My husband loves peanut butter (and so do I). We had guests coming last weekend and I knew they liked peanut butter. Right now it is like surface of the sun hot out there so I thought an after dinner treat of cool, sweet peanut butter pie might just be the ticket! This was so cool, smooth and delicious! This was adapted from a Southern Living recipe.

for the crust

• 16 whole chocolate graham crackers (to make 2 cups crumbs)
• 7 Tbsp unsalted butter, melted

for the peanut butter filling

• 8 ounces cream cheese, room temperature (I used low fat)
• 1 cup creamy peanut butter
• 3/4 cup powdered sugar
• 1/4 tsp salt (optional)
• 2 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 cup whipping cream

Instructions

• Preheat the oven to 350F.
• In a food processor, blend the graham crackers until finely ground. 
• Transfer the crumbs to a bowl and mix with the melted butter until uniform and clumpy.
• Add the crumb mixture to an 9-inch deep dish pie plate. Press them into the bottom and up the sides to form a crust. I like to use a cup measure with a flat bottom to do this.
• Bake the pie crust for 10 minutes, then remove and allow to cool completely.
• To make the peanut butter filling, wipe out your food processor and add the cream cheese, peanut butter, powdered sugar, salt, and vanilla extract to the bowl. 
• Process until uniform.
• In a separate bowl, whip the heavy cream until stiff peaks form. 
• Add the peanut butter mixture, starting with a little bit, to the whipped cream and fold it together until there are no streaks.
• Pour the peanut butter filling into the cooled pie crust, and chill in the refrigerator for at least 3 hours, or up to overnight.
• Sprinkle with mini peanut butter cups cut in half