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Peanut Butter Cheesecake

5 from 34 votes

Smooth, rich, thick, and creamy, this homemade peanut butter cheesecake recipe is an absolute dessert dream come true!

Chocolate Peanut Butter Cup Cheesecake
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The best peanut butter dessert

Just one bite, and you will never go back to store bought cheesecake again.

Blend the ingredients together, pour into a pie crust if desired, and sit back while the oven does the rest of the work for you.

Bring this melt-in-your-mouth peanut butter cheesecake to share with friends, and prepare to be the most popular guest at your next party.

Everyone will be asking you for the recipe!

Readers also love these Sopapilla Cheesecake Bars

Watch the peanut butter cheese cake recipe video above

The Best Fancy Dessert Cheesecake Recipe

Peanut butter cheesecake ingredients

Here’s what you’ll need for the recipe: peanut butter, cream cheese, yogurt, pure vanilla extract, sweetener of choice, and cornstarch. There’s also a keto option included below.

You can use creamy or crunchy peanut butter. And either conventional brands, like Skippy or Jif, or natural peanut butter will work in this New York style cheesecake.

If you prefer almond butter, cashew butter, macadamia nut butter, or a flavored peanut butter spread, these are all fine choices as well.

For a vegan peanut butter cheesecake, simply use dairy free yogurt and packaged plant based cream cheese, which is often sold in the same section as the Philadelphia cream cheese. Or you can make homemade vegan cream cheese.

Healthy Chocolate Peanut Butter Cups

Cheesecake topping ideas

Turn the kitchen into your very own Cheesecake Factory by trying out different toppings to decorate your cheesecake. Here are just a few simple ideas:

Homemade Nutella

Peanut butter cups – Reese’s peanut butter cheesecake? Yes please!

Coconut Ice Cream

Crushed Oreos, mini marshmallows, or white chocolate chips

Dark chocolate ganache

Chocolate Truffles

Sliced bananas and chopped peanuts

Caramel sauce

Birthday candles and chocolate sprinkles

Reeses Peanut Butter Dessert

How to make the cheese cake

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Line the bottom of an eight or nine inch springform pan with parchment paper. Prepare the optional crust.

Fill a baking pan about halfway up with water, and pace it on the oven’s lower rack.

Bring cream cheese and peanut butter to room temperature so they will be easier to blend. Add all ingredients to a blender or food processor. Blend just until smooth.

Spread the filling over your prepared crust. Or spread it directly into the pan for a crustless peanut butter cheesecake.

Place the springform pan on the oven’s center rack, above the rack with the water pan. Bake 30 minutes for a nine inch pan or 38 minutes for an eight inch pie.

Without opening the oven door even a tiny crack, turn off the heat and let the baked pie sit in the closed oven for an additional five minutes. Now remove the soft and jiggly cake from the oven and cool on the counter for around twenty minutes.

Refrigerate for at least five hours or overnight, either uncovered or very loosely covered with cloth or paper towels to allow moisture to escape. The peanut butter cheese pie will firm up considerably as it cools.

Garnish as desired, and serve. Store leftovers covered in the refrigerator for up to four days. Or slice and freeze in an airtight container for up to three months. Thaw frozen cheesecake before serving.

**For a no bake peanut butter cheesecake, use this No Bake Cheesecake.

Homemade Peanut Butter Cheesecake

Baking tips and tricks

With any classic cheesecake recipe, it’s important to not overbeat the batter, which introduces air bubbles that might burst while baking and thus cause cracking.

Let the peanut butter cake cool gradually to avoid sudden temperature changes that could also cause the recipe to crack.

While the water bath is not required, I recommend including it to add moisture to the oven so your cheesecake does not dry out.

If your cake does crack for any reason, just cover up the imperfections with a layer of fresh strawberries, chocolate fudge sauce, or Coconut Whipped Cream.

Mini Peanut Butter Cheesecakes

Mini cheesecakes or bars

To turn the recipe into mini peanut butter cheesecakes or cheesecake bars, divide the filling into two muffin tins or a rectangular nine by thirteen inch baking pan lined with parchment paper or graham cracker crust.

Bake twenty minutes for cheesecake cupcakes or twenty five minutes for peanut butter bars. The easy recipe yields around twenty four mini peanut butter pies or bars.

