Peanut Butter Cheesecake
Posted by Anonymous on Tuesday, February 12, 2013. Filed under: In the Kitchen, Pinterest
Last week was my week to cook for food days. After my food day on Tuesday, Husband's team had a food day on Thursday. Since I had success with my first attempt from baking from Pinterest recipes, I thought I'd give another one a try. Husband is also a huge fan of the peanut butter and chocolate combination, and also happens to love cheesecake, so I decided to go with this pinned recipe for Peanut Butter Cheesecake with a Brownie Crust. I was actually pretty nervous to try it, because I'd never made a cheesecake from scratch before. The closest I'd gotten to making a cheesecake was a box of Jell-O No Bake Cheesecake, haha!
This wasn't the easiest recipe I've ever made, but it definitely wasn't hard. It was more time-consuming than anything else.
Brownie Crust:
Ingredients:
12 tbsp. unsalted butter
1/2 c. unsweetened cocoa powder
3 eggs
1 1/2 c. sugar
3/4 c. all-purpose flour
1/8 tsp. salt
Directions:
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Grease a 9x9 square or a 10" round springform pan.
Melt the butter and stir in the cocoa powder. Cover, and set aside.
Beat the eggs for 3 minutes, then gradually add the sugar, beating for 2-3 minutes more. Slowly beat in the butter/cocoa mixture. Add in the flour and salt, mixing just until combined.
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| Mmm...brownies. Yum. |
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| The batter filled up just under a quarter of my 10" springform pan |
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| It's possible I just wanted to stop here and just eat the brownies. |
Ingredients:
32 ounces cream cheese (I used 1/2 light, 1/2 regular)
1 c. peanut butter
1 1/3 c. sugar
1/2 tsp. salt
2 tsp. vanilla
4 eggs
1/3 c. sour cream
1 c. heavy cream
Directions:
Preheat oven to 325 degrees F. Beat the cream cheese on medium speed for about 4 minutes until it's soft and creamy. Add the peanut butter and continue to beat for another 2-3 minutes. Add the sugar and keep beating for another 4 minutes. Beat in the salt and vanilla, then add in the eggs, one at a time, beating for about 1 minute after each addition. Reduce the mixer speed to low, then add in the sour cream and heavy cream.
Pour the cheesecake batter on top of the cooled brownie crust. It should fill up the majority of your pan; you'll want to leave about half-inch of room at the top. Bake the cheesecake for 55-65 minutes. The edges will appear set, but there will be some jiggle in the middle. (That sounds like how I describe my body shape, lol!) Turn the oven off, and allow the cheesecake to cool in the oven for at least another hour. After the hour, remove the cheesecake and finish cooling on the countertop. Refrigerate to keep fresh.
Tips from the original author:
-Make sure the ingredients are at room temperature. This will help prevent cracks.
-Use a water bath when baking the cheesecake. This method will also prevent cracking.
-She also included a recipe for a chocolate ganache topping, which I chose not to use for two reasons. 1) I thought it would be too rich and 2) I got lazy.
Tips from me:
-I didn't use the water bath, and clearly my cheese cake cracked. According to my husband, it still tasted fabulous.
-In place of the chocolate ganache topping, I used the remainder of the heavy cream that wasn't used in the recipe and make fresh whipped cream instead, which I was told went over really well.
Husband tried another piece of this last night, and he said all of the peanut butter taste was gone, so apparently it's only good for a day or two. But according to him, for those two days when it is good, it is really good. And it was best in small slices, since with the creaminess of the cheesecake and the density of the brownie crust, it was a seriously rich cheesecake.
But it definitely got two thumbs up!
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