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.
Made this for my son’s birthday on Christmas Eve. It was delicious, everyone loved it.
I bought a chocolate graham cracker crust instead of making my own. Everyone thought I bought the entire pie because of the crust, LOL Definitely making the crust next time.
My nephew only makes one request at Christmas, Peanut Butter Pie. I love to bake so he always gets his wish. I made your recipe this yer and he says hands down this is the winner. He especially liked the richness and perfect consistency. Easy to make, I appreciate your hints and step by step video.
How much whipped topping can be substituted?
Hi Victoria! Can you please elaborate? The whipping cream is added to the filling to assist in the fluffiness of the filling and balance the sweetness. I would not recommend substituting it. However, if you’re looking to use whipped cream for the topping instead of melted pb and chocolate, feel free to base that on your personal preference! I hope that helps 🙂
If using teddy grahams as a pie crust substitute, do you know how many ounces (or boxes) will equal1 3/4 cups?
Hi Ali! Just use the same amount by weight (196 grams) for best results. Let us know what you think of this pie once you have given it a try 🙂
Made this for thanksgiving and it was a huge hit. My daughter can’t eat gluten so I found a premade gluten free chocolate cookie crust at Walmart. She loved it! The filling was so good it didn’t even matter that the crust was GF.
Made this for Thanksgiving and everyone loved it. It was easy to assemble too. We served the cake *from* refrigerated after dinner, but popped some pieces into the freezer for later. The frozen ones were amazing! The filling was so smooth when frozen. My spoon cut through it like ice cream. The homemade crust was a bit tough to manage in thicker, frozen spots but that didn’t stop me. 🙂
The most Delicious peanut butter pie I have ever made! Everyone LOVED it!
Woohoo! So happy to hear that, Elena!
The store didn’t have any chocolate graham crackers. Can I used crushed up Oreos instead? Will it change the flavor much?
Hi Brooke! Tessa offers cookie substitute suggestions in the pink tip box (above the recipe). Check out the answer to your question, along with countless other great baking tips for this recipe, there! Let us know what you think of this pie once you give it a try! 🙂
Last minute urgent question! Can I make this in a tart pan?!
Hi Jacqueline! We haven’t tried this pie in anything but the pie pan recommended. It will work in a tart pan, but you will likely have a lot of filling leftover. Let us know how it goes 🙂
I’ve made it twice in the past three days using my tart pan! I had just enough crust and filling to make a small crème brûlée size pie. Except for all the dirty dishes, it’s a super easy and much loved dessert! Thank you!
Woohoo!! So glad to hear that 🙂
can I make it the night before
You sure can! Check out Tessa’s make-ahead tips, and tons of other tips, in the pink tip box (above the recipe). Happy baking!
Made it for a Friendsgiving and legit not a slice was left. I also made it two days prior and it tasted amazing when served. I did accidentally use Trader Joe’s PB which should absolutely be avoided – you need the good stuff like jiffy!
Can you make mini pies with this such as in a regular sized muffin pan? Would the time for baking the shell be about the same?
Hi Jenny! We haven’t tried that, so I can’t say for sure – but it should work just fine! Bake the crusts approximately the same amount of time, but maybe just check a minute or two earlier – you’ll want the crusts to be fragrant and look set. I hope that helps! Let us know how it goes 🙂