Tessa's Recipe Rundown
Taste: Like a massive peanut butter cup from heaven.
Texture: The crust is crunchy yet buttery, the peanut butter filling is ultra-light, fluffy, and luscious, and the candy on top takes it to a whole new level. Every bite is bliss.
Ease: Super duper easy!! You’ll get a few dishes dirty and need some patience for the pie to set, but this is a great easy go-to dessert recipe.
Why You’ll Love This Recipe: It’ll become such a family-favorite, they’ll request it for every holiday and special ocassion!
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Life doesn’t get much better than this Peanut Butter Pie.
To me, peanut butter is one of the great pleasures of life. I’m OBSESSED with the stuff. Especially when it’s combined with chocolate… in PIE form.
This isn’t any old peanut butter pie. I mean, just look at it. It’s over the top, messy, and unapologetically sinful in the best possible way.
I’ve accompanied this recipe with a step-by-step video to not only show you how to make this beautiful pie, but to whet your appetite for it.
Because the chocolate + peanut butter flavors truly belong together.
This easy Peanut Butter Pie recipe is a total crowd-pleaser and won’t last long at all. That coupled with the fact that it can be made completely ahead of time makes it a perfect go-to recipe for easy entertaining. Everyone will want seconds of this pie. It’s that good!
How to Make Peanut Butter Pie WITHOUT Cool Whip
My favorite part about this pie recipe is that it’s entirely homemade! We make the filling with a mixture of peanut butter (of course!), cream cheese, heavy cream, and powdered sugar. Whipping the cream, then folding it in with the other beaten ingredients, gives this pie a light, creamy, yet rich texture without any Cool Whip (or any other highly-process whipped topping).
Pie Crust Variations
This recipe calls for a chocolate graham cracker cookie crust, but you could also use:
- Chocolate Teddy Grahams or chocolate wafer cookies (use the same amount by weight for best results, you should have about 1 3/4 cups crumbs total)
- Oreo crust (follow the crust ingredients & instructions in my French Silk Pie recipe)
- Regular graham crackers (follow the crust instructions in my Chocolate Peanut Butter Pudding Pie recipe)
- My all-butter Best Ever Pie Crust recipe , or a Lattice Pie Crust
Serving, Storage, and Freezing
To Serve: You can actually serve the finished pie frozen or refrigerated, depending on which texture you prefer – or how hot it is outside!
To Store: Covered in the fridge for up to 3 days.
To Freeze: Wrap tightly in plastic wrap and store in the freezer for up to 1 month. Serve frozen, or thaw overnight in the fridge before serving, if preferred.
FAQs
Yes! Use the same amount of almond butter as peanut butter in the recipe. Add 2 teaspoons of vanilla extract to the cream cheese, powdered sugar, and almond butter filling (still adding the 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract to the heavy cream mixture as well). For the toppings, skip the Reese’s cups and peanut butter chips and instead garnish with almond butter cups and melted chocolate, or any other toppings of your choice.
Use as many or as few as you like – and feel free to customize! If you’d like to add some Reese’s Pieces in there, go right ahead – be as creative and fun as you wish.
This is entirely up to you and your taste preferences! Simply melt the peanut butter and chocolate in your microwave and drizzle as much as you’d like over your pie.
You can use any conventional creamy peanut butter for this recipe, such as Skippy or Jif. Natural peanut butter will give the best peanut flavor, but it MUST be well stirred and smooth before using. My favorite is the Kirkland Signature Organic Peanut Butter from Costco.
More Crowd-Pleasing Pie Recipes:
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Ingredients
For the crust:
- 14 whole (196 grams) chocolate graham crackers*
- 1 tablespoon light brown sugar
- 7 tablespoons (99 grams) unsalted butter, melted
For the filling:
- 8 ounces (227 grams) cream cheese, at room temperature
- 3/4 cup (94 grams) powdered sugar plus 2 tablespoons, divided
- 1 cup (270 grams) creamy conventional peanut butter
- 1 cup (240 grams) heavy whipping cream
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
For the topping:
- Melted peanut butter
- Melted chocolate
- Mini Reese’s cups
- Peanut butter chips
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 325°F.
