Chocolate Peanut Butter Cheesecake

July 03, 2017

Chocolate Peanut Butter Cheesecake

If you’re ever in a conversation with a person and they happen to mention that they don’t like cheesecake...or chocolate...or peanut butter, just walk away. Seriously, they have to be crazy! Recently, the Honduras Chocolate Company reached out to me to try some of their chocolate. And if you’ve ever seen any of my recipes, then you know I was more than happy to do so because I lovee chocolate! They offer a variety of different recipes on their website, so this time instead of sharing my own dessert I thought it’d be a fun twist to put one of theirs to the test!

We’re making our crust from scratch on this one. All you’ll need is:

~1 ¼ cups crushed graham crackers (1 sleeve)

~¼ cup cocoa powder

~¼ cup sugar

~¼ teaspoon salt

~½ cup melted butter

Start by mixing all of the crust ingredients in a bowl until they’re all combined together. Then scoop it out and into a pie dish. Not to be greedy or anything, but I wasn’t sharing this with anyone besides my fiancé so I just used my fingers to press the mixture into a pie crust shape. Mine didn’t go all the way up on the sides, but that’s totally fine. Pop it in a 350° oven and bake for about six minutes. Then just set it to the side to cool for a bit.

The ingredients you’ll need for the filling are:

~1 package of cream cheese (8 oz, softened)

~14 oz sweetened condensed milk

~½ cup sugar

~2 tbsp sour cream

~1 tsp vanilla

~½ cup cocoa powder

~½ cup creamy peanut butter

~2 eggs

While the crust is in the oven, you can mix together all of your filling ingredients with a hand mixer until it’s combined and smooth. Pour it into the crust, which should be slightly cooled at this point. Since my crust didn’t go all the way to the top of the pie pan, the filling went over it a little bit but I didn’t have any problems. Bake it in the oven for about 30 minutes. You’ll know it’s done when the edges are slightly brown and the middle is firm, but still a little flimsy. Be careful not to overbake it in order to prevent any unsightly cracks.

When it’s done baking, set it on the counter to cool at room temperature for about an hour and then place it in the fridge to continue setting. I let mine sit overnight, but you could go as little as 3-4 hours. Right before serving, I melted down the 80% cacao chocolate bar and drizzled that over the top of the cheesecake. I didn’t have any canned whipped cream on hand, so instead I just placed a few dollops of Cool Whip on the edges of each piece and added just a little more chocolate syrup over that.

I don’t mean to brag or anything, but this is definitely the best cheesecake that I have ever made! I really can taste a difference using the Honduras Chocolate Company Cocoa Powder (available online and in South Florida stores) compared to the Hersey’s and Toll House that I’ve used in other recipes before. I highly recommend trying this recipe out if you love cheesecake, it is definitely one that I will be adding to the books. It’s so smooth and has the perfect consistency that a cheesecake should have.

If you try this recipe yourself, please leave me a comment or tag me on any of my social media and let me know how it worked for you! What’s your favorite cheesecake recipe?

~Mani Monday~

Tomorrow is the 4th of July and it’d be totally unlike me if I didn’t do something festive on my nails to celebrate. I always do something different every year, but I’m not very talented at all the detail work so I have to keep it pretty simple. The blue is the Sinful Colors polish called Cold Leather, which definitely needs a shiny top coat because it dries down matte. The white and silver are also by Sinful Colors and some that I wear pretty often, called Snow Me White and Queen of Beauty. The red is my favorite red polish I’ve ever found. It’s by Wet n Wild and is appropriately named Red Red. The formula is a little thin, but is such a perfect true red and can easily be built up with two coats.