This post is my entry for the Aspiring Bakers Challenge #7. Enjoy!
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NEW CAMERA NEW CAMERA NEW CAMERA!
Yum yum yum. This was breakfast.
To commemorate this momentous occasion, I have made peanut butter-chocolate no-bake cheesecake. Supa tasty. Starting with graham crackers, butter, sugar, mascarpone cheese, peanut butter, vanilla, whipped cream, instant coffee, and chocolate syrup.
To make the crust (yea, I did this myself, what’s up), crush the graham crackers into relatively small bits. I used a mallet, mostly because it looked cool. Next, melt the butter and fold it into the crumbles, then press the mixture into the bottom and sides of a pie plate and refrigerate it for about 30 min, until the butter solidifies again.
The crushed grahams. Put the 'mallow on the... Wait, wrong movie.
Pouring the butter into the crumbs.
Mix it up; I just folded it together to save the crumbs and get a nice chunky crust.
Press into the pie plate and refrigerate.
While that refrigerates, start on the batter. Sift the sugar into a stand-mixer. I used confectioner’s since this is a no-bake; using granulated gives a funny texture that I prefer to avoid. Cream this with the mascarpone. Yes, mascarpone. Not cream cheese. While this was an experiment in using what I had on hand, I have decided this is a much richer, sweeter cheesecake for the flavors I am using, and prefer the mascarpone. I GUESS you can use cream cheese if you want. Fiiiiine.
Sweet sifting pic... Took about 20 shots to get this.
Mascarpone!
Cream the sugar and mascarpone.
Next, add in the peanut butter and mix that together. Wait! Where is the chocolate, you ask? Haha, check out this magic. Add the instant coffee and taste that batter, and tell me that doesn’t taste like liquid Reese’s. I dare you. After that, pour the magic batter into the chilled pie crust and refrigerate that overnight.
Add the peanut butter.
Pour the batter into the chilled crust and smooth it down.
Once the pie is chilled, pour on the chocolate syrup and smooth it down with an offset spatula to get a tasty, chocolatey, gooey topping. Serve chilled.
I topped the cheesecake with chocolate syrup, but I'm sure you could do different things.
A single slice of pie. Not nearly enough.
Runny chocolate makes for good food and good photos.
Just one week until my fantastic journey to Italy! I will try to post 2 or 3 more times before I leave. After that, we will transform into a food critic blog for the month! Get excited!
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This was a fun chocolate challenge, most obviously because the main part of the recipe did not actually use chocolate to get a chocolate flavor. I hope that doesn’t make me a cheater; I just wanted to make something fun and tasty. 
Quick Recipe
Pie Crust
1.25c graham crackers
1/3c butter
Crush graham crackers and melt butter. Fold melted butter into crumbles and press into bottom and sides of pie plate. Chill 30min.
Batter
3/4c confectioner’s sugar
8oz mascarpone cheese
1c peanut butter
4oz whipped cream (I used cool whip)
1tsp vanilla
2.5tsp instant coffee
Sift confectioner’s sugar and cream with mascarpone cheese. Add other ingredients one at a time, mixing each time until homogeneous.
Construction
Chocolate syrup
Pour batter into chilled crust and smooth down. Chill overnight in the refrigerator. Serve cold.
Great shots with the new camera!! Looks delicious (although I couldn’t handle for breakfast). Craig would LOVE this pie!! So would my sister Cindy!