Reese's Peanut Butter Cup Mini Cheesecakes
Reese’s peanut butter cup mini cheesecakes are a rich treat with their chocolatey Oreo crust, creamy peanut butter cheesecake filling, and chocolate ganache.
Ingredients
Cookie Crust
- 2 cups Oreo cookie crumbs from 20 Oreo cookies
- ¼ cup unsalted butter melted and cooled
Cheesecake Filling
- 16 ounces cream cheese room temperature
- ¾ cup granulated sugar
- 2 large eggs room temperature
- 1½ teaspoons vanilla extract
- ⅓ cup creamy peanut butter I used Reese’s brand
- ¼ cup heavy whipping cream
- 1 cup Reese’s cup minis unwrapped from a 7.6-ounce bag, cut into quarters (Be sure to reserve 12 of the candies to use as garnish)
Chocolate Ganache & Whipped topping
- 4 ounces semi-sweet chocolate bar broken into small pieces
- ½ cup heavy whipping cream divided
- 2 tablespoons powdered sugar
- ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350°F. Line a standard muffin pan with 12 paper liners. Set aside.
- In a mixing bowl, stir together the Oreo cookie crumbs and melted butter until fully combined.
- Fill each paper liner with 1 tablespoon of the cookie crumb mixture and press it into an even layer onto the bottom of each. Make sure that you pack the crumbs into a tight layer. You can use your fingertips or the bottom of a small dry measuring cup to pack the crumbs tightly.
- Bake the cookie crust for 5 minutes. Allow the cookie crusts to cool, in the pan, on the counter while you make the cheesecake filling.
- Reduce the temperature of the oven to 325°F.
- In a large mixing bowl, beat together, using a handheld mixer on low speed, the cream cheese, and granulated sugar until smooth.
- To the cream cheese, add the eggs and vanilla extract and continue to beat the cream cheese until the eggs are fully incorporated. Be careful not to overbeat the cream cheese mixture, as you do not want to incorporate too much air into the batter.
- Add the creamy peanut butter and heavy cream. Beat just until all the ingredients are fully incorporated, and the batter is smooth.
- Fold the quartered mini Reese's cup candies into the cream cheese batter.
- Fill each cookie crust with ⅛ to ¼ cup cream cheese filling. Your cheesecakes should be filled all the way to the top of each paper liner in the muffin pan.
- Bake the Reese’s peanut butter cup mini cheesecakes for 20 to 22 minutes. The centers should just barely be set and not jiggly.
- Allow the mini cheesecakes to cool completely on the counter, in the pan, before adding the chocolate ganache and whipped chocolate ganache topping.
- Once your Reese’s peanut butter cup mini cheesecakes have cooled, you can make the chocolate ganache by melting together the semi-sweet chocolate pieces and ¼ cup of the heavy whipping cream in the microwave for 1 minute.
- Whisk the melted chocolate and heavy whipping cream until completely smooth.
- Top each cheesecake with 1 heaping teaspoon of the chocolate ganache and smooth it out into a circle covering the top. You will have extra chocolate ganache left in the bowl. This will be used to make the whipped ganache.
- Allow the mini cheesecakes to sit on the counter while you chill the remaining chocolate ganache in the refrigerator for 30 minutes to 1 hour. This chill time is essential to allow the chocolate ganache to whip properly.
- To the bowl of the chilled ganache, add the remaining ¼ cup of heavy whipping cream, powdered sugar, and vanilla extract.
- Using a handheld mixer on medium-high speed, whip the chocolate ganache until it is light and fluffy.
- Transfer to a piping bag fitted with a decorative piping tip (I used a Wilton 2D tip), and garnish each of the mini cheesecakes with a dollop of whipped ganache.
- With the reserved mini Reese's cup candies, you can either top each dollop of whipped ganache with a whole candy piece, or you can cut them in half and garnish each mini cheesecake.
- You will need to chill your Reese’s peanut butter cup mini cheesecakes in the refrigerator for 8 hours, or up to overnight, before serving them to allow the cheesecake and chocolate ganache to fully set up and firm.
Notes
Note that the bag of Reese’s MINI UNWRAPPED candies is much smaller than the standard mini Reese’s peanut butter cups that are individually wrapped. They are a small poppable size. If you can not find them in the candy section of your store, you can use the individually wrapped mini Reese's candies, but you will need to cut them into very small pieces to get them to mix evenly in the cheesecake batter. A small sharp paring knife works best for cutting these candies into smaller pieces.
You can make the cheesecake portion of this recipe, up through step 16, up to 24 hours in advance. You will need to store the baked mini cheesecakes in the refrigerator in a covered container. Then you can proceed with topping your mini Reese’s peanut butter cheesecakes with the chocolate ganache and whipped ganache garnishes. You will need to note that the ganache will be soft unless you place the decorated mini cheesecakes back into the refrigerator for at least an hour to allow the chocolate to firm up.
Parchment or foil-lined wrappers are the easiest to peel from the cheesecake filling.