Master Baker March Challenge Part I

Master Baker hosts a baking contest each month, and each month there is a different theme ingredient. This month's ingredient is Easter Candy. I am definitely inspired! I started with a list of about 15 different ideas and variations thereof. My favorite was a cupcake with a Cadbury mini creme egg in the middle, but a quick search turned up evidence that someone else has already tested and come up with a good recipe for it, which they are already entering, so I went back to the drawing board.

Another immediate thought was that peeps belong in some sort of s'mores-inspired dessert (which could be triggered by seeing s'mores cupcakes recently) I opted for more of a pie/bar sort of dessert. It has a gram cracker crust, a layer of peep bunnies, and then a layer of chocolate ganache. Heated, up for about 30 seconds in the microwave, the idea is that it's just like a

s'more, all melty and gooey. I just have to try this one out and make sure that it actually is good.

Then, I wandered the Easter candy aisle in the grocery store, and found true inspiration! I had no idea that there were Reese's easter eggs that are peanut butter filled chocolate. I had to make a cheesecake with them!

Reese's Egg Cheesecake

1 bag of reese's eggs
6 oz cream cheese
1 14 oz can of sweetened condensed milk
1 tsp vanilla
1 egg
1 oreo crust (I use a deep dish or extra capacity pre-made. If you use a regular size pre-made, you'll have extra batter)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Unwrap and layer reese's eggs on the bottom of the pie crust. (I didn't use all of them, but somewhere between 1/2 and 3/4 of a big bag).
Beat softened cream cheese until fluffy.
Add milk slowly, and beat until smooth.
Add vanilla and egg, and beat until combined.
Pour cream cheese mixture over eggs.
Bake at 350 for 35-40 min.

I think next I'll try this recipe with a layer of mini Cadbury creme eggs. I just have to decide what to submit for the contest. I have a few more ideas, but I think I'm most excited about the Reese's cheesecake.

EDIT: After taste-testing the reese's cheesecake, I think that I want to try again with an actual sprinform pan. While the ready-made crusts are easier, I just don't feel like the ratio is right that way. I think if I could pile the cheesecake higher, it might compensate better for the sugary richness of the layer of peanut butter chocolate on the bottom. I'll try take 2 when I recover from the sugar coma I'm in. Perhaps it'll do better as mini cheesecakes with just one egg each? This requires more thought and a lot of veggies to flush out my system. It also requires that someone eat all the food coming out of my kitchen!

EDIT again: Everyone else seems quite happy with the richness. It's possible that I was biased from eating too many sweets before getting to this taste-testing.