Extreme Reese's Peanut Butter Cheesecakes with Homemade Chocolate Ganache

Peanut butter cheesecake batter + chopped mini Reese's + Reese's 'crust' + decadent dark chocolate ganache + my mouth = my idea of heaven.

These cheesecakes are the ones I baked in a mini muffin pan with the graham cracker crust before I nixed it.
All of the ones with the actual Reese's crusts were eaten before pictures could be taken, sorry!!

This is definitely one of the most indulgent dessert recipes I've ever made. I could feel myself getting more and more excited with every addition of PB love.
(Yes, I get excited over dessert. If you don't, then I apologize, because you have obviously been missing out)

The smell of this batter alone is enough to put you straight into a peanut butter induced coma.

BUT it would be a coma filled with PB and chocolate dreams.

I don't know about you, but if I was ever in a state of endless sleep I would definitely be down with some Reese's dancing around in my head the whole time.

This cheesecake was devoured by my face shortly following this picture.

The original recipe called for using a homemade graham cracker crust, which I did make and use for the first batch of cheesecakes. We just weren't impressed with it, it didn't have much of a flavor and thought it took away from the deliciousness that is contained within this batter. So I took a cue from some other cheesecake recipes I've been seeing recently and made the crust another Reese's peanut butter cup.

Don't judge me. I've already admitted to my gluttonous habits in the kitchen.

I guess you could whip up a regular cheesecake crust if you think my version is a little much. I, on the other hand ate 1/4 of the bag of mini Reese's before the oven was even pre-heated. So this recipe was right up my alley in terms of over-indulgence.

FYI, if you would like to be super efficient and place a water bath into the oven with the cheesecakes while they cook, be my guest. Personally, I'm way too lazy to and the cheesecakes aren't usually around long enough for anyone to notice that some of the tops are cracked. Besides, the chocolate ganache hides any blemishes anyway ;)


Extreme Reese's Peanut Butter Cheesecakes with Homemade Chocolate Ganache

- 2 blocks cream cheese, softened
- 1 and 1/2 cups sugar
- 1 and 1/2 cups peanut butter (creamy)
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 2 tablespoons heavy whipping cream
- 3 eggs, room temp
- 20 mini Reese's (or 1/2 bag), chopped
- 1 bag Reese's peanut butter cups, regular sized

Chocolate Ganache
- 2/3 cup dark chocolate chips
- 2 tablespoons heavy whipping cream
- 4 tablespoons powdered sugar
- 3-4 tablespoons warm water

Directions:

Line muffin pan with liners, place one regular sized Reese's (unwrapped) into the bottom of each liner and set aside. These will be your 'crust'. In a large bowl, beat the first 5 ingredients until smooth. Next, beat in the eggs one at a time until just blended. Mix chopped mini Reese's into batter. Fill muffin cups 3/4 way full, on top of Reese's crust. Bake at 325 degrees for 20 minutes or until batter puffs up nicely. Cool completely. While cheesecakes are cooling, take the chocolate chips and heavy cream and very carefully melt in small saucepan over low heat, stirring constantly. Add powdered sugar and mix. Next, add 1 tablespoon water at a time to mixture, until ganache is smooth and of 'drizzling consistency'. Drizzle over cooled cheesecakes, sit down and get ready for a PB EXPLOSION in your mouth.
You can thank me later ;)


(adapted from Quick Feet, Good Eats)