Decadent Peanut Butter Pie

About two weeks ago, the bf was thumbing through the Red Plum coupon circular when he suddenly exclaimed, "I want to eat this right now!" I walked over to see what all the fuss was about and wasn't surprised to see a full-color wedge of chocolate peanut butter pie photographed next to a recipe and a coupon for Skippy peanut butter and Smucker's hot fudge ice cream topping. I took the page and tucked it into my recipe box, fully intending to make the pie the following weekend.

This, of course, did not happen.

But the pie was never far from my mind. I even went ahead and bought the ingredients during my weekly grocery shopping trip. The bf, after all, is a man who is serious about his desserts, and I did not want to disappoint. (Although to be honest, I'm pretty serious about desserts myself.)

Last Thursday evening presented the perfect opportunity to finally make it. (Even if it was, ironically, because I'd taken a half day from work to go to the dentist.) As I began putting together the ingredients, I discovered that I hadn't bought a big enough tub of Cool Whip, which meant no fluffy white top layer. (I'd used all I had to soften up the rich peanut butter and cream cheese filling.) No matter. I compensated with extra chocolate sauce and a trio of Reese cups, once again personalizing a recipe with my own error-induced spin.

I was finishing up when my sister called. "It sounds like a party over there," she said, presumably on account of the ever-blaring TV. "It's always a party over here," I quipped, to which the bf good-naturedly added, "Yeah, a party for your arteries!"

I don't think I need to say that laughter ensued.

If you want to start your own party, then here's how to do it. And if you don't want to invite your arteries, then you can use low-fat or fat-free peanut butter, cream cheese, chocolate sauce, pie crust, and Cool Whip. But it won't taste as good. (For the record, I did my tiny part by using reduced fat cream cheese.)

Ingredients:

1 cup peanut butter, plus 2 tablespoons, divided
1 (8 oz) package cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup sugar
1 12-oz container Cool Whip, divided
1 prepared chocolate pie crust
1 11.5-oz jar hot fudge ice cream topping, divided

Directions:

Beat together 1 cup peanut butter, cream cheese, and sugar in a large bowl on High until well combined. Gently mix in 3 cups Cool Whip until thoroughly combined. Spoon mixture into pie crust. Using a spatula, smooth mixture to edges of pie.

(From this point on is where I sort of checked out. I just spread the fudge over the the peanut butter, plunked down the Reese cups, and shoved the whole thing in the fridge. But I typed up the real directions in case you want to do this the right way, fancy drizzled topping and all.) Reserve 2 tablespoons of hot fudge topping in the corner of a resealable food storage bag; set aside. Microwave remaining topping on High for 1 minute. Stir. Spread topping over pie, covering entire peanut butter layer. Refrigerate until set. Spread remaining Cool Whip over fudge layer, being careful not to mix the two layers.

Cut a small corner from the bag containing the fudge. Squeeze bag to drizzle topping over pie. Place remaining 2 tablespoons of peanut butter in a resealable food storage bag; cut bag corner and squeeze to drizzle in opposite direction from topping. Refrigerate until ready to serve.

I must say that this pie lived up to its name, as it was, in fact, decadent. But I didn't let that scare me off. It was so tasty that I ended up eating more of it than the bf. :)