Saturday, August 30, 2008

Peanut Butter Dream Cheesecake Cups

I am so excited about these.  For one, I totally thought of it on my own, second, I made the recipe up myself and, third, THEY ARE SO GOOD!  Quite the feat for me, since I usually just make other's recipes and/or just change a few things up.  I have to be careful with these and give them away soon because Kevin doesn't love peanut butter that much, so he probably won't eat them, but since they are just cup size, I will use that as an excuse to just keep having one.  My boys don't seem to like cheesecake all that much, so they probably won't like them either.  Hmmm, who's gonna be the lucky ones to get a few?!

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Here's the recipe!

Peanut Butter Dream Cheesecake Cups

1-8 oz. pkg. Nutter Butter Bites (the mini ones)

2 tablespoons butter, melted

2-8 oz. pkgs. cream cheese, softened (I actually used 1 that was 1/3 less fat and one that was fat free because that's what I had-so could these be considered low fat?   Hmmm.)

1/2 cup sugar

1/2 cup Egg Beaters with touch of yolk (also less fat!) (or could use 2 large eggs)

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/4 cup peanut butter (I used Skippy Natural)

peanut butter chips and milk chocolate chips for topping (mini Reese's PB cups would be good, too!)

 

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Prepare cupcake liners.  This recipe made 15 cakes perfectly.  I actually used the liners that have foil on the outside, so they don't need to be in a muffin tin.  Worked great.

Pulse cookies in food processor until fine crumbs.  Add melted butter and pulse a few more times until all incorporated.

Add one heaping tablespoon of crumbs to each cupcake liner.  (There's just a little left, maybe 1/4 cup, I used for sprinkling on the tops of the baked cheesecakes.)  Flatten each into cup shape with back of spoon.  Set aside.

Wipe out bowl of food processor and add the cream cheese.  Pulse until creamy.  Add sugar and vanilla and pulse until smooth and well mixed.  Scrape sides of bowl and add eggs and combine until creamy. 

Add 2 (heaping) tablespoons of cream cheese mixture to each cup.  Spread so it covers the crumb mixture.  After this, there is about 1 cup (give or take) of the cream cheese mixture left.  Add 1/4 cup peanut butter to mixture and again pulse in food processor until smooth.  Add 1-2 teaspoons of this mixture to top of each cheesecake.  I did this by putting the mixture in a piping bag and squirting it over each in a squiggly pattern.  I wanted to get a marble effect with this top layer.  After each had the peanut butter mixture on top, I carefully cut it in with a knife, swirling it together.  (I also did a few with just the peanut butter cream cheese mixture and I may just add 1/2 cup peanut butter to the whole cream cheese mixture next time and not bother with the swirling/marble effect.  But it does look nice, just liked the more intense flavor of the peanut butter mixture better.) 

Bake for 18 minutes or until no longer shiny looking and you can touch the middle of the cheesecake without any getting on your finger.  Remove to cooling rack.  Sprinkle with peanut butter and milk chocolate chips.  Let cool.  When cool, refrigerate.  The longer the refrigeration, the better these get. 

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This one above is only about 30 minutes out of the oven, when cool enough, I popped it in the fridge.  I REALLY just wanted to try them.  This one was made with just the peanut butter mixture.  I cut it into about five bites and shared it with the family.  Kevin had a friend over, who really liked it, as I did.  Kevin just isn't the best person to ask about a peanut butter treat.  (Crazy guy!)  Did I mention that I really liked it?!  I knew they would only get better with age. 

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The marble effect wasn't enough contrast, which is why I'd just do them all with the peanut butter mixture next time.  And there will be a next time.  A good 1/2 cup peanut butter or maybe even 3/4 cup added to the 2 pkgs. cream cheese would probably work great.  The peanuttery buttery crust is SO good and the chips on top just add the over the edge-ness to them.  I added the chips and THEN refrigerated them.  They melted slightly when I added them right out of the oven, then hardened up in the fridge, which made biting in to them a little messy/tricky.  But hey, food SHOULD be fun and messy and these are worth every bite!

