White Chocolate Peanut Butter Cheesecake

This recipe is one of several pride and joy recipes for me! I love all the recipes that I share, but I do end up having personal favorites, and ones that I love a teeeeeny bit more than others.

I wouldn't share anything that wasn't stupendous in the first place. It has to be a winner or it doesn't make the cut and it ends up in the annual recounting of my recipe fails. It has to be great according to my own opinion, and the opinion of the friends, family, and my significant other (who, as you know, definitely eats a lot of my recipe creations, and often finishes them off single-handedly).

Among my usual test subjects, it was unanimous: this white chocolate peanut butter cheesecake is as decadent as it gets. It would be hard to top this. And it's totally amazing.

To me, the only other recipe that it rivals in terms of decadence is my peanut butter cup brownie torte recipe. That is still one of my absolute favorite recipes of all-time. Yeah, it's no coincidence that some of the most decadent recipes I have are based around peanut butter!

That incredible torte is stacked high with layers of fudgy brownies, peanut butter buttercream, chocolate ganache, and whole, full-size Reese's cups. It's truly spectacular.

This white chocolate peanut butter cheesecake is nothing short of spectacular either.

The crust is basically a massively thick and soft peanut butter cookie. It's technically a double batch of my easy peanut butter cookies recipe (only 3 ingredients to those cookies!). Baked to perfection, still soft and chewy in the center and crisp on the edges, this super thick peanut butter blondie is unreal all on its own.

But we aren't gonna stop there. Nope.

Once the crust cools, I covered it with an entire layer of white chocolate Reese's peanut butter cups. Then I loaded it high (really high!) with a no-bake white chocolate peanut butter cheesecake. All in all, the cheesecake layer is nearly two inches thick.

To top it off, I sprinkled it generously with chopped white chocolate Reese's peanut butter cups, a drizzle of melted peanut butter, and a drizzle of melted white chocolate.

Let's put it this way – if you're unsure about this dessert, besides the nearly two-inch thick layer of cheesecake and the inch-thick layer of peanut butter cookie crust, it has a pound and a half of white chocolate Reese's cups in it!!! That should persuade you!

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White Chocolate Peanut Butter Cheesecake Recipe

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Ingredients

For Peanut Butter Blondie Crust:

• 2 cups creamy peanut butter
• 2 cups granulated sugar
• 2 eggs

For White Chocolate Peanut Butter Cheesecake:

• 12 ounces reduced fat cream cheese, softened
• 1 1/2 cups creamy peanut butter
• 2 1/2 cups powdered sugar
• 1 8-ounce container whipped topping, thawed
• 2 4-ounce packages white baking chocolate, melted, cooled, not white chocolate chips, must be baking chocolate
• 1 12 ounce bag miniature reese's white chocolate peanut butter cups, unwrapped, whole

For Topping:

• 1 12 ounce bag miniature reese's white chocolate peanut butter cups, unwrapped, coarsely chopped
• 1/4 cup creamy peanut butter
• 2 ounces white baking chocolate, melted, not white chocolate chips, must be baking chocolate

Directions

For Peanut Butter Blondie Crust:

1. Preheat oven to 325°F.
2. In a large bowl, combine peanut butter, sugar, and eggs.
3. Spread evenly into the bottom of a very well-greased 8-inch springform pan.
4. Bake for 30-35 minutes, or until edges are golden brown, and a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean.
5. Cool completely in pan on a wire rack. Once cool, release sides of pan. Meanwhile, prepare cheesecake.

For White Chocolate Peanut Butter Cheesecake:

1. In a large mixing bowl, beat cream cheese until smooth.
2. Add peanut butter, powdered sugar, and whipped topping, beating until smooth.
3. Beat in the melted white chocolate in a slow stream.
4. Spread about 1/2 cup cheesecake mixture in a thin and even layer over the cooled peanut butter blondie crust - it will act as the 'glue' for the Reese's cups.
5. Arrange the 12 oz. of whole mini white chocolate Reese's cups in a single layer, covering the entire surface of the crust.
6. Place in the refrigerator for 20 minutes so that the Reese's cups firm and adhere to the crust. Also place the remaining cheesecake mixture in the refrigerator for 20 minutes. We want it to get a little firmer, so that it will spread into a mound on the crust more easily.
7. Once chilled, remove both the crust and cheesecake mixture from the refrigerator, and pile the cheesecake mixture in a large mound on top of the Reese's cups on the crust. Smooth around the edges with a knife, and make the cheesecake layer as even as possible.

For Topping:

1. Scatter the 12 oz. chopped Reese's cups on top of the cheesecake.
2. In a small microwave-safe bowl, melt the peanut butter for 30-45 seconds, or until thin and runny.
3. Drizzle it over the Reese's cups.
4. Drizzle the melted white chocolate over the cheesecake.
5. Return to the refrigerator to chill for at least 2 hours. Cut and serve!

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