This peanut butter ice cream pie is made with a sweet and salty pretzel crust and only requires 5 ingredients! It's honestly almost like cheating. It's so easy for a quick dessert and because it's ice cream, you can keep it in the freezer for weeks after preparing it because you never know when you'll have a bad day.
The reason this pie is SO easy is that it uses store-bought vanilla ice cream. It's nothing fancy but you can turn a mediocre bucket of ice cream probably sitting in your freezer already into this almost no-bake peanut butter pie and you can't tell it was store bought at all!
How to make a pretzel crust peanut butter ice cream pie
For the pretzel crust
Pretzel crusts are SO easy to make. They are salty and a bit sweet at the same time and pair well with a sweet filling to give it a nice crunchy crust. The only tricky part is getting it to stick together and not crumble apart in the finished pie or tart.
To make the pretzel crust, preheat your oven to 350F.
Put the pretzels in a ziploc bag and seal out all the air. Use a rolling pin to crush the pretzels by hitting them like a hammer and rolling over them as if rolling out dough. The crumbs should be pretty small and fine to help the crust hold together. Larger pieces give a great crunch but the majority of the crumbs should be like a rough sand. Pour the crumbs out into a bowl.
Melt the butter and pour into the pretzel crumbs along with the brown sugar. Stir it in until the crumbs become wet. When you squeeze a handful together, it should hold together slightly.
Pour a layer of pretzel crumbs into a fluted tart pan or springform cake pan, enough to cover the bottom of the pan. Firmly press the crumbs into a dense, even layer with a flexible spatula or your hands. If there are any gaps, add more crumbs.
Pour in the rest of the pretzel crumbs and press them up the sides of the pan until they stick together and fill in all the grooves in the pan.
Bake the crust in the oven for about 10 minutes. Remove from oven and let cool completely on a wire rack. Don't remove the crust from the pan until you're ready to serve the finished pie.
How to make a pretzel crust hold together
- Crush pretzels into fine crumbs
- Add enough butter to moisten all the pretzel crumbs
- Press the crust firmly into the pie tin with a flexible spatula
- Bake the crust at 350F for 10 minutes
- Keep the crust in the pan until ready to serve
Baking the crust is not absolutely crucial. If you're short on time or just want to make a completely no-bake peanut butter pretzel pie, then just skip baking the crust. The end result will taste the same but the crust may just be a tad more crumbly.
For the peanut butter ice cream
This is the lazy person's way of making peanut butter ice cream... by using pre-made ice cream. I know, I know. This kind of feels like cheating but ain't nobody got time to make homemade ice cream when it's just going into a pie. The whole point of this recipe is that it's EASY! If you prefer, you can absolutely make your own ice cream though.
Scoop out some store-bought basic vanilla ice cream into a bowl. Leave it at room temperature for 5-10 minutes while the crust is baking.
Stir the ice cream with a spoon until it is smooth and resembles soft serve ice cream. Stir in the peanut butter until thoroughly mixed.
Spoon the peanut butter ice cream into the pretzel crust and smooth the top with a spatula. You can top this ice cream pie with whipped cream piped into rosettes, if desired.
Freeze the pie for at least 4 hours or overnight before serving.
More ice cream recipes to try
- Pumpkin Pie Ice Cream
- Chai Spiced Ice Cream Parfait
- No-Churn Coffee Ice Cream with Chocolate Chunks
- Matcha Ice Cream (No-Churn)
Pretzel Crust Peanut Butter Ice Cream Pie
Ingredients
- 140 g pretzel twists
- 115 g unsalted butter, melted
- 1 tbsp brown sugar
- 250 g vanilla ice cream
- 2 tbsp natural peanut butter
Topping (optional):
- 120 g whipping cream
- 1 tbsp granulated sugar
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350°F.
- Place pretzels in a ziploc bag and crush with a rolling pin by rolling over them until they become fine crumbs.
- Transfer pretzel crumbs into a bowl and stir in melted butter and brown sugar until combined.
- Pour pretzel crumbs into a tart pan and firmly press into the pan until the bottom and sides of the pan are covered in a thick layer.
- Bake for 10 minutes. Remove from oven and let cool completely on a wire rack before filling with ice cream.
- In a medium bowl, let ice cream sit out at room temperature while the crust is baking. Stir with a spoon until ice cream is softened and creamy but not melted and liquidy. It should resemble soft serve ice cream.
- Add peanut butter and stir until incorporated.
- Scoop ice cream into pretzel crust. Spread and smooth the top with a spatula.
- Whisk whipping cream and sugar together until cream thickens into firm peaks. Transfer to a piping bag fitted with a closed star tip and pipe rosettes on the surface of the ice cream.
- Freeze ice cream pie for at least 4 hours or overnight before cutting and serving.
Nutrition
Want something else sweet? See the rest of my recipes!
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