Almond Joy Hand Pies

AND.......I'm back. It's been a few months (or six, but who's counting?), so here's a quick laundry list of what's been keeping me away from my beloved baking blog:

Get cookbook #1, 175 Best Mini Pie Recipes, edited and published: CHECK (You can see the book sitting comfortably over there on the sidebar--shameless self plug #1.)
Migrate Peanut Butter and Julie blog from Typepad to WordPress without pulling my hair out in the process: CHECK, but it was a close call. (Bloggers, you totally get what I mean. Non-bloggers, just feel sorry for me.) During this process, several random archived and half-written posts went out to my subscribers. You might have received one. Sorry.
Finish manuscript for cookbook #2, 100 Best Decorated Cookie Recipes: CHECK (She's over there sitting just under cookbook #1--shameless self plug #2.)
Sleep. Finishing a manuscript is exhausting. CHECK.
Read WordPress for Dummies, so I have at least a little bit of a clue as to what I am doing now that the above migration has successfully occurred -- CHECK. Those Dummies books are a Godsend.
Finally, BAKE........and bake and bake and bake and bake and bake, with a little bit of cooking thrown in for good measure. CHECK. A blogging hiatus REALLY makes you miss blogging, so I've being coming up with lots of new recipe ideas for future posts.

And speaking of posts, on to today's sweet treat (cue applause.)

Raise your hand if you like to eat candy bars chilled or frozen.

If you didn't raise your hand, I'm sorry to say that you are missing out. Maybe it's because I've lived in a warm climate most of my life, and melted chocolate attached to your wrapper as you peel it off a Twix bar is a major bummer. Or, maybe it's because a cold or frozen package of Rolos almost demands that you eat them more slowly, their caramel center becoming even more dense and chewy. Whatever the reason, I've always had a habit of eating chocolate candy bars cold.

Which is how I enjoy eating these mini pies. Note that these are mini pies, which is sweet tooth speak for "Yes, you may eat the whole pie." Mini pies rock.

These chocolate covered handheld lovelies were inspired by one of my very favorite candy bars, which I of course enjoy chilled, the Almond Joy. This recipe is almost a replica of one in my book, however, in the book it is called "Chocolate Covered Coconut Almond Pies." I probably wasn't allowed to call them "Almond Joy Pies" in the book due to trademark something or other. But I'm a rebel, so I'm calling them "Almond Joy Hand Pies" on my blog.

This recipe has three moving parts: the chocolate crust, the filling and the ganache, but they each come together fairly easily so don't let that keep you from chocolate covered coconut heaven! And yes, you by all means may use a store-bought crust -- it will just change the flavor to butter vs. chocolate, (unless you know about some store bought chocolate crust that exists--in that case, do tell!)

I'll be back soon with another sweet treat. Thanks so much for waiting around for me!