Chocolate Peanut Butter Cheesecake

Tea time will be back soon.  I am sconed out at the moment and needed a breather from all that scone baking, In the mean time, I bring you this lovely cheesecake.  Swoon.

Some time ago it was my husbands birthday.  We celebrated with some delicious chocolate peanut butter cheesecake. I made a few mistakes but in the end it was okay.

One of the mistakes I made was that I overfilled the water.  When I make cheesecake, at least in recent times, I put it in a water bath.  I find the cheesecake to be more moist and it bakes better.  You will see this idea in a lot of recipes. It helps with not getting that infamous crack on top.

You need to have a piece of foil large enough to cover the bottom of your cheesecake.  I find that the standard foil here in the US is narrow, not wide enough to get a nice seal on the bottom of a 9" round. Most times I do not have the wider heavy duty foil.  If you want to do the water bath I recommend getting the wider foil.

The other mistake I made was not putting enough of the batter mixed with the peanut butter.  It got too thick and dint go on the cheesecake evenly.  Also the chocolate portion was dulled by too much batter.  Next time, half and half.  This will make the chocolate portion of the cheesecake more chocolatey and the peanut putter portion more pourable and spreadable.

Yes, there will be a next time because it still was good.

Chocolate Peanut Butter Cheesecake

crust
1 cup finely ground chocolate wafer cookies (4 ounces)
2 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
2 tablespoons sugar

filling
4 ounces semisweet chocolate (55 to 61 percent cacao), finely chopped
4 packages (8 ounces each) cream cheese, room temperature
1 1/2 cups sugar
Pinch of coarse salt
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
4 large eggs, room temperature
1/2 cup smooth peanut butter

Preheat oven to 350°F.  Grind chocolate wafer cookies into crumbs, mix with melted butter and sugar. Line bottom and a little up the sides of a 9 inch round cheesecake pan, Bake for 10 minutes.  Remove from oven.

In a mixing bowl place cream cheese and sugar and salt.  Blend together for about 3 minutes.  Add in vanilla.  Add in eggs one at a time, mixing after each one. Scrape down sides. Mix just until blended. Divide batter in two.

In the same mixer with half the batter, add peanut butter and blend until combined.  Pour into a bowl and set aside.  Melt chocolate in bain marie or microwave, making sure just to heat it until it melts. In that same mixer combine the reserved half of batter and add in the chocolate.

Pour the chocolate batter into the prepared crust cheesecake pan.  Spoon peanut butter batter over the top. Smooth.  Place in oven on center rack.  Bake for approx. one hour and 10 minutes.  Keep an eye on it.  You want it to be slightly jiggly in center before you take it out.

This following alternate way of baking is not necessary but it will yield a very moist cheese cake.

If you would like to bake it the way I did (ensuring that you cover the bottom better than I did), cover the bottom of cheesecake pan in foil, making sure it is tight around.  Place in in a larger baking pan. Pour in some water to the larger baking pan (under the cheesecake pan) about an inch.  It should not be anywhere near the top of the foil on the cheesecake pan.  Once the cooking time is complete, open the oven door a crack and let the oven cool to room temperature before removing the cheesecake.

Raspberry Swirl Cheesecake

This time of year poses picture challenges. Not enough natural light to catch all these things before they are eaten up. I have made so many things that I wanted to share on the blog but can't. Lately, even when it is daylight, its totally grey.

I have been listening to books on tape in my car lately and while I am quilting. The one I am listening to in the car is, What I Know For Sure, by Oprah Winfrey.  It's so good.  So good in fact that I am going to own a copy after I return this one to the library. I find it very inspirational.  I feel like I would get something new out of it each time I listened to it or read it.

Raspberry Swirl Cheesecake

2 cups finely ground graham crackers
4 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
1 3/4 cups sugar
6 ounces raspberries (about 1 1/2 cups)
32 ounces cream cheese, room temperature
Pinch of salt
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
4 large eggs, room temperature


Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Wrap exterior of a 9-inch springform pan (including base) in a double layer of foil; set aside.

