My Culinary Trial Room

22nd is way past and I still haven't put up this month's monthly birthday bake. It has been pretty hectic ever since we have been back from the SFO vacation and I have been running around like a headless chicken with shopping, cooking and more cooking over the weekend. Moreover, we came back from the trip on the 22nd and so I postponed baking and we kept it simple by buying a cake.

Since it was pappus 18th month birthday, I had bigger plans this time like making a layered mini-cake or doing something different. But then we booked tickets for the vacation and every single thought went straight into the drain. Finally after all the hoopla had settled, I started giving it a second thought. When I was breaking my head on what to bake, the cream cheese package that I had bought long back just because it was on a sale struck a bulb and I started searching for cheesecake recipes. Also I had an entire package of salty low calorie pretzel sticks which I had again bought on a 1$ sale that needed to be used up ASAP.

Peanut butter is my huss's favorite and so I knew that a peanut butter cup cheesecake would be a winner with him. Thus born the idea of a salty pretzel base cheesecake filled with peanut butter and chopped peanut butter cups. I sat down to google for measurements and came across this recipe from Sally's baking addiction which had everything that was in my mind. I had used up 1 oz of the cream cheese for sandwich spread and so I compensated that by using a full egg. But if you are using a full 8 oz then use one egg yolk.

Adapted from SallyBakingAddiction

Prep time: 15 mins; Baking time: 30 mins; Makes - 6-7 medium sized
~*What U Need*~
For the pretzel crust
Pretzel crumbs - 3/4 cup
Sugar - 1 tbsp
Butter - 3 tbsp, melted

For the filling
Cream cheese - 7or8 oz pkg
Egg - 1 small
Granulated sugar - 2 tbsp
Peanut butter - 1/4 cup(I used creamy)
Vanilla extract - 1 tsp
Reese's Peanut butter cups - 5, regular, chopped

For the chocolate drizzle
Chocolate chips - a handful
Peanut butter - 1 tbsp

How I Made it:
Preheat oven to 350F. Lightly grease a muffin pan with butter or line with paper liners. In a food processor, pulse 1 1/2 cups of salty pretzels into a fine crumb. Melt the butter.

Combine pretzel crumbs, sugar, and melted butter together in a medium sized bowl. Press evenly into the muffin pan. Bake for 10-12 mins or till lightly golden brown.

Allow to cool. Meanwhile make the filling. Whisk together cream cheese, egg, sugar, peanut butter, and vanilla extract until smooth. Chop the peanut butter cups.

Fold in the chopped peanut butter cups and drop equal amounts into the muffin pan. Bake for 20-25 mins or until not wobbly and the edges are slightly browned. Place in refrigerator and allow to completely cool overnight. Melt the peanut butter and chocolate chips together in a double boiler and drizzle over the cups.

Serve cool with peanut butter chocolate drizzle!!!

** My Notes:
** Do not overbeat the filling cos this will result in the filling rising when baking which will lead to cracks.
** Overbeating will also result in sunken centers.
** I used an electric mixer and beat the hell out of it and it is evident in the result. And then I sat to browse for the reason and it was mainly because of overbeating.

So thats it Folks...
With Love,