Decadent Peanut Butter Pie Recipe

Calling all peanut butter lovers: This recipe is for you. A cross between the fluffiest cheesecake and the best Reese's peanut butter cup you've ever had, peanut butter pie is about to be your new favorite dessert. The best thing about this dessert is how simple it is to make; with this recipe, you'll understand the phrase "easy as pie". A short ingredient list and a few easy techniques create a chilled, decadent, and nutty pie in just 30 active minutes.

Recipe developer and production baker Michelle McGlinn shares her techniques for whipping up a good old fashioned peanut butter pie. This recipe starts with a simple but sweet graham cracker crust filled with a fluffy cream cheese filling and finishes with a topping of homemade whipped cream and chocolate. Don't be intimidated by the homemade whip: It only takes about 5 minutes of constant whisking for a perfect airy cream. Bakery-quality dessert at home? Yes please.

For the graham cracker crust, you'll only need three ingredients: Graham cracker crumbs, melted butter, and brown sugar. If you don't have graham cracker crumbs, you can make your own by blending around 16 whole graham crackers in a food processor until fine. Add a little brown sugar to sweeten before mixing with unsalted butter.

For the filling, you'll just need cream cheese, peanut butter, vanilla, powdered sugar, and heavy cream. Peanut butter pie is so fluffy and light because of one super-easy technique while mixing; folding in homemade whipped cream. If you don't have the time to whisk the whipped cream from scratch (it only takes a few minutes with an electric whisk!) just substitute Cool Whip instead.

Before mixing the filling, bake and cool the graham cracker crust. This only takes around 10 minutes in a 325 F oven, just long enough to gently toast the crackers and set the crust. The cracker crumbs are mixed with butter until moist and sweetened with brown sugar, then pressed gently into a pie pan. For a chocolate crust, try chocolate graham cracker or crushed Oreos, and for a super-sweet crust, try shortbread crumbs instead.

If you forgot to take your cream cheese out of the refrigerator ahead of time (it happens to the best of us), microwave the block in 10-second increments until very soft. Mix into the peanut butter, sugar, and vanilla with an electric or stand mixer with the paddle attachment until combined and soft. The mixture will be fluffy and light, but still a little stiff.

With a whisk attachment, whip the heavy cream until thickened, then add the powdered sugar and whisk again until solidified into stiff peaks. If whisking by hand, use a balloon whisk to whip more air into the cream for a faster, lighter whipped cream. In this recipe, we whisk all the whipped cream at once and save half for topping, but if preparing the pie a day or more before serving, make the second half fresh the day of to ensure a fluffy, thick whipped topping.

You can fold the whipped cream into the peanut butter mixture by hand or with the mixer until the filling is very soft and light. Pour the filling into the prepared pie crust and chill in the refrigerator until set, at least 3 hours. The filling will not move at all once set, but will soften if left out of the cold for more than 30 minutes. The pie keeps in the refrigerator for up to a week, and the whipped cream topping stays fresh for about a day — after that, it starts to deflate, but is just as delicious as day one.

The whipped cream can be dolloped generously on top of the pie or delicately piped into a design as desired. Either way, finish the pie with at least one bar's worth of chocolate shavings, made by running a vegetable peeler along the edge of a chilled chocolate bar. You can also double up on the nutty flavor by topping with crushed peanuts, or get really chocolatey with melted chocolate or ganache. Save the assembled pie for up to a week covered in the refrigerator, and serve with freshly brewed coffee or a strong Manhattan cocktail for a really delicious dessert.