Peanut Butter Cream Pie

For me, the best kinds of pies are the ones without fruit, pies like French silk, Oreo or, my personal favorite, peanut butter. Each bite of peanut butter pie provides an intense jolt of peanut butter flavor that comes second only to taking a sticky spoonful from the jar.

Here’s how to make a creamy, dreamy peanut butter pie that provides all the flavor you crave—without getting peanut butter stuck to the roof of your mouth.

Ingredients for Peanut Butter Cream Pie

• Peanut butter: Use a creamy peanut butter for this pie. You can use a natural creamy peanut butter if you like, as long as you make sure to mix it well before you measure and add it to the filling. Just don’t use a reduced-fat peanut butter. It won’t combine as well with the other ingredients.
• Cream cheese: Cream cheese gives the filling a taste reminiscent of cheesecake while also enriching the peanut butter flavor.
• Whipped topping: Store-bought whipped topping gives the filling body, height and a creamy texture.
• Milk: Whole milk is the only kind of milk that has enough fat to fully bind with the peanut butter and cream cheese. Using skim, 1% or 2% milk would result in a soupy filling.
• Graham cracker crust: A store-bought graham cracker crust keeps things easy. You could also use a homemade graham cracker crust if you’ve got graham crackers and butter on hand.

Directions

Step 1: Beat the cream cheese, peanut butter and sugar

In a large bowl, beat the softened cream cheese until fluffy. Add the sugar and peanut butter, and beat the mixture some more.

Step 2: Add the milk

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Gradually add the milk to the peanut butter mixture, beating until incorporated.

Step 3: Fold in the whipped topping

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Using a spatula, fold the whipped topping into the peanut butter mixture.

Step 4: Spoon the filling into the crust

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Spoon the finished peanut butter pie filling into the crust. Cover and refrigerator overnight.

Step 5: Slice and serve

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Sprinkle the chopped peanuts over the top of the chilled peanut butter pie. Slice the pie, and serve.

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Editor’s Tip: If desired, decorate the individual slices with delicious toppings like chocolate drizzle, caramel sauce, whipped cream and cherries.

Peanut Butter Pie Variations

• Use a different nut butter: If you want a slightly different flavor, sunflower seed butter or cookie butter would be great alternatives. Almond butter would also work as long as you know that the filling will be a little bit grainier.
• Change up the crust: Instead of a regular graham cracker crust, use chocolate graham crackers to make a chocolate crust. If you don’t have graham crackers at home, there are plenty of crushed cookies you could use to make a crumb crust as well. Our list of crumb crust ingredients provides many ideas, but since Oreos and peanut butter go together so well, an Oreo crust would be a great choice. If you can’t get enough peanut butter, double up by using crushed Nutter Butters.

How to Store Peanut Butter Pie

When stored in an airtight container in the fridge, peanut butter pie lasts for three to four days.

Can you freeze peanut butter pie?

We don’t recommend freezing this peanut butter pie. When frozen and then thawed, cream cheese can separate, leaving you with a texture that isn’t as creamy as it used to be. Since our peanut butter pie recipe includes cream cheese, we’d recommend storing it only in the fridge.

Peanut Butter Pie Tips

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Can you use homemade whipped cream instead of whipped topping to make peanut butter pie?

For recipes that require chill time in the fridge overnight (like this one), you can’t make a 1:1 swap.

Ellie Crowley, associate culinary producer in the Taste of Home Test Kitchen, explains: “Whipped topping has stabilizers and will not weep or melt into a puddle like homemade whipped topping does over time,” she says.

Therefore, if you were to use homemade whipped cream in place of whipped topping, the filling would likely deflate and weep while it chills. However, Ellie goes on to explain that you can stabilize homemade whipped cream if you really want to avoid all of the processed ingredients that come with whipped topping. Ingredients such as cornstarch, milk powder, gelatin or pudding mix can help prevent weeping and deflation. Our guide on how to replace whipped topping provides specific instructions if you’d like to experiment.

What can you use instead of cream cheese?

Substitute dairy-free or vegan cream cheese for regular. If you want an even more decadent peanut butter pie, try using mascarpone cheese in place of cream cheese.

How can you serve peanut butter pie?

Top each slice of chilled peanut butter pie with a dollop of homemade whipped cream and a sprinkling of chopped peanut butter cups or Reese’s Pieces to add a little chocolate and crunch to each bite. Make the dessert extra decadent by serving each slice with a scoop of ice cream to make an a la mode dessert. Chocolate or coffee ice cream would take this already decadent dessert over the top.

You can get even more more creative, too. If your guests love bananas, cut a banana into slices, and arrange in a pretty pattern on top of the pie. Peanut butter and jelly fans won’t shy away from a drizzle of strawberry or grape jam on top of their slice.