Triple Chocolate Cheesecake

This is my husband's birthday cake, and what I generally make for most birthday parties. Since all we have here is gross disgusting weather (snow! whattt? I just stocked up on pastels!) I think it will be a baking week. Cheesecakes get a bad rap because they can be tricky, but there are a couple of things you can do to make it easier on yourself. Just remember, making a good cheesecake is as much an art as a science.

First tip: lay all of your ingredients first thing in the morning. You want them all to be room temperature.

You will need:

1 1/2 c oreo crumbs*** - see note below
3 Tbsp melted butter
3 - 8oz packages of cream cheese, softened
1 c granulated sugar
1/4 c unsweetened cocoa
4 large eggs (room temperature)*
3/4 c sour cream (room temperature)*
1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
8 oz semi-sweet chocolate, melted and cooled to room temperature**

Preheat your oven to 325. Get out your 9" x 3" springform pan, put the cookie crumbs and melted butter in it and mix well with a fork. Use your fingers to press it firmly into the bottom of the pan and just slightly up the sides.

***Note: I didn't have any oreos or oreo crumbs, so I mixed 1 1/2 c graham crumbs with 2 Tbsp cocoa and 2 Tbsp sugar. I mixed them in the pan after melting the butter, to better saturate the cocoa.

The substitutes

Probably melting the butter all the way would have worked a leetle better

Using the hand

Ready to bake! Then cool

Bake for 10 minutes, set aside on a rack to cool. This is a good time to melt your chocolate.

**Tip two: a quicker way to cool your chocolate is to only melt half of it, remove from heat and then stir in the rest. You may have to cool it a little bit after that, but don't let it get too cold. You want maximum chocolate transfer, so having all of the ingredients at the same temperature ensures it won't attach to the mixer paddle.

You want it cool enough to be able to grab it by the bottom. Fresh!

Set up your stand mixer (I like to warm the steel bowl just a little tiny bit, but I think I may be a little obsessed), start mixing the cream cheese all by itself until it is smooth. Add the sugar and cocoa, mix until it is fully blended, scraping as necessary. It will be necessary.

Add each egg one at a time at low speed, jusst until blended. Then add the sour cream and vanilla.

Finally, add in the melted chocolate and beat until fully incorporated. Check your paddle; if any ingredient was too cold, the melted chocolate will attach itself to the paddle. Use a knife and scrape it back in, it won't be pretty but it will still stand a chance of getting into your mouth.

Just what we want, no cold melted chocolate on the paddle

Like you could swim in it

Pour the chocolate mixture over the cooled crust:

Don't worry too much about smoothing the top, it will settle

Bake for 50-55 minutes, until the cake is set and firm two inches from the edge, but still jiggly in the middle (na na na na na nanana). Turn off the oven, but open the door and let the cake sit for another hour.

The waaaiiiting is the hardest part

Take it out of the oven and let it cool completely on a wire rack. Run a thin knife around the edge of the cake to prevent cracking. Cracking means that it has lost a bunch of moisture, but all is not lost! It can rejoin and odds are you won't notice it. If anyone else does, tell them they are off the list.

Done! No cracks, yay!

Leelte soft, but I wanna go to bed

Eat meeeee

Seriously, though, if you end up with a lot of cracks and you want to cover them, here are a couple of methods I've used, starting with the easiest.

No. 1: Chocolate glaze

You will need:

3 oz semisweet chocolate
3 Tbsp butter
1 Tbsp light corn syrup
1 Tbsp milk.

Mix together in a pan over low heat until it is smooth. Pour over and enjoy. I will do this for the Olive Oil Cake this week, so I won't do pictures yet.


No. 2: Ganache

You will need:

1 c heavy (never found) or whipping cream (not in a can, do I have to say that?)
2 Tbsp sugar
2 tsp butter
10 oz semisweet chocolate
1 tsp vanilla

Mix the cream, butter and sugar in a large heavy sauce pan, heat to boiling and then remove from stove.

Add in the chocolate, stir until melted, then add in the vanilla. You can get all freaky with almond or orange flavoured liqueurs if that's how you roll, but I like to stick to the chocolate amazingness. I have switched out significant portions of the semisweet chocolate for 70% cocoa dark chocolate in the past, but know your audience. No everyone is into that deep chocolately velvety goodness. Pour into another pan and refrigerate until you can spread it, aboot 30 minutes or more. Spread over your cracked cake and none will be the wiser. And you can call it a Quadruple Chocolate Cheesecake! Yay for quads! Not just for figure skating anymore.