Baked Peanut Butter Cheesecake—Prototype 1:
 
Time for another new baked cheesecake flavor! The prototype number starts at "1" here (just like with eggnog).

I have decided to shun the crust for now, focusing on just the batter.
 
Batter:
2 tablespoons melted or softened butter
6 oz. unsalted peanut butter
1/2 cup skim milk (it is a good idea to warm this up first, at least if it is being directly added to the butter or a mixture dominated by it)
15 tbsp. (i.e., 1 cup minus 1 tbsp.) granulated sugar (note—of this one, 1/2 cup of it is specific to the cheesecake base recipe, and the other 7 tablespoons are specific to the peanut butter flavor)
1/4 cup flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 cups lowfat cottage cheese, no salt added
2 eggs

Blend all these ingredients together thoroughly, particularly the butter and eggs, then pour this batter into a lightly buttered 9" cheesecake pan. Promptly place in oven—preheated at 300 degrees—and bake for 90 minutes (or until cake tester comes out clean). Remove from oven, cool down to about room temperature, carefully remove from pan, and refrigerate.
 
Nice taste, great for a first prototype! This one got firm in the oven rather quickly.
 
Baked Peanut Butter Cheesecake—Prototype 2:
 
Here is a somewhat sweeter and easier recipe.
 
Repeat Prototype 1, but increase the granulated sugar by one tablespoon, to an easier-to-manage full cup.

Bake for only 80 minutes, or until cake tester comes clean.
 
Still delicious!
 
Baked Peanut Butter Cheesecake—Prototype 3:
 
I felt that the peanut butter flavor in the previous prototype was on the strong side, at least when layering it with a baked chocolate cheesecake (perhaps Prototype 10.2 of that one?), so I considered reducing the flavor here (thus affecting the sugar as well as the peanut butter). Yet I still anticipated a decent peanut butter presence. Also, a crust has been added for this prototype. Furthermore, as I have been doing with a number of other cheesecakes lately, I cut the batter's salt in half.
 
Crust:
2 oz. melted, white chocolate
2 oz. unsalted peanut butter
4 oz. whipped lowfat cottage cheese, no salt added
1/4 cup skim milk
1/3 cup granulated sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla (last ingredient just before the Bran Buds)
2.2 oz. Bran Buds, ground up

Batter:
2 tablespoons melted or softened butter
4.5 oz. unsalted peanut butter
1/2 cup skim milk
5/6 cup (i.e., 1/2 + 1/3 cup) granulated sugar
1/4 cup flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 cups whipped lowfat cottage cheese, no salt added
2 eggs

Bake at 300 degrees for about 95 minutes (with tub immersion), or until cake tester comes clean.
 
Cooking this cheesecake in a "tub" of water produced nice results (see Baked Orange Cheesecake—Prototype 4 for more details on this successful "in-the-tub" approach). I felt that the crust's taste turned out well. However, when I brought this cheesecake to the Sports Page, Steve quickly commented that the peanut butter was too strong. But Lesa (a big peanut butter fan) loved it a lot. I myself felt that this flavor was still somewhat too dominant for the batter, in light of the fact that this was supposed to be a cheesecake as well as a peanut-butter-flavored treat.
 
Baked Peanut Butter Cheesecake—Prototype 4:
 
Peanut butter has got to be one of the strongest flavors that I have used in my cheesecake prototypes. With Prototype 4, this ingredient (as used in the batter) was down to half of what I started with back in Prototype 1!
 
Repeat Prototype 3, but reduce the batter's peanut butter by 1.5 ounces, to 3 ounces, and also reduce the batter's granulated sugar by 1/12 cup (i.e., 4 teaspoons) to 3/4 cup (i.e., 1/2 + 1/4 cup).

Bake for about 100 minutes (with tub immersion), or until cake tester comes clean.
 
I was concerned about slashing the peanut butter for this prototype. No problem! The flavor was still plentiful (in fact, at least one person at my church, Living Hope, somehow commented about the peanut butter still being on the strong side). In fact, I still could hardly pick up the "cheese-i-ness" flavor in the cheesecake batter. But I still decided for now that the peanut butter flavor was reduced enough. Perhaps this particular flavor was rather a bit too tricky (maybe I needed to not focus so much on the "cheese" flavor, but rather on the texture of the batter). But this peanut butter cheesecake was absolutely delicious, including the crust. Perhaps when combined with my chocolate cheesecake, the reduced peanut butter flavor involved here would not overwhelm the chocolate.
 
Internal Tweaking Notes

Peanut Butter: (A) 4 oz. :: (B) 3.5 oz. :: (C) 3oz.?
Granulated Sugar: 1/2 cup plus (A) 5.333 tbsp. to 4.667 tbsp. :: (B) 4.667 tbsp. to 4.08333 (that's 4 + 1/12) tbsp. :: (C) 4 tbsp. to 3.5 tbsp.?
 
Baked Peanut Butter Cheesecake—Prototype 5:
 
It has been quite a while (probably about a few years) since I last made a peanut-butter-only cheesecake. From that time, I have done many refinements on other flavors. So the latest peanut butter prototype presented here features many changes. In particular, the batter is the same mixture as what was used in Prototype 6 of my chocolate peanut butter cheesecake.
 
2-to-1 Blend of Yogurt Cheese and Cottage Cheese:
Prepare ahead of time 32 ounces of yogurt cheese, derived from two 32-ounce containers (that's 64 ounces altogether) of nonfat yogurt. If the resulting yogurt cheese falls below 32 ounces, add back enough of the whey (that was strained out from the yogurt) to make up the difference. To this yogurt cheese combine one 16-ounce container of whipped, lowfat cottage 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).

Crust:
2 oz. melted, white chocolate
4 oz. unsalted peanut butter
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
8 oz. (1 cup) 2-to-1 blend of yogurt cheese and cottage cheese (see above)
2 oz. All-Bran, ground up

Pour this crust mixture into pan (9 to 9 1/2 inches) and pre-bake without tub at 300 degrees for 10 minutes, then cool enough to comfortably touch at least the pan's upper sidewall.

Batter:
4 tablespoons melted/softened butter (unsalted recommended)
8 oz. unsalted peanut butter
1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
3 tablespoons arrowroot
40 oz. (5 cups) 2-to-1 blend of yogurt cheese and cottage cheese (see above)
4 eggs

Pour on top of crust. Bake in tub at 300 degrees for 100 minutes (if using a 9 1/2" pan). Then cool down while still in oven (with this oven shut off) and in tub with door slightly ajar for an hour. Afterwards, remove from oven and tub (right after doing so, add a border of peanut butter—or other flavor—chips around the cheesecake's top edge, if desired). Then continue to cool down at room temperature for another 100 minutes, then remove from pan and refrigerate.

Peanut Butter Cheesecake—Prototype 5

This was a really delicious peanut butter dessert. The updated crust was very tasty with a decent amount of sweetness. And the batter was great as well. Nearly all the cheesecake was gone within about an hour at Living Hope Church on a Sunday in early December of 2014.
 

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