This post was created as in partnership with Imperial Sugar. All thoughts and opinions are 100% my own.
Wish every day could be payday? With this Payday Pie it will feel like it! Gooey peanut butter nougat and roasted peanuts fill this delicious dessert. It’s a candy bar favorite made into pie form with a flaky buttery crust and plenty of peanuts and chewy nougat in every bite.
If you love peanut butter and peanut buttery desserts, be sure to try our Peanut Butter Blondies, Peanut Butter White Chocolate Chip Cookies, or Chocolate Peanut Butter Whirligigs next!
Table of Contents
One of my favorite ways to get dessert inspiration is to look at some of our favorite candy bars or ice cream flavors. In this case, I went to a timeless classic that has been around for decades – the Payday candy bar – and turned it into a deliciously rich pie that is packed with roasted peanuts, nougat, and caramel for good measure!
This is one of those recipes that is too good not to share with neighbors and friends. It’s so good, in fact, that our youngest daughter has already requested it in lieu of birthday cake for her next birthday. A friend who helped with taste-testing while I was developing the recipe said she’s planning on making it for Thanksgiving for her Payday candy bar loving father-in-law since she said it’s 1,000x better than the original version in the orange and white wrapper in the candy aisle.
It’s chewy, crunchy, and super satisfying in the buttery, flaky pie crust. It’s like no other pie you have ever eaten and I know you will fall in love with it just like we did!
What You’ll Need
Scroll down to the recipe card below this post for ingredient quantities and full instructions.
- Pie crust – You can make your own or purchase one from the store, but you will want to blind bake it all the way before filling.
- Peanut butter chips
- Sweetened condensed milk
- Salted butter
- Mini marshmallows
- Granulated sugar
- Heavy cream
- Vanilla extract
- Salt
- Dry roasted peanuts – We liked this best with the unsalted kind, but if you are fond of salted caramel desserts you could even use salted, dry roasted instead.
How to Make Payday Candy Bar Pie
Prepare your pie crust. If you are making your crust from scratch, roll it out and transfer it to a 9-inch pie plate. Decoratively crimp the edges and prick the bottom and sides of the crust all over with a fork so it doesn’t puff up while baking.
Crumple up a piece of parchment paper, then open it up and use it to line the pie crust. Fill with pie weights, beans, rice, or sugar. This will help keep the crust from shrinking in the oven.
Bake for 15 minutes, then remove the pie from the oven and carefully lift the parchment paper with the pie weights out of the partially blindbaked crust. Return the crust to the oven and bake without weights for another 15 minutes until golden brown. Set aside to cool.
Make filling. Meanwhile, combine peanut butter chips, sweetened condensed milk, and butter in a saucepan over medium heat. Cook and stir frequently for 5-8 minutes until melted and combined.
Add mini marshmallows to the melted peanut butter mixture and continue to stir over medium heat until completely melted and combined. The mixture will be pretty thick so use a sturdy wooden spoon and some arm muscle and don’t let it burn on the bottom.
Pour the finished filling into the prepared pie crust, then immediately sprinkle the roasted peanuts on top of the filling in an even layer.
Make the caramel by cooking sugar in a small saucepan over medium heat, stirring constantly with a wooden spoon or heat-safe spatula. It will start to clump up at first, but eventually the sugar will melt completely and turn a lovely caramel amber color.
Add the cubed butter to the caramelized sugar and stir until melted. Then pour in the cream and stir until combined. Let the caramel boil for 1 minute.
Remove the caramel from the heat and immediately stir in the vanilla extract and salt. Let the caramel cool for a few minutes, then drizzle over the peanuts on top of the pie. It might seem like not quite enough caramel at first, but it will spread out and sink down through the gaps in the peanuts to create a wonderfully crunchy, chewy later.
Refrigerate to set up. Transfer the finished pie to the fridge to set up for at least 4-6 hours before slicing. If you want really clean slices, it might take even longer than that so the pie is completely cold all the way through.
For the FULL RECIPE be sure to visit Imperial Sugar’s site.
Recipe FAQ’s
The story goes that when the candy makers were trying to come up with a name for this nougaty treat it happened to be payday, so someone suggested payday bars and they went with it.
The candy bar can trace it’s roots back to the Hollywood Candy Company in the early 1930’s, but Hershey Company has been making them ever since the late 1990’s.
Tips for Success
- Don’t rush the nougat or caramel layers. They take a while to cook but you don’t want to increase the heat too much or you run the risk of burning your caramel and having a bitter, scorched taste to your Payday pie.
- Use a homemade pie crust. Sure you can always pick up a frozen or refrigerated crust from the store, but a homemade pie crust makes such a big difference and isn’t that hard to do.
- Let it sit all the way. I got impatient a few times and tried slicing a piece of this pie while it was still the teensiest bit warm to the touch on the bottom of the pie plate (affiliate link). It was probably set up enough that I could have gotten a slice out, but they would have spread on the plates afterwards and not looked as pretty as the ones in these photos. If it’s not looking set, pop the whole pie back in the fridge and give it another hour or two.
How to Store & Freeze
- You can leave this pie out at room temperature on the counter for 1-2 days as long as it is covered well, but it will do better in the fridge and last for more like 5-6 days.
- This pie also freezes and thaws well so you might want to freeze either the whole pie or slices of pie, then wrap them up in a couple layers of plastic wrap and freeze for 1-2 months. Let it thaw at room temperature for 4 hours before serving.
Be sure to stop by Imperial Sugar’s site for the FULL RECIPE. I have partnered with them now for a few years and love their products for my baking needs!
More Pie Recipes
Did you make this recipe?
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