Small PB&J Cheesecake

Invented a new recipe today to make a no-bake cheesecake in a mini springform pan. It’s plenty big enough for two people, even three or four if you cut smaller slices. Most recipes make way too much. Who needs a dessert to serve 8 or 12 or 16 people?

Here’s how I made it:

Crust:
1/4 cup graham cracker crumbs
1 teaspoon sugar
1 teaspoon melted butter
Mix together and press into bottom of 5 inch springform pan. Chill.

PB layer:
1/8 cup crunchy peanut butter
2 oz cream cheese
2 teaspoons confectioner’s sugar
1 cup cool whip lite
Smash cream cheese, sugar, and peanut butter together with fork until nice and creamy, then slowly beat in the whipped topping. Spread on top of crust. Chill while making the next layer.

J layer:
2 T. preserves
1 oz. cream cheese
1/2 cup cool whip lite
I used my sister’s homemade peach preserves (thank you Jai!) and beat it into the cream cheese with an electric mixer which broke the peaches up into tiny bits and made it all creamy. Add whipped topping. Spread on top of peanut butter layer and chill overnight.

I did not chill overnight before cutting a slice (topped with a peach slice pulled from preserves) so I hope it gets a bit firmer overnight. If not, then oh well… maybe use less whipped topping next time? Or maybe it would be good frozen? Actually, if the peanut butter layer was thicker, could just skip the jelly layer and serve it with a dab of perserves on top. That is part of the fun with experimental cooking in less quantity. You can play in the kitchen trying new things. This might be good with pineapple preserves or maybe blackberry. If you don’t like cool whip, maybe try it with whipping cream?

As for calories? Oh, don’t know and don’t care. I’m not dieting. One forth was very satisfying, no urge to binge out on it, so that’s cool, too. I might end up throwing half of it in the freezer. What’s nice about using that mini pan is that an inverted bowl makes a good cake keeper.

Thanks for reading!

Advertisement