Reese’s Peanut Butter Cheesecake
If you are looking for a dessert to showcase your masterful culinary skills without actually having masterful culinary skills, make this.  It’s quite easy and very, very pretty and impressive looking.

I baked this cheesecake quite awhile ago, probably around May and remembered that I took a few pictures of it.  I was told (though I didn’t get to taste it) that it was quite good so I figured I’d post the recipe.

Baking the cheesecake was the easy part. At the time, I did not have a hand mixer (gasp!) so I used my blender. (Craziness, I know.) But as you can see, it worked out wonderfully. I’ve since purchased a hand mixer and now I’m looking to acquire a Kitchen Aid stand mixer. I obviously need this. Did you know that they sell an ice cream maker attachment for the Kitchen Aid mixer??? Endless possibilities my friends.

So anyway, back on topic, I did not use a water bath and the top did not crack at all (amazing!) This cheesecake is very sweet and peanut buttery, so I wouldn’t recommend making this for your plain cheesecake loving friends.

• 1 1/4 cups graham cracker crumbs
• 1/3 cup plus 1/4 cup sugar
• 1/3 cup cocoa
• 1/3 cup butter, melted
• 3 packages (8 oz. each) cream cheese, softened
• 1 can (14 oz.) sweetened condensed milk
• 1 2/3 cups (10 oz. package) Reese’s Peanut Butter Chips, melted
• 4 eggs
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• Chocolate drizzle (recipe below)
• Extra chocolate and/or peanut butter chips for garnish

Directions:
Heat oven to 300°F.  Combine graham cracker crumbs, 1/3 cup sugar, cocoa and butter.  Press into bottom of 9 inch springform pan.

Beat cream cheese and 1/4 cup sugar until fluffy.  Gradually beat in sweetened condensed milk, then melted chips, until smooth.  Add eggs and vanilla; beat well. Pour over crust.  

Bake 60 to 70 minutes or until center is almost set.  Remove from oven. With knife, loosen cake from sides of pan and let cool.  Garnish with chocolate drizzle (if you like crazy sweet things like myself) and additional chocolate chips.  

Chocolate Drizzle:
Melt 2 tablespoons butter over low heat; add 2 tablespoons cocoa powder and 2 tablespoons water. Cook and stir until slightly thickened.  Do not boil.  Cool slightly.  Gradually add 1 cup powdered sugar and 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract, beating with whisk until smooth.  Makes about 3/4 cup.

After the cheesecake was done and cooled, I mixed up the chocolate drizzle to swirl on top. (Note: leave the sides of the spring-form pan in tact. This makes adding additional chocolate chips to the top much easier.)  I used a spoon to just flick the drizzle around to make some swirls.  I then just patted some extra chips (I used the chocolate and peanut butter mixed chips) onto the sides.

Remove sides of pan.  Store covered in the refrigerator. 

Well, it was my last day at the bank Friday.  I used this as another excuse to pawn off my bake goods to coworkers.  I came across this recipe in about 10 of the five thousand blogs to which I’ve become addicted because it was a Daring Bakers Challenge last month(?).  They ended up being quite tasty and very aesthetically pleasing.  

2 – 8 ounce packages of cream cheese
1 cup granulated sugar
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
2 pinches of salt
2 large eggs
2 egg yolks
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 tablespoons heavy cream (I did not have heavy cream so I substituted 1½ tablespoons of 2% milk and a teaspoon of butter [melted and then cooled to room temperature]) 
2 bags of melting candy coating
Sprinkles

Bake the cheesecake:

Preheat oven to 325°.  Set some water to boil for the water bath. 

• In a large bowl, beat together the cream cheese, sugar, flour, and salt until smooth.  If using a mixer (which I did), mix on low speed.
• Add the whole eggs and the egg yolks, one at a time, beating well (but still at low speed) after each addition.
• Beat in the vanilla and cream.
• Pour the batter into an 8 inch round cake pan coated with cooking spray.  Place the pan on a jelly roll pan and fill the jelly roll pan with the boiling water.  I did use the water bath but I don’t know how necessary it is since it doesn’t matter if the cheesecake crack…
• Bake until the cheesecake is firm in the center and slightly golden on top, about 40 minutes.

Prepare for the pops:
• Remove the cheesecake from the water bath and cool to room temperature.  (I was impatient and only let it cool for about 30 minutes and then stuck it in the freezer.)  You are supposed to cool to room temperature and then cover with plastic wrap and freeze for about an hour and a half.
• When the cheesecake is (very) cold and firm, scoop the cheesecake into 2 ounce balls and place on a parchment paper lined baking sheet.  Insert the sticks into each cheesecake ball.
• Freeze the cheesecake pops, uncovered, until very, very hard, at least 2 hours.  It is important that they are practically frozen otherwise you’re going to lose some of your balls to the melted chocolate [as I did].

Prepare for the candy coating:
• In the microwave or in a double boiler, melt your chocolate or candy coating.  Stir until completely smooth.  I used white chocolate and peanut butter candy coatings from a craft store. 
• Get your cheesecake pops out of the freezer, prepare to speed dip into the melted chocolate if your kitchen is 80 degrees as mine was.  Cover the balls completely.    Right after you dip in the chocolate, dip in your sprinkles, sanding sugar, crushed up candy bars, etc.  
• Place the pop on a clean parchment (wax paper worked) lined baking sheet to set. 
• Refrigerate the pops for up to 24 hours, until ready to serve.  I put them in the freezer for about an hour and then individually wrapped them in little lollipop sleeves and tied with a ribbon until I ran out, then I used silver twisty ties.

Quite the photogenic cheesecake, eh?