Peanut Butter Milk Bar Pie (Happy Pi Day!)

My first memories of pi day are, unfortunately, not great. It was one of the many times during my childhood education where learning the concept of something did not exactly pan out in practice. It’s up there with the time I was told we’d be doing an experiment where we “make clouds” inside of 2-liter soda bottles, and… all we got was empty two liter soda bottles. Or, when I was told we would be dissolving lollipops and learning about enzymes, but in practice I was surrounded by 20 fifth grade peers spitting into paper cups for 30 minutes. Science experiments sometimes just do not translate into a classroom setting.

I digress. For pi day in 2nd or 3rd grade, we were introduced to the concept of pi as something you could get by dividing ANY circle’s circumference by its diameter. That sounded so cool to me during the lesson – ANY circle in the word, you divide those two numbers and you get the same never ending decimal?? That’s magic!! But then, we were told to find a circular object and get those two measurements. When I measured my circle, probably some random cup, I got a number that was not even in the 3s. It was some number that was entirely off, not even in the ballpark, probably 4.2. Worse than the Babylonians, that’s for sure. (I don’t remember the number, I just remember the disappointment.)

It was immediately a letdown! Our teacher assured us that none of us would actually get pi from this process, because we were 7-year-olds trying to measure circles using rulers, and you can’t get that level of measurement specificity using tools. But come on! Why make us go through this process! It was so unsatisfying. At least I probably got a cookie or something out of it. (A cookie, which, if I divided its circumference by its diameter, I’d probably get an even 3.7.) And then, to make matters even more disappointing, in adulthood I’ve learned that there’s a contingent of mathematicians advocating to get rid of pi and start using tau… including celebrating tau day instead!

So pi day has always seemed a bit silly to me. Sure, the concept of pi is fine. But let’s not pretend like all those circular foods we’re eating are perfect circles. It’s just an excuse to eat dessert. But, I don’t need math concepts to give me that excuse! I also don’t need to spend the day trying to memorize as many digits as I can of a never-ending number! Waste of time!

For instance, since this pie is 9 inches in diameter, and pi is circumference over diameter, that means that the circumference is 9pi… aka 28.2743338823 with no repeats? I doubt the pie tin factory is using that specificity!

Alright… pi rant over. This year, I did decide to celebrate by making a PIE. Mainly because this idea for a Peanut Butter Milk Bar Pie came in a stroke of inspiration last week, and I wasn’t going to pass up the opportunity to make it! Since making chocolate milk bar pie and cinnamon milk bar pie, I feel as though my eyes have been opened to the possibilities of milk bar pie. I didn’t think it was a particularly flexible recipe, but I have been proved wrong!

I replaced some butter with peanut butter to make an oatmeal peanut butter cookie crust, and then substituted peanut butter for two of the egg yolks in the filling, to make this peanut butter all the way through. (It also uses two less eggs, which, in this economy is a great substitution!) It made for a slightly less gooey pie texture, and I kind of liked that! It didn’t ooze as much as a normal milk bar pie.

This pie is all about the peanut butter, which is obviously something I’m on board with. But if you want something to pair with the peanut butter, the obvious candidate is a chocolate ice cream, or mixing chocolate chips into the crust. But there’s also the option of strawberry whipped cream! (Made by mixing pulverized freeze dried strawberry dust into your whipped cream.)

If there’s one good thing about pi day, it’s that it’s a day to celebrate circles. And it’s convenient that most desserts are circles.

Print