Tin Roof Cheesecake
It seems that certain nuts are getting all the attention these days: walnuts and almonds, I’m lookin’ at you. Even pistachios have their own commercials with famous people and cartoon characters! Don’t get me wrong, I love all nuts. There are great walnut, almond and pistachio growers in my county and I buy local nuts frequently. However, we did not grow up with such fancy nuts; peanuts and pecans are more familiar. Mr. Dessert For Two grew up in Georgia—let’s all pause to acknowledge how cute it is that two Southerners met each other in California. Now, moving on, peanuts are an important crop in Georgia, Texas and Alabama, and I’m asking you to help bring them back in style by eating them covered in chocolate. Deal? If you haven’t heard before, ‘tin roof’ refers to the combination of chocolate and peanuts. It’s a match made in heaven. This chocolate cheesecake has a chocolate wafer and ground peanut crust and is topped with an artful display of chocolate covered peanuts. Feel free to use store-bought chocolate covered peanuts, but I also gave a quick recipe for homemade.
- 1¾ oz. chocolate wafers (~7 cookies)
- 2 tablespoons halved roasted unsalted peanuts
- ½ teaspoon sugar
- pinch of salt
- 1½ tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
- 5 oz. cream cheese, softened
- 1 oz. bittersweet chocolate, melted
- 2 teaspoons cocoa powder
- 3 tablespoons sugar
- 1 large egg
- ¼ teaspoon vanilla
- 2 oz. bittersweet chocolate
- 1 tablespoon butter
- 1 tablespoon honey (or corn syrup)
- pinch of salt
- ¼ cup halved roasted unsalted peanuts
- Preheat the oven to 350° and grease a small 5” spring form pan.
- In a food processor, make the crust by grinding together the chocolate wafers, peanuts, sugar, salt and melted butter. Pour the mixture into the spring form pan, and pack it down and up the sides of the pan. Pack very well using a shot glass or small glass.
- Bake the crust on a baking sheet for 8 or 9 minutes. When done, remove from oven and turn the oven down to 300°.
- Meanwhile, beat together all cheesecake ingredients. Beat until very well combined, but don’t over do it—you’ll put too much air in the batter and cause cracks in your final product.
- Pour the mixture into the crust and bake for 36-38 minutes, until the center is slightly jiggly but not wet when you touch it.
- Leave the cheesecake in the oven, but turn the oven off and prop the door open with a wooden spoon. Let sit for 30 minutes.
- After 30 minutes, move the cheesecake to a wire rack to cool another 30 minutes.
- Finally, run a knife around the edge of the pan, and then cover with plastic wrap before moving it to the refrigerator. All of these steps ensure that your cheesecake will not crack or deflate.
- Let the cheesecake chill for a minimum of 4 hours.
- Meanwhile, make the chocolate covered peanuts: have ready a sheet pan lined with wax paper or a silicone mat.
- Combine all ingredients except peanuts in a double boiler and melt over low heat (you can also use your microwave on 20-second pulses). Once chocolate is melted and shiny, stir in the peanuts. Immediately pour this mixture onto the awaiting sheet pan and let cool until set in the fridge (~10 minutes).
- When ready to serve the cheesecake, unmold it carefully from the spring form pan, move it to a plate and decorate with large chunks of the chocolate covered peanuts.
It is a pretty cute story about 2 southerners meeting in CA!
Tin Roof Sundae was always one of my favorite ice creams and I don’ t think I’ve ever seen it this far north! Lovely photos of your delicious cheesecake!
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Oh how pretty!! Looks so decadent and delicious!
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This looks fantastic! The best of all worlds in one cake!
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This looks so insanely delicious! Part of me wants to skip work to buy the ingredients and make this all for myself!
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Oooh I got little springform pans this size at my bridal shower this weekend and have already been searching for recipes that I could convert down. Love that this is already converted. What perfect timing!
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This looks sinfully amazing. Want!
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Chocolate and peanuts are absolutely amazing together… And this is a gorgeous dessert!
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That is an incredible looking cheesecake!!! I am going to be on the lookout for a mini spring form pan!
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Oh man this looks sooo good!!! If I’m ever up north a ways….I’m stopping in for a big slice of this!!
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Oh, you’ve hit on a couple of favorites of mine! I want some now! Chocolate and peanuts…come to mama!
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It IS pretty cute that you two met In California. I wish I had found me a cute southern boy up here in IL. Or, even better, maybe my husband could just adopt a southern accent and I’ll keep him!