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Yum!  Want some?  Hurry.  They aren't going to last.

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25 comments:

Clumbsy Cookie said...

Great job on creating those!!! They look so good!!!!! I loved the expression "over the edge-ness", lol! Very nice Katrina! Do you know we don't get Nutter Butters here?! Sad isn't it? Oh I liked the name you gave them as well! :-)

Anne Marie said...

Those look divine. What a great idea. Wish I lived close enough to stop by and try one.

Tanya said...

Oh my gosh...pure heaven! I want one right now! :)

Thanks so much for your kind words on my blog :)

Jaime said...

yum! i'll take some :) those look so peanut buttery good!

Jacque said...

Holy peanut butter cup! those sound sooooo good. I will definitely try these.

Nickki said...

Oh WOW! They look absolutely gorgeous! I want, I need, I have to have one right now!

Chibog in Chief said...

OMG this is beautiful and delicious!! yummy

RecipeGirl said...

Sooooooooo delicious looking! Don't you love it when something you create turns out so great??

Stacey said...

Oh my goodness...those Peanut Butter Dream Cheesecake Cups look deliceous!!!!

Jersey Girl Cooks said...

What a good creation! Love that they are mini.

alexandra's kitchen said...

oh wow, these look dangerous! and just about the most perfect dessert I've ever seen. i love the individual portions.

Sonya said...

Oooh those look heavenly! I wish I could make those but I live in the netherlands now and they dont carry peanutbutter products..just plain ol peanutbutter and thats it.

Eleganza Strings/ The DeLadurantey Family said...

Oh! So cute and yummy looking!

test it comm said...

That looks so good!

Sarah Beck said...

I love peanut butter AND cheesecake. I just want to reach through my computer screen and grab one!

Cookie Madness said...

Too cute! You should tuck that recipe away and submit it to a contest. It would be great for Southern Living or Taste of Home.

Max and Deborah said...

Me,me, me, choose me to get the extras... oh wait I live in Ohio. Oh if I only lived next door. Way to go, making your own recipe. I am glad they turned out so yummy. I wonder if a butterfinger would be good broken on top?

Judy said...

Really nice recipe -- way to go, Katrina! For those who live where Nutter Butters are not, it would be easy to make a crust out of peanuts, flour, sugar & butter.

eatme_delicious said...

Nutter butter crust?? YUM!! I wish I was the lucky one to receive some of these. Awesome and delicious looking creation. =)

The Peanut Butter Boy said...

Oh my, I believe I've reached heaven. You weren't kidding Katrina, these look incredible! And they are low fat! I bet you could use all nonfat cream cheese without ill effect. Perhaps a different crust, like a graham cracker one, would make the fat even lower if you so desired.

Definitely at least 1/2 cup peanut butter next time. Can you make me some? If not, I will be making these shortly, I'm saving this recipe right now.

From one peanut butter master to another: I bow down to the greatness that is this recipe.

A_and_N said...

Gorgeous cheesecake! I wish I could dig into the screen and have some right now :)

Katrina said...

Thanks everyone, I'm excited to make them again sometime soon and tweak a few things! Thanks for all your great comments.

Pamela said...

Oy!! These look so crazy good!! Great job. I'm going to add it to my file of the tons of things I want to try! :o)

alexandra's kitchen said...

One more thing, I just saw a recipe for homemade oreo cookies and the blogger had success. thought you might be interested:http://bakingblondie7.blogspot.com/2008/09/oreos.html

Judy said...

I just made Baking Blonde's double peanut butter cheesecake swirled brownies -- my lowfat version. I'm feeling good about eating them and they're really good. Check it out:
http://judyskitchen.blogspot.com/2008/09/double-peanut-butter-cheesecake-swirled.html
I may try your peanut butter dream cheesecake cups next.