Reese's Peanut Butter Cup Cheesecake

Why You'll Love This Recipe

• It's a decadent, rich, and creamy dessert—one slice will easily satisfy your sweet tooth!
• The perfect dessert for any chocolate peanut butter cheesecake lover in your life.
• It has the best peanut butter flavor and it's filled with mini Reese's peanut butter cups!
• Top it with a silky smooth chocolate ganache and more peanut butter cups for a next-level dessert.
• This Reese's cheesecake is paired with a baked Oreo cookie crust with bits of roasted peanuts in each bite—it is phenomenal!

This Reese's peanut butter cup cheesecake is very easy to make but does require patience with a bake time of 50-55 minutes, a cool down time (in the oven) of 45 minutes, letting it cool completely at room temperature for 1-2 hours, then finally allowing it to set in the refrigerator for a minimum of 4 hours. But it's very much worth the wait—I promise!

And if you love this cheesecake recipe, then check out my S'mores Cheesecake recipe!

Ingredients Needed

Cookie Crust

Making this Oreo sandwich cookie crust is easy and requires only the five following ingredients.

• Oreo Sandwich Cookies. You'll need approximately 28 cookies which can be the original size and flavor or you can use the Oreo thin cookies. You can also substitute them with chocolate wafer cookies (like the ones from Nabisco).
• Unsalted Butter. This is what brings all of the other ingredients together. You can sub out the unsalted butter for salted butter, but omit the salt that is used.
• Light Brown Sugar. Also helps blend the ingredients together and adds a little bit more flavor.
• Roasted Unsalted Peanuts. This is an optional ingredient, but it helps give this peanut butter cup cheesecake a bit more peanut butter flavor and it helps cut down on the sweetness of the cookies. If you use salted peanuts, omit the salt from the recipe.
• Salt. Only a pinch is needed but also helps to cut down on the sweetness.

Cheesecake Batter

Made in a 9-inch springform pan, you only need seven ingredients to make this Reese's peanut butter cup cheesecake batter!

• Cream Cheese. Four 8-ounce blocks of cream cheese are needed for this Reese's cheesecake recipe, and it's very important that they are softened and at room temperature.
• Light Brown Sugar. Adding 1 ½ cups of light brown sugar versus granulated sugar lends itself well to a nice flavor boost!
• Peanut Butter. Only a ½ cup is needed to give this cheesecake the perfect peanut buttery taste! Make sure to use regular, creamy peanut butter and not the natural style, as the oil can do some not-so-nice things to your cheesecake batter!
• Vanilla Extract. One teaspoon helps to round out the flavors for this chocolate peanut butter cheesecake recipe!
• Eggs. This is the ingredient that brings the cheesecake together! The four large eggs needed should be at room temperature and slightly whisked before they are added to the mixture.
• Heavy Whipping Cream. Adding heavy whipping cream versus sour cream gives this cheesecake a very creamy texture!
• Miniature Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups. For the peanut butter cheesecake filling, you will need one 10.5-ounce bag. You'll chop these up into small bits and fold them into the batter at the end. Buy an extra bag if you want to add more to the top of the cheesecake before or after baking.

How to Make the Recipe

Cookie Crust

I love this Oreo cookie crust because it requires very few ingredients, it's a slightly crunchier-style crust because of the peanuts, and it pairs very well with Reese's peanut butter cup cheesecake batter!

Before starting your chocolate wafer crust, I like to prep my 9-inch springform pan by generously spraying it with a flour-based baking spray. Then I line the bottom with parchment paper. You can line the sides of the springform pan too if you prefer.

STEP 1. Process the Oreo cookies into crumbs. If the cookies are kind of stacked too high in the food processor, you can break them apart to have them fit nicer inside the food processor.

STEP 2. Add in the roasted unsalted peanuts. Pulse the food processor until the peanuts are broken down into teeny tiny bits.

STEP 3. Add in the light brown sugar, salt, and melted unsalted butter. Pulse the food processor until the Oreo cookie crust forms a thicker mixture. It will clump up inside the food processor a little too.

STEP 4. Transfer the cookie crust to the springform pan.

STEP 5. Press the cookie crust mixture into the bottom of the springform pan. It should be packed down as tightly as you can make it. You can use the bottom of a measuring cup, spatula, or glass to do this.

STEP 6. Bake the Oreo cookie crust. Your oven rack should be placed in the middle or center position. Bake the Oreo cookie crust for 8-10 minutes at 325ºF. Let it cool on a wire cooling rack until it's cool to the touch. Reduce the oven temperature to 350ºF for the next part—the Reese's peanut butter cup cheesecake batter!

Cheesecake Batter

STEP 1. Beat the softened cream cheese. You can do this with either your hand mixer or stand mixer that's fitted with the paddle attachment. To help eliminate any possible lumps in your peanut butter cheesecake batter, it's best to beat the cream cheese for a good 4-5 minutes or until it's lighter and fluffier in texture.

STEP 2. Add in the light brown sugar, peanut butter, and vanilla extract. Mix on medium speed to help blend these ingredients together.

STEP 3. Add in the heavy cream and eggs. Make sure you've whisked your eggs slightly before adding them to the cheesecake batter. This helps avoid overmixing your batter. Your peanut butter cheesecake batter should be smooth and thick.

STEP 4. Fold in the mini peanut butter cups. Use a spatula for this part to avoid overmixing the batter.

STEP 5. Prep your springform pan with aluminum foil, boil the water, then bake. Before adding the cheesecake batter to the springform pan, wrap 5-6 overlapping sheets of aluminum foil around the bottom pan. Pour the cheesecake batter into the pan then place it into a roasting pan.

Next, boil some water in the microwave for 4-5 minutes on high. Place the roasting pan with the cheesecake into the oven, but before closing the door, very carefully pour the boiling water into the roasting pan, filling it up until it reaches halfway up the sides.

Bake the peanut butter cheesecake for 50-55 minutes at 350ºF. For reference, mine baked perfectly at 50 minutes. During baking, do not open the oven door. It will let the steam out of the oven.

When done baking, turn the oven off, and let the oven and cheesecake cool down with the oven door closed for 45 minutes. Your Reese's peanut butter cup cheesecake will be jiggly. This is okay. Your cheesecake will continue to set as it cools to room temperature and when you chill it in the refrigerator.

STEP 6. Let the cheesecake cool. Remove the cheesecake from the oven and roasting pan, then carefully remove the aluminum foil layers. Let it cool to room temperature on a wire cooling rack. This may take 1-2 hours.

Loosely cover the top of the cheesecake in aluminum foil, then place it in the refrigerator for a minimum of 4 hours. Overnight is my preference, however.

Chocolate Ganache Topping

If you want to up the decadence of this chocolate peanut butter cheesecake recipe, top it with this silky smooth chocolate ganache! You only need a small glass bowl, a whisk, semi-sweet chocolate chips, and heavy whipping cream.

STEP 1. Add semi-sweet chocolate chips to a small glass bowl. Heat up the heavy whipping cream in the microwave, then pour it over the top of the chocolate chips.

STEP 2. Cover the mixture with aluminum foil. Let the mixture sit covered for 2 minutes.

STEP 3. Whisk the mixture. Slowly whisk the mixture until the chocolate has melted and the ganache is nice and smooth. Pour over the top of your Reese's peanut butter cup cheesecake. And if desired, top it with more mini peanut butter cups.

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