Peanut Butter and Chocolate Cheesecake

I’m a peanut butter kind of girl and apparently, so are all of my loved ones. My mother eats peanut butter at least three times a day and my family members are not ashamed of taking out the peanut butter jar, reaching our fingers in, and swiping a generous dollop into our mouths.

I’m not a humongous fan of the peanut butter and chocolate combination, but I don’t have a problem with it. Some of my friends, though, are insane when it comes to PB & C. I have watched my friend Theresa, for example, gorge herself on a Halloween-sized bag of a variety of Reese’s candy, from Reese’s Cups, the Fastbreak, and Reese’s pieces. It was interesting. She regretted it afterwards.

Because I love my mother, who happens to love peanut butter and chocolate and cheesecake, I made her a cake to bring home as I returned to Kansas City for the summer. I’m not a perfect cheesecake maker yet, but this was definitely delicious. I would like to complain about the lack of peanut butter and chocolate cheesecake recipes out there, however — I combined this one from a variation of recipes on the Internet.

Peanut Butter and Chocolate Cheesecake

For the cheesecake, you’ll need:

Spring-form pan

16 Oreos

2 pounds cream cheese or Neufchatel cheese at room temperature

5 eggs at room temperature

1 cup packed brown sugar

1 cup peanut butter (do not use low fat or natural. This is the real stuff)

1/2 cup whipping cream

1 T vanilla

1 bag peanut butter cups

For the topping, you’ll need:

1/2 cup peanut butter

6 oz. semi-sweet chocolate

3/4 cup heavy cream

20-ish peanut butter cups

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Place 20-ish peanut butter cups in the freezer. Grease spring-form pan.

2. Crush Oreos and press into the bottom of the spring-form pan. Place in oven for 15 minutes. Chop up 2 cups of peanut butter cups.

3. Beat cream cheese with a stand mixer or electric mixer until smooth. Add eggs one at a time to cream cheese mixture. Beat well, then add sugar, peanut butter and cream until smooth. Stir in vanilla. Pour half of the cheesecake mixture into the spring-form pan. Layer with chopped up peanut butter cups, then top off with the remaining cheesecake mixture.

4. Turn oven down to 325. Bake for 1-1/2 hours in oven. To tell if the cheesecake is finished, wiggle it a bit. The sides should be firm and the middle may have cracked a bit. The middle will be the last to finish. Feel free to stick a toothpick or fork in the middle to check. It will not come out clean, but it should not be runny. Place cheesecake in fridge.

5. Place cheesecake in the fridge for 4 hours. Go ride your bike or play Scrabble or file your taxes.

6. Chop up 5 oz. blocks of chocolate. Begin melting the chocolate by microwaving it or double boiling. Let cool for 5 minutes, then add most of the heavy cream into the chocolate, leaving 1 T for peanut butter swirl. Take out cheesecake and, while still in the spring form pan, top with chocolate mixture. Put in refrigerator for 30 minutes.

7. Place peanut butter and 1 T of whipping cream in microwave for 1-2 minutes, enough to create a runny consistency. Place in piping bag and swirl onto top of chocolate topping on cheesecake.

8. Melt remaining 1 oz. block of chocolate. Remove peanut butter cups from freezer, unwrap and chop in half. The freezing will help the chocolate not stick to the foil to provide a clean finish. Dip bottom of halved peanut butter cup into melted chocolate and place along the edge of the cheesecake all the way around.

9. After hours of waiting, enjoy!

Note: If you have a super huge roasting pan that your spring-form pan can fit in, you may want to follow the directions of the cheesecake maker here, which included boiling water surrounding the cheesecake. I do not have such supplies, as I’m a college students, and had to go without: http://www.mmmmbrains.com/archives/2007_03.html#001218