Chocolate Swirled Cheesecake

My Brazilian family members are a tricky crowd to cook for. I guess any family has its picky eaters, those who stick to essentially the same three meals every day and are uncomfortable going outside of those lines – but my family seems to have quite a large number of them. The week after my sweet 16, we had at least 15 people coming over to our house for dinner every night, often more, and I was generally in charge of dessert. I stuck to something that could be baked in one pan and required little assembly – my biggest success was this Nutella cake. One night, I decided to make a cheesecake, per request of my cousin.

Oh boy, I should not have told Brazilians that that was what I was making. I immediately got wrinkled noses and reactions like, “Really? Cheese in a cake? I’m gonna go get some ice cream…”

Nevertheless, I powered on. I made a classic New York cheesecake batter, mixing melted bittersweet chocolate into a portion of it and swirling that in with the plain batter. To keep with the chocolate-vanilla theme, I left behind the traditional graham cracker crust and instead used crushed (gluten-free) chocolate chip cookies. The result? A creamy, melt-in-your-mouth, insanely delicious double-flavored cheesecake. Even better when served with homemade chocolate sauce! All of my relatives except for one absolutely loved it. I think I’ll call that one a win and move on.

Enjoy!

Chocolate Swirled Cheesecake 

(adapted from Baking: From My Home to Yours)

  

1 3/4 cups crunchy chocolate chip cookie crumbs

3 tablespoons sugar 

Pinch of salt 

1/2 stick (4 tablespoons) unsalted butter, melted

  

2 pounds (four 8-ounce boxes) cream cheese, at room temperature 

1 1/3 cups sugar 

1/2 teaspoon salt 

2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract 

4 large eggs, at room temperature 

1 1/3 cups sour cream or heavy cream, or a combination of the two

4 oz bittersweet chocolate, melted and cooled

Butter a 9-inch springform pan—choose one that has sides that are 2 3/4 inches high (if the sides are lower, you will have cheesecake batter leftover)—and wrap the bottom of the pan in a double layer of aluminum foil; put the pan on a baking sheet.  
Stir the crumbs, sugar and salt together in a medium bowl. Pour over the melted butter and stir until all of the dry ingredients are uniformly moist. (I do this with my fingers.) Turn the ingredients into the buttered springform pan and use your fingers to pat an even layer of crumbs along the bottom of the pan and about halfway up the sides. Don't worry if the sides are not perfectly even or if the crumbs reach above or below the midway mark on the sides—this doesn't have to be a precision job. Put the pan in the freezer while you preheat the oven.
Center a rack in the oven, preheat the oven to 350°F and place the springform on a baking sheet. Bake for 10 minutes. Set the crust aside to cool on a rack while you make the cheesecake.
Reduce the oven temperature to 325°F.
Put a kettle of water on to boil.
Working in a stand mixer, preferably fitted with a paddle attachment, or with a hand mixer in a large bowl, beat the cream cheese at medium speed until it is soft and lives up to the creamy part of its name, about 4 minutes. With the mixer running, add the sugar and salt and continue to beat another 4 minutes or so, until the cream cheese is light. Beat in the vanilla. Add the eggs one by one, beating for a full minute after each addition—you want a well-aerated batter. Reduce the mixer speed to low and stir in the sour cream and/or heavy cream.
Put the foil-wrapped springform pan in the roaster pan.
Give the batter a few stirs with a rubber spatula, just to make sure that nothing has been left unmixed at the bottom of the bowl, and separate about a third of the batter. Stir the bittersweet chocolate into this smaller portion of the batter.
Scrape the vanilla batter into the springform pan. Dollop the chocolate batter over the top and swirl the two together with a thin knife or skewer. The batter will reach the brim of the pan. (If you have a pan with lower sides and have leftover batter, you can bake the batter in a buttered ramekin or small soufflé mold.) Put the roasting pan in the oven and pour enough boiling water into the roaster to come halfway up the sides of the springform pan.
Bake the cheesecake for 1 hour and 30 minutes, at which point the top will be browned (and perhaps cracked) and may have risen just a little above the rim of the pan. Turn off the oven's heat and prop the oven door open with a wooden spoon. Allow the cheesecake to luxuriate in its water bath for another hour.
After 1 hour, carefully pull the setup out of the oven, lift the springform pan out of the roaster—be careful, there may be some hot water in the aluminum foil—remove the foil. Let the cheesecake come to room temperature on a cooling rack.
When the cake is cool, cover the top lightly and chill the cake for at least 4 hours, preferably overnight.