Let cool gradually, first in a turned off oven and then on the counter top, so the peanut butter cheese cakes do not crack while cooling.

Leftover cheesecake bars or bites can be refrigerated for three or four days or frozen for up to three months.

Peanut Butter Vegan Cheesecake Slice

Peanut butter cheesecake crust

Feel free to use your favorite store bought or homemade cheesecake crust, graham cracker crust, or chocolate brownie crust. You can also omit the crust completely if you prefer a crustless peanut cheesecake.

I like to make a chocolate cookie crust by finely crushing twenty four chocolate sandwich cookies (such as Oreos, with the filling) in a food processor. If you do not have a food processor, you can crush the cookies in a Ziploc bag with a lot of patience.

Add the crushed cookie crumbs to a large bowl along with four tablespoons of melted butter or coconut oil. Stir everything together.

Press the crust into an eight or nine inch springform pan or lined pie plate, then refrigerate for at least a half hour before pouring the cheesecake filling on top.

The recipe was adapted from my Vegan Cheesecake and Peanut Butter Dip.

Easy Chocolate Peanut Butter Pie
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Peanut Butter Cheesecake

Smooth, thick, and creamy, this homemade peanut butter cheesecake recipe is a popular party dessert.
Prep Time 5 hours 30 minutes
Cook Time 30 minutes
Total Time 6 hours
Yield 16 slices
5 from 34 votes

Ingredients

  • 24 oz cream cheese or vegan cream cheese
  • 1 cup peanut butter
  • 1 cup yogurt
  • 2 tsp pure vanilla extract
  • 1 tbsp cornstarch (or here's a Keto Cheesecake Recipe)
  • 2/3 cup sugar or pure maple syrup, or xylitol for sugar free
  • optional crust of choice (the one I used is written out above)

Instructions

  • Preheat the oven to 350 F. Fill any baking pan halfway with water, and place it on the oven’s lower rack. Bring cream cheese and peanut butter to room temp. Beat all cheesecake ingredients in a blender or food processor just until smooth. (Do not overbeat, which could introduce air bubbles that burst in the oven and cause cracking.) Spread into a springform pan, with an optional crust. Place on the middle rack, above the rack with the water pan. Bake 30 minutes. Do not open the oven door during this time. When time is up, still do not open the oven at all, but turn off the heat. Leave in the closed oven an additional 5 minutes. Then remove the cake (it will still look underdone). Let cool at least 20 minutes before placing in the fridge. It’s important to let the cake cool before refrigerating, because you want it to cool gradually so it won't crack. Chill at least 5 hours or overnight, during which time it firms up considerably.
    View Nutrition Facts

Notes

Also be sure to make this Chocolate Mug Cake.
 

Have you made this recipe?

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Published on March 12, 2023

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12 Comments

Leave a comment or reviewLeave a rating
    • CCK Media Team says

      Hi! The chocolate topping is just half a cup of chocolate chips or chopped chocolate, carefully melted and then poured over the cheesecake. It will harden on its own 🙂

  1. Cindy Sevigny says

    Looks good but there is no recipe for the chocolate topping. Please edit and repost with toping. Thank you.

  2. Alpine Pedestrian says

    In addition for no information about the chocolate topping, I’d like to know what those faintly brown swirled cream globs are under each of the peanut butter cups. Thank you!

  3. Nina says

    5 stars
    I can’t wait to make this. I love peanut butter and chocolate together. Thanks for giving the suggestion of melting chocolate chips for the topping. That sounds really easy. 🙂

  4. Jackie says

    5 stars
    At what stage do you pour over the chocolate sauce. I do not want the heat to mess up the cheesecake texture causing it to crack

    Is the peanut butter icing used in the photo to decorate a separate ingredient or is it the cheesecake filling piped?

    • CCK Media Team says

      Good question! Katie added the chocolate topping the next day, after the cheesecake was fully set. Katie used her peanut butter frosting recipe, piped with a star tip. You can use any store bought or homemade cream cheese frosting, vanilla frosting, or peanut butter frosting if you wish to add it as a topping. Here is the one she used: https://chocolatecoveredkatie.com/peanut-butter-brownies/

    • CCK Media Team says

      Hi, the nutrition facts are based on a crustless recipe because you have numerous options for the crust so we wanted to leave that up to the user as to which one to add, if any.

5 from 34 votes (30 ratings without comment)

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