Gene Autry's Peanut Butter Pie

This is what I made to celebrate my birthday last week. It's so rich, we've been eating half a piece at a time, so you can feed quite a few with one pie.

I made this before, several years ago, after finding it in The All-American Cowboy Cookbook, which is a collection of recipes from stars of western movies and TV shows. If you know how much I love cowboy movies and shows, you know this cookbook was a hit with me :-)

This particular recipe comes from Gene Autry, the beloved singing cowboy star. It's quite simple, especially if you use a pre-made graham cracker crust like I did.

Gene Autry's Peanut Butter Pie

Ingredients:

1 cup peanut butter
8 oz cream cheese -- softened
1 cup sugar
2 Tbsp melted butter
1 cup whipped cream
2 Tbsp vanilla extract
1 graham-cracker pie crust
hot fudge sauce

Directions:

Cream together peanut butter, cream cheese, and sugar. Stir in butter, whipped cream, and vanilla. Mix well and pour into crust. Chill for 4-5 hours or until very well set. Top with melted, thinned hot fudge sauce. Chill again for 30 minutes.

Yum! And this recipe lends itself so easily to modification if you're on a diet -- just use low-fat or lite peanut butter, cream cheese, and whipped cream instead. Thank you, Gene Autry!