Instant Pot Peanut Butter Cup Cheesecake

Instant Pot Peanut Butter Cup Cheesecake is on the menu today. Bursting with chopped mini peanut butter cups in the batter and sprinkled on top. Drizzled with Trader Joe’s famous cookie butter on a Speculoos cookie crust. Decadent and rich.

Pressure Cooker Cheesecake On A Cookie Crust

I have been making cheesecakes in my Instant Pot at least once a week since I got this little marvel pressure cooker. Just plain cheesecake, though. Nothing fancy.

When we were at Trader Joe’s to pick up some spaghetti sauce. (Yes, to make spaghetti in the Instant Pot.) I decided to get some Speculoos cookies and some of their famous Cookie Butter. Think of how yummy those two are together. Dip that cookie in that fabulous cookie butter. That got me to thinking what a delicious cheesecake this would make with these ingredients. Hmmmm…….

Instant Pot Peanut Butter Cup Cheesecake

I always have mini peanut butter cups from Trader Joe’s in my refrigerator. Always. There are some in there now. I believe in being prepared.

I got to thinking. What if I chopped up the those mini peanut butter cups into the cheesecake batter? Then use the cookies for the crust? Then drizzle cookie butter over the top of the cooked cheesecake! And then, then sprinkle chopped peanut butter cups over the cookie drizzled cheesecake. Oh.My. Goodness. Peanut butter cup cheesecake! I went to work on that immediately .

Plain cheesecake is delicious in it’s own right. But you can add whatever you want. You can top it with fruit, candies, cookies. Kinda of like an ice cream sundae. Drizzle fudge on top. So many possibilities. You don’t have to stick with a graham cracker crust either. A good solid cookie crushed in the food processor is an excellent alternative.

My kitchen is like my playground. It is just fun to try different ideas. Especially when it comes to baking. Bread baking is a science but everything else just begs to be tinkered with. Add a bit of this, not so much that. Is this you, too?

Using A Mini Chopper

I started by crushing 12 Speculoos cookies in my mini chopper. I use that mini chopper at least once a day. Usually more.

Look at those crumbs. Pulverized. See, baking is fun!

Then pour the crumbs into a small bowl containing 2 tablespoons melted butter. I didn’t add any sugar to the mixture.  The cookies are sweet enough.

The cookie crumbs were tapped into my pan. I used a Fat Daddio  7 inch push pan from Amazon. I really like this pan. More on this pan later. I sprayed it with cooking spray first. It baked beautifully. It was an easy release. Stay tuned for that later on, too.

Mini Milk Chocolate Peanut Butter Cups

Using my KitchenAid mini chopper again, I unwrapped 12 mini peanut butter cups. Think twelve is the magic number for this cheesecake. Twelve cookies. Twelve mini peanut butter cups.

Oh and make sure you get the milk chocolate peanut butter cups if you get them at Trader Joe’s. They also make dark chocolate mini peanut butter cups. I just think milk chocolate peanut butter cups is the way to go here. We are after decadence. Can that be achieved with dark chocolate? I don’t think so.

Keep these candies refrigerated. I find they keep their shape better. I don’t think you have to keep them refrigerated for this recipe. But why mess with a proven method?

I chopped the mini peanut butter cups in the mini chopper. You could chop these with a knife also. The chopper just makes the process faster and neater. No stray peanut butter cups flying across the kitchen. Not that I know anything personally here.

The chopper cut those peanut butter cups into a fine mix. I folded them into my batter. Nothing extra. No extra peanut butter. Just little chunks of chopped candy. Yummy!!

The cookie crust must be placed into the freezer while making the cheesecake batter. After pouring my batter into the prepared pan, I dropped the pan onto the counter a few times. This will release any air bubbles. Doing this will give you a better looking cheesecake. I give you permission to drop that pan onto the counter as many times as you like.

I find anything creative is a great stress reliever. It keeps you out of trouble.

My 5 Essential Instant Pot Accessories post will help to make the most out of your Instant Pot. Especially when making cheesecake.

How To Release the Fat Daddio Push Pan

You can make this cheesecake with a springform pan but I have loving this push pan lately.

The Fat Daddio push pan has a removable bottom. After, the cheesecake has baked and cooled for at least an hour, run a knife around the edge of the pan to loosen the cheesecake. Place the pan on top of a can. I used a can of corn. It was handy.

Then push the outside edge of the pan down. Push pan.

Voila’, it’s released!! Beautiful.

Now drizzle a 1/4 cup of warmed cookie butter over the top of the cheesecake.

Then sprinkle more chopped mini peanut butter cups on top. Oh another twelve will do.

This peanut butter cup cheesecake was a huge hit among my family. My peanut butter cup cheesecake is decidedly rich. So a small piece is very satisfying. If you like peanut butter cups, you have got to try this cheesecake!