Peanut butter and chocolate cheesecake

Peanut butter and chocolate cheesecake

When Nigella first described this recipe as a Reese’s Peanut Butter cup in cheesecake form, she had me at Reese. It’s a baked peanut butter and chocolate cheesecake. I don’t need to say any more.

Peanut butter and chocolate cheesecake

The ingredients should be at room temperature before you start.

Ingredients

For the base

  • 200 grams tennis biscuits (Nigella uses digestives, but I have a debilitating weakness for tennis biscuit bases)
  • 50 grams salted peanuts
  • 100 grams dark chocolate chips or a slab broken into pieces
  • 50 grams butter

For the filling

  • 500 grams cream cheese
  • 3 medium eggs
  • 3 medium egg yolks
  • 200 grams castor sugar
  • 125 ml sour cream
  • 250 grams smooth peanut butter

For the topping

  • 250 ml sour cream
  • 100 grams milk chocolate
  • 30 grams soft light brown sugar

Method

  1. Preheat the oven to 170°C.
  2. Process the biscuits, peanuts, dark chocolate and butter for the base in a food processor. (I only have that little food processor that you bung onto the end of a stickblender, but it worked just as well when you do it in batches this way and then mix it all together after. Great arm workout too.)
  3. Once it comes together in a clump, turn it out into a 23cm springform tin and press into the bottom. Reserve a good tablespoon full to consume right now. You know you have anyway!
  4. Put in the fridge while you make the filling.
  5. Process all the filling ingredients together till you have a smooth mixture. You can just whisk the whole lot if you don’t have a processor, but then be sure to bang out the air bubbles or there will be cracks in your cheesecake. Not the end of the world, but avoidable.
  6. Pour and scrape the filling onto the base in the tin and bake for 50 minutes. Check the cake and if necessary, bake for a further ten minutes. The cake should be like your thighs after Christmas when you’ve ruined a year’s workouts in two weeks – just, just firm to the touch but with a bit of a wobble perceptible underneath.
  7. Take the cheesecake out of the oven while you make the topping.
  8. Warm the sour cream and chocolate with the brown sugar gently in a small saucepan over a low heat, whisking to blend in the chocolate as it melts, and then take off the heat.
  9. Spread the topping very gently over the top of the cheesecake.
  10. Put it back in the oven for a final 10 minutes.
  11. Once out of the oven, let the cheesecake cool in its tin and then cover and put into the fridge overnight. It gets better the longer it stands.
  12. When you are ready to eat the cheesecake, take it out of the fridge, just to take the chill off, but note that it will get even more gloriously claggy the longer it stands.

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