Squirrel Nut Zipper Pie

My husband absolutely loves Squirrel Nut Zippers. He found a recipe for Squirrel Nut Zipper Pie online, and I agreed to try and make it. Well, it turns out that the recipe didn’t actually have Squirrel Nut Zippers in it, which I thought was weird, but I went ahead and made it anyway. It came out well, and according to him, actually tasted like the candy.

We were both curious if it would come out better with some of the actual candy in it, though. After looking around for a while, we finally found a convenience store that carried it, and I made a pie with the recipe below. Now, I wasn’t a big fan of the candy when all this started, but I have to admit the pie came out pretty well.

Squirrel Nut Zipper Pie

Serves 8 to 10

Ingredients

• 3 eggs.
• 2 Tbsp. unsalted butter, melted.
• 2/3 cup light corn syrup.
• 14-oz. can sweetened condensed milk.
• 1/3 cup half-and-half.
• 1 tsp. butter flavor extract (may substitute vanilla extract).
• 1/2 tsp. almond extract.
• 1/4 tsp. salt.
• 2 cups unsalted roasted peanuts, finely chopped.
• 9-inch deep-dish frozen pie shell, unbaked.
• 1/2 cup caramel dessert topping.

These were the ingredients from the original online recipe. To add the Squirrel Nut Zippers, I replaced one cup of the roasted peanuts with one cup of finely chopped Squirrel Nut Zippers, which I folded in with the other ingredients just like they were peanuts. The pie came out much chewier and gooier with the Squirrel Nut Zippers added in. You can go either way with it, depending on your taste.

One thing I would not recommend is to melt down the Squirrel Nut Zippers to replace the caramel dessert topping. I tried to do this, and the candy came out brittle and hard. Kind of like a cheap crème brûlée.