Move Over Martha, Ally's Chocolate Peanut Butter Cheesecake!

Yesterday was my fiance's birthday (boy am I looking forward to not using that word in 6 months). Happy Birthday to my favourite guy!! Hope your birthday is filled with sunshine and margaritas on the rocks! CHEERS!

Jeff's favourite dessert is a chocolate peanut butter cheesecake made by a local restaurant, so I thought I would try and make it for his birthday dinner tonight. After researching recipes and reading countless reviews, I give you my version of Martha Stewart's Chocolate Peanut Butter Cheesecake.

Note: I have never made cheesecake before; I am lactose intolerant so I selfishly tend to only bake things I can devour, but for his birthday I decided to make an exception....

Ingredients

Crust

• Vegetable-oil cooking spray
• 1 cup finely ground chocolate wafer cookies (I used Oreo Cookie Crumbs)
• 2 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
• 2 tablespoons sugar

Filling

• 1/2 cup semisweet chocolate (55 to 61 percent cacao), finely chopped
• 3.5 packages of cream cheese, room temperature
• 1 1/2 cups sugar
• Pinch of coarse salt
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 4 large eggs, room temperature
• 1/2 cup smooth peanut butter

Glaze

• 4 ounces bittersweet chocolate (61 percent to 70 percent cacao), finely chopped (3/4 cup)
• 3 tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into small pieces
• 1 tablespoon whole milk (I used 2 creamers I took from work)
• 2 teaspoons light corn syrup

Directions

1. Crust: Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Wrap bottom and outside of a 9-inch spring form pan with a double layer of foil. Coat bottom of pan with cooking spray, and line with parchment. Spray parchment.
   

   

   Tin Foil Wrapping

    
2. Stir together cookie crumbs, butter, and sugar in a medium bowl. Press mixture firmly into bottom of pan, and bake until firm, about 10 minutes. Let cool completely in pan on wire rack.
   

   

   Cooked Crust
   

    
3. Filling: Melt chocolate in a bowl set over a saucepan of simmering water. Let cool. Beat cream cheese with a mixer on medium speed until fluffy, about 3 minutes. Reduce speed to low, and beat in sugar in a slow, steady stream until combined. Beat in salt and vanilla until thoroughly combined and completely smooth. Add eggs, 1 at a time, beating just until combined after each addition (do not over mix).
   
   

   

   I am a messy baker...
   

4. Divide cream-cheese filling in half. Stir peanut butter into 1 half; stir melted chocolate into other half. Ladle 1 cup peanut butter filling into center of crust, and tap pan gently on counter to settle. Ladle 1 cup chocolate filling directly on top of peanut butter filling. Repeat, then switching to half-cup amounts, continue to ladle fillings into crust, alternating them until all of each filling is used.
   
   

   

   Ready for the oven
   

5. Bring a kettle of water to a boil. Set cake pan in a large roasting pan, and transfer to oven. Carefully pour boiling water into roasting pan to reach halfway up sides of cake pan. Bake until cake is set but still slightly wobbly in center, about 1 hour 20 minutes.(In convection oven mine only took 1 hour and 5 mins)
   

   

   
   

6.  Let cool completely in pan on wire rack. Refrigerate cake in pan until cold, at least 6 hours, up to overnight. Before unmolding, run a knife around edge of cake.
   
7. To make Glaze, melt chocolate and butter in a bowl set over a saucepan of simmering water, stirring until smooth. Remove from heat, and stir in milk and corn syrup. Use immediately.Pour glaze over top of cake, smoothing with an offset spatula and letting it drip down the sides.

Yum!!

I added some fresh flowers for decoration and candles for the bday boy! He was pretty excited :)

The cake was a HUGE hit, absolutely delicious. I give this recipe 5 Stars***** I will be making this again! Next time I would double the crust and make it thicker, as well as add 1/4 cup more peanut butter.