Stir together cracker crumbs, melted butter, and 2 tablespoons sugar in a medium bowl. Press crumb mixture firmly onto bottom of pan. Bake until set, about 10 minutes. Let cool in pan on a wire rack. Reduce oven temperature to 325 degrees.

Process raspberries in a food processor until smooth, about 30 seconds. Pass puree through a fine sieve into a small bowl; discard solids. Whisk in 2 tablespoons sugar, and set aside.

Beat cream cheese in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment; mix on medium speed until fluffy, about 3 minutes. With mixer on low speed, add remaining 1 1/2 cups sugar in a slow, steady stream. Add salt and vanilla; mix until well combined. Add eggs, one at a time, mixing each until just combined. Pour cream cheese filling over crust.

Drop raspberry sauce by the teaspoon on top. With a wooden skewer or toothpick, swirl sauce into filling.

Set cake pan inside a large, shallow roasting pan. Transfer to oven. Carefully ladle boiling water into roasting pan to reach halfway up sides of cake pan. Bake until cake is set but still slightly wobbly in center, 60 to 65 minutes.

Transfer cake pan to rack; let cake cool completely. Refrigerate, uncovered, 6 hours or overnight. Before unmolding, run a knife around edge of cake.

CAPPUCCINO CHEESECAKE BARS

This is a great cheesecake to take to a potluck.  Portable and delicious.  A little whipped cream on top would be a great addition as well.

CAPPUCCINO CHEESECAKE BARS

crust:
16 whole graham crackers, broken up
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup (4 ounces) chilled unsalted butter, melted

filling:

2 tablespoons instant espresso powder, divided
1/4 cup chilled heavy whipping cream
2 teaspoon vanilla extract
3 8-ounce packages cream cheese, room temperature
2 large egg
1 1/4 cup sugar

1/2 cup mini chips

Preheat oven to 350°F. Butter 13 x 9 baking pan (2 inches + deep). Grind graham crackers in processor to small crumbs. Pour into baking dish. Add the sugar and mix well. Add the melted butter. Blend until crumbs are moist and stick together. Press mixture onto bottom of the baking pan. Bake crumbs in pan and pie dish until golden, 10 minutes. Cool 10 minutes. Maintain oven temperature.

In a small bowl, stir together the espresso powder, heavy cream and vanilla extract until smooth and the espresso powder is dissolved, set aside.

Beat cream cheese and sugar until mixed, about three minutes.  Add eggs one by one and scrape down sides of bowl as you go.  Add in the cream/espresso mixture.  Mix until thoroughly combined. Smooth into prepared crust in pan, evening it out.  Bake for 30 to 45 minutes. It should jiggle in the middle just a bit when you pull it out of the oven.  It will set as it cools.  

Best to chill over night before serving.

Triple Chocolate Cheesecake

I made this Triple Chocolate Cheesecake for a Valentines get together of our quilting guild.  I had to make chocolate as we met last on Valentines Day.  Me and the other ladies had chocolate and heart shaped pretties on our mind as well.  You should have seen the spread and silly me I did not get a pic.  What I can share with you is a picture of the last remaining piece that I went home with and the recipe.  The recipe being the main thing as you now can taste this lusciousness for yourself.

Please bear with me if I have not been commenting on blogs because I still have an issue with logging onto them.  I can look at pics but I am unable to leave comments or frankly do anything on blogger like docs.  Eventually, I will figure it out.



Triple Chocolate Cheesecake
adapted from this recipe at Pink Parsley

Crust:

1 1/2 cups chocolate cookie crumbs
1/3 cup butter, melted

Cake:

4 (8-ounce) packages of cream cheese, softened to room temperature
2 1/2 Tbs all-purpose flour
scant 1/4 tsp salt
4 eggs
1 1/2 cups sugar
7 oz semisweet chocolate, chopped and melted
1 heaping cup mini semisweet chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. For the crust: Combine crumbs and butter. Press on the bottom and up the sides a little of a 9-inch spring form pan.

For the cheesecake: Beat cream cheese until smooth. Add flour and salt. Gradually beat in sugar. Add eggs one at a time, beating after each addition. Add melted chocolate. Stir in chocolate chips.

