I attend a weekly board lunch (sadly not in the food or hospitality industries) and I’m the one who usually ends up organising the menus. This task is more important than you might think, as there are often differences of opinion… tempers can fray…. but if I can manage to punctuate the conversation with a few appreciative ooos and ahhhhhs, then I can help to steer us away from out and out discord.
Most effective of all, and of course, most difficult to achieve is a dish which really stops all of us in our tracks….one which moves us from friction to harmony as it were.
This chocolate, peanut butter and caramel cheesecake got there – and received unanimous, and appreciative, approval. Everything was suddenly sweetness and light.
It’s been made many times since. A further vote of confidence came when, overburdened by the remains of many cakes and tarts resulting from my testing and experimentation, I tried to offload this cheesecake onto my son. “Oh no!” exclaimed a panicked Chief Taster, “don’t give him that… I really like that!”.
He’s not the only one. The compatibility of the ingredients is well-established – this is a sort of Snickers-as-cheesecake. And Snickers has been reported (NBC News, 2012) as the most popular chocolate bar in both the US, and indeed worldwide.
chocolate, peanut butter and caramel – Snickers cheesecake
Serves – 10
Ingredients
- 200g/7 oz (Dove’s organic digestives come in packets of 200g)
- 100g/4 oz butter at room temperature
- 3 tbsp dark (Dutch) cocoa powder
- 200g/7 oz dark chocolate
- 160ml/⅔ cup double cream
- 520g/1 lb 3 oz cream cheese
- 115g/½ cup golden caster sugar
- 4 tbsp smooth peanut butter
- 1 x 400g/14 oz tin of Carnation caramel
Instructions
- Break the biscuits up, either by putting them in a plastic bag and crushing with a rolling pin; or by blitzing in a food processor.
- Mix in the butter and a tablespoon of the cocoa. Press into the bottom of a removeable-base, non-stick, spring-form cake tin. Put in the fridge.
- Form chocolate shavings out of about 50g/2 oz of the chocolate. Do this either by shaving off the bar (s) with a knife; or simply by grating the chocolate. Put in the fridge.
- Melt the remainder of the chocolate in a bain marie (in a bowl over simmering water, making sure the bowl doesn’t touch the water. Take off the heat and leave to cool.
- Whip the cream to the standard soft peaks. Fold in the melted chocolate and the rest of the cocoa.
- Mix the cream cheese and the sugar together using an electric whisk. Add the peanut butter, whisk again. Fold in the chocolate mixture.
- Spread half of this mixture over the biscuit base.
- Spread the entire contents of the tin of caramel over it.
- Spread the rest of the cheese-chocolate mix over that.
- Decorate with the chocolate shavings. Refrigerate for a minimum of three hours. Remove from the tin (leaving the base) and serve with a flourish!
For other cheesecake recipes on Saucy Dressings follow this link.