About a month, or so, ago I attended a fund raiser/dinner to send a team of people to Thailand. Various individuals had donated miscellaneous items to be auctioned, and after weeks of wracking my brain about what i possibly had to offer- I decided on cheesecakes.
Six, actually.
a cheesecake a month, for six months.
Because, of anything I’ve ever done or attempted to make- cheesecakes are what I do best. I have perfected it to the point that I do honestly believe i could make any kind of cheesecake.
At any rate, my dear friend fought hard to win the bid for the cheesecake-a-month package and so, when it came time for her to request her family’s first cheesecake- the pressure was on to NOT disappoint them.
The only request she had was peanut butter.
{Confession: I love peanut butter. My son LOVES peanut butter. How in the world have i gone all of this time and NEVER made a peanut butter cheesecake? RIDICULOUS! I have made well over 30 flavors of cheesecake and peanut butter never crossed my mind.}
Peanut Butter Cheesecake
{PB cookie crust, PB cheesecake, topped with bananas and a Nutella sauce}
crust-
10 peanut butter cookies
1/4 c. ground peanuts
1/4 c. unsalted butter
preheat oven to 350.
Butter the bottom and sides of a spring form pan.
Crumble cookies, mix with ground peanuts.
melt butter and add to the gooey mess.
Press down, onto the bottom of the spring form pan.
Bake for 12 minutes.
It should look like a giant, golden, buttery cookie.
Let cool.
Batter:
24 oz. room temperature cream cheese.
1 c. sugar
1 c. half and half
3 whole eggs (the picture of two is misleading. sorry)
1 T. lemon juice
1 T. vanilla
2/3 c. creamy peanut butter
with an electric mixer, mix the cream cheese until it’s smooth and well whipped.
Add sugar and beat until smooth, scraping the sides of bowl when needed.
Mix in half and half.
When well mixed, add the eggs- one at a time- beating for a full minute between.
Mix in lemon and vanilla and mix until smooth.
Add peanut butter and mix until well incorporated.
{Coolest thing about cheesecake. You can’t over aerate it.}
Meanwhile, wrap your pan WELL in foil. You want it tight, with no possible water breaches from the water bath.
Fill your kettle and boil.
Get your deep roasting pan ready, you’re almost done!
poor your heavenly, peanut butter batter onto your crust.
Place it in the roaster and surround your pan with the boiling water.
Place it in the center of your oven and bake for 60 minutes.
Then, turn your oven off and prop the door open with a wooden spoon for 90 minutes.
Remove from oven and let cool completely. (important)
After that refrigerate overnight. (the longer the better, so I recommend about 8 hours at least.)
I simply sliced bananas on top and made a quick nutella sauce to drizzle. Very easy. topped with a few chopped up peanuts.
(And I am so sorry about the final photos being crummy iPhone shots. i forgot my camera on delivery)
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