No bake peanut butter cheesecake with sweetened condensed milk

Cookie Bottom No-Bake Peanut Butter Cheesecakes. Whaaaaat?

Yes. I do realize my recipe titles are getting longer and longer each day. But I swear I just wanna give you a heads up on what you might be getting yourself into.

Anyway.

This week is weird and super busy and… also weird. Did I say that already? Well it is. So I’m filling it up with sweets.

I feel like I’m trying to cram too many things into just a few days of space. I had my brother’s birthday this past weekend. Thursday is Valentine’s Day. I’ve had my kitchen table piled full of work to do since Sunday evening and I finally put a pretty good dent in it today but it’s still not done.

And it’s taking up most of my kitchen table (have I mentioned yet this week that we need a bigger house? well we do.). That makes it super hard to bake/photograph/eat/anything with food.

Add to all this mess that I have my little guy’s birthday happening in 2 weeks AND my sister’s birthday at the same time, so I should be mapping out and testing cake recipes or shopping or something… but I feel like everyday I run out of time.

Ummmm… another thing: the laundry.

I need to know why it seems to be multiplying.

I’m behind on my reading (I’ll get there you guys, I promise!), I’m behind on sleep. I am NOT behind on walking.

Me and Lucy are doing LOTS of walking. So there’s one good thing.

Two good things: Cookies + No-Bake Cheesecakes.

Cookie Bottom No-Bake Peanut Butter Cheesecakes

• For the Cookies:
• 1 cup flour plus 2 tablespoons
• ¼ teaspoon baking soda
• ¼ teaspoon salt
• 6 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
• ¼ cup granulated sugar
• ½ cup packed light brown sugar
• ½ tablespoon vanilla
• 1 egg
• 1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
• For the No-Bake Cheesecake:
• *8 ounces cream cheese, softened (I use ⅓ fat)
• *1/2 cup peanut butter
• *1 teaspoon vanilla
• *1/3 cup fat free sweetened condensed milk
• For the Chocolate Glaze & Topping:
• **1/3 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
• **2 tablespoons heavy cream
• **1/2 tablespoon butter
• 2 tablespoons chopped peanuts to garnish

1. Preheat the oven to 350.
2. In a large bowl whisk together the flour, baking soda, and salt.
3. In a medium saucepan, melt the butter. Remove it from the heat and stir in the granulated sugar and brown sugar. Stir in the vanilla. Let it cool for a minute before adding the egg and then GENTLY stir it in (you don't want scrambled eggs).
4. Add the wet mixture to the dry and stir until completely combined.
5. Stir in the chocolate chips before the butter has completely cooled so they melt a little.
6. Spoon the cookie dough about ½ tablespoon at a time onto an ungreased baking sheet, about 2 inches apart.
7. Bake for 8 minutes. Let them cool slightly before removing to a wire rack to cool completely.
8. While the cookies cool, make the no-bake cheesecake. Beat together the cream cheese and peanut butter. Beat in the vanilla and the sweetened condensed milk.
9. Set out 6-8 cupcake liners (not in a muffin tin). Set the cookies at a slight angle in the liners so that they form a "bottom" to the cheesecake but one side sits up over the paper edge.
10. Spoon the cheesecake batter over the top of the cookie, up to the edge of the paper liner. To "shape" these, I double-lined the no-bake cheesecakes and carefully set them down into a muffin tin to refrigerate.
11. Refrigerate for 2-4 hours.
12. When the cheesecake has set, place the chocolate chips and the heavy cream into a small saucepan over medium low heat. Stir until the chocolate has melted (you may need to raise the heat gradually just a little bit). Then stir in the butter until smooth.
13. Drizzle the chocolate over each of the cheesecakes. Sprinkle the chopped peanuts over the melted chocolate.
14. Refrigerate just a little longer so the chocolate can set.

#1- If you wanna go the quick route, skip over the first 9 ingredients and use store-bought cookies. Chocolate chip or anything you like with peanut butter really. #2- The cookie recipe makes about 25 uniformly sized cookies. You'll have leftovers! Or you could double the cheesecake recipe if you need to serve more.

No-bake cheesecake adapted from THIS recipe at How Sweet It Is