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 did make it. Turned out awesome. After I made the crust, I made the whipped cream first and transferred it to another bowl and put it in the fridge. I made the filling in the same mixing bowl. Less dishes…win. My grocery store didn’t have peanut butter chips so I used Reeses pieces instead. Turned out perfect.
Definite win! And another win using Reese’s Pieces, YUM!! So happy you loved this recipe, Barb!
How did you melt the chocolate & peanut butter please?
Hi Valerie! We just melted them in the microwave!
I love peanut butter pie and often order it from a favorite restaurant. I was excited to try this recipe and I am so glad that I did! It was so amazing. This recipe is a keeper for certain. Thank you!
Wonderful! So happy you enjoyed this pie, Amy!
Loved it so much. I used your recipe for the filling and subbed powdered coconut sugar instead of the regular one. I used a different recipe for a paleo crust.
I just loved the consistency and flavour of your filling. I made 2 pies over the weekend and there are already people ordering to make more for them
This is gonna be my go-to dessert for any occasion!
So happy you were able to experiment and find the perfect pie to suit everyone’s needs! Wonderful to hear it’s now your go-to, Alessia, thanks for letting us know!
Definitely try to get a good chocolate layer in there. It’s rich with a lot of peanut butter! Serve frozen with a scoop of vanilla ice cream. I melted organic chocolate pieces in a ziplock, cut the corner and squeezed it on, but I would have liked half peanut butter, half chocolate. Maybe mix the choc silk pie with this one and make two pies!!
Your ideas sound amazing, Denise! This is a peanut butter lover’s pie for sure haha, but I’m happy you enjoyed it 🙂
Great recipe!
Can I sub chocolate teddy grahams for the chocolate graham crackers? They are not available at my local store.
Thanks!
Hi Kelly! We haven’t tried that so we can’t say for sure how it would turn out, but chocolate cookies are normally a good substitute in crusts. Please let us know how it goes!
This was the best peanut butter pie ever! So rich and delicious. I made it for a co-worker’s birthday and everyone loved it! The only thing I did differently is I used an 8-inch spring form pan. It worked perfectly!
So glad your pie was such a hit, we love hearing that you used this recipe to celebrate with!
Can the peanut butter pie be made sugar free?
I haven’t tried that!
This was a really great pie and very easy to make. I plan to keep this recipe for future use. Thank you!
Wonderful! I’m so happy you loved this recipe! 🙂
I have made this recipe and it went over like the 4th of July, it was a hit.
Perfect! I’m so happy to hear everyone loved your pie!
thank you for this recipe! I made 3 of these for my work today (pastry chef for private lodge). I did not have all the nice candy toppings, so I just smoothed the tops, drizzled with chocolate sauce, and made whipped cream rosettes. I think the recipe has a good balance, not too sweet. I guess I will find out tomorrow if the guests liked it too 😀
I bet they loved them, your pies sound absolutely beautiful!