Recipe Review: Mini Butterfinger Cheesecakes

Not only do I have butter fingers (it's true, stuff falls out of my hands ALL THE TIME), but I love Butterfinger chocolate bars.  Chocolate, peanut butter and Bart Simpson equals a great combination.  Then add cheesecake into the mix and I have myself a delicious after dinner dessert... or after work snack...

or breakfast...

The original recipe from Favorite Family Recipes called for a mini muffin pan, which I don't have and didn't want to buy.  I ended up increasing the baking time to account for me using a regular muffin pan. 

Mini Butterfinger Cheesecakes
from Favorite Family Recipes

For the crust:
1 c crushed vanilla wafers
2 tbsp sugar
2 tbsp butter
pinch of salt

For the cake:
8 oz softenend cream cheese
1/4 c creamy peanut butter (I used about 1/2 cup because I wanted more peanut butter taste)
1/2 c sugar
1 egg
2 tbsp heavy cream
pinch of salt
4 fun size Butterfinger bars, crushed

For the topping:
1 c semi-sweet chocolate chips
2  fun size Butterfinger bars, crushed

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.  Mix together the wafer crumbs, sugar, butter and salt in a bowl.  Press the mixture onto the bottom of each cup of the muffin tin.  Bake for 10 minutes.

Reduce the oven to 300 degrees.  Beat the cream cheese and peanut butter until smooth.  Beat in the sugar, egg, cream and salt until it's all well combined.  Slowly stir in the crushed Butterfingers.  Pour the batter evenly over the baked crusts.  Bake for 20-30 minutes or until the cheesecakes are set (mine were done after about 30 minutes with a regular muffin tin).  Let them cool for about 2 hours and remove them from the pan.

Melt the chocolate chips until smooth.  Spoon the melted chocolate over the cheesecakes and sprinkle the crushed Butterfingers over top.

The BF, who doesn't like Butterfingers, even ate some.  He said he left me the majority of the cheesecakes because he knows I like Butterfingers.  It was his subtle way to say he didn't care for them.  Oh well, more for me!

And apparently, the dog and cat even like Butterfingers.  I came home to this.

Here's how I think it went down. 

I leave for the store.  Cat jumps up on counter (where he knows he's not allowed).  Walks around on counter, including my food prep space, looking for something to scavenge (we think it's the "hunt" for him).  Cat finds candy bars in bag.  Cat sticks head into bag.  Cat manages to pull out two candy bars (whether at once or not, who knows).  Cat drops them from his mouth onto kitchen floor.  Dog hears something fall onto floor.  Dog goes to kitchen to investigate.  Cat jumps off from counter to get to candy bars.  Dog sees Cat show interest in candy bars.  Dog runs to candy bars, grabs them in her mouth and brings to living room.  Dog proceeds to rip open the wrappers and eat both candy bars.  Dog growls at Cat while he tries to approach.  Dog sniffs the carpet for candy bar crumbs.  Dog jumps onto couch and falls asleep until I get home.  Cat approaches the candy bar wrappers for any leftover crumbs.  Cat walks away and carries on with his day.  Cat and Dog hear the front door open.  Cat runs under the bed and hides because he knows he's in trouble.  Dog wakes up and tries to hide under couch blankets.  Owner is impressed Dog ripped open the wrappers and didn't eat them.  Owner thinks Dog is genius.  Dog will now probably get an upset stomach and diarrhea.  Cat will probably jump on the counter again to chew on something, just to spite us.  The end.