Celebrate pi day with the math nerds with this no-bake peanut butter pie

This week we celebrated the best math nerd holiday: 3.14, also known as pi day.

My friend Nathalie and I have had a tradition of having pie together every pi day. Even now that we are multiple states apart, we got on a video call to catch up and eat pie.

There are a lot of pies that I really love. This year, Tony and I decided that we would attempt to make a peanut butter pie. We hadn’t done it before but we watched a bunch of videos and decided we could manage.

One ingredient that I didn’t want to buy and have in the house forever was powdered sugar. We don’t use sugar for anything except feeing the hummingbirds. I remembered learning at some point that sugar can be put in a blender and turned into powder form. I think regular sugar would also work for this recipe, but powdered sugar ensures a more creamy texture without fear of crystalization.

Aside from sugar, the ingredient list is small. Cream cheese, peanut butter, heavy whipping cream, and vanilla. We also used heavy cream, sugar, and vanilla for the whipped topping. I suppose you could use prepared topping, but we like knowing what ingredients are in our food.

Don’t get me wrong. We eat plenty of processed foods. It’s just that some things taste better when you make them yourself. Like whipped cream!

That said, we did buy a premade chocolate pie crust. You could also (and we should have) made a graham cracker crust. We just decided to splurge on the chocolate.

This peanut butter pie recipe is perfect for making in the RV. There is no cooking or baking involved. It’s probably easiest, if you don’t buy pre-whipped topping, to have a mixer to do the whipping but I know it can be done with a hand whisk. I just don’t want to work that hard. Heck, I might accidentally burn off all the calories before the pie is even ready to eat!

The hardest part of this whole recipe is waiting a few hours for the filling to chill and set up. Torture!

Peanut Butter Pie Recipe

For the Pie

One 9” Premade or handmade graham cracker or chocolate cookie crust

1 Cup Heavy Cream, Whipped

8 Ounces Cream Cheese, room temperature

1 Cup Creamy Peanut Butter

1 Cup Powdered Sugar

1 tsp Vanilla Extract

For Whipped Topping

1 Cup Heavy Cream

1/2 Cup Powdered Sugar

1 tsp Vanilla Extract

Prepare the Pie:

• Whisk 1 cup Heavy Cream until soft peaks form

• Cream together cream cheese and peanut butter

• Mix powdered sugar and vanilla into peanut butter mixture

• Fold whipped cream into peanut butter mixture

• Fill crust with pie filling

• Chill 2 - 3 hours (the waiting is the hardest part)

Topping:

• Combine topping ingredients

• Whisk topping until soft peaks form

• Dollop topping on slices of prepared pie