Chocolate Snickers Cheesecake

What's not to like about Snickers Bars (chocolate, caramel, nougat and peanuts) baked in a chocolate and vanilla cheesecake on a chocolate crumb crust?  A real celebration dessert!

Chocolate Snickers Cheesecake is a recipe I clipped from a magazine years and years ago.  I can't remember for sure but it may have been from "Woman's Day" or some such magazine.  I've had the recipe all these years and haven't ever made it once until now! 

Thanksgiving was fast approaching when I happened to mention to my daughter-in-law I was going to make a Snickers Cheesecake in the near future.  "For Thanksgiving?" she eagerly asked.  "That's my favourite chocolate bar!"  What could I say but, I'd make it for Thanksgiving.  

Thanksgiving is now over in Canada as it's celebrated on the second Monday of October.  I'm in recovery mode this morning and picking my way through the piles of food left over from our Thanksgiving dinner.  As I type, there's a pot of soup bubbling away on the stove made from some of the leftover vegetables and peas pudding and I have a bowlful of Potato Cake mixture ready to fry to go with the soup but there is no Chocolate Snickers Cheesecake left and the only reminder is the spring form pan waiting to be put away.  

Not all the Chocolate Snickers Cheesecake got eaten at our dinner because there was also Pumpkin Pie, Blueberry Peach Pie, a purple plum pie and Pumpkin Pecan Pie Squares to be devoured.  (I know, I went overboard on the desserts.)  But all the Chocolate Snickers Cheesecake is gone from the house.  David wanted a chunk to take home and so did Vicki and yesterday Don and I ate the last two pieces to say farewell to the rich and decadent dessert.  

I had help making the cheesecake.  Every grandma needs a helper in the kitchen but I was blessed with three little helpers all wanting to contribute their culinary skills to the Thanksgiving dessert.  Between the supervision of the helpers and me trying to take pictures of the various stages of the mixing, baking and presenting, the cheesecake kind of got lost in the process.  And to top everything off there were fourteen people in the house!!!  But despite the entertaining, the supervision and picture taking, the cheesecake did get made--not perfectly, but a reasonable facsimile of the original picture in the magazine was attained.  

My three little helpers.  I wouldn't trade even one of them in for an Iron Chef.  They can help me in the kitchen any day. 

We didn't have a caramel sauce to go along with the cheesecake but it would be a delicious addition to the dessert.  And because this is so rich, you only need a small piece. (Just my humble opinion.  Go ahead and slice as much as you want.) 

Printable recipe at end of post.

Chocolate Snickers Cheesecake

• 1 cup chocolate chips
• 24 chocolate wafer cookies, crushed, about 1 ½ cups
• ¼ cup melted butter
• 2 tablespoons dry roasted peanuts, chopped
• 1 tablespoon + 3/4 cup sugar, divided
• 3 packages (8 oz. each) cream cheese, very soft at room temp.
• 3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 3 eggs
• 2 egg yolks
• 1 cup sour cream, divided
• 6 Snickers Bars, 2 oz. (60 g) each, cut into ¼ inch thick slices, divided
• Sweetened whipped cream for garnish, about 1 cup whipped (or more if you like)

How to make it:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.  Coat 9-inch spring form pan with cooking spray or grease well with butter or shortening.  Wrap outside of pan with foil.  I used heavy duty foil and had no tearing.

In bowl set over pot of hot water melt the chocolate chips.  Keep warm and lay aside.

Combine the crushed cookies, melted butter and chopped peanuts with 1 tablespoon sugar.  Press into bottom and ½-inch up sides of the prepared pan. Refrigerate 10 minutes to set then bake for 5 minutes.  Remove from oven and cool.  Beside pre-baking the crust, this will set the crumbs so they won't come loose when spreading the cheesecake mixture.

Lower oven temperature to 325 degrees.

In large bowl, with mixer at medium speed, beat the soft cream cheese until fluffy.  Beat in flour and remaining sugar until combined.  Beat in eggs and yolks, one at a time, scraping the bowl after each addition. This scraping may not seem necessary but it will help your batter to remain lump free so don't skip the scraping. (Just ask me how I know.)  Do not overbeat when adding the eggs.  You don't want too much air in the finished batter. 

When the eggs have been incorporated, pour half of mixture into another bowl and lay aside.  With mixer on medium speed beat ¼ cup sour cream and reserved melted chocolate into the batter remaining in the bowl.  

Beat remaining ¾ cup sour cream into the batter you reserved.  

Pour white batter onto crust. Arrange ⅔ (4 bars) of Snickers slices over top.  Pour chocolate batter over the Snickers layer.  Place a larger baking pan on oven rack.  Place the foil wrapped cheesecake in the larger pan and pour in hot water about half way up the cake pan.    Bake 1 hour.  Turn oven off and let stand in oven 1 additional hour.  Remove from water; remove foil.  Run a knife around the outside of the cake. Cool on rack 30 minutes and then cool completely in refrigerator 3 hours or overnight.

Garnish with dollops or swirls of sweetened whipped cream and top with remaining slices of Snickers bar.  A caramel sauce can be served with the cheesecake if desired.  

Makes about 16 servings. 

Chop the Snickers bars into ¼-inch slices before you begin making the cheesecake.

Melt the chocolate in a bowl over hot water.  Lay aside but keep it warm.

Mix together the crushed chocolate cookie wafers, butter, sugar and chopped peanuts.  Press the mixture in a 9-inch spring form pan and bake 5 minutes.  Remove from oven and cool.  You also need to wrap the pan in foil for the hot water bath.  

Beat the cream cheese until smooth and fluffy.  Beat in the flour, sugar and vanilla.  Add the eggs and yolks one at a time, beating only enough to incorporate.  You don't want to over beat and add too much air at this stage of mixing.  Scrap the sides of the bowl in between each egg to keep the batter smooth and lump free.

Divide the batter in half.  To one half add ¼ cup sour cream and reserved melted chocolate.  Beat remaining ¾ cup sour cream into the other half of the batter.  You will now have a chocolate batter and a vanilla batter.

Spread the white vanilla batter over the chocolate crumb crust.

Spread the sliced Snickers bars over the vanilla cheesecake batter.

 Spread the chocolate cheesecake batter over the sliced bar layer.

The foil wrapped cake is baked in a water bath.  This provides a gentle heat for the cheese and egg rich cheesecake batter.  Bake for 1 hour, turn the heat off and keep the cake in the oven for an additional hour.  Cool and refrigerate at least 3 hours or overnight is better.

The cake looks a little rough around the edges but it tasted wonderful.

If you look carefully, you can see the top of the cheesecake is cracked.  The hot water bath is supposed to prevent cracking....well, that didn't work.

A little strategic decorating takes care of any cracks on the top of a cheesecake.  The Chocolate Snickers Cheesecake is decorated with swirls of sweetened whipped cream and the remaining Snickers bars.

Chocolate Snickers Cheesecake

A rich and decadent dessert to end a celebration meal.

To print click on arrow upper right side.⇩