For the crust:
- In the bowl of a food processor, process the crackers and sugar until finely ground. Add the butter and pulse until moistened. Use the bottom of a measuring cup, glass, or ramekin to press the crust mixture into the bottom and up the sides of a 9-inch pie plate. Bake until fragrant, about 10 to 12 minutes. Cool completely on a wire rack.
For the filling:
- In a large bowl, use an electric mixer to beat the cream cheese, 3/4 cup powdered sugar, and the peanut butter until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes.
- In a separate bowl, use an electric mixer with the whisk attachment to whip the heavy cream until thick and light. Add in the remaining 2 tablespoons of powdered sugar and the vanilla extract and continue to whip until stiff peaks form.
- Gently fold the whipped cream into the peanut butter mixture. Pour into the prepared pie shell and freeze for 3 hours or chill in the fridge at least 6 hours.
- Place your melted peanut butter and melted chocolate in separate resealable bags or piping bags. Snip off a tiny corner of the bag's tip. Squeeze slightly to drizzle the melted peanut butter and melted chocolate over your pie. Top with mini Reese's cups and peanut butter chips. Serve frozen or refrigerated.
- Store in the fridge, covered, for up to 3 days, or in the freezer for up to 1 month.
Notes
This recipe was originally published in 2015 and was recently updated with new tips & photos. Photos by Ashley McLaughlin.
Can the crust be done without a food processor?
Sure! You can just crush the crackers with a mallet, rolling pin, heavy pan, etc. or buy pre-ground crumbs 🙂
Did you freeze for 4 hours before you added the toppings? I am confused on that part of the directions . Thanks!
Yep 🙂
I bought Oreo CRUMBS instead of whole crackers … What measurement of crumbs would you say 14 crackers is equal to???
I made this for a family event and it was amazing. Everyone loved it. I used Trader Joe’s dark chocolate peanut butter cups and homemade peanut butter and it was amazing…very rich and not at all too sweet, like other versions I have tried. Thank you for this recipe!
This came out absolutely fantastic! Best peanut butter pie recipe ever!
I made this today and it is delicious! I used a normal pie crust because I like them better than graham cracker crusts. I also added a layer of chocolate ganache to the bottom and drizzled some on top. I used about a cup of chocolate chips, stole three tablespoons from the heavy whipping cream for the filling, and added in 2-3 tablespoons of coffee.
Again, very good pie! I will make this again.
Wonderful, Lindsey! Glad you were able to make the recipe your own.
Hi! I am making this for a crowed – I was wondering if I could make it in a 9×13 pan or if you think the recipe would need to be tweaked at all?
I may be misunderstanding…do you have to let the pie sit for 3 days before serving? Or does it only last 3 days? I’m confused.
It can be stored for up to 3 days. You definitely don’t have to let it sit for 3 days before serving!
Would you suggest serving this frozen or reridgerate? It’s for pi/pie day tomorrow at my hubby’s work. I’m wondering if he should keep it in the fridge or freezer for a couple hours before its served.
Thank you!
Hi Katie! Please refer to the recipe, “Serve frozen or refrigerated. Store in the fridge or freezer, covered, for up to 3 days.” So yes, keep it refrigerated or frozen until ready to serve.
Has anyone tried this with regular graham crackers? I can’t get chocolate ones here in the UK. 🙁
I made this with an oreo crust and I have made this with a vanilla waffer crust! Both are great!
Glad to hear that, Grace!
I have made chocolate graham cracker crusts by adding cocoa powder and sugar to the crust for cheesecakes in the past.
1 1/2 cups graham crackers, 1/3 cup white sugar, 1/3 cup cocoa powder, 1/3 cup butter (melted). This recipe made a really sweet chocolate graham cracker crust. I remember thinking that it was too sugary. But you can try it and modify it to your own taste 🙂
This was was fantastic!! Thank you for sharing!!! 🙂
Must it sit for 3 days?
no way! She just meant it will keep in the fridge for 3 days. You can eat it as soon as it’s been set in the fridge for 6 hours or in the freezer for 3 hours.