Easy Peanut Butter Cup Cheesecake {Recipe}

For a greater part of my childhood, I lived on peanut butter sandwiches.  Notice, I did not say peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, because there was absolutely no jelly involved.  I only wanted peanut butter and bread.  Nothing else.  I’d love to say that my palate has matured with age, but it really hasn’t.  I can go for a peanut butter sandwich just about any day (although my age has helped me appreciate that a “whisper” of jelly on the peanut butter really can bring out the taste), but with a pretty serious peanut allergy in the house, I have to limit my peanut butter intake.  It actually pains me that Greenleigh will never know the joy that a peanut butter sandwich can bring…meanwhile, the allergy has also taken away a very easy meal idea from a mom with little time.  But I digress…

While I bake with peanut butter very rarely, I couldn’t help but try this Peanut Butter Cup Cheesecake recipe that I found on the Semi-Homemade Mom late last week.  It looked so easy.  I mean, cheesecake couldn’t possibly be that easy, right?  Never mind that, peanut butter cheesecake with real mini peanut butter cups couldn’t be that easy.  Could it?

Normally, when I try a recipe, I modify it in some way – I take out ingredients I don’t like, substitute them for things I do like, and I almost always adjust the cooking time.  I did none of that with this recipe.  I was just too scared that I’d mess up the delicate balance that cheesecake can be.  So other than the crust, I kept everything true to the recipe provided for fear it wouldn’t “work”.  But lo and behold, it did…  And it was delicious!You will need: (for the crust)

1 cup graham crackers, ground up –  approximately 8-9 graham crackers

1/4 cup sugar

6 Tbsp butter, melted

You will need: (for the cheesecake filling)

5 blocks of cream cheese (8oz blocks), at room temperature

1 cup peanut butter

1 1/2 cup sugar

2 Tsp. vanilla extract

3 eggs, lightly beaten

25 mini peanut butter cups, cut in half

Chocolate syrup

Step 1 – Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Step 2 – Put the graham crackers, sugar, and butter for the crust into a medium size bowl and mix until moist and well combined.  Press the crumbs into the bottom of a spring form baking pan, lining the entire bottom evenly.  Bake for 7 minutes.  Remove from oven and place to the side.  Reduce oven temperature to 325 degrees.

Step 3 – Place the cream cheese and sugar in a large bowl, and mix for 2-3 minutes until blended.  Then add the vanilla extract and peanut butter.  Mix for an additional 2-3 minutes, or until well combined.  Slowly add the eggs into the mixture and mix for an additional 2-3 minutes.

Step 4 – Slowly (and carefully!) stir in the peanut butter cups.  Some breaking or falling apart is normal, just try to keep it to a minimum – you want the peanut butter cups to be as evenly distributed throughout the batter as possible.

Step 5 – Pour batter into spring form pan on top of the graham cracker crust.  Bake for 1 hour and 10 minutes.  Remove from oven.

Step 6 – Allow cheesecake to cool on your counter top for a couple of hours and then refrigerate over night.  Top with chocolate syrup (if desired) and then dig in!