Peanut Butter Cheese Cake Mini's

The other day I watched "Best Places to Pig Out" on the Travel Channel, and of course ever since then, I’ve wanted no-list foods like greasy burgers, fries and milkshakes. I’m one of those people that if you saw me, you’d laugh that I was even watching that show. I was intrigued not so much by the pig-out factor, but wanted to hear what places are considered local legends. One of the places on the show was a diner that has pancakes, in Seiad Valley, CA. Hubby has a friend that lives nearby and he said it is a small town, it’s surprising that it made it on the show. Small world.

Today I made Peanut Butter Cheese Cake Mini’s that was on "Paula’s Party" recently. They’re beyond cute. The reviews on Foodnetwork.com predominantly say that the recipe makes way too much crust and filling. I made half a batch and ended up with 6 regular (cupcake) size cheesecakes and 12 mini-muffin ones, with a little crust left over. I used more candy in mine so that was probably a factor. I didn’t want to buy a whole bag of Reese’s mini’s for only 6, and got a regular candy bar package instead. I was going to cut the two cups into six pieces, but hubby suggested using a whole candy in each one. I split fun-size Snickers up for the rest of them.

I took some to my sis-in-law’s and they thought they’d be good at a party. Cheesecake has a reputation for being too rich, and I think the fact that they’re cupcake-sized makes the mini’s more tempting than a regular slice. The "I’ll just have one" kind of psychology. They’re tasty, though, and it would be easy to say "I’ll just have one more."

I liked the taste of the Snicker’s ones. The caramel oozed into the crust and got kind of chewy, though, and the texture of the Reese’s ones were better.