No Bake Peanut Butter Cheesecake with Ritz crust

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I had been wanting to try making a cheesecake in my Instant Pot, but I didn’t have a small enough Springform Pan, but I did have a big one I bought years ago, and had never used, so I figured I should try the one I already had before I spent more money on one for my Instant Pot.

Except… We are low on Graham Crackers and I didn’t want to make a trip to a store in my coronavirus mask just for Graham Crackers… So I got creative with what I had…

Ritz Cracker Crust…

  • 1.5 Cups crushed Ritz (that’s about 45 crackers)
  • 3 Tablespoons of sugar
  • 1/3 Cup Melted Butter (that’s about 5 1/3 Tablespoons)

Mix your crackers and sugar together first, then slowly pour in the melted butter while stirring. After mixed, press into bottom and slightly the sides of your springform pan. Bake at 350 degrees for 15 minutes, then let it cool while you work on the filling.

The rest was easy…

  • 3 cups (24 ounces) of room temperature cream cheese
  • 1 cup of peanut butter, I used crunchy
  • 1 1/4 cups of powdered sugar
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 1 1/4 cups of heavy whipping cream

First whip together the cream cheese and peanut butter until it’s no longer lumpy, then I added in 1/4 cups of powdered sugar at a time while whipping it all together, finally I added the vanilla extract. Once it was all ready, I added in the cold heavy whipping cream and blended until peaks formed.

Scoop it all into your cooled down crust, spread it as smooth as possible, and chill it for an hour.

I also made a chocolate mousse to add a little decorative border…

I used my immersion blender for this step.

  • 1 cup of heavy whipping cream
  • 1 Tablespoon Cocoa powder
  • 2 Tablespoons powdered sugar
  • 1 teaspoon Almond Extract

First I whipped the heavy whipping cream until it started to get thick, then I added in the cocoa powder, powdered sugar, and almond extract and kept whipping until it was thick and fluffy.

I put it in a piping bag and chilled along with the cheesecake then added the decorations after I removed the cheesecake from the springform pan.

Voila! ❤️

I also tried to save this as a draft after I wrote the crust recipe and… It published 🙈so my apologies for getting only part of the recipe in your inbox 📬. I hope you enjoy it!