My Plate: Peppermint Crisp Pie

peppermint crisp pie

 

It's been an epic weekend.  Birthday celebrations saw me at the Good Food and Wine Show on Saturday with some close friends, which then continued on into the night with a girls night in, with copious amounts of wine and good food, not to mention the fantastic group of girlfriends I am blessed with.

Sunday dawned a bit fuzzy and hazy (and I'm not talking about the weather) and it was an afternoon of family gatherings to celebrate the birthday and catch up with some family.  The original menu that I had planned didn't happen because the weekend ended up being much busier than originally planned, but I did do this dessert!

Peppermint Crisp Pie.  It's an Apples for Jam recipe by Tessa Kiros.  I have adapted the recipe to accommodate Australian 'equivalent' products and slight changes in measurements.  You will need to make the dulce de leche prior to making the dessert.  You will need at least 4-5 hours to make the caramel and let it cool.

Ingredients

1.5 packets of Marie biscuits ( you may not need all the crumbs)
150g butter, melted
1 tin of dulce de leche (sweetened condensed milk boiled)
whipped cream
3 peppermint crisp bars, crushed (or grated peppermint chocolate)

Method

Take labels off the tins. Place unopened tin of sweetened condensed milk into a saucepan and cover with water (at least an inch above the can).  I also placed a clean tea towel into the saucepan around the tin to keep it from bouncing around  (I did 3 tins to make extra caramel and used 2 tea towels).  Bring to a boil and then turn down to simmer for at least 3 hours.  Ensure water level does not drop below the tops of the tins (or may have have a caramel explosion in your kitchen).  Turn off and let the tin cool down. DO NOT OPEN WHILE HOT!*

Crush biscuits in a blender to make a crumb.  Place in a bowl and pour in melted butter.  Mix together.

Pack crumbs into pie tin (20cm pie tin) and pack down to make a crust.  Place in fridge to set until ready to serve.

Place pie crust on a plate, top with dulce de leche, whipped cream and sprinkle the crushed peppermint crisp (or grated peppermint chocolate) over the top.

As I hadn't made dulce de leche before, I was super impressed with myself when I opened the tin and saw the deep sweet, fudgy caramel.  This is a super easy dessert (once you have the caramel made) and I think it was the crispy peppermint shards on top that gave it the wow factor. 
* You can store unopened tins of caramel in the fridge or pantry.  I have kept some in a container in the fridge to have sneaky spoonful or two.  It's sinful but oh so delicious!