CHOCOLATE PEANUT BUTTER CHEESECAKE CUPS

CHOCOLATE PEANUT BUTTER CHEESECAKE CUPS
6 Magical Peanut Butter Cookies
8 ounces cream cheese, softened
1/4 cup natural peanut butter
1 egg
1/4 cup granular Splenda or equivalent liquid Splenda
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
6 paper cupcake liners

Glaze:
4 ounces MiniCarb chocolate chips, generous 1/2 cup
2 tablespoons butter
2 tablespoons heavy cream
1/4 teaspoon vanilla

Place the cupcake liners in a muffin tin. Place 1 cookie in the bottom of each cup and press firmly to form a crust. The cookies will crumble very easily with your fingers. In a small bowl, beat the next 5 ingredients with an electric mixer just until well combined. Divide batter between the muffin cups. Bake at 350?20 minutes. They will puff up quite high, but will settle as they cool. Cool on a rack until you can remove them from the muffin tin. Place them on a baking sheet and freeze 1 hour before spreading with the glaze.

For the glaze, place the chocolate chips and butter in a small glass bowl and microwave on 50% power 1-2 minutes or until melted, stirring after the first minute. Stir until well blended and smooth, then stir in the cream and vanilla until smooth. Carefully remove each cheesecake from its paper liner and place on a wax paper-lined baking sheet. Spoon the glaze over the tops and spread down the sides to coat completely. You'll need to work kind of fast before the glaze starts to set up. Chill several hours before serving or freeze 30-60 minutes for faster chilling.

Makes 6 servings
Can be frozen

With granular Splenda:
Per Serving: 441 Calories; 37g Fat; 12g Protein; 18g Carbohydrate; 9g Dietary Fiber; 9g Net Carbs

With liquid Splenda:
Per Serving: 431 Calories; 37g Fat; 12g Protein; 16g Carbohydrate; 9.5g Dietary Fiber; 6.5g Net Carbs

These are very decadent and rich and would make a nice dessert for Valentine's Day or any special occasion. For the cheesecake filling, I was following a recipe that I'd found online but doubled the sweetener. I still think they could use more sweetener. I might go with 1/2 cup next time, but you can taste the batter to see if it's to your liking. Splenda sweetened desserts lose a bit of their sweetness with baking and chilling so use enough Splenda so that it's slightly sweeter than you think you'd like or combine the Splenda with another heat stable sweetener, such as Stevia. Although these look kind of fancy, they were really very easy to make. Click here for a close-up. Here's a photo of one before I cut it in open:

If you'd like to make these without the chocolate glaze, here are the counts:

With granular Splenda:
Per Serving: 289 Calories; 25g Fat; 10g Protein; 8g Carbohydrate; 1g Dietary Fiber; 7g Net Carbs

With liquid Splenda:
Per Serving: 279 Calories; 25g Fat; 10g Protein; 5g Carbohydrate; 1g Dietary Fiber; 4g Net Carbs

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