Peanut Butter Cheesecake
This Peanut Butter Cheesecake is so peanut buttery and cream cheesy smooth with a delicious chocolate cookie crust.
I love cheesecakes. But I need to confess something to you…I had never made one until recently. Like ever. Can you even believe that? I’ve always been scared to make them because I was afraid mine would sink or get cracks in them, but that’s really not a good enough reason to not make a cheesecake now is it? Especially when they’re so delicious.
As I’ve recently discovered, making a cheesecake is easy peasy lemon squeazy. Yes, it really is. I was inspired by the Philadelphia Cheesecake of the Year contest, and decided that I needed to make a cheesecake submission of my own. So I made a Peanut Butter Cheesecake…a real baked-in-the-oven cheesecake, and I’m super proud of it! Now I am ready to make all the cheesecakes…
This cheesecake is mega scrumptious. I really think it’s the best one I’ve had this year…it’s so peanut buttery and cream cheesy smooth with a delicious cookie crust. You can’t really go wrong with a peanut butter – cream cheese flavour explosion!
Drizzled with chocolate and this peanut butter cheesecake is the best dessert ever. Like everyone told me when I was looking for cheesecake advice…don’t over mix the batter and follow the baking instructions. Keep calm and cheesecake on. 😉
Here is my recipe…I hope you enjoy it!
Peanut Butter Cheesecake
This Peanut Butter Cheesecake is so peanut buttery and cream cheesy smooth with a delicious chocolate cookie crust.
- Prep Time: 15 minutes
- Cook Time: 80 minutes
- Total Time: 335 minutes
- Yield: 8 - 10 servings 1x
Ingredients
Cookie Crust
- 24 Oreo cookies
- 1 tbsp granulated sugar
- 3 tbsp butter (melted)
Peanut Butter Cheesecake Filling
- 3 (8 ounce) bricks of Philadelphia Cream Cheese (at room temperature, see notes)
- 1 cup smooth peanut butter
- 3/4 cup sugar
- 1/3 cup packed brown sugar
- 1 1/2 tsp vanilla
- 4 large eggs
- 1/3 cup sour cream
Drizzle
- 1/2 cup chocolate chips
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.
Cookie Crust
- Place the cookies and sugar into a food processor and process until ground into fine crumbs.
- Then add the melted butter and pulse until the mixture is combined.
- Press the cookie mixture into a 9 inch springform pan, and bake for 5 minutes.
- Set aside to cool completely.
Peanut Butter Cheesecake Filling
- Beat together the cream cheese and peanut butter until creamy, about 3 minutes.
- Add both sugars and beat again for a few minutes.
- Then beat in the vanilla, and the eggs 1 at a time.
- Add the sour cream and combine.
Putting it all together:
- Pour the cheesecake filling on to the crust in the springform pan, making sure the top is flat and smooth.
- Bake for 1 hour and 15 minutes.
- After this time, turn off the oven and leave the door of the oven ajar, leaving the cheesecake to sit for an additional 30 minutes in the oven.
- Remove from the oven and move the cheesecake to a cooling rack, letting it cool completely.
Drizzle
- Melt the chocolate chips and drizzle them over your cooled cheesecake.
- Refrigerate your cheesecake for at least 4 hours, or even overnight before serving.
Notes
- If your cream cheese isn’t at room temperature, you can microwave each block on high for about 20 seconds.
- Don’t over mix the cream cheese batter or it won’t set properly.
- You can line your pan with parchment paper so that your cake can easily be removed from the pan after it has baked.
Recipe adapted from epicurious
Have a delicious day!
This post was brought to you by Kraft Canada
The opinions expressed are all mine, and are not indicative of the opinions or positions of Kraft Canada. 🙂
This looks delicious, thanks for the recipe. I have pinned for later.
I can’t believe you never made a cheesecake before! This one looks divine! I am hoping you will enter. I also wonder how one becomes a taste tester for this contest? I could so do that! LOL
I want to make it right now. This looks so delicious, and I bet people would be impressed with my making it…
An hour and 15 min was way way way too long at 350°. I cooked mine for 50 min and it burnt the top. I make lots of homemade cheesecakes and they normally cook at 325. I had a feeling this was going to burn, so I set my timer for less.
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It looks fantastic… your pics made my mouth water!!
