doughnuts, so that they have a thick glaze. So, we doubled the glaze recipe. After the second glazing, we immediately dipped them into the crumbled bacon (the technique you use is up to you). 
7. Right before serving, drizzle the tops of the doughnuts with honey. Enjoy... immediately!!

"Peanuts in my Coke" Floats with Salty Peanut Butter Ice Cream

"Peanuts in my Coke" Floats with Salty Peanut Butter Ice Cream

When I was a little girl, growing up in Atlanta, every year I looked forward to going to the Braves games with my family. At the time, we had season tickets and it was always the best part of the week when I got to invite a friend and we spent the night cheerin' for the home team while munching on ballpark food classics like funnel cakes, hot dogs, & nachos. But surprisingly enough, my favorite treat came before the game. And that was when we would pick up hot boiled peanuts from local vendors while making the trek to the ballgame gates. Not only did they sell boiled peanuts, but bags of Cracker Jack, salted peanuts, and ice cold Coca Cola's. And then, I discovered the most delicious treat that will ever-remind me of the good ole' days. Growing up in the deep South, my father shared with me one of his favorite treats... dropping in salted peanuts into a coke bottle. Now this might sound just so odd to you, but it really is a Southern delicacy. The peanuts added this wonderful saltiness to the overly sweet soda, and it made the most delightful popping and sizzling noise that would cheer up any kid. Now looking back on it, it makes perfect sense because now I crave those salty + sweet desserts I constantly create. So, for a while now, I was racking my mind for a dessert that could bring back those wonderful summer memories. Well why not make a coke float? I've been on such an ice cream float kick lately! I don't know what's wrong with me honestly. Maybe it's because they are just that good. So, I made an uber creamy peanut butter ice cream, with just the slightest hint of salt. Well, the rest of the work is just up to y'all... just scoop some of the ice cream into a tall cup, pour over some coke, and watch it bubble up to the top. I garnished mine with some honey roasted peanuts for a little crunch, and it was absolutely perfect! Oh and by the way, did y'all know it is National Peanut Butter Day? What a perfect treat to celebrate a day of Peanut Butter!! Enjoy :)

The Coke has been poured over the top...

And the bubbling has begun...

Top with some honey roasted nuts to garnish...

And there's the luscious Salty Peanut Butter Ice Cream that seals the deal!

For the Salty Peanut Butter Ice Cream:

2 ½C Heavy Cream

½C Whole Milk

6 Egg Yolks

1C Sugar

1 Stick Unsalted Butter, Melted & Cooled Slightly

½t Salt

1 ½C Smooth Peanut Butter

1t Vanilla

2T Vanilla Bean Infused Rum (or any kind of infused booze that is clear)

1C Roasted Peanuts, Roughly Chopped

Fleur de Sel, For Garnishing

For the Floats:

Homemade Salty Peanut Butter Ice Cream

Coca Cola, For Pouring

Fleur de Sel, For Garnishing

Whipped Cream, For Topping

Directions:

1.  For the Homemade Salty Peanut Butter Ice Cream: In a saucepan, bring the cream and milk to a simmer. In a bowl, whisk together the egg yolks, sugar, and salt until fluffy. Slowly whisk in the melted butter. Once combined, gradually and slowly into the simmering milk. Pour this mixture back into the saucepan and cook over low heat, until thickened (it should coat the back of a spoon). Remove from the heat and stir in ¾C of the smooth peanut butter. Strain the custard into a bowl that is placed into an ice bath. Stir in the vanilla bean infused rum and vanilla. Cool the custard base until completely chilled. Once the mixture is chilled, freeze in an ice cream maker according to the manufacturer’s instructions, adding 1⁄2 cup of the chopped nuts to the ice cream 30 seconds before it has finished churning. As you remove the ice cream to a freezer-safe container, drop dollops of the melted peanut butter over each layer of ice cream. Once all of the ice cream and peanut butter has been placed in the container, use a butter knife to gently swirl the mixture. Store the ice cream in the freezer. Cover and freeze until hard, about 4 hours.