This cheesecake looks delish! I’m always up for a few good peanuts in my life.
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that looks absolutely divine! i absolutely love chocolate covered peanuts– back to my goober-eating movie theatre days in high school.
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You wouldn’t happen to be talking about Snooki doing the pistachio commercials would you?! The picture of the cheesecake has me craving chocolate at 1:42 in the morning!! Especially the top part, I’d pick all that off if I made it
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My newest obsession with ice cream happens to be Tin Roof! My dad used to eat it all the time when I was a kid, and I always knocked it…now, I could eat it by the gallon. My butt shows it. Thanks for a new way to enjoy the combo! Can’t wait to try!
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I’m a Texas girl as well!! And I love, love, love chocolate. And cheesecake. Oh, AND chocolate covered peanuts!! So…this is a heavenly dessert for me – I will definitely have to try it soon!
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This looks so rich and decadent! Just how I like my cheesecake
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When I was growing up, Blue Bell’s Tin Roof Sundae ice cream was one of my favorites. I hadn’t thought of it in YEARS until I saw this post. Oh man, Christina. You’re a bad influence!
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Love these desserts…only one person here but one for today and one for tomorrow..found you via Ann in Montana…everything looks so good!
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OMG After the triple choco cupcake I thought your food porn could not get any better.
I stand corrected.
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I wasn’t going to do any baking this weekend, BUT… you’ve gone and done it again!
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This cheesecake looks awesome, especially with those nuts
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I’ve never heard of the term tin roof before! haha….that’s a pretty interesting name- for a very delicious combination
I didn’t eat nuts much when I was little- my family don’t really like nuts that much, so peanuts were pretty much the only nuts I knew when I was little 
This cheesecake looks so good!
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Peanuts and chocolate… that is a promise I can fully keep! Cheesecake is one of those desserts I really could always go for, just a slice of course…
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This cake looks scrumptious. And your topping is so pretty. Love the nuts in the crust, too. And it is so cute that two southerners met in California. It sure was fate! What a beautiful cake! : )
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Mmmmmm…such a great combination! Glad you posted this! : )
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Oh my goodness I need this cheesecake in my life asap! It looks INCREDIBLE!
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If your cheesecake suddenly disappears, it’s probably because I took it…..oops. This looks so incredibly decadent, and I love the wafer/peanut combo in the crust.
And I think fate is just aligned in that way for southerners…..I’m from Louisiana but go to school in Massachusetts, and my best friend there also happens to be from the south :p You never escape it.
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I learnt something new today thanks to you: first time I hear about ‘tin roof’
lovely cheesecake, chocolate makes everything better!
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I am drooling. This looks delicious. Do you know if it would work in a 6″ springform? Thanks for sharing.
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Christina Reply:
June 3rd, 2011 at 9:12 pm
Hi Alida,
Thanks for writing! I truly recommend a 5″ springform pan. If you try it in a 6″, let me know how it goes
Christina
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Beautiful little macaroons! I love the combination of chocolate and orange and can only imagine how delicious it would be in macaroon form!
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This looks so delicious and I love your idea to use chocolate covered peanut bark. So pretty and so tasty!
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I’m thinking of making this as an anniversary gift for friends!
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Wow, do these look good! As someone raise in the South (and thus still part Southern at heart), I adore peanuts. In fact, other than a taste for hazelnuts — a taste acquired later in life — that’s about it for me in the way of nuts. And since I love both chocolate and cheesecake, this goes on my must-try-very-soon list. Thanks!
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These look fabulous. I always love smaller batch cheesecakes and goodies. Solves the temptation of eating ‘the whole thing.’
The nuts on top look fab, too! I love Chocolate Cheesecake! Any time you’d like to do a guest post on DyingforChocolate.com, let me know. Love to have you stop by!
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Yum, you’ve got some reallllly delicious recipesss!!!
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[...] Tin Roof Cheesecake From Dessert For Two [...]
This looks dangerosly delicious! Good thing it’s small! Your blog is so cute & I love the concept of dessert for two!
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Hi there,
Just wanted to let you know we made this last week for Valentines Day in a 6″ springform pan. We increased the amount of cream cheese in the recipe to a full 8 oz and increased the cooking time by four minutes, but other than that, we left the recipe completely intact and loved it! This cheesecake was the perfect amount of really good chocolate flavor, especially for someone who really loves just plain ol’ New York Cheesecake! Thanks so much for such a great recipe!
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Wow!..chocolates are so yummy especially when it comes in a cake.
Merry Christmas…
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