Layered Turtle Cheesecake

 Thanksgiving at my house always involves three desserts; usually, apple pie, pumpkin pie, and pecan pie. For the past couple of years, we've substituted one of these for cheesecake. Last year, it was a delicious pumpkin flavor, to take the place of pumpkin pie. This year, I wanted a substitute for pecan pie. After seeing so many variations of turtle cheesecake online, I went with this one, and I'm so glad I did.
  This cheesecake starts off with an oreo cookie crust, for which I used gluten-free oreo-like cookies for my mom. Then comes a layer of melted caramels mixed with pecans, then a thick, creamy cheesecake, another layer of the pecan caramel, and finally, a drizzle (or, in this case, festive holiday greeting) of chocolate. It all comes together to create an indulgent dessert that is perfect for any occasion, especially alongside a classic apple pie and maple pumpkin pie.
  Enjoy!

Layered Turtle Cheesecake 
(from Kraft) 

24 Oreo cookies (or any other cream-filled chocolate sandwich cookie), finely crushed (about 2 cups)

6 tablespoons butter or margarine, melted

1 package (14 oz.) Kraft caramels (or a similar kind)

1/2 cup milk

1 cup chopped pecans

3 packages (8 oz. each) cream cheese, softened

3/4 cup sugar

1 tablespoon vanilla

3 eggs

2 oz.  semi-sweet chocolate

Mix oven to 325 F.
Mix together cookie crumbs and butter; press onto bottom and 2 inches up side of 9-inch springform pan.
Microwave caramels and milk in small microwaveable bowl on high for 3 minutes or until caramels are completely melted, stirring after each minute. Stir in nuts; pour half into crust. Refrigerate 10 minutes. Refrigerate remaining caramel mixture for later use.
Beat together cream cheese, sugar and vanilla in large bowl with mixer until blended. Add eggs, 1 at a time, mixing on low speed after each just until blended. Pour over caramel layer in crust.
Bake 1 hour and 5 minutes to 1 hour and 10 minutes, or until center is almost set. Run knife around rim of pan to loosen cake; cool before removing rim. Refrigerate 4 hours.
Microwave reserved caramel mixture 1 minute; stir. Pour over cheesecake. Melt chocolate as directed below; drizzle over cheesecake.

How to Pipe Chocolate

Place chocolate in a ziplock bag (or piping bag). Microwave on high for 30 seconds. Squeeze bag to melt chocolate. Snip off the tip of one of the bottom corners of the bag. Holding the top of the bag firmly, drizzle chocolate through opening in desired patterns on cheesecake. 

*Note

Reduce oven temperature to 300 F if using a dark nonstick springform pan.

Pumpkin Cheesecake

Oh. My. God. How is it that I have been baking for years, and had never tried this until this past Thanksgiving?
As you can probably guess, I spend quite a lot of time searching through my favorite blogs and cooking websites looking for recipes. People always made pumpkin cheesecake around fall, and I always thought it looked SO good! This past October, we went out for dinner to an Italian restaurant in the neighborhood. We were with some guests from Brazil who had never had cheesecake before, so of course we decided that we had to order them a slice. When we asked the waitress, she said that they had just gotten their pumpkin cheesecakes. It was meant to be! :)
When it came time to plan the desserts for Thanksgiving, I decided that instead of pumpkin pie (we always do one pumpkin, one pecan, and one apple), I was going to make a pumpkin cheesecake. My dad, the pumpkin pie lover in the family, "reluctantly" agreed. I turned to a valuable source: Food Network! This recipe was so easy and quick, which is great, especially when there are so many other things to be made. I made it gluten-free for my mamma by substituting gluten-free shortbread for the graham cracker crumbs. It was delicious! Don't tell anyone, but I may have had it for breakfast the next day... shh...
It may be past Thanksgiving and Christmas, but no time is wrong for pumpkin desserts. Enjoy!

Pumpkin Cheesecake (from Food Network)
Ingredients
Crust:
1 3/4 cups graham cracker crumbs
3 tablespoons light brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 stick melted salted butter
Filling:
3 (8-ounce) packages cream cheese, at room temperature
1 (15-ounce) can pureed pumpkin
3 eggs plus 1 egg yolk
1/4 cup sour cream
1 1/2 cups sugar
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon fresh ground nutmeg
1/8 teaspoon ground cloves
2 tablespoon all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

For crust:
In medium bowl, combine crumbs, sugar and cinnamon. Add melted butter. Press down flat into a 9-inch springform pan. Set aside.

For filling:
Beat cream cheese until smooth. Add pumpkin puree, eggs, egg yolk, sour cream, sugar and the spices. Add flour and vanilla. Beat together until well combined.

Pour into crust. Spread out evenly and place in oven for 1 hour. Remove from the oven and let sit for 15 minutes. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 4 hours.


*As you will notice if you click on the link, this is a Paula Deen recipe. Trust me, I know all about the whole diabetes scandal, but honestly, who cares what she decides to keep private? Yes, most of her recipes are full of fat, but no one said her show was meant to be about healthy eating. This recipe = yum!

