Dairy Free Peanut Butter Pie that’ll always bring a smile
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My dairy free peanut butter pie is always a winner: this (almost) no-bake pie with big peanut butter flavor topped with a simple coconut ganache will have you wondering if you ever needed dairy in the first place.
Peanut butter pie has been a part of countless family gatherings since I was a kid. It was always in my Gram’s rotation of pies I think because minus the crust it’s completely a no-bake. We all know the hassle that it can be to make sure you have oven space at Thanksgiving. Recipes like my crock pot dinner rolls are a big help, but a no-bake pie like this peanut butter pie is even better.
I swapped in dairy-free ingredients for my Gram’s standard cream cheese and Cool Whip. For many years I had to be dairy-free for health reasons, and I’ve always been glad for recipes like this that gave me some options on big feast days like Thanksgiving. It’s a true bummer being the only one at the table who can’t eat dessert because of your stomach. And I made this recipe and my vegan pumpkin cornbread and vegan caramel sauce so that you have choices when you have a guest who has dietary restrictions.
Lest you think that taking out the dairy is going to make this pie taste sad, let me take that notion clean out of your head. You will be shocked at how much flavor this pie has and you will never ever in a million years guess that it’s dairy free. That is ALWAYS my goal with dairy-free recipes!
Dairy free peanut butter pie
Why you’ll love this pie
- No baking: You can make a homemade Oreo crust, or you can just buy a pre-made chocolate crust. If I find the crusts for a good price, I often buy them. There are days you don’t have time to make all the things, and this shortcut is totally fine by me. The beauty of a pre-made crust is that it’s already in a disposable foil pan with a lid. This makes for super easy serving and freezing.
- 5 minutes: Seriously, it takes just 5 minutes to put this together. You certainly can’t say that for most holiday desserts.
- So good: There’s nothing fancy here, just good simple creamy flavor. The peanut butter gets lightened by the whipped cream and the cream cheese adds some needed tang for balance.
- Easy coconut ganache: the ganache topping is everything. Who doesn’t love peanut butter and chocolate?
Peanut Butter Pie ingredients
- Chocolate Crust: Pre-made chocolate cookie crust or a homemade Oreo crust made with coconut oil
- Peanut butter: choose smooth, not natural here for the best texture
- Dairy-free whipped cream: So Delicious Cocowhip is awesome, but TruWhip is also good
- Dairy-free cream cheese: cashew based ones taste the best. Miyoko plain cream cheese or Treeline Cheesemakers original flavor are both excellent
- Powdered sugar
- Vanilla paste or vanilla extract
- Dairy-free chocolate: I prefer a bar of chocolate, but chocolate chips are good too.
- Coconut milk: use full-fat straight from the can. Native Forest is always my first choice, but use what you can find.
How to make the best peanut butter pie
- Use a disposable pie pan: I never want to risk cutting into a frozen pie on one of my good pie plates. As such, this is one time I will advocate for using a disposable foil pan with a lid for your pie. If you use a pre-made crust, it’ll already be in a foil pan. If you make your own homemade Oreo crust, you’ll get a cover for the pie for easy freezing. Either way you won’t have to worry about breaking the pan during cutting.
- Freeze before chocolate: after you’ve mixed the filling, freeze it for a little while before you top it with the chocolate. This will keep the chocolate from smearing into the filling when you add it.
- Thaw partially before cutting: this pie is SOLID when it’s frozen. As such, do let it thaw for about 15 minutes before you attempt cutting it. If you have leftovers and you don’t want to wait, use a fork to cut a slice. Weirdly, a fork helps you cut a piece easily. It’s seriously not peanut butter pie in my house if you don’t have fork indentions on the side of your pie!
Dairy Free Peanut Butter Pie
- Total Time: 4 hours 5 minutes
- Yield: 12 slices 1x
Description
Peanut butter pie is the easiest frozen pie there is; that’s it’s no-bake if you buy an Oreo crust is even better. You’ll love the smooth creamy filling that’s not too sweet and has a little bit of tang from the cream cheese.
Ingredients
Pie filling
- 1 cup smooth peanut butter, like Skippy (256 g)
- 1 9 oz container dairy free whipped cream (So Delicious Cocowhip or TruWhip), (255 g)
- 4 oz dairy free cream cheese (Miyoko or Treeline Cheesemakers)(113 g)
- 3/4 cup powdered sugar (90 g)
- 1 teaspoon vanilla paste or vanilla extract
- 1 Oreo Crust for a 9″ pie or a pre-made chocolate crust
Ganache
- 2 and 1/2 tablespoons full fat coconut milk (40 mL)
- 2.8 oz dairy-free chocolate bar or chocolate chips (80 g)
Instructions
- Whip the peanut butter, cream cheese, powdered sugar, and vanilla with a hand mixer or in a stand mixer until smooth.
- Fold in the whipped cream until smooth.
- Scrape the filling into your prepared crust. Set the pie on a sheet tray and then freeze for 1 hour.
- Towards the end of the hour of freezing, warm the coconut milk in a small pan just until you see bubbles around the edge of the milk.
- Chop the chocolate if you’re using a chocolate bar into chocolate chip size pieces. Place the chocolate into a small bowl and pour the milk over the chocolate.
- Let the coconut milk sit for a couple of minutes, and then stir the chocolate until it is smooth.
- Pour the chocolate ganache over the slightly frozen peanut butter filling, smoothing it in a nice even layer almost to the edge of the filling.
- Freeze the pie for at least 3 more hours until solid. Once the pie is frozen, cover it with a cover (hopefully you saved the one from your foil pie pan) until you’re ready to serve.
- The pie is best eaten within 2 weeks. To serve the pie, take the pie out of the freezer for 15 minutes and then cut. If you’re midnight snacking and want to sneak a piece of pie, you probably won’t want to wait to thaw the pie for 15 minutes. In such times, just cut yourself a wedge by using a fork to punch through the frozen pie. Forks are oddly the best way to cut a frozen pie!
Notes
Can I make this with dairy?
Yes, absolutely. My Gram’s recipe used only dairy ingredients. Make the following swaps:
-
- Dairy-free Cream cheese: use regular full-fat cream cheese
- Coconut whipped cream: use a batch of whipped cream frosting or 1 container whipped topping.
- Coconut milk: use regular heavy cream.
- Prep Time: 5 minutes
- Cook Time: 0 minutes
- Category: Pies
- Method: Mixer
- Cuisine: American
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1 slice
- Calories: 290
- Sugar: 15.3 g
- Sodium: 211.8 mg
- Fat: 19 g
- Carbohydrates: 28.5 g
- Protein: 6.4 g
- Cholesterol: 0.1 mg
