I have never really considered pie, and particularly craic pie, something in my usual baking rotation. I love baking pies, but they feel more like event bakes. Like I need an occasion to make them. But when I was asking my brother if he had any ideas for how to use Peanut Nutella, he suggested craic pie. Because I “hadn’t made one in a few weeks.” I didn’t realize I was expected to make one every few weeks! I didn’t think I made them that often!
Turns out, I have made 5 iterations on craic pie now, as well as 2 kinds of craic pie bars and a craic pie cookie. And this is the 6th version of the pie! So I suppose… maybe it is in my rotation now. Quite by accident.
I think it’s got an unexpected amount of ways to play with the flavors! Who knew!
When my brother suggested it, the formulation for this recipe came to me pretty instantaneously. Obviously, just used the peanut butter craic pie recipe, and then what else but a Ritz crust??
I have waxed poetic on the Ritz + Nutella + Peanut butter combo before. It’s such a perfect combination, and Peanut Nutella tastes exactly like peanut butter + Nutella. I wondered how they got Peanut Nutella to taste so much better than the other “chocolate peanut butter” options on the market. And then I checked the ingredients list and saw that it still has hazelnuts in it! The obvious secret. It’s truly more a Nutella + peanut butter combo than just a peanut version of Nutella.
It’s dangerously good.
This pie is also dangerously good. My mom described it as “decadent,” and I couldn’t agree more. A salty, buttery crust and a peanut-y, chocolate-y gooey fudge-like filling. Have I used enough adjectives?
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PinIngredients
Ritz crust
- 1 ½ cups crushed Ritz crackers
- 6 tablespoons melted butter
- 2 tablespoons white sugar
Pie filling
- ¾ cup granulated sugar
- ½ cup packed light brown sugar
- 1 tablespoon milk powder
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- ½ cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, melted, cooled slightly
- 6 ½ tablespoons heavy whipping cream
- 1/4 cup peanut Nutella
- 2 egg yolks
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- Powdered sugar, for dusting
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
- Combine cracker crumbs, melted butter, and sugar in a mixing bowl. Stir together until evenly incorporated. Pour mixture into a 9-inch round pie dish. Press evenly over the bottom and up the sides of the dish using a glass.
- Bake in the oven until golden brown, 7 to 10 minutes. Let cool slightly while you prepare the filling.
- Beat together the granulated sugar, brown sugar, milk powder, and salt with a paddle attachment at low speed.
- Add the melted butter and mix until all ingredients are wet. Scrape down the sides of the bowl.
- Mix in the heavy cream and vanilla and beat for 2 to 3 minutes until fully incorporated, scraping down the sides as needed.
- Keep the speed set to low as you add in the egg yolks and peanut Nutella. Mix this until the mixture is glossy, about 3 minutes.
- Evenly fill the crust with the filling, then bake for 15 minutes.
- Reduce the oven temperature to 325°F and bake for 15 more minutes. The pie should be fairly brown on top. It may still be a little jiggly. If it is very jiggly, give it 5 more minutes.
- Remove the pie from the oven and place the pie pan on a cooling rack and allow it to cool for 30 minutes. Then wrap it with tin foil and place it in the freezer for at least 2 hours, or overnight. Move the pie from the freezer to the fridge 1 hour before you are planning to serve it.
- Dust it with powdered sugar before serving.