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Peanut Butter Cup Cheesecake

Source of Recipe

shaloop at egullet.org


Recipe Introduction

Shaloop says, "Smooth, rich and creamy. Tastes like a peanut butter cup." This is an understatement. This cheesecake in absolutely delicious and gorgeous. A real show stopper of a dessert. The entire thing is enrobed in chocolate and then chopped peanuts are pressed into the side. Use a hot knife to cut slices of this and you have a restaurant quality dessert! I only made one change. I wanted to enforce the peanut butter flavor, so I softened about 1/2 c. of peanut butter in the microwave and swirled it into the cake before baking it. I ended up with little nuggets of peanut butter in the finished cheesecake. Wow.

Recipe Link: recipes.egullet.org/showrecipe.php?r_id=1591&for_printing=true

List of Ingredients

CHOCOLATE COOKIE CRUST:
3/4 c flour
1/4 c cocoa
1/4 c sugar
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 c butter
1 egg yolk

CHEESECAKE:
1-1/2 lb cream cheese
1 c sugar
3 eggs
1 c peanut butter
1 tsp vanilla
3/4 c heavy cream

CRUSHED ROASTED PEANUTS(reserve for garnish)

GANACHE:
6 oz semisweet chocolate
3/4 c heavy cream
1/2 tsp vanilla





Recipe

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

CRUST:
Pulse dry ingredients together in food processor. Add butter in cubes, pulsing until coarse crumbs form. Add egg yolk, pulsing just until combined. Spread crumbs in greased 9" pan. Pat down and bake in 350 degree oven until edges begin to brown and smell fragrant. Cool. Reduce oven temp.


For the cheesecake:
Preheat oven to 300. Cream softened cream cheese and peanut butter in bowl of electric mixer until smooth and creamy. Add sugar and continue mixing. Scrape sides and bottom of bowl. Add heavy cream and vanilla and continue mixing, at low speed, until smooth and lump free. Scrape sides again. Add eggs one at a time, mixing till just incorporated. If using springform pan, wrap in double layer of heavy duty foil. Place pan inside larger pan and fill outer pan about 1" deep with hot water. Bake in a 300 degree oven in a waterbath for about 1 1/2 hours or until barely jiggles in center. Remove from waterbath and cool until room temp and then refrigerate at least 4 hours or overnight (or freeze for one or two hours). Then, unmold and place on a 9" cardboard. Cover with lukewarm ganache. Chill again briefly. Once ganache is almost set (about 10 minutes), Cover the sides with chopped roasted peanuts.

Serve well chilled.


For Ganache:

Chop chocolate (or use 1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips) and place in heatproof bowl. Bring heavy cream to simmer and pour over chocolate. Let stand about 5 minutes. Stir until mixture is smooth and shiny. Add vanilla and stir to incorporate. Let cool until warm, but still very pourable.

Serves 12 - 16.