Recipe: Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup Cheesecake
If you’ve read any part of this blog before, you know that I’m a huge fan of peanut butter. When you combine peanut butter and chocolate, even better. And if Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups are involved? Well, shucks, you know just the way to my heart. That’s why this Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups cheesecake recipe is such a dream come true.
I first discovered this courtesy of my co-worker Hannah, who passed along the OMG Chocolate Desserts recipe that inspired her. This cheesecake requires three steps: the crust, the cheesecake filling, and the ganache. Let’s roll!
Ingredients
Oreo Crust:
- 2 cups of Oreo crumbs
- 4 tablespoons of butter, melted
Peanut Butter Cheesecake Filling:
- 32 oz. of cream cheese – let it sit for a bit to soften before starting the recipe
- 1¼ cup of sugar (this is slightly less than the original recipe calls for but I think this is a great amount to use)
- 4 large eggs
- 1 cup of smooth peanut butter – get that crunchy stuff OUTTA here
- 2 teaspoons of vanilla
- 1/3 cup of heavy cream
- 1¼ cup of miniature chocolate chips
Milk Chocolate Ganache:
- ½ cup of heavy cream
- 1½ cups of milk chocolate chips OR 9.5 oz. of finely chopped milk chocolate
“Garnish”:
- Chopped Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups – a two-pack works well but if you’re a fiend, go for four
- A handful of crushed roasted peanuts
Crust Attack
You want your Oreo cookies to be ground up incredibly fine, so a food processor is your best bet. You can also go the manual route and used a spoon to crush them up, but you’ll need to do it for a LONG time. Your finished result should almost look like a bowl of pepper. Mix the crumbs with melted butter and stir until the whole thing is nice and moist.
Spread the mixture along the bottom of your springform pan and set in the fridge while you move onto step two. That way the crust will firm up a bit.
Cheesecake Filling – The Mmm, Mmm! Part
Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. While it’s heating up, beat softened cream cheese and sugar in a bowl until smooth. Add in peanut butter, heavy cream, and vanilla. The next step is the most critical: you’ll drop one egg at a time into the mix, beating after each one, but you do NOT want to overmix. I’ve certainly made this mistake before and it’ll affect both the taste and color of your finished product. You’re close to the light at the end of the tunnel, don’t let it all fall apart here.
Once all of your eggs are combined into the bowl, stir in chocolate chips and spread the mixture over your now chilled, firm crust. Make sure the top is smooth and put your springform pan into a roasting pan. Gently pour hot water roughly a quarter of the way into the roasting pan.
Bake for about an hour (55-70 minutes). Your cheesecake should be slightly loose in the center but set around the edges. Take it out of the water bath and set on a cooling rack. Once cooled, put it in the refrigerator for a minimum of five hours, though ideally, you’ll keep it in there overnight. Starting your morning off with cheesecake is a beautiful thing.
Ganache Me
Once the cake is completely cooled, you’ll release the ring of the springform pan to transfer the cake onto a serving plate. Bring heavy cream to a boil over medium heat and drop half of your chocolate chips/thinly chopped chocolate into a heatproof bowl. Pour the cream over the chocolate and stir until the chocolate is totally melted. Then add your second half of chocolate and repeat. Your ganache should pour easily out of your bowl, though you do still want a slight bit of thickness to it.
Spreading ganache is something I’m typically terrible at, so I hope your luck is better than me. OMG Chocolate Desserts suggests doing the ganache in two layers, spreading it over the top of the entire cheesecake and letting it drip down the sides. Once the ganache sets, you can crumble your peanuts and Reese’s bits on top. Then it’s back in the fridge until you’re ready to chow down, which is hopefully RIGHT NOW.
