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.
Pros: Easy, crowd-pleasing, and can be made ahead of time.
Cons: None.
Would I make this again? 100% yes!
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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.
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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!
Sprinkle of Science
How to Make Easy Peanut Butter Pie
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)
- Or my all-butter Best Ever Pie Crust recipe
What Kind of Peanut Butter is Best for Pie?
- Use conventional creamy peanut butter for this recipe, such as Skippy or Jif.
- Any kind of “natural” peanut butter that doesn’t include an added oil to stabilize the mixture will result in a pie filling that could become oily and separated.
- If you must use natural peanut butter, make sure it’s extremely well stirred and smooth before using.
How Much Melted Chocolate + Peanut Butter for Topping?
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.
How Many Peanut Butter Cups Do I Need?
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.
Can’t Have Peanuts? Use Almond Butter Instead!
- 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.
How to Serve Peanut Butter Pie
You can actually serve the finished pie frozen or refrigerated, depending on which texture you prefer – or how hot it is outside!
How Long is Peanut Butter Pie Good For?
Store covered in the fridge for up to 3 days.
How to Freeze Peanut Butter Pie
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.
More Crowd-Pleasing Pie Recipes:
Peanut Butter Pie
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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.
Recipe Notes
This recipe was originally published in 2015 and was recently updated with new tips & photos. Photos by Ashley McLaughlin.
My absolutely new favorite dessert- as well as my family’s! I used this recipe for a bday party and everyone loved it- not just the peanut butter loving birthday girl. Here are a few things I encountered in case anyone else does too-
The crust- I used Golden Teddy Grahams and it worked beautifully. I followed the directions by really pressing down the crust before baking it, but I think I pressed too hard. Even though it was delicious, it was quite a bit denser than the rest of the pie.
Making the cream- I only have a hand mixer and I thought I was never going to get to the whipped cream stage. After about 7 minutes of mixing (after the vanilla and powdered sugar was mixed in) I tilted the bowl and held the mixers in sideways to incorporate more air and it turned into the right texture almost instantly after that.
I also used a homemade candy hard shell of dark chocolate for a swirl on the top by melting dark chocolate callets with a tiny bit of coconut oil. My fam said it made it taste just like a Snickers ice cream bar (sans the caramel). I also added Reeses Pieces and chopped salted nuts, but next time I will skip the Reeses Pieces and add more nuts. They just got too cold and didn’t melt in your mouth the same way.
I made the pie the day before so it was able to set for a while, but waited until the morning of to add the toppings.
Thanks for the recipe- it’s truly my new favorite!
Oh my, your pie looks amazing!! Thanks so much for sharing your experience, we’re so happy you loved our recipe! 🙂
I would not recommend this recipe. Followed the instructions to the letter and it was a MESS. The crust calls for to o much butter and it literally turned into mush in the oven. The whipping cream coagulated when it was mixed with the vanilla and blew cream all over my kitchen. That was it. After spending a small fortune on the ingredients, I ended up throwing the whole thing out. I’m 63 and an experienced baker!🤬
This pie was delicious, I made it to celebrate my weight loss, I loss around 44pounds, but I ate almost half the pie and gained like 4 pounds, make with caution. ^_^
This was delicious! We have a Diabetic in the family, so I decreased the sugar to 1/4 c. plus the 2 tbsp in the whipping cream. It was still plenty sweet. I used a store bought chocolate crust.
For the top, I only used shaved dark chocolate.
Is the cream cheese a must have? I know it prob helps the texture and solidify the filling but can I substitute it or leave it out?
Hi there! Cream cheese is a key ingredient in this recipe because it helps give the filling its structure, creamy texture, and tangy flavor. If you leave it out or substitute it, the pie’s texture and flavor will change quite a bit. We’d love for you to try it as written first so you have something to compare your experiment with. Let us know what you think when you give our recipe a try! And if you experiment, we’d love to hear how it goes.
This pie is now a holiday favorite for my PB loving partner. Rich and satisfying. I’ve used prepared Graham cracker crust just for ease.
An alternate for those mint lovers is to make a grasshopper pie. Almost same ingredients with a couple of tweaks. Use the same weights for the peanutbutter cups but use mint chocolates (I use Andes Mints). Add some Irish cream to the whipped cream cheese as well as folded into whipped cream.
Looking forward to trying this recipe. I’ve made Taco Soup before but I’m thinking that the Turkey and tomatoes with green chilies would be a great choice.
Can’t wait to try this recipe.
Hello can I make this pie then after just put it back in the freeze. I’m traveling for about two hours to dinner then when arrive place the pie in the fridge? I thinking this will help keep it set for the drive if left in the freezer over night. Thanksb
I’m also thinking over making this two nights before and add the topping the night before so everything sets
Hi Jennifer! Yes that should work just fine 🙂 This pie can be stored in the fridge for up to 3 days or in the freezer for a month, so feel free to make it even earlier in advance if that’s helpful!
This recipe was used back in 2020 and I use it every year so good.
This pie was fantastic! I couldn’t find chocolate graham crackers so used your suggestion of chocolate teddy grahams and the crust was great. The filling is probably the best pie filling I’ve ever had and it was a huge hit for my PB pie loving husband. I ended up only topping it with a little whipped cream and Reese’s peanut butter cups and the sweetness level was perfect in our opinions
CAN I SUBSTITUTE COOL WHIP FOR THE WHIPPED CREAM?
Yes
How much cool whip?