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 I make the filling a head of time, or does it need to be made all at once?
We haven’t tried that, so I can’t say for sure! If you’re looking to save time, I’d instead make the crust ahead of time, and store it covered in the fridge until ready to fill. That way, the filling is guaranteed to be light and fluffy in texture.
Just made this pie for the first time (won’t be the last). Everyone loved it. So easy to make and delicious to eat.
It’s good but I put to much peanut butter, I used the whole jar. Next time I know to use one cup.
Amazing pie- it’s a hit every time I make it! And who doesn’t love a quick and easy recipe!
I have made this recipe so many times I’ve lost count. Always a big hit with my pie customers! 5 stars!
We love hearing that, thanks for the 5-star review! 🙂
It says you can freeze it for up to a month — how far in advance should I remove it from the freezer before serving?
This pie actually tastes delicious frozen, so you can’t go wrong! Feel free to thaw it at room temperature a couple hours before serving, or enjoy as is 🙂
Curious how the crust in the pictures is very obviously a chocolate crust, but your recipe is for a craham cracker crust. Is this your pie in the pictures or a stock image?
It calls for chocolate* graham crackers in the recipe. Attention to detail
Hi Samantha! The recipe calls for chocolate graham crackers 😉 We never use stock images on our site! These photos were shot by the incredible Ashley McLaughlin.
What is the difference taste wise between the graham cracker and Oreo cookie crust in terms of this recipe? Do you prefer the graham because the Oreo can make it overly sweet?
Hi Cassie! The flavors are actually fairly similar, I wouldn’t necessarily say one is sweeter than the other! Brown sugar is added to the chocolate graham cracker crust, and no sugar is added in the Oreo crust. I think you’d be happy with either 🙂
What kind of chocolate should I use for melting? Dark? Milk? Ghirardelli 60%? Semi sweet?
Whichever you love most! It’s purely a personal preference based on the sweetness levels you prefer — use milk chocolate for a sweeter topping or semi-sweet/dark for a less sweet topping.
I have made this several times. I have also used the ready made pie crust. Also, bought the mini pie crusts and made individual servings. So delicious!
This looks great – I’d like to make a chocolate PB pie, using this recipe as the base. How would you suggest I do that to add in some chocolate? Thanks!
Google the recipe for chocolate peanut butter lasagna! It’s this but with a layer of chocolate pudding & my entire family loves it😋
Yummmm Thanks so much!
Line your pie crust with chocolate ganache before filling with the peanut butter filling. You could also use chocolate ganache on top of your pie
If buying store bought whipped cream, what should the measurements be for that?
Hi Jessica! We’ve only ever made this recipe with homemade whipped cream and haven’t weighed it once it’s whipped, so I can’t say for sure!