Monday, July 18, 2011

Peanut Butter & Nutella Cheesecake

I tweaked a Nutella cheesecake recipe that I used over the summer.

The recipe called for:


16 oz cream cheese (softened) -------- I used 8 oz of cream cheese and tried to estimate the difference with whipped cream, as per the hubby's request after making the Nutella cheesecake over the summer
1/2 cup granulated sugar -------- I used Splenda
1 (13 oz) jar of Nutella -------- I had approximately half a jar left, and so I used the remains there and made up the difference in JIF peanut butter (which was going to be the plan even if I had a whole jar of Nutella-- just use half)
1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 (9-inch) prepared graham cracker crust -------- I used Oreo crust

So I mixed the 8 oz of cream cheese with the whipped cream (I used a spray of it rather than a plastic container-- I don't know how to approximate flying whipped cream, but let's say I went with six teaspoons) and the 1/2 cup of granulated Splenda. I then scooped out the half a jar of Nutella. Then I realized I'd used the only clean tablespoon for this job, and it was covered in Nutella. So I used a teaspoon for the peanut butter, and I think I got my math right. I went under the assumption that three teaspoons equals one tablespoon. And two tablespoons is one serving. And four servings was about what I needed. I think. Who knows? That's what I did though. So I had 12 teaspoons of JIF in the mix.



And that was a workout. I wonder if Julia Child could benchpress a bus. Anyway. I stirred for what felt like forever (sure, put that in your directions), and then I nuked two servings worth of Ghirardelli chocolate chips (a serving, according to the bag, is 32 chips. 32 chips is not a lot when you pour it in a cereal bowl and think, "This is supposed to be in a cheesecake." So I opted to double it.) for about a minute and poured that into the mix.



I stirred for another eternity. I wasn't pleased with the consistency, so I added more whipped cream (let's say 4-6 teaspoons) and stirred some more. Still wasn't happy with the cut of its jib, but I stirred as the recipe indicated, which was until no streaks remained. It was all one happy color of some kind of brown.



I poured it in the Oreo pie shell and tried to improve the appearance with more whipped cream. But I'm bad at that, so it still looked funny:



But it was wonderful.