Have you ever had honey roasted peanut butter? It’s insanely good and incredibly addicting. If you ever see it in the store, don’t buy it! You’ll eat the entire jar in 1 sitting. The other day I was discussing peanut butter flavors in the comments section of Honey Roasted Peanut Butter and was reminded of the honey roasted flavor that Skippy makes. Years ago I used to keep a jar of Skippy crunchy honey roasted in my desk drawer at work. I never liked original Skippy, but I refused to put the honey roasted Skippy on anything because it tasted so good by itself. I ate about 1/4 of the jar every day with a spoon, wishing that the jar was just a little bit deeper. However, I believe my version of Honey Roasted Peanut Butter is superior, and is perfect for this recipe because it helps hold things together.
Crust:
2 1/2 cups crumbs, Puffins Peanut Butter Cereal
6 Tbsp Honey Roasted Peanut Butter
~1/4 cup water, as needed
Filling:
1 banana, 1/8″ slices
2 packages (1 oz each) non-fat instant chocolate pudding
2 cups milk, cold
16 oz cream cheese
2 Tbsp honey (an afterthought, optional)
2 oz dark chocolate, melted (an afterthought, optional)
Peanut butter, to drizzle
Instructions:
1. Place cereal (another cereal or graham crackers can be substituted) into a food processor or blender and process until fine crumbs are formed. Place the 2 1/2 cups crumbs into a large mixing bowl. Add the peanut butter and knead the mixture with your hands until well combined. Add the water, 1T at a time, until the mixture begins to stick together and a pie crust can be formed. Place mixture into a 9″ pie plate and press down and around the sides to form a pie crust. Refrigerate for about 2 hours until crust has hardened and formed.
2. Place sliced bananas on top of the crust as depicted below and drizzle melted chocolate on top (if using):
3. In a small bowl, whip the cream cheese with a spoon until very creamy. In a large bowl, whisk the pudding powder and honey (if using) into 2 cups of cold milk until combined. Add the cream cheese to the pudding mixture and whisk until well mixed. Pour into pie shell and refrigerate for 1 hour. You will have extra filling, so either eat it all like I did, or pour into custard cups and refrigerate.
4. When it’s ready to serve, get out your creamiest, runniest peanut butter (or microwave a small dish of it for 20 seconds) and scoop out about 1tsp with a knife and drizzle on top of each slice. Trader Joe’s creamy natural peanut butter works best here.
Additional Info:
Final verdict: delicious! The crust was a little bit mushy, not in a bad way, but it is to be expected from a non-baked crust. It scooped out of the pie dish very well and never collapsed or made a mess. My version didn’t have the added honey or dark chocolate because it was perfectly sweet for me, but some people might like it sweeter. The sliced bananas add a nice touch, but make sure to slice them very thin. Instead of or in addition to the peanut butter drizzle, a spray of whipped cream goes very well with this dessert.
Health factor: While I didn’t computer the nutritional info, look at the ingredients and just picture what you’re eating. In 1/8 of the pie, you’ll be consuming about a half serving of a whole grain cereal, 1T of peanut butter and a serving of fat free pudding made from skim milk and fat free cream cheese. The filling alone is a great source of protein and along with cereal and a little peanut butter, this truly is not just a dessert. I had a large slice as part of my second lunch the other day. Considering how healthy this pie is, it is certainly a keeper. Now you can have your pie and your waistline too!