Hey when you made the cheesecake with the Oreo cookies, did you leave the white icing on that between the cookie ?
Thanks xx
Hi Sonja! Yes, I used the whole Oreo cookie! Enjoy!
Wonderful receipe I added to crunch peanut too like twibrabke spoon to give it more crunchy bite with a chocolate Graham cracker crust decorated with oreos Reese cut up n a chocolate drzzle
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Oh my, sounds SO delicious! I love your idea of using crunchy peanut butter!
I’m making this right now and forgot to spray my pan or line it… Any recommendations as it is already in the oven?
I just made this, I pulled out and cracked all over. WHY
Hi Cindy! It’s hard for me to say really, as cheesecakes crack for a number of different reasons, it’s actually pretty common. Sometimes it’s from overmixing which creates air bubbles which results in cracking. Sometimes cheesecakes crack when they’re dry, or if the oven was opened during baking. Sometimes they crack while they cool down in the pans, or sometimes if they’re overbaked.
I bet it still tastes delicious though…you could always cover the crack with extra chocolate or some whipped cream.
Next time wrap your pan on the outside with foil and bake your cake in a water bath. This helps eliminate cracks. Also don’t over mix the batter. Trail and error but you can cover your cracks with stabilized peanut butter whipped cream or if chocolate isn’t an issue make and cover with a ganache no one will know the difference. Lol
I love this recipe! I just made it for my man for Valentines Day cause his love language is peanut butter! But I’m sad cause I followed everything to the letter but it got a little burnt and looks nothing like yours…is there’s something that could have gone wrong? I cooked it at 350 for and hour and 15 and let it sit for 30 mins with the oven off. Any info would be appreciated
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Hi Catie! I’m not sure why it would burn…the only thing I can really think of is that no oven really heats the same, and maybe there’s an elevation issue at play. If you make it again, maybe try a lower heat, like 325 for 1 hour, and another 30 minutes with the oven off.
Catie I know it has been over 2 years since you made this cheese cake. I believe the problem you had was from not leaving your oven door ajar. Just shutting off your oven and leaving it closed didn’t allow the temperature to drop sufficiently therefore getting a little burnt. I hope this helps.
I like the flavor of the cheesecake but mine also cracked badly. Regarding the details of the first step, mixing the cake batter, should the mixing be done by hand or by an electronic mixer. If electronic, at what speed? I used a Kitchen Aid stand mixer at medium speed.
In advance, Thank You for your assistance.
I’ve made a cheesecake only ONCE, and it was a success (says family and friends). But I’ve got a question… Why no “water bath” when baking this cheesecake? Can I use this baking method with this recipe (cause I totally believe my first time success included doing this) BTW: your cheesecake looks absolutely delicious as well as fabulous.
Hi DeAnna! I didn’t really have a reason not to do a water bath for this recipe, but I think you absolutely could. Using a water bath really is just preference between bakers, I think…some use them, some don’t. I have heard that a water bath may reduce the risk of the cheesecake cracking.
Have you used 4” spring foam pans? Would like to have little ones to give away.
Hi Jolene! No I have not, I’ve only made this cheesecake as one large dessert.
So disappointed as after the hour and 30 minutes in the oven, the top is burnt and cracked. I wish I would have looked at the comments first. When it cools down I will melt extra chocolate chips to disguise how bad it looks and hopefully it will taste ok.
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Louise try putting some foil over the top after maybe 45 minutes. Hope that helps
Can’t wait to make this cheesecake. I just got done making 2 blueberry cheesecakes back to back. Both had 1 crack each in them. Think it was because I felt like it was too wiggly in the middle so I turned the oven back on. ( wasn’t cracked before re-baking) both were really tasty but peanut butter is thing so I am exciting for this PB cheesecake
Could I make these into mini cheesecakes? I’m thinking in cupcake tins lined with foil cupcake liners. Do you think it would work with a shorter bake time?
Hi Linda! I’m not sure, sorry! If you do try it, they would definitely need a shorter bake time.
This is the perfect PB cheesecake, my family thought it was the best one we’ve made so far. The only thing I did differently, was mix some heavy whipping cream with my chocolate chips to make a silky smooth ganache to top it. It was heavenly…thank you for sharing!
★★★★★
I’m so happy you enjoyed it Laura!