Skinny Peanut Butter Cup Cheesecake Recipe
Ok, the name for this probably sounds a little bit like an oxymoron. But stay with me here, will you? Cheesecake is normally super rich, creamy, heavy, and full of fat and calories, right? Well this cheesecake is still creamy and rich, but not full of all the fat and calories. And because we saved some calories with the cheesecake, we can afford to add in a few peanut butter cups.
Over the summer we had some friends visit. Against all of my better instincts, I didn’t make dessert. We were going to be gone most of the days they were here, so it seemed like it might go to waste. The day before they left, David made a comment about craving some cheesecake. I told him he should have said something earlier, because I would have had it ready for him the day he arrived! He felt guilty about “requesting” something when he was staying at our house. So a message out there to anyone who visits us (except for you, Dad. I know you want brownies), you can request a dessert. I will happily make it for you! Forget about manners, I will drop everything to bake.
The next day our friends spent the day being tourists before they had to leave. I spent the day making cheesecake. Pretty sure you guessed that by now. To make this cheesecake on the skinny side I used fat free cottage cheese for some of the cream cheese. The texture is slightly different than a New York style cheesecake, but still creamy and all the flavor you would normally expect. The graham cracker crust doesn’t have all the butter it normally does either, so you have really cut down on a lot of the calories. You can fold in your favorite candy of choice, but for David (and me) that would be peanut butter cups!
Skinny Peanut Butter Cup Cheesecake
- Serves: 16
- Prep time: 10 mins
- Cook time: 60 mins
- Total time: 1 hour 10 mins
- A lighted up cheesecake with peanut butter cups.
- Ingredients
- ⅔ cup graham cracker crumbs
- 2 cups fat free cottage cheese
- 1 (8oz) package light cream cheese
- ¾ cup brown sugar
- ½ cup sugar
- ½ cup fat free sour cream
- ¼ cup flour
- 2 tsp vanilla
- 2 eggs
- 2 egg whites
- 1 cup peanut butter cups, chopped
- Chocolate sauce, optional
Instructions
Preheat oven to 300 degrees. Line a 9 inch baking pan with foil, and spray with nonstick spray.
Press the graham cracker crumbs into the pan.
Add cottage cheese and cream cheese to a food processor. Process until smooth, about 2 minutes. Add brown sugar, sugar, sour cream, flour, vanilla, egg, and egg whites. Pulse until just blended. Fold in ¾ cup of chopped peanut butter cups.
Pour over graham cracker crumbs.
Bake for 1 hour or until almost set on top. Turn off the oven, and let cheesecake set in there for 1 hour with the door closed. Remove from the oven and cool.
Cover and chill for about 8 hours in the fridge.
To serve garnish with the remaining peanut butter cups, and chocolate sauce if desired.
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