It’s no secret that I’m a huge fan of peanut butter treats. I also tend to avoid a lot of the store-bought snacks, because they’re usually full of various ingredients I don’t want to be eating, so I end up making a lot of them myself. From time to time, though, I try out something new, or at least new to me.
In this case, I somehow had never seen the Little Debbie Peanut Butter Creme Pie before. I don’t know if our local stores just didn’t carry it, or I just never looked in the right place, but apparently they’ve been around for ten years and I missed them. So of course I tried them!
The verdict: they’re fine, good even, but as I expected, full of ingredients I don’t like to eat. The fact that a single cookie is over 400 calories and has 160mg of potassium certainly doesn’t help. So, I decided to replicate the snack.
There’s really only two parts to it, of course: the cookie and the icing. The cookies are a little more complicated than my usual fast-and-easy peanut butter cookies, but they’re super tasty and stay really soft. The icing, meanwhile, is exactly as quick and easy as I expected.
Want to know how to make them for yourself? Of course you do! Fortunately, it’s easy to throw together.
Copycat Snacks: Little Debbie Peanut Butter Creme Pies
Equipment
- Baking Sheets
- Parchment Paper
- Stand Mixer
- Mixing Bowl
- Whisk
- Cookie Scoop
- Piping Bag
- Cooling Racks
Ingredients
For the Cookies
- 1 Cup Creamy Peanut Butter
- ½ Cup Unsalted Butter
- 1 Cup Brown Sugar
- ½ Cup White Sugar
- 2 Eggs
- 1 Tsp Vanilla Extract
- 1½ Cups Flour
- ½ Tsp Baking Powder
- ½ Tsp Baking Soda
For the Filling
- ¼ Cup Butter Softened
- ⅓ Cup Creamy Peanut Butter
- 1½ Cups Powdered Sugar
- 1 Tsp Vanilla Extract
- 2 Tbsp Milk
Instructions
Make the Cookies
- Preheat your oven to 350℉ and line your baking sheets with parchment paper.
- In your stand mixer, cream together the peanut butter and regular butter until smooth.
- Add in the sugars and mix until light and fluffy.
- Add the eggs and vanilla, mixing to combine.
- In a small bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, and baking soda. Add this mixture to the peanut butter mixture and combine; this shouldn't take more than a few seconds on low, it goes quick. Fortunately, you don't need to worry about over-mixing.
- Using a spoon or cookie scoop, take about 1 Tbsp scoops of cookie dough. Lightly roll these (they're soft) into balls and place them about three inches apart on the baking sheet. Using a fork, lightly press them flatter in the usual peanut butter cookie cross pattern. Leave room between cookies; they WILL spread as they bake. You should have enough for around 30 cookies, depending on the size; try to keep it an even number for assembly.
- Bake each batch for 11-12 minutes. The edges will start to turn golden and they will continue to flatten as they cool. Let them cool for around 5 minutes before moving them to a cooling rack to finish cooling.
Make the Filling
- Clean and dry your mixer. Then, beat together the butter and peanut butter until smooth.
- Add the vanilla and powdered sugar, as well as half your milk. Beat on low until it starts to come together.
- If the icing doesn't become smooth and creamy, gradually add more milk until it does.
- To assemble the cookies, transfer the icing to a piping bag, or carefully spoon dollops of it onto half the cookies, pressing another cookie on top to assemble.
- Ideally, let the cookies sit for an hour so the icing sets a bit.