2. For the Floats: In a tall glass, drop about 2-3 scoops of the salty peanut butter ice cream into the bottom of the caramel drizzled glass. Pour some Coca Cola over the top of the glass very slowly because the mixture will begin to bubble and can expand over the rim of the glass. Garnish the top of the drink with some whipped cream and some of the remaining roasted peanuts. If you’re like me and enjoy a salty dessert, then sprinkle a little more fleur de sel on top of the whipped cream. Enjoy before the ice cream begins to melt too much!

Dark Chocolate Covered Stout Marshmallows with Caramel & Crushed Peanut Butter Pretzel Topping

Dark Chocolate Covered Stout Marshmallows with Caramel & Crushed Peanut Butter Pretzel Topping

It's my midterm week, and it's absolutely dreadful. I feel like every single teacher has assigned five projects for me to complete before Thursday. Ugh, c'est la vie. But luckily enough for me, I get to head up to our family mountain house for an extra-long weekend. We're bringing friends with us and it will be filled with cookouts, hiking, drinking, and bonfires. This of course calls for homemade marshmallows for some daggum s'mores. I always make Vanilla Bean Marshmallows, but this time I decided I would also make some beer marshmallows for some variety. I know, beer flavored 'mallows? Are you in heaven yet? They do exist and they are utterly delicious. The ones we will be using for s'mores will be plain, but I ended up making a batch of some geeked out beer marshmallows that would knock anyone's socks off!! I topped the pillowy squares with a homemade layer of chewy caramel, and then dipped them into tempered dark chocolate, so that they were completely coated. While the chocolate was still soft, I garnished them with crushed peanut butter pretzels, a drizzle of white chocolate, and a sprinkle of vanilla bean fleur de sel. And then, I went all crazy and added some potato chips to a few, and they were awesome!! I will leave it up to you with how over-the-top you want to make yours... I mean you could easily just make the beer marshmallows and call it a day. I won't hate!! Anyway, we will be enjoying these this weekend, so I'll make sure to come back and post some of the pictures of these epic s'mores, just you wait!! Enjoy :)

Crushed Pretzels & Salty Potato Chips... The perfect marshmallow topping. 

For some variety, I made some white chocolate covered marshmallows... 

And then drizzled them with dark chocolate :) 

This is one big bite... Do you see the caramel layer??

For the Beer Marshmallows:

3 ½ Envelopes Unflavored Gelatin

1C Chocolate Stout Beer, Divided (It needs to be cold and flat for this recipe)

2C Sugar

½C Dark Corn Syrup

¼t Salt

2 Large Egg Whites

1T Vanilla

For the Caramel Layer:

2C Sugar

2C Heavy Cream

1C Light Corn Syrup

½t Salt (plus a little extra for sprinkling the top of the finished caramel)

4½T Unsalted Butter

For the Dark Chocolate Coating:

10oz 70% Bittersweet Chocolate, Coarsely Chopped

Peanut Butter Pretzels, Roughly Chopped For Garnishing

Fleur de Sel, For Sprinkling (optional)

For the Marshmallows:

Prepared Beer Marshmallows

Dark Chocolate Coating 

Melted White Chocolate, Optional

Vanilla Bean Fleur de Sel, For Sprinkling (optional)

Peanut Butter Pretzels, Roughly Chopped For Garnishing (or potato chips can be substituted)

Directions:

1. To flatten the beer, take the cap off the bottle and leave open overnight, or pour beer into a bowl and whisk vigorously to remove some carbonation… just make sure it is cold.

2.  For the Marshmallows: Oil bottom and sides of a 13x9 rectangular metal baking pan and dust bottom and sides with some confectioners’ sugar. In bowl of a standing electric mixer or in a large bowl sprinkle gelatin over ½C cold beer, and let stand to soften. In a 3-quart heavy saucepan cook granulated sugar, corn syrup, second ½C of cold beer, and salt over low heat, stirring with a wooden spoon, until sugar is dissolved. Increase heat to moderate and boil mixture, without stirring, until a candy or digital thermometer registers 240°F, about 12 minutes. Remove pan from heat and pour sugar mixture over gelatin mixture, stirring until gelatin is dissolved.With standing or a hand-held electric mixer beat mixture on high speed until fluffy, thick, and nearly tripled in volume, about six minutes if using standing mixer or about 10 minutes if using hand-held mixer. In separate medium bowl with cleaned beaters beat egg whites (or reconstituted powdered whites) until they just hold stiff peaks. Beat whites and vanilla (or your choice of flavoring) into sugar mixture until just combined. Pour mixture into baking pan and don’t fret if you don’t get it all out (learning from my mess of a first round). Sift ¼C confectioners sugar evenly over top. Chill marshmallow, uncovered, until firm, at least three hours, and up to one day.

