Gluten-Free No-Bake Peanut Butter Cheesecake & Chocolate Piecaken

The healthiest PIECAKEN yet!   er...?

This is absolutely delicious. However truthfully, 'healthiest' is probably not the best way to describe this PIECAKEN, but I did make it only with organic coconut sugar (no cane sugar) and with no flour and no gluten, so it seems to fit into all the trendy health-food categories.

Here is my recipe and pictures to show how I did it:

Recipe: No-Bake Peanut Butter Cheesecake & Chocolate Pie PIECAKEN

Ingredients:

For the cookie crust:
1 cup of peanut butter (I used Kraft Natural, but you can use your favourite PB)
1/2 cup of organic coconut sugar (you can use regular granulated sugar, if you want)
1 large egg, lightly beaten with a fork

For the "no bake" cream cheese filling, you need:
1 cup peanut butter
1 pkg cream cheese, softened to room temperature
1.5 cups of whipping cream, whipped and set aside in fridge
2/3 cup of organic coconut sugar (or use regular granulated sugar if you wish)

For the Chocolate Tart filling:
10 ounces of milk chocolate, chopped into 1/2" - 1" inch pieces
3/4 cup of whipping cream

For the Topping:
6 ounces of milk chocolate, chopped
1/2 cup of whipping cream

Tools:

One 9" Springform pan and one 8" pie plate or tart pan (you can use a 4" pie or tart pan like I did (I got an extra tart out of the deal!)

Instructions:

For the cake and tart crusts:

1. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F
2. In a medium bowl, beat together the peanut butter and sugar until mixed with, then add the egg and stir until combined. Press the mixture into your parchment-lined tart or pie pan and into your cake pan (i.e. you are making a crust for the pie and a crust for the outer cake). If you have chosen to make a small cake, you can make two crusts of each.
3. Bake the crusts for 12 minutes, until it starts to brown, then remove from the oven and let cool while you make all the other ingredients.

For the chocolate tart filling:

1. Place your chopped chocolate into a microwavable bowl. Pour the whipping cream over the chocolate. 
2. Microwave for 2 minutes on half power and then stir until smooth. Pour the filling into the tart crust. Immediately place your tart in the refrigerator and chill until firm.

For the cheese cake filling:

1. In a medium bowl, beat your whipping cream until stiff.  Do not overbeat (if it starts to look a bit bumpy, stop mixing). Set aside in the fridge.
2. Beat your cream cheese in a large bowl until softened and mixed. Add the sugar and beat until fluffy. Be sure to use a spatula to scrape the bottom of the bowl to incorporate any unmixed cream cheese.
3. Add the peanut butter and beat until combined and fluffy.
4. Take your whipped cream out of the fridge and scoop 1/3 of it into the peanut butter/cream cheese and mix with beater on low until combined. Then fold in the remaining whipped cream gently with a spatula.

Assembling the PIECAKEN:

1. Scoop half of the cream cheese mixture into your springform cake pan.
2. Pick up your Chocolate Peanut Butter Tart and carefully remove the pie plate and parchment and then place it on the bottom layer of cream cheese filling, in your cake pan. Press it down a little to ensure the filling surrounds the tart.
3. Scoop the remaining filling on top of the tart and smooth it out.  If you have some left, you can put it in a pastry bag and use it to make designs around the edges of the cake.

Make the topping:

1. Place your chopped milk chocolate into a microwavable bowl and pour the whipping cream on top of it. Microwave on half power for 2 minutes. Take out and stir until smooth. 
2. Pour over the cake and either: let drip down the sides a little or, if you have built up the sides of the cake you can pour it into the centre (see picture to the right for an example).
3. Refrigerate the cake immediately.  Once chilled for 1 hour, you can run a knife around the inside of the springform pan sides and remove them. You can transfer to a serving plate if you think you can do it without breaking the cake. Refrigerate until ready to serve.

Additional tips:

• Can be frozen if well sealed.
• Best to keep a lid on this while in the fridge (or in a box wrapped in plastic) in order to keep the cream cheese from getting a thick outer layer.
• For extra chocolaty-ness, you can add a layer of chocolate filling on top of the cookie crust just before adding the cream cheese filling and assembling the PIECAKEN.  I did that and it helped to hold the crust together, but the extra calories certainly are not necessary!