Peanut Butter Cheesecake with Chocolate Ganache

      I’ve been on a cheesecake rush lately. It’s not looking good for my diet, but cheesecake is one of my favorites IF it’s done right. This time I wanted to do something a little more rich. So I combined chocolate and peanut butter for a super creamy cheesecake.

We’ve probably all seen the cheesecakes turned into peanut butter cup monstrosities in the grocery store and even some restaurants. But more isn’t always better. I wanted to do something a little more classic and grown up looking.

This recipe calls for one cup of peanut butter. And instead of a graham cracker crust, I used peanut butter cookie crumbs and finely chopped peanuts. For the crust I just scraped the filling out of Nutter Butter cookies. The result is a subdued, peanuty crust with a super rich cheesecake topped with chocolate. What could go wrong besides your waistline?

 

Ingredients

4 (8 ounce) packages cream cheese (room temperature)

1 ½ c. white sugar

¾ c. milk

4 eggs

1 c. sour cream

1 c. creamy peanut butter

¼ c. all-purpose flour

Crust

1 ½ c. peanut butter cookie crumbs (Nutter Butter with the filling removed)

¼ c. finely chopped roasted/salted peanuts

2 Tbs. melted butter

Chocolate Ganache

4 oz. semisweet chocolate chips

½ c. plus 1 tablespoon heavy cream

2 Tbs. butter cut into pieces

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350° F. Grease a 9-inch spring form pan.

2. In a medium bowl, mix cookie crumbs, finely chopped peanuts and melted butter until crumbs are moistened. Press onto bottom of spring form pan and push slightly up sides of pan, about 1 to 1 1/2 inches. Bake for 5 minutes at 350° F. Once done, let cool.

3. Once the pan is cool, double wrap bottom of spring form pan with wide foil so that water can’t seep into the pan for the water bath later.

4. In a large bowl, mix room temperature cream cheese with sugar until smooth. Blend in milk, and then mix in eggs one at a time, mixing just enough to incorporate on low speed. Mix in sour cream, peanut butter and flour until smooth. Pour filling into prepared crust.

5. Put spring form pan into a larger rimmed pan, and fill the larger pan with hot water until water is about 1-inch up spring form pan.

6. Bake in preheated oven for 1 hour 10 minutes. Turn the oven off, and let cake cool in oven for an additional 2-4 hours. This help prevent cracking from cooling down too fast.

7. Remove from oven, remove spring form ring, and then let cool to room temperature before chilling in refrigerator.

Chocolate Ganache

1. Bring the cream to a boil, then pour half the cream over the chocolate and let sit for 30 seconds.

2. Working with a whisk or rubber spatula, gently stir the chocolate and cream together in small circles, starting at the center of the bowl and working your way out in increasingly larger concentric circles.

3. Pour in the remainder of the cream and blend it into the chocolate, using the same circular motions.

4. When the ganache is smooth and shiny, stir in the butter piece by piece. Don’t stir the ganache any more than necessary to blend the ingredients. This will help keep it smoother and shinier.

5. Make sure the cheesecake it completely chilled before topping with ganache. Spread evenly over top of cheesecake and chill.

 

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