You put your chocolate in my peanut butter!

Remember the old commercial for one of our favorite candies? There is only one way to improve on the awesome taste of Reese's Peanut Butter Cups.....use them when making a peanut butter cheesecake!

We were having some friends over for dinner this week and thought I'd make something special for dessert so I invested the time and money into baking up a fabulous cheesecake. After eating some spectacular BBQ my husband made for us (he is quite the grill master!) we sat down to some coffee and dessert. Our guests loved the cheesecake and I have to say, it was pretty good.....but pretty good isn't good enough for me. There were a couple of things I wasn't impressed with. The first one was my fault. I didn't have time to let it set completely in the refrigerator so the consistency wasn't right. I have to admit, I was ready to chuck the recipe but when I dug into it the next day it was perfect.....lesson learned. But there were other things that I thought might help the dessert reach a level it had never known before.

Following the recipe to a tee, the cheesecake looked good but.....

Adding a finishing touch......little bit better, but still, how could I make this great?

The more I thought about it I came to the conclusion that it definitely needed more than the 1 cup of candy (what the recipe called for). I don't know about you, but I want a piece of candy in EVERY bite! Then, being the chocolate lover that I am, I imagined a layer of chocolate ganache over the top instead of the sour cream and peanut butter layer that is actually on it. Some might like the bite the sour cream gives, it cuts the richness of the cheesecake a little bit so I get why it's on there, but for me and my kids it was a bit too sour.

This is me sneaking up on it from behind, that peice is history!

Let me know if any of you try out this recipe with the changes I've suggested!

Recipe for Peanut Butter Cheesecake

2 cups cream-filled peanut butter sandwich cookie crumbs

1/4 cup butter, melted

mix the two together and pat into a 10" springform pan that has been lightly greased. Pat crumbs on bottom and 1" up the sides. Bake at 350 for 8 minutes.

Filling:

5 (8 ounce) packages of cream cheese, softened

1 1/2 cups firmly packed brown sugar

3/4 cup creamy peanut butter

3 large eggs

1 cup chopped peanut butter cup candies

2 teaspoons vanilla

Beat cream cheese at medium speed until fluffy; gradually add brown sugar, beating well. Add peanut butter, beating well. Add eggs, one at a time, beating afer each addition. Stir in chopped candy and vanilla. Pour into prepared pan. Bake at 350 for 40 to 45 minutes or until barely set.

(note: barely set for a cheesecake means when you jiggle the pan the cake jiggles too but is not liquid)

Sour Cream topping:

1 (16 ounce) carton sour cream

1/4 cup creamy peanut butter

1/4 cup sugar (white)

Combine cour cream, peanut butter and sugar, stirring until sugar dissolves. Spread sour cream mixture over warm cheesecake. Bake at 500 for 5 minutes. Cool completely on a wire rack. Cover and chill 8 hours. Remove sides of pan before serving.

Recipe courtesy of Barnie's Coffee and Tea Company's "The Coffee and Tea Lover's Cookbook"