3. Run a thin knife around edges of pan and invert pan onto a large cutting board. Lifting up one corner of inverted pan, with fingers loosen marshmallow and ease onto cutting board. With a large knife trim edges of marshmallow and cut marshmallow into roughly one-inch cubes. (An oiled pizza cutter works well here too.) Sift remaining confectioners’ sugar back into your now-empty baking pan, and roll the marshmallows through it, on all six sides, before shaking off the excess and packing them away.

4. For the Caramel Wrapping: Lightly butter an 18" X 13" sheet pan. In a large heavy sauce pan (the caramel will more than triple in volume, so you need plenty of space) over medium heat combine sugar, corn syrup, salt, and 1C heavy cream. Stirring constantly with a silicon spatula or wooden spoon, bring the mixture to a boil. This will take some time. It is important that you don't turn up the heat because candy requires patience. Once the mixture boils add the remaining 1C cream in a slow trickle so that you do not cool your caramel mixture and it continues to boil uninterrupted. Reduce heat to medium-low and allow it to boil for 5-6 minutes without stirring. Add butter one tablespoon at a time, stirring after each melts. Clip on your candy thermometer and allow to boil over medium-low heat until the mixture just hits 250°F (or the Firm Ball stage) stirring occasionally. This should take about 30-40 minutes; if your temperature is climbing too quickly you might need to reduce heat all the way to low. By the same token, if you're not hitting 250°F by 40 minutes you might want to increase the heat a bit. Once you've hit the right temperature, quickly remove from heat and pour into your prepared pan or onto the greased stone slab, spreading it out in an even layer. To prevent any crystallization, don't scrape the pan as you pour, just allow what clings to the pan to remain in it (you can scrape it into a smaller dish and eat it later, odds are it won't be crystallized). Allow your molten caramel to cool to room temperature. Once it has cooled, invert the caramel out of the pan onto a cutting board. Using a sharp knife, cut the caramel into squares (exactly the same size as your marshmallows) and place a caramel square on top of a marshmallows until all of them have been covered. Let the caramel sit on the marshmallows in the refrigerator for about an hour (this will help the caramel stick to the marshmallows). After they have chilled, begin to cover them in chocolate. 

5. For the Dark Chocolate Coating: Melt ¾ of the chopped chocolate in a metal bowl set over a saucepan of barely simmering water. Remove the bowl from the pan and add the remaining chocolate, stirring until smooth. Cool the chocolate until a thermometer inserted at least ½inch into the chocolate registers 80 degrees. Return the water in the pan to a boil and remove it from heat. Set the bowl with cooled chocolate over the pan and reheat, stirring, until the thermometer registers 88-91 degrees as necessary. Remove the bowl from the pan. Stick a marshmallow on a fork or skewer and submerge in the melted chocolate, letting the excess drip off and scraping the back of the fork against the rim of the bowl if necessary.  Place the coated marshmallow onto a parchment lined baking sheet to stand until the chocolate is set, about 1 hour. Make sure to top the marshmallows with crushed pretzels and a sprinkle of fleur de sel while the chocolate is still soft. Repeat with the remaining marshmallows until all of them have been coated with chocolate.

source: caramel wrapped marshmallows. beer marshmallows.

