Reese's 3-Pound Peanut Butter Cup Pie Sold Out in Hours, so I Made My Own — Here's How

This week, Hershey's released something to be thankful for, indeed — a pie-sized version of their beloved Reese's Peanut Butter Cups.

Yes, you read that correctly — they made several thousand of these three-and-a-half pound giant peanut butter cups, just in time for Thanksgiving. Marked at $45 per item, the cup-pies flew off the (digital) shelves, selling out in less than an hour.

I admit, I was jealous that I hadn't even had the option to buy the massive replica of my favorite childhood Halloween treat, even if I'd wanted to. All 3,000 pies were gone before I had even heard about them. But, I didn't sit back and cry.

I made my own.

First, I looked up a peanut butter cup recipe. I was surprised to find that the recipe was quite simple.

It called for three ingredients: creamy peanut butter, semi-sweet baking chocolate, and powdered sugar.

I did end up using canola oil and almond milk to thin out the creamy peanut butter (along with the powdered sugar the recipe called for) and to give it a slightly smoother, softer, and creamier consistency.

But even with just a few ingredients, I still felt a little overwhelmed by the task at hand. So I reached out to local baker, Lisa Diemer, owner of Kitchen Chemistry bake shop in Stroudsburg, Penn., and asked her, first of all, what she thought of the whole debacle.

"Last Christmas, there was the cocoa bomb, which took off like wildfire," Lisa told me. "If it does well on social media, that's it."

Lisa loved the challenge of trying to make a DIY Reese's pie. "It's a really fun idea that's not that hard to replicate," she told me. "It's the most famous Halloween candy. It's the first one parents grab out of the bag while 'checking for poison.'"

Lisa even gave making the pie a whirl — and she will even carry them through the holiday season and will sell them for $30 each, a steal compared to the cost of the Hershey's name-brand item.

Once I saw her rendition of the pie, I felt more comfortable giving it a try.

For starters, she made it in a simple pie tin. "You can get them at the dollar store," she suggested.

I got a little hung up on the "classic Reese's" ridges, but she showed me that the ridges were not even necessary to make the treat look wholly delectable. She suggested a tart dish could be a good alternative to the pie tin.

Honestly, this was one of the easiest recipes ever, and especially with Lisa's guidance.

How to DIY a Reese's Peanut Butter Cup Pie

Ingredients:

• 1 4-ounce bar semi-sweet chocolate baking bar
• 1 16-ounce jar peanut butter
• 1/4 cup almond milk
• 2 tablespoons canola oil
• 3 tablespoons powdered sugar

First, I melted the chocolate in the microwave in a glass Pyrex cup, poured about 1/4 c. in the pie tin, then I froze it for five minutes. (One of the most challenging parts of this process was making room in my overstuffed freezer!)

I then repeated that process with more chocolate to get a nice thick chocolate shell.

Next, I emptied a jar of peanut butter into a sauce pan and added ¼ cup almond milk, 2 tablespoons canola oil, and 3 tablespoons powdered sugar. I stirred over medium heat until the peanut butter became soft and workable.

I then poured the peanut butter filling into the frozen chocolate shell and froze it again, thinking that might help keep the filling and chocolate coating from combining.

Next, I dumped the rest of the chocolate on top of the pie and smoothed it out, popping it back into the fridge for the last time.

Fifteen minutes later, the pie looked every bit as good as the Reese's version, but I paid only a fraction of the cost: The total pie cost me just over $5.00 — baker's chocolate, $2.50; peanut butter, $1.29; confectioners sugar, $1.39.)

Lisa suggested cutting the pie with a warm, dry knife so it'll slice through the thick chocolate. Just whatever you do, don't Google the calorie count.