Friday Pie-Day: Peanut Butter Banana Nutella Pie

Just read the title and let your mouth water. Peanut butter. Banana. Nutella. Pie. It’s like all of our favorite things rolled up into one bundle of awesomeness! I came across this recipe through Pinterest, and I’m so glad we added it as this year’s January pie of the month. The original recipe was from Andrea Meyers: making life delicious and held significant personal meaning for her and a friend. Please check out her blog to get the full story (and she has much better photos)!

We made 2 pies, so there are more ingredients pictured here than what the recipe calls for. Lots of good stuff here, but in no way is it conducive to any New Year’s resolutions for weight loss!

The original recipe called for a food processor to crunch up the Oreos. Since we didn’t have a food processor, we put them in a gallon-size plastic bag and used a rolling pin on them. It probably didn’t turn out as fine as the original, but there were no complaints!

Warm Nutella = heavenly! Drizzled over Oreos = even better. Fun fact: every day of middle and high school, I packed a Nutella sandwich for lunch. My love for Nutella goes way back.

Then we chopped up the peanuts. (Warning: this pie contains peanuts… lots of them!) Again, not having a food processor, we resorted to a baggie and a hammer. I think not having a food processor makes your food have more character.

We gazed upon this glorious sight – Oreos, Nutella, and peanuts – and agreed that this would be an adequate dessert in and of itself. But no, the pie is only just beginning. This delicacy needs to wait in the fridge until the filling is ready to pour inside it.

The pie filling is very creamy, like a rich peanut butter pie batter. We didn’t realize until we completed this step that we were making our own whipped cream out of heavy cream. We beat that liquid silly…

…then transferred it to another container to let it sit in the fridge til we were ready for it. It was 2 cups of liquid, but obviously whipping it made it expand.

Next it was time to add cream cheese and peanut butter (again, this is double the ingredients because we were making 2 of these pies).

This is what it looked like when it was beaten together – light and fluffy.

Yum! Add the confectioner’s sugar. (I told you – this is no diet pie!)

Time to add the sweetened condensed milk!

These were the last ingredients added – sweetened condensed milk, vanilla, and lemon juice.

Then we beat it all together, and it looked like this!

The whipped cream should be added gradually, and it pretty much filled our bowl!

Now the title says there’s banana in the pie. Well, it’s time to take that pie crust out of the fridge and slice up some bananas to spread around.

Then pour that peanut butter pie filling in on top of the quadruple layers of awesomeness!

Finally, drizzle melted Nutella on top of the pies! We used a knife, so our drizzles turned out very thin. You could also put the Nutella in a plastic baggie, cut off the tip, and squeeze it out through the corner (or if you have any fancy decorating tools, those would probably be acceptable too).

Then the pies go in the freezer for… OOPS!!! One problem with a spring-form pan is that they’re a little difficult to maneuver when full!

At least we were able to scoop up what spilled out and return it to the pie. This happened with both of our spring-form pans. Next time, we would probably put the pans on a tray before filling them to make them more stable and easier to move.

And this is what it looks like after 8 hours in the freezer!

Spring-form pans, although a little tricky to maneuver, are so cool! Just pop the spring, and the sides come off – it was great for making this multi-layered pie, and it made slicing a lot easier too.

This was what the first incision looked like. (We let it sit outside the freezer for about 20 minutes before serving, and it held firm.)

All in all, this was a great pie – probably our favorite January pie yet. It wasn’t the simplest to make, but the end result was well worth it!

Peanut Butter Banana Nutella Pie (recipe from Andrea Meyers: making life delicious)

8 oz. Oreo cookies

4 tbsp. unsalted butter, melted

4 oz. Nutella

¼ cup chopped peanuts

1 cup heavy cream

8 oz. cream cheese

1 cup creamy peanut butter

1 cup confectioners’ sugar

1 (14 oz.) can sweetened condensed milk

1 tsp. vanilla extract

1 tsp. lemon juice

1 large banana

¼ cup melted Nutella

1. Break up the cookies until you have fine crumbs. Combine melted butter and cookie crumbs in a small bowl and stir with a fork to mix well. Press the mixture into the bottom and 1 inch up the sides of a spring-form pan.
2. Warm Nutella in the microwave, then pour it over the bottom of the cookie crust. Sprinkle chopped peanuts over the Nutella, then place pan in the refrigerator to chill.
3. Beat heavy cream until stiff peaks form. Transfer to small bowl and store in refrigerator until ready to use. 
4. Place cream cheese and peanut butter into mixing bowl and beat on medium speed until light and fluffy. Reduce speed to low and gradually beat in confectioner’s sugar. Add sweetened condensed milk, vanilla, and lemon juice. Increase speed to medium and beat until everything is combined and filling is smooth.
5. Stir 1/3 of the whipped cream into the filling mixture before gently folding in the remaining whipped cream. 
6. Slice the banana and arrange the slices on top of the Nutella and chopped peanuts. Pour the filling into the pan and drizzle the melted Nutella on top. Freeze at least 4 hours (overnight recommended) before serving.