Monday, July 16, 2007

Chocolate Peanut Butter Cheesecake



Brownie Crust:
3 oz. unsweetened chocolate, chopped
1/4 cup butter
1/2 cup flour
1/8 tsp. baking powder
2 large eggs
1 cup brown sugar, packed
1 1/2 tsp. vanilla
1/2 oz. semisweet chocolate, chopped

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray a 9" springform pan. Melt unsweetened chocolate and butter in a double boiler or microwave; cool. Blend flour and baking powder in bowl. In mixer, beat eggs and sugar until fluffy (about 4 min.) Scrape sides and add in melted chocolate, vanilla, and chopped chocolate. Add dry ingredients until just blended. Spread 1 cup brownie batter over bottom of pan. Bake 17-19 minutes, until firm. Cool in freezer for 15 minutes.

Filling:
1 1/2 pkg. (12-oz.) cream cheese
1 cup brown sugar, packed
3 large eggs
1/2 cup sour cream
1 1/2 cups creamy peanut butter

Blend cream cheese and sugar. Add eggs and sour cream; mix until smooth. Add peanut butter until smooth. Using a small knife, spread remaining brownie batter around sides of pan, sealing to baked crust. Pour in filling - it won't be as high as brownie batter. Bake for 30 minutes, until center is set and sides have fallen to form 1" ring around filling.

Topping:
3/4 cup sour cream
2 Tbsp. sugar

Blend together and spread to 3/4" of edge. Bake for 1 more minute. While hot, set on a rack and with small sharp knife, go around edge of top only to loosen. Cool. Refrigerate overnight. Remove sides and decorate with peanut butter piped through pastry bag; drizzle semisweet chocolate, as desired.

3 comments:

erinmalia said...

wow, d, what a great wife you are! i'm sure todd loved this. and your crust looks really good--nice and uniform in thickness. i'll definitely have to try this sometime.

Meg said...

This looks soooo good and I am not a cheesecake fan. I will definitely give this a try though.

Meg said...

So I made this last night and it was REALLY good! Very rich, but yummy. I happened to only have 1 cup of peanut butter so I substituted it with the remaining 1/2 package of cream cheese and it turned out great. Just a thought if you find yourself short on peanut butter.