Souffléd Cornbread-Mole Chili Casserole with a Pimento Cheese Surprise

Souffléd Cornbread-Mole Chili Casserole with a Pimento Cheese Surprise

It's casserole season y'all. Did you know? Of course. But, breaking news, I'm not a fan of casseroles. Just never have been, and I don't know if I ever will. Don't get me wrong though, the occasional baked dish will hit the spot. A family favorite of ours was always chili-cornbread casserole. I made my rich, mole chili for the bottom layer, and then I topped it with a layer of homemade pimento cheese and a souffléd cornbread topping. What's special about this cornbread you ask... Well, it's gently folded, so that when it is baked it is light & fluffy (instead of dense and grainy). This would be a great meal to feed the family on a week day or something to make at a tailgate party. Just sit back and relax with this meal on a cold, winter day and trust me you'll be happy!! Enjoy :)

For the Mole Chili Filling:

2T Olive Oil

1 Medium Onion, Chopped

1T Garlic, Chopped

1lb Ground Beef Chunk (80/20)

2-28oz Can of Crushed Tomatoes

1C Water

1 4oz Can of Chopped Green Chiles

2 Jalapenos, Seeded & Diced

3T Chili Powder

1t Paprika

½t Dried Oregano

½t Cayenne Pepper

1t Cumin

¼t Pumpkin Pie Spice

½t Salt

1t Onion Powder

1t Garlic Salt

2t Brown Sugar

¼C Creamy Peanut Butter

2T Unsweetened Cocoa Powder

1-2T Hot Sauce

1t Worcestershire

Salt & Pepper, To Taste

For the Souffléd Cornbread Topping:

½C Yellow Cornmeal (preferably stone-ground)

1 ½C Buttermilk

2T Unsalted Butter

1C Corn Kernels

½t Sugar & Salt (as well as fresh cracked pepper to taste)

Pinch of Cayenne   

2 Large Eggs, Separated

1/8t Cream of Tartar

For the Souffléd Cornbread-Mole Chile Casserole:

Prepared Mole Chili Filling

1-2C Pimento Cheese

Prepared Souffléd Cornbread Topping

Optional Toppings: Diced Raw Onions, Green Onions or Chives, Grilled Corn, Salsa, etc.

Directions:

1. For the Mole Chili Filling: Heat the olive oil in a big pot on medium-high heat. Add the onions and sauté until tender, then add in the garlic and diced jalapenos and cook for about 2 minutes. Next, add in the ground beef and cook thoroughly through. Add in the water, crushed tomatoes, and green chiles. Let this mixture cook for about 10 minutes, then stir in chili powder, paprika, oregano, cayenne, cumin, pumpkin pie spiced, salt, onion powder, garlic salt, and brown sugar. Let this mixture cook covered on low heat for 30 minutes. After it has simmered, stir in the creamy peanut butter, cocoa powder, hot sauce, and Worcestershire. Once again, cook on simmer for an hour, stirring every 15 minutes. Let the mixture cool to room temperature before layering it into the baking dish.

2. After the chili has cooled, pour or spoon the chili into a large baking dish that has been sprayed with Pam. Layer or dollop on 1-2C of pimento cheese on top of the chili, making sure that it is in an even layer. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Set the baking dish aside.

3. For the Souffléd Cornbread Topping: Meanwhile, in a mixing bowl, whisk together the yellow cornmeal and ½C + 2T buttermilk, and then set it aside. In a large pot over medium-high heat, cook the corn until it begins to brown and soften, about 5-10 minutes depending on the type of corn you use. Stir in the sugar, salt, cayenne, and the remaining 1C of buttermilk, and then bring the mixture to a boil. Remove from the heat, cover, and let the mixture steep for 10 minutes. Using an immersion blender, puree the corn-milk mixture until smooth. Bring the mixture back to a boil, reduce heat to low, and add in the cornmeal-buttermilk mixture, whisking constantly until thickened, about 2 minutes. Once thickened, let this mixture cool completely to room temperature. Once cooled, whisk in the egg yolks. In a bowl, beat the egg whites with the cream of tartar until stiff peaks form, and then fold it into the corn mixture, a third at a time. Gently pour the batter on top of the pimento cheese-mole chili filling. Bake for 25-35 minutes.

4. Spoon the casserole into large bowls and garnish with any other toppings you like. Serve immediately while still warm.