This amazingly easy-to-make no-bake Peanut Butter Cream Pie is a rich silky layer of peanut butter filling in an Oreo cookie pie shell, covered with a meringue-like whipped cream, and topped with all kinds of goodies.  A peanut butter and chocolate lovers dream come true.

This past Friday was my Dad’s 83rd Birthday, so on his day I like to treat him with a cake or some other dessert.  My father has a giant sweet tooth, one that would make the tooth fairy run screaming into the darkness.  Knowing that peanut butter and chocolate are one of his all-time favorites flavor combos, I usually try to come up with a different take using the dynamic duo for his treat.  My work schedule as of lately has me rising at three a.m. and running out the door by four, and by the time I have been getting home in the late afternoon, I am finished, baked, just stick a fork in me and call me done.  I really wanted to do something to mark his day and about mid-week the idea of a pie came to mind.  Despite my lack of time I thought that a pie was something that I could pull off, then the no-bake notion crept in, and I knew this plan was totally doable.  So Friday after work, I stopped and picked up a few items, (including a DVD with 31 episodes of Bonanza), and in about a half an hour had managed to put together a masterpiece to present as a present.

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No-bake Peanut Butter Cream Pie

This amazingly easy to make pie is a rich silky layer of peanut butter filling in an Oreo cookie pie shell, covered with a meringue-like whipped cream, and topped with all kinds of goodies. A peanut butter and chocolate lovers dream come true.

Course Dessert

Cuisine American

Prep Time 20 minutes minutes

Total Time 20 minutes minutes

Servings 12

Author Christoph

Ingredients

• 1 Oreo pie crust
• 1 container 8 ounce of whipped topping
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1 ½ Tablespoons meringue powder
• 1¾ cups powdered sugar divided
• 8 ounce cream cheese softened
• 1 cup creamy peanut butter
• ¼ cup milk
• ½ cup mini chocolate chips
• ½ cup chopped peanuts
• chocolate and peanut butter melting chips optional

Instructions

• Using a hand mixer, in a medium-sized mixing bowl beat together the whipped topping, vanilla, meringue powder, and ¾ cup of powdered sugar for 3 – 5 minutes or until stiff peaks have formed.
• Place in the refrigerator while you prepare the filling.
• In another bowl mix together the softened cream cheese, peanut butter, milk, and 1 cup of powdered sugar until smooth and silky (add more milk a teaspoon at a time if needed for mixing).
• Fold in one half of the whipped cream and mix until completely incorporated.
• Pour peanut butter filling in to pie crust and smooth out using a spatula.
• Pipe or spread the other half of the whipped topping evenly over the filling (I found piping with a star tip was easier that trying to spread the whipped cream).
• Sprinkle the mini chocolate chips and peanuts over the top of the pie.

Notes

For an extra touch temper some chocolate and peanut butter chips in the microwave and drizzle or pipe over the entire pie. This would also be great topped with some chopped up Reese’s peanut butter cups, maybe a great use for some left over Halloween candy?

“π (sometimes written pi) is a mathematical constant that is the ratio of any Euclidean circle’s circumference to its diameter. π is approximately equal to 3.14. Many formula in mathematics, science, and engineering involve π, which makes it one of the most important mathematical constants. For instance, the area of a circle is equal to π times the square of the radius of the circle”. This is what Wikipedia tells me about Pi.  I suppose this is something I learned about many years ago is school, however since I use Pi about as often as I speak Phoenician, it must have escaped me.

My brother-in-law Dave is a Physicist performing research involving carbon gas emissions from plants.  A few years ago on a trip to the fair city of Lincoln, Nebraska for the 4th of July, I had the opportunity to visit one of his research sites located in the middle of a corn field.  As part of the tour we went inside his field office, which was nothing more that an over-sized tin shed that appeared to be dropped from space. Inside the office there were shelves  piled high with what I refer to as “science parts”, computers and other items that were not recognizable to me. On the back wall of the room was a large chalk board with the longest equation I have ever seen.  When I asked Dave what it was, he told me it was “something he was working on”.  While scientific formulas are not something we have in common, we both can connect over the other kind of pie. So here are some Pies to honor Pi day.

Of course there are Fruit Pies,

the Meat Pie,

and the Pizza Pie.

For breakfast there is the Egg Pie,

  or how about a Tomato Pie?

Many prefer the Chocolate Pie,

and lets not forget the obsession with the Cow Pie.

So happy Pi or Pie day to all, no matter which kind is your favorite.