Bea's of Bloomsbury, Chocolate Peanut Butter Cheesecake

I was so taken by Bea's of Bloomsbury when I went there for an afternoon tea, that I came back the next opportunity I had to kill some time in London. I didn't have casual afternoon tea supping time, but I did have a sweet tooth and a couple minutes to kill. Again, I visited the St. Paul's branch, and the service was once again perfectly fine--quite friendly, even! Basically, I wouldn't let Bea's reputation as a place with unfriendly servers scare you off of this location; I have no experience with their Matlby Street outpost our their original Bloomsbury location.

Since I was technically supposed to be on my way home, I picked something up to be split between me and my husband later on that evening. The girl at the counter advised me that this peanut butter cheesecake was a better choice for a shared sweet than the peanut butter cupcake, and it made sense based on mass alone. It was a very generous slice!

Aw, nice. It made the the treck back to my flat very well, it was in a tight-fitting box so it didn't get jostled around too much. You can see the layers in the cheesecake, the top layer is sort of a peanut butter ganache, underneath that is dense chocolate fudge, and then a thick slab of cheesecake with a biscuit crust. I wasn't sure what the crumble on top was going to be, looked a bit like Butterfinger bits but that seemed unlikely.

This really tasted amazing, the peanut butter ganache layer tasted like Reese's style peanut butter, so salty but sweet. The fudge was a semi-sweet chocolate, and coupled so well with the peanut butter topping. Kind of like a dark chocolate Reese's...I'd be absolutely fine to eat this layer as an entire pie, but then again I'm crazy for peanut butter chocolate. Also, I'd be missing out on this delicious cheesecake. Check out the texture:

Perfect! The photo doesn't do it justice, but this is just the kind of cheesecake I love. Dense and fully baked. Nice and chunky, I'm not into those whipped style cheesecakes, or the kind that are set with gelatin in the fridge. This is a proper 'NY' style cheesecake that makes you feel like you ate a solid mass of baked cream cheese. One thing to keep in mind, and I don't think it is a negative, this is a regular vanilla cheesecake base, the only peanut butter here is up on the top. Totally fine by me, otherwise it would probably be much too rich. Peanut butter is best left as an accent, as it is such a strong taste. The crumbles, as it turns out, are crushed peanuts that have a nice roast-y taste to 'em. This was really a wonderful cheesecake, and splitting it with my husband straight down the middle left us both feeling contentedly stuffed and sweetened up. For about £4.00, split two ways, this wasn't a bad dessert at all.

I really think it is worth grabbing something like this from Bea's if you're in the area, and I can particularly vouch for the St. Paul's location. I also like the movie night thing they're doing, it looks like a dinner event where you get chili dogs, macaroni and cheese, and apparently deep fried brownies. Unfortunately all the movies in the next month I'm either not particularly interested in (Footloose...sorry), or I've already seen a few times (Blazing Saddles!), or would bore the pants off my husband (All About Eve). Next month, maybe!