Grandma’s Peanut Butter Pie

You are five ingredients and just a couple of hours away from the pie of your life. Okay, maybe not the pie of your life, but a darn good peanut butter pie. This creamy pie is simple to put together. The best part? You don’t even have to preheat the oven to make this sweet treat! Just combine the ingredients, put ’em in a pre-made pie crust, and pop it in the freezer. After you lick the spatula, you’ll be drooling for the next two hours until it’s ready to eat.

Actually, if you don’t have a pie crust on hand, you can either make your own or forgo it and use the peanut butter, whipped topping, cream cheese, and powdered sugar mixture as a dip for sliced apples.

This peanut butter pie is another banger from my dearly departed grandma Ruth, who you may remember from my recipe for Grandma’s Pineapple Zucchini Bread. I love that her recipes get to live on through me and that I get to share them with all of you. And once you taste this pie, you’ll be glad I did.

While this pie is super easy to make, there are a few quick things we should go over before you get started. First, make sure your cream cheese is actually softened. If you forgot to set it out, you can always zap it (without the aluminum packaging!!) for 15-20 seconds in the microwave. If you skip this step, you will have little lumps in your pie. That’s probably not going to affect the flavor, but your pie won’t be Insta-worthy unless it is silky smooth, so soften the cream cheese, okay?

Next, a word about the whipped topping. Usually, I prefer real whipped cream to a whipped topping, but for peanut butter pie making purposes, the fake stuff is the way to go for consistency’s sake. There are a lot of different versions: knock off, sugar-free, extra creamy. Any of them will work, so just pick whichever sounds best to you.

Finally, the whole sifting thing. Yes, we’re sifting the powdered sugar in this recipe. I don’t actually own a sifter (well, I do but it’s broken and now I use it as a closet doorstop), so I improvised with a mesh strainer. Sifting is advised for the same reason as softening the cream cheese. If you don’t sift, the sugar will be all lumpy in your otherwise smooth pie and as we’ve already addressed, we simply can’t have that.

PS—If you’re a sucker for the heavenly combination of peanut butter and chocolate (and who in their right mind isn’t?) try swapping out the graham cracker crust for the chocolate version. Make it even more chocolatey by sprinkling some mini chocolate chips on top, drizzling with chocolate syrup, or both. If you really wanted to get sinfully delicious, you could crush some mini peanut butter cups or pieces as a topper.

Grandma’s Peanut Butter Pie

Recipe

Directions

1. Combine everything but the crust and mix on low until smooth, scraping the sides with the spatula as needed.

2. Pour the filling into the crust and even out with an offset spatula.

3. Freeze for two hours and enjoy!

Recipe Notes

If you don’t have an offset spatula, you can use a knife or regular scraping spatula to smooth the pie’s surface before freezing.

Recipe By: Laura Bennett