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.
I’m making this for Thanksgiving. Of course I waited till the last minute and there is no whipping cream. Can I use half and half?
Hi Amy! I’m sorry, we were out of the office to enjoy the Thanksgiving break with our families, so let us know how this went!
I wasn’t able to find chocolate graham crackers so I’m going to try using chocolate teddy grahams. Has anyone tried this?
Yes, we have and it works great!! Tessa has additional tips for this in the Tip Box, above the recipe 🙂
I had so much fun making pies with this recipe!
Yay! So glad to hear that, Vanessa!
I can’t find the video to make this Peanut Butter Pie.
Hi there! Apologies, our ‘Jump to Video’ button does not work (we’re working on fixing that!). To view the recipe video for this Peanut Butter Pie, simply go to the very top of the page, and just scroll down a tiny bit. You’ll see Tessa’s Recipe Rundown, and another picture of this delicious pie underneath that. It’s right below that, under a header that says ‘Recipe Video’ (an ad might play first, but it will play right after that). Let us know what you think once you’ve given this recipe a try! 🙂
This is always the favorite dessert when I bring it. Everyone loves this and it is so easy to make. I usually make it a day or two in advance and just bring it frozen in a cooler bag and it’s perfect to serve after dinner. So glad I found this recipe – I use lots of recipes from Handle the Heat and they are all great. My go to place when I need to make something. Thank you, Tessa, for sharing all your wonderful recipes and tips-they are much appreciated! Making this for Thanksgiving today!
Hi Janie Lynes! We are SO excited to hear that this pie has been such a hit for you! Thanks so much for your comment and Happy Thanksgiving!
Hello! This pie looks absolutely delicious, and I am hoping to make it for Thanksgiving this week. When you say “conventional” peanut butter – I presume you don’t mean the natural variety? Have you tried with natural peanut butter?
Hi Melissa! Tessa has tips on this very topic in the Tip Box above the recipe! Let us know if you give this recipe a try – we’d love to know what you think! 🙂
I don’t have powered sugar, can I just use regular sugar?
Hi Christina! You can easily make your own powdered sugar – learn how here!
Is the cream cheese non negotiable? Would love to make this but I am just not a fan of cream cheese.
Hi Ashley! Feel free to experiment if you wish, but we haven’t tried this recipe with anything except full fat cream cheese, so we couldn’t say if anything else would work in its place. I really don’t think you can taste the cream cheese when paired with all the other deliciousness, though, if that helps 🙂
How many ready grahams would you say to use if you are using those instead?
Hi Patrick! Assuming you mean Teddy Grahams, follow Tessa’s instructions in the Tip Box above the recipe: “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”. Happy baking 🙂
Can this be made a day or two ahead without the crust getting soggy?
Hi Leslie! It sure can! Tessa included all the information about shelf life and even freezing instructions, in the pink tip box, above the recipe. Happy baking 🙂
I am going to make this recipe using cookie butter in the place of the peanut butter. Maybe top it with crushed Ferrero Rocher hazelnut chocolates. Mmm. Sounds mouth watering if you ask me!)
Hi Sara! That sounds like it could be delicious – let us know how it goes once you have given that a try!! 🙂
My family LOVED this! I will definitely use this recipe again!! Thank you for sharing!!
could you use milk in place of heavy whipping cream?
Hi Francesca! No, unfortunately milk cannot be substituted for whipping cream in this recipe. You need to whip the cream to stiff peaks, then fold other ingredients in, and milk will not hold a stiff peak. Let us know what you think if you give this recipe a try!
Made this recipe for my work crew. If you want to be the peanut butter pie king then you must use this recipe. It is totally amazing and delicious.
That’s so wonderful to hear, Paul! So glad this was such a hit 🙂