Chocolate peanut butter cheesecake

For my birthday on Wednesday I was tempted to make a pretty fondant decorated cake, but flicking through the cookbook of the month 'Kitchen' one night while watching TV, this recipe and Nigella's preface to it caught my eye. The fact that it also contains 250g peanut butter also caught my eye! How naughty. How very very naughty...

Some of Nigella's words used to describe this cake will give you a pretty good picture of what this cake is all about:

"overindulgent vulgarity", "unashamed indulgence", "pleasureable, palate-cleaving clagginess"

Get the idea? ;)

Chocolate peanut butter cheesecake

Adapted recipe from 'Kicthen' by Nigella Lawson

For the base:

200g digestive biscuits

50g salted peanuts

100g dark chocolate chips

50g soft unsalted butter

For the filling:

500g cream cheese

3 eggs

3 egg yolks

200g caster sugar

125ml sour cream

250g smooth peanut butter

For the topping:

250ml sour cream

100g milk chocolate chips

30g soft brown sugar

1. Preheat the oven to 170 degrees Celsius then process the biscuits, peanuts, dark chocolate chips and butter for the base in a food processor. Once it comes together in a clump, turn it out into a lightly greased 23cm springform tin and press into the bottom. Put in the fridge while you make the filling.

2. Process the filling in the cleaned or wiped-out food processor bowl, putting in the cream cheese, eggs, egg yolks, sugar, sour cream and peanut butter and whizzing to a smooth mixture.

3. Pour and scrape the filling into the base in the chilled springform tin and cook for 1 hour, though check after 50 minutes. The top only should feel set and dry.

4. Take the cheesecake out of the oven while you make the topping. Warm the sour cream and chocolate with the brown sugar gently in a small saucepan over a low heat, whisking to blend in the chocolate as it melts, and then take off the heat.

5. Spoon and spread the topping very gently over the top of the cheesecake, being as careful as you can in case you break the surface of the cheesecake. No big deal if you do though, you'll just end up with more of a marbled effect. Put it back in the oven for a final 10 minutes.

6. Once out of the oven, let the cheesecake cool in its tin and then cover and put into the fridge overnight. When you are ready to cut the cheesecake, take it out of the fridge, just to take the chill off: this will make it easier to spring from the tin.

The Verdict
If you are a die-hard peanut butter fan, this cheesecake would be right up your alley! Whilst I do like peanut butter, I did find this cheesecake a bit too much, and a little underwhelming taste wise.. I love the idea behind it - chocolate and peanut butter make a killer combination, but to be honest I'm just not 100% convinced that it's worth all the calories that are required to make it.

I was also a bit surprised by the fact that Nigella's recipe and the accompanying picture in the book don't match. Allow me to explain ... the recipe asks for the base to be pressed into the base and sides of the tin (as I did). However, after doing this with some difficulty (as there really isn't enough mixture to do it) and reaching the stage of putting the cake into the oven, I turned the page to see a picture of the cake with only the crust on the bottom of the cake. It is for this reason that I have adapted the recipe in this post, as this is the way I would do it next time. Although... it will be some time before I tackle this cheesecake again - it is certainly not for the faint hearted (or heart conscious!).


Ladybird x