Baked Chocolate Peanut Butter Cheesecake—Prototype 8:
 
This prototype, prepared in September of 2018, was very likely my very first two-flavor-layer cheesecake made since my major cheesecake batter overhaul that I had carried out during 2017. A particularly beneficial change was in the number of eggs, going from odd to even, but this time that would be upped to 6. As a result, I would no longer have to deal with evenly dividing an egg (both its white and yolk combined) in half.
 
3-Cheese Blend (3CT-1NC-2YG):
Prepare ahead of time 16 ounces of yogurt cheese, derived from one 32-ounce container of nonfat yogurt. If the resulting yogurt cheese falls below 16 ounces, add back enough of the whey (that was strained out from the yogurt) to make up the difference. To this yogurt cheese combine 24 ounces of whipped, lowfat cottage cheese and 8 ounces of softened Neufchatel cheese ("light cream cheese").

Grease a 9 1/2" (or 9") pan, but do not wrap foil around it until just before the batter is added (spreading the crust in an already wrapped pan can result in greater disturbance to the foil, thus increasing leakage risks).

Chocolate Crust:
4 oz. semi-sweet chocolate, melted
3/8 cup granulated sugar *
2 tablespoons cocoa powder *
8 oz. (1 cup) 3-cheese blend (see above)
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 oz. finely ground All-Bran
* (unintentionally omitted in the September 2018 instance—see comments below for more details)

Place the resulting mixture in the greased pan and pre-bake without tub at 300 degrees for 5-10 minutes, depending on the mixture's thickness (closer to 10 minutes if thin enough to be fully distributed across the pan's bottom by gentle shaking, closer to 5 minutes if thick enough to require spreading out this mixture by pressing on it with a utensil and/or fingers), then cool enough to comfortably touch at least the pan's upper sidewall.

Chocolate Batter:
7/8 cup granulated sugar
3 tablespoons cocoa powder
20 oz. (2 1/2 cups) 3-cheese blend (see above)
1 teaspoon vanilla
3/4 teaspoon xanthan gum
3 eggs

Wrap the pan in foil at this point. Carefully pour the batter on top of the crust and bake all this in a hot water tub at 325 degrees for about 30 minutes. Afterwards, take the tub-and-pan assembly out of the oven and promptly add the batter indicated below.

Peanut Butter Batter:
3/4 cup granulated sugar
4 oz. unsalted peanut butter
20 oz. (2 1/2 cups) 3-cheese blend (see above)
3/4 teaspoon xanthan gum
3 eggs

Carefully scoop this on top of the chocolate batter (it is best to do this around the edge of the pan and let the peanut butter batter flow towards the middle) and return the tub-and-pan assembly to the oven, this time at only 300 degrees. Bake for about 55 more minutes (if using a 9 1/2" pan). Then shut off the oven and cool the cheesecake down while still in it (and in tub), with the oven door slightly ajar, for about an hour. Afterwards, remove the cheesecake (still in its springform pan) from the oven and tub and continue to cool it down at room temperature for another two hours. As an option, immediately after removal from the oven, decorate this cheesecake with chocolate and/or peanut butter chips (or peanut butter cup candies such as miniature size cups or broken pieces of larger cups) around its edge.

After cooling down at room temperature, remove the cheesecake from its pan and refrigerate.

Chocolate Peanut Butter Cheesecake—Prototype 8

It was my original intent to include granulated sugar and cocoa powder with the crust ingredients. I even measured these out beforehand, setting them aside together in a cup, with plans to pour them into the wet mixture upon reaching a particular step. Problem was...I FORGOT! It wasn't until long after I pre-baked the crust that I discovered those two ingredients still sitting around waiting to be added.

The omitted ingredients
The cocoa and sugar that were left behind.

However, before dumping into the kitchen sink the spoon with which I stirred the resulting crust mixture, I licked it (a typical activity with my prepared crusts), and I found the mixture to be delicious as usual. I somehow failed to notice a significant difference in taste (don't worry—it has been my good food prep habit—I have taken care to NOT put such licked spoons back into the mixture, but rather these spoons would be destined straight for the sink at this point). I ended up setting aside these still dry ingredients for another time. Unfortunately, the crust was, after baking and cooldown, unusually very sticky to the bottom of the pan, which I felt was caused by the accidental omission (thus leading to a "wetter" crust).

A few months later, in early December of 2018, I made this prototype again—and this time I included the sugar and cocoa that I set aside back in September (already measured out at that time, of course)...and the crust did not come out stubbornly sticky on the bottom of the pan like before. Much better! It looked like the entire cheesecake was quickly finished off at Living Hope Church's midday Sunday, Christmas season dinner.


Chocolate Peanut Butter Cheesecake—Prototype 8 (improved)
The way it should be!
 

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