Chocolate Cheesecake

Several years ago I made a cheesecake using one of my moms old cookbooks (Better Homes and Gardens New Baking Book- you can find it here.) It was so tasty that I've probably made it about a bazillion times since then! Christian is an especially big fan of these cheesecakes so I decided to whip one up for Valentines Day and thought I would share the recipe here as well. This recipe is super simple and if you're looking for the perfect chocolate cheesecake I would definitely recommend giving this one a try.

 

Chocolate Cheesecake

1 3/4 cups of crushed wafers or graham cracker crumbs

1/3 cup butter

4 ounces of semi sweet chocolate

1 ounce ounce unsweetened chocolate

3 8-ounce packets of cream cheese

1 1/4 cups of sugar

2 tablespoons of all purpose flour

1 teaspoon vanilla

4 eggs

1/4 cup of milk

1. Mix butter and crushed wafers to create crust. Press crust into the bottom of a springform pan and chill while preparing filling.

2. In a small saucepan combine the unsweetened and semisweet chocolate and melt on low heat.

3. In a large mixing bowl beat cream cheese, flour, sugar, and vanilla until smooth. While mixing, add melted chocolate and beat until combined. Add eggs all at once and beat just until everything is combined. Stir in milk.

4. Pour the filling over your already prepared crust and bake at 350 degrees for 45-50 minutes. Cool for 15 minutes, remove pan and cool for another hour before serving.

I would recommend baking your cheesecake in a water bath to help prevent it from cracking. This is super simple and is explained in detail here.

I am the absolute worst about going to the grocery store for a few specific things and forgetting to buy at least one of said things. When I made my valentines cheesecake I forgot to buy unsweetened chocolate . I didn't feel like running to the grocery store so I got innovative and substituted with a few sprinkles of unsweetened cocoa powder. This seemed to work great!
 
Now for the icing. I typically change up my topping each time I make this recipe. This time I came up with a simple whipped chocolate topping.

Whipped Chocolate Topping

1/3 cup heavy whipping cream

2 oz milk chocolate

1 tbsp. cocoa powder

1 tsp vanilla

1-2 tsp powdered sugar

To make the topping I combined the whipping cream, cocoa powder, vanilla and powdered sugar and beat the mixture until it thickened. After melting the 2 oz milk chocolate I added it to the whipped mixture and beat for several seconds.

And that's it for this super easy chocolate cheesecake and topping.
Happy Baking!