Monster Cookie Cheesecake

Monster cookie cheesecake- creamy original cheesecake with mini chocolate chips and mini M&M's on a monster cookie crust. It is topped with a silky chocolate peanut butter ganache, peanut butter buttercream, and extra monster cookies.

The Most Amazing Monster Cookie Cheesecake

This monster cookie cheesecake is very rich and has balanced sweet to salty flavors. The best part of a monster cookie is the balance of oats, peanut butter, mini chocolate chips, and mini M&M's.

To make sure this cheesecake isn't overruled by sweetness. The cookie crust gives it the great crunch, the chocolate peanut butter ganache doesn't make it too sweet, and the peanut butter buttercream really hits the peanut butter notes. Basically, this cheesecake is awesome and I'm going to give you all the tips and tricks to WOW your friends and family.

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Making The Monster Cookie Crust

Before you do anything else, you should start by making the monster cookie dough. It needs to chill for an hour before you can use it for the crust of the cheesecake. When you first make the dough it is very wet and it's so much easier to use once it's chilled.

For more detailed tips and tricks, check out my chewy monster cookie recipe. In that recipe I will give more thorough tips on making this amazing cookie dough.

Start by sifting all of the dry ingredients together: flour, cornstarch, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. Once that is all sifted, set aside. I do use less cornstarch in this recipe because I don't want the crust to be too chewy.

Next, use a mixer to cream together the butter and brown sugar until light and fluffy. Make sure to use room temperature butter because it will be easier for the butter to aerate and cream with the brown sugar.

Then, add in the peanut butter. I use creamy store bought peanut butter because we will have plenty of crunch from the oats. It also blends a lot easier. After the peanut butter is blended in, add the vanilla, egg, and egg yolk to the batter.

Next, slowly add the dry ingredients into batter. Adding in the dry ingredients will help it to thicken into a dough, but it will be very wet. Finally, add in the oats, mini chocolate chips, and mini M&M's.

Cover the dough and let it firm up in the fridge for 1 hour.

Baking The Monster Cookie Crust

Once the monster cookie dough is finished chilling in the fridge, then it is time to start baking the crust!

Preheat the oven to 350F and spray a 9 inch spring form pan with a baking spray. Line the bottom of the spring form pan with a 9 inch parchment circle. Using both a baking spray and a parchment circle helps to get the cheesecake out of the pan at the end.

Scoop out 2 ½ - 3 cups of cookie dough and use that for the cookie crust. For the rest of the cookie dough, place it back in the fridge to bake it into cookies for the decoration.

To form an even crust, first use your fingers to evenly spread the dough on the bottom and half way up the sides of the spring form pan. Once it has been evenly spread, use the back of a measuring cup to compact the crust firmly.

Bake the crust for 20 minutes. Pre-baking the crust allows the cookie to firm up and not be raw dough. It is a MUST!

After it is done baking, let it cool completely. When I baked this crust I thought the cookie was a little too poofy and I used the back of a spoon to compact the crust back down.

My BEST Tips For Baking A Perfect Cheesecake

When you are first starting to make cheesecake they can seem pretty intimidating, they can crack, be too dry, or dense. Follow these tips and they should help you make the most creamy cheesecake.

• Room Temperature Ingredients- This might be the most important one of all. When your dairy ingredients are cold, they seize up and do not blend well at all. That is why you could get chunks of cream cheese in your batter. Room temperature ingredients are so much easier to blend. Start with pulling your ingredients out 2-3 hours before you start to bake.
• Baking Spray and Parchment Circle- I mentioned this earlier, but using both methods help to get the cheesecake out of the pan. Also when using a baking spray it helps to keeps the sides of the cheesecake from sticking to the pan. If the cheesecake sticks to the sides of the pan it could cause more cracks in the cheesecake.
• Blend Each Ingredient Thoroughly- Except for the eggs. In my recipe, if it says to blend the cream cheese for 2 minutes it is because it takes time and air to blend the cream cheese until smooth.
• Don't over-mix the eggs- Over mixing the eggs is one of the main reason a cheesecake cracks. Air plus eggs will create air pockets in the batter that will rise too fast while baking and pop. Then your cheesecake will crack.
• Water Bath- My best method for a water bath is to place the spring form pan inside a 10 inch cake pan. Then place those inside a 12X16 pan that is filled with steaming hot water. This way you get no water inside the spring form pan and it still gets the all the moisture a water bath provides.

How To Make The Cheesecake Batter

Once the monster cookie crust is completely cooled, start on the cheesecake batter.

