At the start of this year, a friend requested that I make a cheesecake for her birthday in July. A chocolate and peanut butter cheesecake, to be precise.

I didn’t want to be making something from purchased Reese’s products, so I started searching for a recipe.

Let me say that there are A LOT of recipes for peanut butter and chocolate cheesecakes out there, and most of them have a Reese’s requirement.

Then – at practically the last moment – I thought of Nigella.

She saved me.

I found this recipe here. It was everything I wanted and I was even able to adapt it for the coeliacs amongst the diners.

It didn’t use a water bath either, which made it much less fuss to make. As Nigella explains in her notes, a water bath would give it a silky texture, however baking it without one gives a texture that brings to mind the peanut butter itself.

I replaced the digestive biscuits in the crust with the same weight of almond meal, but did pretty much everything else according to her recipe.

I broke out my trusty food processor for this one, but it could be done with just electric beaters or by hand. Make sure that the cream cheese is at room temperature or you could hurt something.

First line the base of a 23 cm/9 inch springform tin. I give detailed instructions on how to do that here.

Then place the almond meal, some salted peanuts, soft unsalted butter and dark chocolate chips into the food processor bowl. I measure mine into a separate bowl first.

Then process them until well-combined.

If you don’t have a food processor, use chopped nuts and melt the butter and chocolate together before mixing thoroughly.

You want it to come together into a clump. Once you’ve got a satisfying-looking blob, turn it into the base of the springform tin and press it into the bottom and up the sides.

This will form a nice crust once baked. However, you need it to be cool to hold together long enough once in the oven. So put it in the fridge while you make the filling.

Rinse out your food processor bowl and turn on the oven. Use the metal blade and fill the processor bowl with the softened cream cheese, eggs and egg yolks, caster sugar, some sour cream and – of course ! – smooth peanut butter.

I broke this into steps, mixing together the cheese and the eggs before adding the other ingredients. I have actually burned out a food processor motor on too-hard cream cheese in the past and nowadays I’m nervous…

Whiz it until it becomes smooth and inviting… then pour and scrape it into the crust you prepared earlier.

Do yourself a favour at this stage and place the springform tin on an oven tray. This will make it much easier when moving the cake to and from the oven.

Smooth out the filling.

Now you can bake it for 50 mins or so.

Wash up while it cooks, but take it out of the oven once the top only is set and feels dry, because there’s more chocolate to go on.

Natch.

In a small saucepan, melt together more sour cream, MOAR chocolate chips and some brown sugar.

You’ll make a wonderful ganache, which you will then lovingly spoon and very gently spread over the top of the cake. Of course, the spoon and the remnants in the saucepan then become the Cook’s Treat.

Because this is a Nigella recipe. Dur.

As you can see, I didn’t quite get the chocolate all melted. Oh well. Bake for another 10 mins, remove from the oven and let it cool in its tin.  Cover with cling film and put it in the fridge overnight.

Again you are wanting the butter in the crust to firm up and the cheese to also set. If you chill it overnight it will be much easier to get it out of the tin. Trust me.

When you do release it from its tin and slice it, be prepared for everyone asking you how you managed “to get the layer of chocolate to stay on top of the cake mix?”

Then they’ll taste it and look as happy as this guy. I promise.

The birthday girl was pretty chuffed too…

Like this? Follow us on Facebook or subscribe to receive updates by email.