Peanut Butter Cup Chess Pie

Here at Delish, we love a dessert mashup. Who can say no to a brookie or a pumpkin crème brûlée bar? Some sweet things are just made to be together. Next up for us? This peanut butter-chocolate dream of a dessert takes two famous desserts—Reese’s peanut butter cups and the South’s chess pie—and makes something uniquely delicious.

One of the top-selling Halloween candies in the U.S., peanut butter cups need no introduction. Creamy peanut butter sandwiched between layers of milk chocolate—you either love it or you don’t. If you’re new to chess pie, welcome! This classic custard pie has simple ingredients baked in a flaky pie crust. Chess pie can be flavored with vanilla or orange zest, but as a quick Google search will show, chess pies can be flavored with chocolate, cranberries, and so much more. Here’s how we combine these two desserts.

The crust:
For this pie, we swap out the flaky pie crust a chess pie often has for a cocoa-flavored shortbread crust. We love the extra chocolate flavor, and a chocolate crust baked in a tart pan gives the whole dessert solid peanut butter cup vibes.

The filling:
We keep the classic chess pie filling ingredients: whole eggs, melted butter, granulated sugar, vanilla, fine cornmeal (to thicken the custard), and apple cider vinegar (to balance the sweetness). I added peanut butter, which also thickens the custard. Using some dark brown sugar in place of granulated sugar gives the filling a PB cookie-like taste.

Storage:
This cake is great to make ahead. The crust could be baked up to 48 hours in advance, kept wrapped at room temperature. The whole pie could be made 24 hours, wrapped and stored in the fridge, before serving.

Did you make this recipe? Let us know in the comments!