Peanut Butter Chocolate Cottage Cheese Cheesecake Cups
Published 1/15/2024 • Updated 8/6/2024
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You’ll absolutely love these peanut butter chocolate cottage cheese cheesecake cups! They’re protein-packed thanks to blended cottage cheese and taste just like cheesecake, but with added protein.
Raise your hand if you love the cottage cheese dessert trend! We certainly are! Whipped cottage cheese is super creamy, delicious and protein-packed. And today we’re sharing our new fave healthy dessert — these peanut butter chocolate protein cheesecake cups. Can you say delish?!
Why You’ll love these Cottage cheese Cheesecake cups
The combination of peanut butter and chocolate is a crowd-pleaser and the cottage cheese cheesecake filling is ultra creamy and simple to make. These cups are made with 3 layers — graham cracker crust, peanut butter cheesecake filling, and a chocolate magic shell.
Peanut butter + chocolate = love
3 layers of heaven
Super nutritious and protein-rich
What You Need for these Cottage Cheese Cheesecake Cups
This peanut butter chocolate cheesecake is composed of 3 different layers. Yes, you get three bites of flavor in every bite. Here’s what you need:
Graham cracker layer
- Graham crackers
- Butter
Cottage cheese(cake) layer
- Cottage cheese
- Honey
- Peanut butter
Chocolate layer
- Semi-sweet chocolate
- Coconut oil
Variations
- Sweetener: you can swap out honey for maple syrup or agave.
- Nut butter: any kind of nut butter will work for this recipe. Feel free to try almond butter or cashew butter.
- Graham crackers: chocolate graham crackers would work and be delicious as well!
- Fat: you’re more than welcome to use coconut oil instead of butter.
Our #1 Tip
Make sure to use full-fat cottage cheese. Not only will it make your cheesecake cups luscious and creamy, but they will taste better too.
Nonfat cottage cheese has a higher water content, which will make the filling more watery. And, if you plan to freeze them, they may be “icy.”
Storage
Store your peanut butter cottage cheesecake cups in an airtight container in the freezer for up to 3 months.
Peanut Butter Chocolate Cheesecake Cups
Ingredients
Graham cracker layer
- 9 graham crackers, full sheets
- 4 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
Chocolate layer
- 6 oz. semi-sweet chocolate, chopped (~¾ cup chocolate chips)
- 2 teaspoons coconut oil
Cottage cheese layer
- 10 oz. 4% cottage cheese*
- ⅓ cup creamy, all-natural peanut butter (we used Smucker’s All-Natural)
- ¼ cup + 1 tablespoon honey
Toppings
- Flakey sea salt
- Mini chocolate chips
Instructions
- First, preheat the oven to 350ºF and line a muffin tin with muffin liners. Generously spray with nonstick cooking spray.
- Prepare the graham cracker crust. Place graham crackers and butter into a high-speed food processor. Process on high until the mixture forms a crumble.
- Spoon 1 tablespoon of the graham cracker crumbs into each muffin cup. Use a spoon to press the crumble down into the liners.
- Bake the graham cracker crust for 5 minutes at 350ºF. Remove the crust from the oven and allow the crust to cool.
- Prepare the chocolate layer. Add the chocolate and coconut oil to a microwave-safe bowl, and microwave on high in 20-second increments, stirring in between until the chocolate is fully melted.
- Scoop two heaping teaspoons of the melted chocolate onto the top of the graham cracker crust. Spread it evenly over the crust and transfer the pan to the freezer for 10 minutes.
- Prepare the peanut butter layer. Add the cottage cheese, peanut butter, and honey into a high-powered food processor and process on high until thick, creamy, and no lumps. This will take between 2-4 minutes depending on the food processor used.
- Scoop 1.5-2 heaping tablespoons of the cottage cheese mixture to the top of the chocolate layer and evenly spread the layer out. Top with mini chocolate chips and flakey salt.
- Transfer the pan to the freezer and freeze for at least 2 hours to firm up.
Tips & Notes
- Store in the freezer for up to 3 months.
- Any nut butter can be used in place of peanut butter.
- Cottage cheese: fat-free cottage cheese tends to be more watery than full-fat cottage cheese, which will cause the cheesecake to become “icy” if frozen. We suggest using full fat.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
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These were easy and my family really liked them, even my husband who usually doesnt care for anything cottage cheese. We will be making again!
Very good! But beware: do not bake your graham cracker crusts at 350 for 5 minutes – mine burned to a crisp because every oven is different. On my second attempt I did 300 for 6 minutes, monitoring every 2 min. Sad to have wasted a whole sleeve of graham crackers but the second attempt was great.
OMG- so easy and delicious! Very easy to make gluten free as well with gluten free graham crackers- the cheesecake texture was silky and creamy; no one would guess they’re made with cottage cheese!
I love this flavor combo! These are so yummy and you’d never guess they’re made with cottage cheese.
Yummmm I loved this one!
Very tasty! But hard to eat with the frozen layer of chocolate in it. But it’s worth it 😉
The creamy cottage cheese hack is my favorite as of late, and these were no exception. These were a bit hit at a dinner party.
I love cheesecake so I knew I just had to make this. Might be my favorite of the protein dessert series. Sooo delicious! Also so easy
Oh man these were so good!! Perhaps my favorite from the protein dessert series— tasted like peanut butter cheesecake. Definitely will make these again.
This was my favorite recipe in the protein dessert series! We made them into bars because we didn’t have a muffin tin, and they were amazing. The PB cottage cheese layer was my favorite part!