Pour mixture into prepared crumb crust. Bake at 450 degrees F for 10 to 12 minutes. Reduce heat to 300 degrees and bake 40-50 minutes longer, or until filling is barely set in middle. Remove from oven and let stand at room temperature 1 hour. Then refrigerate for several hours or overnight. 

Pumpkin Cheesecake

Seriously pumpkiny, seriously cheesecake-y.... seriously loved this.

It was my Mothers birthday, so of course I had to make cake.  And I did.  I have been wanting to make cheesecake for a long time.  Pumpkin is always fetching to me this time of year- why not?

No calorie counts for this one.


Pumpkin Cheesecake
Adapted from this recipe at spreadphilly.com

4 - 8 ounce packages of cream cheese, room temp
4 eggs, room temp
1 cup sugar
15 ounces canned pumpkin
1 tablespoon pupmin pie spice
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 cups finely crushed ginger snaps
1/4 cup butter, melted


Preheat oven to 350F.

Mix crumbs and melted butter right in the 9inch springform pan.  Press down and up the sides a little all around.  Bake in oven for about five minutes. Set aside to cool.

In a large bowl beat cream cheese and sugar.  Add in pumpkin, pumpkin pie spice and vanilla. Once combined add eggs, one at a time.  Pour into prepared crust and bake for one to one and a half hours.  Remove when center is still a bit jiggly.

Amaretto Cheescake

It was my husbands birthday.  We had not had cheesecake in a long time.  He likes having a shot of amaretto on Saturday night once in a while.  I rolled with it.  I found the cheesecake recipe at Fine Cooking and the amaretto sauce online. I know cheesecake is already pretty decadent but this was my husbands birthday and sauce, in my opinion, always makes things exponentially delicious. Ah, indeed.

Here are a few tips that you may or may not already know about trying to avoid cracks.  Do not beat your batter too much after you add your eggs.  All you mixing should be done before that point.  The other thing I do that works most of the time is that I turn off my oven when I see it is not totally set in the middle- still having lots of jiggle.  I do not take it out.  I let it cool with the oven.  And I think one of the most important tips, which is the hardest is knowing when it is ready. If it is set too much, as it cools it continues to bake and you will get the famous crack that everyone tries to avoid.  Truth be told, who cares- it still tastes amazing!

This cake is rich, not too sweet and very creamy and delicious. A nice chocolate sauce would be good on it too  The next time I make it, I would add a 1/2 teaspoon of almond extract. And maybe som amaretti cookies for the crust instead of grahams.


Amaretto Cheesecake
Largely adapted from this recipe at Fine Cooking

the cheesecake

4 8-oz. packages cream cheese, at room temperature
2 Tbs. all-purpose flour
pinch of  salt
1-1/4 cups granulated sugar
3 Tbs. amaretto
1 Tbs. pure vanilla extract
4 large eggs, at room temperature

the crust:

8 oz. graham crackers, finely crushed (2 cups of crumbs)
3 Tbs. granulated sugar
7 Tbs. unsalted butter, melted

To make the crust:

In a bowl combine crumbs and sugar, stir.  Pour in melted butter and stir until the crumbs are saturated and starting to clump.  Pour into a 9 inch springform pan and press into bottom and up sides about 2 inches.  The bottom of a glass will work well for pressing it in.  Bake in a preheated 375F oven for about ten minutes.

To make the cheesecake:

In a mixer beat cream cheese, flour and pinch of salt for about five minutes, scraping down sides periodically. Add the sugar and mix until well blended and smooth.

Add vanilla and amaretto, mix until combined.  Add eggs one at a time being careful not to over beat. Pour the filling into the crust and place in a 300F preheated oven.  Bake for about 60 minutes.  I turned off my oven after 55 minutes and just left it in.  Chill overnight.
 
Amaretto Sauce
Adapted from this recipe at Food and Wine
.
1 stick unsalted butter (4 ounces)
1 cup confectioners sugar
3 tablespoons amaretto
2 egg yolks

In a double boiler, melt the butter. Slowly whisk in the sugar until the mixture is creamy, about 30 seconds. Add the amaretto and then the egg yolks, 1 at a time, whisking constantly. Cook, whisking constantly until the sauce is the consistency of honey and reaches 160°, about 4 minutes.