Use a stand mixer and start by beating the cream cheese on medium-high. Beat the cream cheese for a whole 2 minutes. Then, add in the sugar and beat for another minute. Beating the batter for longer periods on a higher speed is what helps the batter to be silky smooth.

Next, add in the vanilla, heavy cream, and sour cream. The heavy cream and sour cream helps to give the cheesecake the creamy and light texture. The extra fat they provide also helps to make the cheesecake amazing.

Now, add in the eggs one at a time. Like I mentioned earlier, don't over mix the eggs. As soon as they are combined, then stop mixing. I usually will put it off the stand mixer and use a rubber spatula and fold the batter to make sure there are no clumps.

Finally, add the mini chocolate chips and mini M&M's into the cheesecake batter. What I love about adding those in, is the colors from the mini M&M's will bleed into the batter and make the cheesecake batter colorful. It's beautiful.

Baking Monster Cookie Cheesecake

Pour the batter on top of cookie crust and prepare the water bath. I mentioned earlier when I talked about my best tips, but place the spring form pan inside a 10 inch cake pan. Then, place that inside a 12X16 pan.

Using a saucepan, heat up the water until it is steaming and hot. The steam is what is most important. The steam creates the moist environment for the cheesecake. Pour the hot water until about half way up the cake pan. Then, bake for 95-105 minutes.

It is done baking when the middle has a slight jiggle, but the edges are set. Then, turn off the oven and crack open the door and let the cheesecake sit for 30 minutes.

This allows the cheesecake to slowly cool and finish cooking at the same time. Allowing the cheesecake to slowly cool helps to prevent any last minute cracks to the cheesecake.

Then, transfer the cheesecake to a cooling rack and let cool completely. Cover and chill it in the fridge for 6 hours to overnight. I usually make my cheesecakes the day before I need it, so it can cool overnight and be completely firm.

Easy Chocolate Peanut Butter Ganache

To make this ganache, it is so simple and only needs a few ingredients

• Chocolate chips
• Creamy peanut butter
• Heavy cream
• Vanilla

Just 4 things! When I first was trying out this recipe, I made a chocolate ganache and thought it was too sweet for this cheesecake. I added peanut butter to tone down the sweetness. Interestingly, it looks like chocolate, but the after taste is all peanut butter.

Start by combining chocolate chips and peanut butter together in a small bowl. I used a rubber spatula to mix it together, it makes a peanut butter and chocolate chip ball.

Then, heat up heavy cream and vanilla in a saucepan until hot and steaming. Once its is hot, pour it over peanut butter and chocolate chips and let it sit for 1 minute and 30 seconds. Then stir until glossy and smooth.

After you have taken the cheesecake out of the pan, pour ¾ of the ganache on top of the cheesecake. Save the rest of the ganache for the final decoration. The extra ganache gives it a shiny texture.

Let the ganache on the cheesecake set in the fridge for at least 30 minutes.

The BEST Peanut Butter Buttercream

This peanut butter buttercream is the best buttercream I have ever made. You can see it in action on the Chocolate and Peanut Butter Cupcakes.

Start by making your butter slightly cold, by leaving cold butter on the counter for 30 minutes before you do anything with it.

Then, beat the butter for 1 minute on medium-high while using a mixer. It should start to get light and fluffy. After that, add the peanut butter. Once it has been mixed together, add in the vanilla.

Next, add in the sifted powdered sugar. Once it is all combined, add in the heavy cream and then beat on high for 4 minutes. It is going to get light in color and super fluffy. Then, scrape the bowl and then beat again for 1 minute.

Before you use the buttercream, beat by hand with a wooden spoon to beat out all the air bubbles. I like to put the buttercream in the fridge for 15 minutes before piping with it. This helps to firm up the butter a little bit.

Decorating The Monster Cookie Cheesecake

It is time to decorate this beauty! Start by piping the peanut butter buttercream on top of the cheesecake. Using a buttercream allows a firm substance to stick the extra monster cookies on.

Next, heat up the rest of the ganache in the microwave until smooth and glossy again. Use a piping bag or squeeze bottle to drizzle the ganache on top of both the buttercream and the center of the cheesecake.

Now it's time to throw the cookies on top. You can either crumble the cookies and place those on top. Or you could cut the cookies in half and place those on top (which is what I did). Then, just scatter mini M&M's and mini chocolate chips on top and then you are all done! There were so many steps to this cheesecake, but I promise it is worth every bite!

Other Cheesecake Recipes To Try

• Turtle cheesecake
• Tiramisu cheesecake
• Nutella cheesecake
• Blueberry swirled cheesecake

Make sure to tag me on Instagram @stephaniesweettreats and leave me a review below if you made this cheesecake. I hope you loved it! To get more ideas follow me on Pinterest.