I adore cheesecakes, AND my husband’s favorite candy is peanut butter cups. SO I figured the perfect date night treat for us would be to merge our favorite desserts together, match made in heaven! Like my other cheesecakes this dessert is rich, dense and creamy. It’s the only way to go when it comes to cheesecakes in my opinion.
This peanut butter flavored cheesecake is amazing on it’s own, the chocolate crust is mandatory. Add the chunks of peanut butter cup (I use the mini dark cut into fourths) and it’s just WOW! you can eat it as is OR top it with some of my hot fudge for an extra chocolate-y kick!
peanut butter cup cheesecake
Ingredients
Crust
- 1 ¼ C chocolate graham crackers
- 1 Tbsp granulated sugar
- 6 Tbsp butter melted
Cheesecake
- 2 lbs full fat cream cheese softened
- 1 C granulated sugar
- 1 C peanut butter
- 1 tsp vanilla
- 2 lrg eggs at room temp
- 1 lrg egg yolks at room temp
- 1 C chopped peanut butter cups
Topping
Instructions
Crust
- preheat the oven to 375
- mix all the crust ingredients and toss lightly with fork until well blended.
- Press firmly into the bottom of a 10 inch spring form pan. (9 inch)
- Bake on the bottom rack until crisp and golden, abut 12 min.
- Let cool.
- Reduce oven to 300 and place baking dish full of hot water on the bottom rack to create moisture (leave this in while baking).
Cheesecake
- Beat cream cheese, sugar and vanilla with electric mixer on med until light and fluffy, about 30-60 sec.
- And the peanut butter and, mix until incorporated
- Scrape the bowl, beat 45 sec more - make sure it's smooth with no chunks.
- Lightly whisk the eggs and yolks together and add to cream cheese mixture
- Mix on low speed until they are incorporated and the batter is velvety, about 30 sec, scrape the bowl and mix 10 sec more - do NOT overbeat.
- Pour the filling over crust, and sprinkle with chopped peanut butter cups
- bake on the center rack about 1 hour +.
- how to tell cheesecake is done - When you open the rack and shift the pan the center 3-4 inches will jiggle - not like soup, like a loose jello jigglers.
- Turn the oven off and crack open the door and let the cake cool then refrigerate overnight.
- The next day pour the hot fudge over the top, and some more chopped peanut butter cups
Video
Nutrition
Here is a video I made for my classic “dense and creamy cheesecake” recipe (the base I use for all other recipes honestly). While I’m making the classic recipe in the video all the tips and tricks still apply for any and all cheesecake recipes, including this one.
More Cheesecake recipes
- Pistachio Dessert Lasagna Recipe - April 18, 2020
- Homemade White Bread Recipe - April 17, 2020
- Easter Egg Pinata Cake with Chocolate Nest – recipe and video - April 8, 2020
Leave a Reply