Peanut Butter in Cheesecake

Asked by jengronick. Answered on 19th June 2013

Full question

For Nigella's Chocolate Peanut Butter Cheesecake do you use natural smooth peanut butter or sweetened smooth peanut butter? Thanks!

For Nigella's Chocolate Peanut Butter Cheesecake, can I use natural peanut butter or Skippy-like peanut butter? Mmgareau.

Our answer

Natural peanut butter is made solely from peanuts that have been roasted and ground to a fine paste. Regular peanut butter usually has added oil, sugar and salt. Natural peanut butter tends to be slightly runnier at room temperature than regular peanut butter and also the oils will separate as it stands, though these can be stirred in again before using. It can turn rancid more quickly than regular peanut butter. Natural peanut butter is much more common in the US than in the UK.

Most recipes using peanut butter will state if the natural type is to be used, and if nothing is specified then you should usually assume that the regular type of peanut butter is to be used. Nigella's Chocolate Peanut Butter Cheesecake (from Kitchen) has been tested using the regualr type of smooth peanut butter. If you were to use the natural type then you would potentially need to increase the sugar and possibly add some salt for a better flavour. We are also not sure how stable natural peanut butter would be in the cheesecake so we would not particularly recommend using natural peanut butter.