needs more sugar

This cheesecake is so good, so so good. It’s almost like a chocolate mousse with a biscuity base than a cheesecake. Super light and fluffy, packing a bag full of chocolatey happiness in every bite. YUM!

A word of warning for those of you with as little resolve as me when waiting for things to set or refridgerate for the specified time.. listen to this step, they mean it. I was a bit over enthusiastic the night I made it, thinking to myself what better way to wrap up a great weekend than with a slice of the awesome looking cheesecake I slaved over in a stinking hot kitchen for.

Bad idea, the base hadn’t had enough time to set – so was still all wet. I was rather distraught because I thought my attempts at wrapping the spring form cake tin in layers of foil to stop water leaking in were a waste of time, and my whole cake ruined.

When I checked it again the next morning it was perfect!

It took everything I had not to eat the whole thing myself. Thankfully I get to watch my work people enjoy it – which is one of the best parts of baking for me I think. :)

Ingredients:
(Makes 10-12 slices)

900g cream cheese
190g caster sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
4 eggs
200g dark chocolate

Base:

200g digestive biscuits
2 tablespoons cocoa powder
150g unsulted butter, melted

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 150°C
2. For the base, roughly break up the digestive biscuits and put them in a food processor with the cocoa powder. Process until finely ground.
3. Slowly pour in the melted butter while the motor is running.
4. Press this mixture into the base of the prepared cake tin, using a spoon to compress it
5. Refrigerate while you make the topping
6. Put the cream cheese, sugar and vanilla extract in a freestanding electric mixture with a paddle attachment and beat on a slow speed until you get a very smooth, thick mixture.
7. Add one egg at a time while still mixing, scrape any unmixed ingredients from the side of the bowl after adding the second and last eggs – the mixture should be very smooth and creamy
8. The mixer can be turned up to a higher speed at the end to make the mix lighter and fluffier, but be careful not to overmix or the cheese will split
9. Put the chocolate in a heatproof bowl over a saucepan of simmering water (don’t let the base of bowl touch the water). Leave until melted and smooth, stirring occasionally to get the bigger chunks moving. Take off the heat
10. Spoon a little of the cream cheese mixture into the melted chocolate, stir to mix then add a little more. This will even out the temperatures of the 2 mixtures
11. Eventually stir all the cream cheese mixture into the chocolate mixture and mix until well combined and smooth
12. Spoon the mixture onto the cold cheesecake base, put the tin inside a deep baking tray and fill with water until 2/3 the way up the side of the cake tin
13. Bake for 40-50 minutes, checking regularly after 40 minutes to make sure it isn’t burning. It should still be wobbly in the centre when cooked
14. Leave the cheesecake to cool in the tin for a bit before popping it in the fridge  overnight before serving

Crumbs…

• wrap the outside of the tin in a couple of layers of foil to make sure that water doesn’t leak in while you’re baking in the water bath
• Some white choc chips mixed in just before pouring the choc mix into the tin would be delish. I didn’t have any in the cupboard so had to make do.

SO GOOD!

Recipe from the Hummingbird Bakery Cookbook.

Tags: chocolate

This entry was posted on November 21, 2010 at 1:50 pm and is filed under cakes, cheesecake. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.