I came up with these little bundles of yum after watching my husband eat rice cakes slathered with peanut butter and Nutella. I thought "Rice cakes? We can do better than rice cakes!" Peanut butter on its own is fabulous...Nutella on its own...by the spoonful!! But together...magic! And with the additional tang of cream cheese so it's not a sugar bomb...so good!
So I was grocery shopping the other day and came upon the cookie aisle. Did you know that Oreo cookies come in Chocolate Peanut Butter Pie flavour?! Blew my mind! I thought regular, double-stuffed and mini were the only options! So I decided I MUST BUY THESE and a new cookie crust for cheesecakes was born!
THEN I had all the ingredients to make a whole cheesecake out on the counter, but I thought you know...if I third this recipe...I can feed more people, get more opinions from people (my family/coworkers/neighbours - you know - the usual suspects I force to eat my sweets)...and I'm not wasting a bunch of product in case it's a fail. Food is not cheap these days folks!
So here's my advice. If you make a whole cheesecake - you will use the same amount of ingredients as you need to make 36 mini cheesecakes. That's 3 good-sized bites for 3 dozen people using a muffin pan versus 10 people having a slice of a full sized cake. So I wrote this recipe to make only 1 dozen mini cheesecakes. You can double and triple as you like depending on the size of the crowd you are feeding.
I must admit that the comments I got from my taste-testers were "WOW! WOW! WOW!" and "These are probably the best treats you have EVER made!" and "Not too sweet/perfect with a little espresso on the side." And my son...who is not a cheesecake fan - what?!...he texted me and said he ate 2 in one sitting and could have eaten a dozen more. Sounds like a winner recipe to me!
So here's what you do to make these little beauties. Line a muffin tin with paper liners. Get out a sleeve (12) Oreos - I used the chocolate peanut butter pie flavour- filling and all...chop those in a food processor. Melt some butter and stir in with the cookie crumbs. Divide the crumbs between the 12 liners. Press down firmly. Bake for about 5 minutes.
In a stand mixer, cream a room temperature brick of full fat cream cheese until smooth. Add in the sugar, cream some more...then sour cream, vanilla and a wee touch of salt. If your peanut butter is pretty salty already...don't worry about the salt. It's such a small amount. And measure out a heaping third of a cup of half peanut butter - half Nutella. Whip that all together until totally combined. Scrape the bowl too and remix as you don't want any white chunks of cream cheese in there. Add the egg last. Just until combined. Don't over whip it once the egg is added.
Spoon the mixture over the baked bases. Pop back into the oven for about 15 minutes. Turn the oven off and let them continue to cook for 3 minutes more. Take them out and cool on the counter for a bit. I then put mine into the fridge because I'm all for fast and easy and this recipe follows that motto.
While the cheesecakes are cooling in the fridge, make your topping. In a microwave safe cup, add the butter and chocolate chips. I actually use half semi-sweet chocolate chips and half Reese peanut butter chips. I love the chocolate/pb combination. And then because who ever has enough Nutella...put a tbsp or so of Nutella in there too. Microwave for around 30 seconds max and give it a good stir and let it cool just a bit.
Spoon a scant amount of this mixture on to the tops of the cooled cheesecakes. Let it set either back in the fridge or in the freezer for a bit if you are in a hurry. While these are chilling...make the whipped cream. A half cup of heavy whipping cream is more than enough. Whip this up with a couple of tablespoons of icing sugar...I always sift mine. When you have medium peaks...drizzle in some of the leftover chocolate topping mix. It gives the whipped cream a lovely chocolatey Nutella flavour. And after you decorate the tops of the cheesecakes...take any leftover flavoured whipped cream and scoop it into your coffee. So good in coffee!! Nice creamy rich whipped creamed coffee- yum!
I hope you enjoy this recipe and if you give it a try or have any questions...let me know below in the comments!
Peanut Butter Nutella Mini Cheesecakes
Ingredients
Base
12 whole Oreos cookies...I used Chocolate Peanut Butter Pie flavoured
40 grams butter
Filling
1 brick room temperature cream cheese
1/3 cup white sugar
20 grams sour cream
1/3 cup plus some to be heaping -half peanut butter-half Nutella
1/2 tsp vanilla
a wee bit of salt if your peanut butter isn't salted
1 room temp large egg
Topping
40 grams butter
66 grams semi-sweet chocolate chips (I mix half chocolate chips with half Reese peanut butter chips)
1 tbsp Nutella
Whipped topping
1/2 cup whipping cream
2 tbsp icing sugar
Directions
Preheat oven to 350°F. Line muffin pan with 12 liners.
Pulse cookies in food processor until fine.
Melt butter and stir into cookie crumbs.
Divide crumbs between 12 liners. Press down firmly and bake for 5 minutes.
Cream room temp cream cheese until smooth.
Add sugar. Cream some more.
Add sour cream, vanilla, and heaping 1/3 cup peanut butter/Nutella mix
Cream together, scraping once or twice.
Add egg last and mix just until combined.
Spoon evenly over the 12 bases and bake for 15 minutes. Turn off oven after 15 mins but leave cheesecakes in for another 3 minutes or so.
Cool on counter and then in fridge until set.
Melt butter with Nutella and chocolate chips in microwave for 30 seconds max. Stir well.
Top each cheesecake with a bit of topping. Reserve some for whipping cream.
Chill cheesecakes to set topping.
Make whipped cream.
Whip whipping cream with icing sugar until medium peaks. Drizzle in leftover topping to flavour the cream. Whip to firm peaks.
Decorate.