Southern Peanut Butter Pie

This is a family favorite but I haven't had a chance to work on pie experiments so I don't have a crust recipe and I am not sure there isn't anything I would change with this recipe to make it more healthy. I know pie is not always meant to be healthy but it should have something about it that makes us feel like we're nurturing more than our junk food genes. There's something about pie that brings us back to a more simple time - fruit pies cooling on the window sill. This pie is not so bad since it's packed with protein powered peanut butter. Use an all natural peanut butter and it would almost come across as a health food (almost).

Southern Peanut Butter Pie
9" pastry shell
3 eggs
1 cup dark corn syrup
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup peanut butter
1 teas vanilla
1 teas orange zest
1 cup salted peanuts, coarsely chopped.
Preheat oven to 400 - make sure shell has been refrigerated 1 hr. In bowl beat eggs until frothy. Add corn syrup, sugar, peanut butter, vanilla and zest. Beat until smooth. Stir in peanuts, the pour into shell. Bake for 15 minutes, reduce heat to 350 and bake an additional 30 minutes. Cool thoroughly before cutting and serving.

note: I don't think I have ever added orange zest to this recipe and I can't tell you where I got it from.