How to Make Peanut Butter Cheesecake with Greek Yoghurt

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This Peanut Butter and Greek Yoghurt Cheesecake tastes indulgent and rich – but thanks to the Greek Yoghurt, it is lower in fat than your standard cheesecake. Topped with a creamy Chocolate mousse, this cake is begging to be sliced into. It’s a show-stopper, for sure!

Ingredients in my No Bake Peanut Butter & Greek Yoghurt Cheesecake

This Cake is free from unrefined sugar, flour, cream cheese and eggs. It is not completely dairy free, because of the yoghurt. It is a lighter Cheesecake but with the same creamy richness. It tastes indulgent, but it is far from it! I can that a significant dessert success! Now can you see why I have dessert every night?

For the Base:

The base is an adaptation of my No Bake Cookies Recipe. I have added oats to make the texture a bit more biscuit-like, and peanut butter for added flavour.

• Desiccated Coconut – you can use the desiccated coconut to make coconut butter cheaply. Simply blend until the desiccated coconut turns into a paste. That’s coconut butter! You will need a high speed blender for this. If you have coconut butter on hand, you will need a 1/2 cup of that.
• Oats, ground – the oats increase the volume of the base mixture so that it goes further. Plus, they make the texture a bit more biscuit-like. Without the oats, the base would be rock-hard, almost impenetrable!
• Truvia – the chocolate base needs sweetness, but not too much, since the filling is also quite sweet. Just 3 tablespoons of Truvia should do the job!
• Salt – enhances the sweetness and balances the chocolate flavour, salt is an essential ingredient.
• Vanilla essence – Vanilla essence also enhances the chocolate flavour. Without it, the flavour is just like sweetened cocoa – which is not ideal. Do not skimp on the vanilla essence!
• Cocoa Powder – add more cocoa for a darker chocolate flavour, and less for a milder version. I use about 3 heaped tablespoons, which is just a little bit dark.
• Peanut Butter – peanut butter also helps to bind the base, while adding a yummy peanutty edge to this biscuit base. It just makes it YUM!

For the Filling:

The filling is a thick, creamy, cheese-like structure, flavoured with peanut butter and vanilla. It’s rich, but not too rich. Sweet, but not too sweet. This filling is really cheap to make if you make the yoghurt yourself and strain it. Check out my Homemade Yoghurt Recipe here.

• Desiccated Coconut – again, the desiccated coconut is used to make coconut butter cheaply. If you have coconut butter on hand, use about 1/2 – 1 full cup of it. The more you use, the firmer the cheesecake will set.
• Coconut cream – the coconut cream is present to bring richness to the mixture. Undiluted Greek yoghurt can be tangy, and the coconut cream helps to marry it with the peanut butter. My best tip for coconut cream is to put it in the fridge overnight before you make it. The cream will solidify, and separate from the clear liquid. When making the cake, scrape off the solidified cream and discard the clear liquid.
• Peanut butter – use about 1 whole cup for a peanut butter flavour bomb! The peanut butter I use is quite runny, so if yours is like that, don’t worry! The cheesecake will still set.
• Greek Yoghurt – the Greek Yoghurt needs to be SUPER thick, with no whey left. I strained my homemade yoghurt for about 18 hours to get it to the right texture. It is almost the same texture as spreadable cream cheese.
• Sweetener – I use Truvia to sweeten this cake, because only 5 tablespoons are needed to get the sweetness needed. It’s the cheapest way to make a refined sugar free dessert.
• Vanilla Essence – Vanilla Essence is the ingredient that really elevates this peanut butter base. It dessert-ifies the peanut butter and adds another layer of flavour.

For the Whipped Chocolate Mousse Topping:

This Chocolate Mousse topping is my favourite 2.5 Ingredient Mousse Recipe. It’s the easiest mousse recipe to make and is free from eggs, dairy, and added sugar. And I love that the majority of the mousse is a by-product from a tin of Chickpeas! I mean, you cannot get more budget friendly than that!

• Dark chocolate – the dark Chocolate needs to have 50% cocoa solids so that the chocolate flavour carries through when diluted by the whipped aquafaba.
• Aquafaba – you only need the aquafaba from one tin of chickpeas to make this mousse topping.
• White vinegar – the White Vinegar stabilises the aquafaba and helps it to stiffen.

How to Make the Peanut Butter & Greek Yoghurt Cheesecake

This No Bake Cheesecake is super simple to make. It’s mainly a blitz-and-chill affair. The most difficult part is the folding of the melted chocolate through the Aquafaba, but hey, you can do that!

Prepare the base:

Line a 22cm loose bottomed cake tin with baking paper.

The first step in this recipe is to make the coconut butter. Grind the Desiccated coconut in a high-speed blender until the coconut becomes paste-like. This should take 2 minutes or so. It may start to look a bit dry as you transfer it, but as long as it is paste-like initially, then it should be fine.

Transfer to a mixing bowl, and add the other ingredients. If you do not have oat flour, you can make that now by blending oats until fine.

Mix or blend all the ingredients for the base, until processed evenly. I prefer to use my hands to rub it into a cohesive mix. The mixture is quite heavy, and I like to give my food processor a break after making the coconut butter and oat flour.

Press firmly into a lined loose-bottomed 22cm cake tin, and place into the fridge to set while you make the filling.

Prepare the Filling:

To start the filling you need to make another batch of Coconut butter. Blend the desiccated coconut until it releases it’s natural oils and becomes creamy and paste-like. This should take 2 minutes or so in your high-speed blender (I actually use a coffee grinder).

Transfer to a mixing bowl and add the coconut cream and peanut butter. Whisk until smooth, to ensure the ground coconut butter is fully incorporated. There is a risk here that the coconut butter can form shards throughout the mixture, so be sure to add the coconut cream slowly, whisking constantly.

The last thing to do is to fold in the Greek Yoghurt, sweetener and vanilla. Try to keep the fold strokes to a minimum, as the greek yoghurt can loosen the more it is beaten.

Pour over the prepared base, and return the cake tin to the fridge to set for a minimum of 3 hours. Overnight is best.

For the Whipped Chocolate Mousse topping:

To make the mousse, you will need to start my melting the chocolate over a bain marie. Set aside to cool while whipping the aquafaba.

Pour the Aquafaba into a clean mixing bowl. Add the slosh of Vinegar (or lemon juice. About 2 tablespoons). The vinegar will help the aquafaba to stiffen correctly. Using electric beaters, whip the aquafaba until it is stiff. It should remain in the bowl if you turn the bowl upside down.

Using a spatula or wooden spoon, transfer a quarter of the aquafaba to the melted chocolate. Fold through, using careful strokes. Quarter by quarter fold the aquafaba through, being careful not to over or under mix.

Pile onto the chilled cake and return to the fridge to set.