A friend of mine recently asked me to make a a peanut butter based bake for his dad’s birthday, so I decided to make a baked peanut butter cheesecake. Most of the time whenever I make a baked cheesecake it will crack on the top but this time it didn’t!
Here are some of my tips on how to get a flat top on your cheesecake and also make it easier to remove the cheesecake from the cake tin. First make sure all of your all of your cheesecake ingredients are at room temperature, this will make it easier to incorporate your ingredients. Second make sure you do not over mix the cheesecake ingredients, the excess air in the cheesecake filling will expand when it is in the oven and will cause the cheesecake to crack in the oven. Third grease the sides of the cake tin with butter, this will make it less likely for the cheesecake to stick to the cake tin. Forth, once the cheesecake has baked, leave the cheesecake to cool in the oven for at least 2 hours with the door slightly left open.
Ingredients:
Peanut Cookie Base:
250g Peanut Cookies (I used shop brought ones)
80g Butter (Melted)
Peanut Butter Cheesecake Filling:
450g Full Fat Cream Cheese
250g Smooth Peanut Butter
150ml Sour Cream
250g Soft Brown Sugar
3 x Eggs
3 x Egg Yolks
Decoration:
400ml Double Cream
1 Tsp Vanilla Extract
50g Peanut Cookies (Crushed)
1. Blitz the peanut cookies in a food processor to form a fine crumb.
2.Next add the peanut cookie crumbs into a large mixing bowl and then add the melted butter. Mix the ingredients so that all of the melted butter has been incorporated into the peanut cookie crumbs.
3. Line a 9 inch springform cake tin with parchment paper on the base of the tin, make sure to grease the sides of the cake tin with butter (this will make it easier to remove the peanut butter cheesecake later). Then pour the butter-peanut cookie crumbs into the cake tin. Press down the cookie crumbs; make sure they are full pressed down as this will help to make a stable base. You can used the base of a glass to make this easier. Chill the cake tin the fridge for 1/2 an hour to 1 hour.
4. Pre heat the oven to 180C/350F/Gas Mark 4. To make the peanut butter cheesecake filling, place the cream cheese, sour cream, smooth peanut butter and soft brown sugar into a large mixing bowl. Mix the ingredients with a wooden spoon or with an electric mixer, until they are all fully incorporated, do not over mix as this will create too much air in the mixture and will cause your cheesecake to crack when baked.
5. In a separate bowl add the eggs and egg yolks and mix lightly.
6. Add the egg mixture to the peanut butter cheesecake mixture and mix until all of the egg mixture has been incorporated. Do not over mix, as again this will create too much air in the mixture and will cause your cheesecake to crack when baked in the oven. Tap the bowl to help remove any excess air bubbles.
7. Remove the cake tin from the fridge and wrap the cake tin with two layers of tin foil. Next place the cake tin in a large roasting tray. Pour the peanut butter cheesecake filling into the cake tin. The add boiling water into the roasting tray so it covers half of the cake tin. The boiling water and steam will help to bake the peanut butter cheesecake evenly.
8. Bake the peanut butter cheesecake in the oven for 45 minutes. Once the time is up leave the cheesecake to cool in the oven, with the oven door left slightly open for 2 hours.
9. Once the peanut butter cheesecake has cooled, leave it to chill in the fridge for at least 2 hours. Then transfer the peanut butter cheesecake onto a cake stand using a large cake lifter.
10. To decorate the peanut butter cheesecake, add the double cream and vanilla extract in a large bowl and whip with an electric mixer until you get soft peaks.
11. Transfer the whipped cream into a piping bag fitted with a Wilton 1M Piping Tip. Next pipe the whipped cream onto the cooled peanut butter cheesecake.
12. Crush some of the peanut cookies and scatter over the top of the peanut butter cheesecake.
Here are some other recipes you might want to try out!
