There’s no flavor duo quite like peanut butter + chocolate. But peanut butter + banana… deserving of an honorable mention, at least! Now what about peanut butter + chocolate + banana? One bite of this flavor trio and you’ll wonder why you ever stopped at 2 flavors to begin with! 😉
So Many Layers to Love
Nutter Butter Crust: Crispy, peanutty (that’s a word, right?), and buttery, this cookie crumb crust is the perfect base for a peanut butter banana cream pie. Chocolate Ganache: A rich and soft-set chocolate layer, made from just 2 ingredients. Banana Slices: Layered in and on the pie, just like we do for banana cream pie. Peanut Butter Cream Filling: With its mousse-like texture, this peanut butter pie filling is a reader—and personal—favorite. Can’t wait for you to try it in this pie. Whipped Cream & Chocolate Curls: The finishing touches for a pie that looks as good as it tastes!
If you’re looking for a unique addition to your menu of Thanksgiving pies, this one checks all the boxes!
Start With a 2-Ingredient Nutter Butter Cookie Crust
A Nutter Butter is an American peanut butter-flavored sandwich cookie and truly one of the best cookies you can use for a crumb crust. If you can’t find Nutter Butters, you can make a regular graham cracker crust, Oreo crust, or peanut butter Oreo crust, like in this peanut butter pie. (By the way, if you love Nutter Butter cookies, try my homemade peanut butter cookie sandwiches!) Use a food processor to grind 20 Nutter Butter cookies into crumbs, then stir in 4 Tablespoons of melted butter. My team and I tested different ratios of cookie crumbs to butter, and this was by far the best to provide a thick, crisp crust. Press the mixture into a pie dish and bake for 15 minutes. Now you can turn off the oven—that’s all the baking this pie gets! So much easier than a regular pie crust.
Make Your Peanut Butter Cream Filling
Because banana cream pie is made with a homemade vanilla pudding, I first tried making a peanut butter version. It turned out… very unappetizing, to say the least. There’s apparently a reason you don’t see many recipes for peanut butter pudding pies. I can’t figure one out! Spread it into your baked crust: So let’s go with what we know is the most delicious peanut butter pie filling—it’s smooth and creamy, with the right balance of peanut butter flavor that works so well with bananas and chocolate. By whipping the cream and then folding it into the rest of the filling mixture, it makes for an almost mousse-like texture. Try to hold back on just eating this with a spoon… it’s not easy! Pictured below, left: Whipped heavy cream. Pictured below, right: Other filling ingredients. And here’s both bowls combined:
Assembling This Peanut Butter Banana Cream Pie
You pretty much have everything prepared by now. Layer banana slices on top of your chocolate ganache, and then spread the peanut butter filling right on top. I find a small offset spatula makes spreading the thick filling easy. Now the pie needs to take a nap in the refrigerator to set up, at least 5–6 hours or overnight. Like coconut cream pie and blueberry cream pie, this is a wonderful dessert to make ahead. Before serving, top with whipped cream, more bananas, and any garnishes you want, like Nutter Butter cookies or chocolate curls. I use the same offset spatula for the whipped cream, but you could certainly pipe it on top instead. The whipped cream uses some of the same ingredients you already need for the other layers of the pie. This recipe is part of Sally’s Pie Week, an annual tradition where I share a handful of new recipes that fit into the pie/crisp/tart category. Join the community below!
How to Make Easy Chocolate Curls
I kid you not, I’ve been trying figure out the best way to make picture-perfect chocolate curls for years. I’ve tried all kinds of complicated YouTube methods, and none of them really worked. The best I could manage were chocolate shavings. Tasty, sure… but not curly! Then recently, team member Trina sent a photo of the French silk pie she made for a recent round of recipe testing, and my very first thought was: How did you make those perfect chocolate curls? …That’s it. LOL. Simply take a standard-size classic Hershey bar and run your peeler down the side of it. These little things are fragile, so apply them to your desserts carefully! Enjoy.
