Peanut Butter Cookie Crust Recipe

Easy Mini Chocolate Pudding Pies with Peanut Butter Cookie Crust: As soon as fall arrives I start thinking of pies, making and eating, don't you?! We've been working on a series of mini pie projects and recipes to share with you over the next couple of months. Here in the first in the series we give you a quick and easy no bake peanut butter cookie pie crust recipe that is great for pudding pies and a couple simple ways decorate them. With Halloween right around the corner we made some silly spider pies decorated with candies and then topped some of the others with the leftover crust crumbs to please grown ups. We hope you give them a try since they are easy to make and quite tasty!

With a few store bought ingredients, fun candies and mini pie pans you can create some pies to be enjoyed as an after dinner treat or would be perfect for a holiday celebration. Wouldn't the silly spider pies be perfect for a Halloween dessert table?! Chocolate instant pudding was used as the filling as it pairs nicely with the peanut butter cookie crust but if you prefer vanilla I bet it would be equally as good. You can also make the crust with another flavor sandwich cookie as well. Don't be afraid to try different flavors depending on your tastes. The crust can also be used as the base for no bake cheesecakes too.

SHOPPING LIST OF INGREDIENTS AND SUPPLIES TO MAKE 12 SERVINGS OF 3" MINI PIES

24 peanut butter sandwich cookies
6 tablespoons of unsalted butter to melt for the crust
1 box of chocolate instant pudding + milk to make the recipe according to the box directions
12 3" size mini pie pans (click HERE to get them from our shop)
royal icing candy eyes (click HERE to get them from our shop)
gummy life savers to use for the spider eyes
black licorice string or wheels to make into the spider legs
black and white licorice squares to cut up for the teeth

NUTTER BUTTER PIE CRUST RECIPE - MAKES 12 SERVINGS

Place 24 peanut butter sandwich cookies in a food processor and pulse until you get pretty fine crumbs (should look like graham cracker crumbs) and place in a medium size mixing bowl. Melt 6 tablespoons of unsalted butter and add to the crumb mixture and mix until combined. Place a couple tablespoons or so of the crumbs into each of the 3" mini foil pie pans and press the mixture to cover the bottom and up the sides of the pan. The crust recipe gives you enough to line the pans plus extra to sprinkle on top of the pudding so be sure to reserve some of the crumb mixture for that. Once all of the pans have gotten their crust mix the chocolate instant pie pudding per the directions on the box and evenly distribute the filling between the 12 pans. You should just have enough to fill the pans with scrapping the bowl. Place in fridge to chill. The final decorations should be added just prior to serving. Store the leftover crust crumbs in a sealed bag or airtight container until you are ready to decorate the tops of your mini pies.

DECORATING YOUR MINI PIES

Tip: Waiting to decorate the top of the pies until soon before serving ensures that the crust crumbs won't absorb into the pudding and darken or get too soggy. You can decorate them a few hours before but we caution completing the decorating process a full day ahead of time. It only takes a few minutes to sprinkle them with the remaining crust crumbs.

To make into silly spider pies: Sprinkle the top of the pudding with some of the remaining pie crust crumbs. Whether you use licorice rope or unwind licorice wheels to make the legs you will need 8 3-4" strips per spider. We were able to slice 3 pieces off one black and white licorice square to make the teeth. The eyes were made by putting 2 gummy lifesavers on the top of each pie above the mouth and then placing a royal icing eye on top of each gummy saver. If you want the icing eyes to stay put you can dab a little of the chocolate pudding before topping with the crust mixture on top of each gummy lifesavers and then place the royal icing eye on top. You now have a fun dessert that kids would love or would be perfect for a Halloween party!

We hope you enjoy!

~the girls

This post was written and photographed by Esther.

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