Mini Cheesecakes and a new plan

This is another recipe I made for our New Year's party. I loved it! It's super simple and anyone (I mean anyone, even if you NEVER bake) can make it. It starts off with mini cupcake wrappers. You put a nilla wafer in the bottom of each one. I have made these like this before with success, but this time I just put some cookie crumbs in the bottom of each one because I wanted to make them gluten free, and I couldn't find gluten-free cookies that small. Over the "crust" comes a simple mixture of cream cheese, eggs, vanilla, and sugar (of course. what blog do you think you're reading??). They are baked for a few minutes and then topped with some sort of sweet deliciousness. I have made them with canned cherry pie filling like the recipe calls for, but this time I put a dollop of raspberry jam on top. They were delicious, and my best friend and I had fun making them. They are a great project to do with little kids, or just for a quick dessert. Enjoy!!

Mini Cheesecakes (from Allrecipes)
Ingredients
1 (12 ounce) package vanilla wafers
2 (8 ounce) packages cream cheese
3/4 cup white sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 (21 ounce) can cherry pie filling

Directions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Line miniature muffin tins (tassie pans) with miniature paper liners.
Crush the vanilla wafers and place 1/2 tablespoon of the crushed vanilla wafers into the paper lined miniature muffin tins.
Cream together with an electric mixer the cream cheese, sugar, eggs and vanilla. Fill each miniature muffin liner with this mixture, almost to the top.
Bake at 350 degrees F (175 degrees C) for 15 minutes. Cool and then top with a teaspoonful of cherry (or any other flavor) pie filling.


Now for the new plan. Remember when I was in Tuesdays with Dorie? I loved being in that group, and it motivated me to bake new things more often. Last year I had to drop out due to lack of time, and I just heard that they are starting a new book. I'm joining in again, SO here's my new plan:
I want to keep baking from BFMHTY. Sometimes. I love that book and it has been something I do for the past 2 years, but I realized that since I joined so late in, I'm not even halfway through with it. I love the recipes from it but don't want to have the goal of finishing it anymore. Maybe someday!
I bought Baking with Julia. I joined the new group! I'm not sure how far this will go - doing one every two weeks is definitely more manageable, so I think it will work out better this time. I'm excited to start from the beginning of a book with that group.
I may try to take up Daring Bakers again. I will keep looking at their challenges each month (somehow they still haven't kicked me out - I guess they don't check who posts each month), and I'll try to do them sometimes. I think this way I'll learn how to make things I wouldn't have otherwise. But no pressure on this one - baking new things isn't something I want to feel like I have to do.
So that's my plan. I hope you keep reading my blog, and follow along whatever crazy baking adventures I go on. <3

TWD: Low and Lush Chocolate Cheesecake

Happy New Year! This week's Tuesdays with Dorie recipe was chosen by The Tea Lady of Tea and Scones. She chose the Low and Lush Chocolate Cheesecake (this week we are allowed to post whenever we want, due to the holidays). I was excited for this one, because we all love cheesecake at my house. Adding chocolate? Even better!

We just got home at 2 am today, and since I'm now used to cooking in my aunt's house, where we were staying, I wanted something simple. And as Dorie says in the book, this cheesecake is "push-button easy". It starts with a graham cracker crust. Then you put cream cheese, sugar, vanilla, salt, eggs, and melted bittersweet chocolate in a food processor, put it in the crust, and bake it for about 40 minutes. It is supposed to stay in the fridge for eight hours after cooling to room temperature, but mine had to go in the freezer for twenty minutes and in the fridge for about three hours. But, it worked out fine. Everybody loved it, and I really recommend this one! If you want the recipe, you can buy the book or find it here. Enjoy!

TWD Rewind: Hidden Berry Cream Cheese Torte

Oh my god... yum. :D

Once again, I'll start by saying that this week's (very late!) TWD post will be up later today. But for now, I'm posting this one. Yesterday we had friends over for dinner, and I decided to make this torte. Boy am I glad I did! It starts off with a buttery shortbread crust, which was wonderful on its own. However, I think it was too thick at some places. Then comes a layer of jam. I used mixed berry. Finally, a layer of cheesecake made with cream cheese and cottage cheese. I accidentally put in too much cinnamon, so it wasn't as light in color as the picture in the book is, but it tasted wonderful. All in all, definitely something I'll make again and recommend to everyone. If you want the wonderful recipe, you can buy the book or find it here. Enjoy!
(so sorry about the blurry picture - i just wanted to show how thin the jam layer is)

TWD Rewind: Tall and Creamy Cheesecake

Another TWD rewind! We were having dinner with the same people I made the other cheesecake for, and they had loved it so much, I decided to make another one. We are in Brazil right now, and they don't have graham crackers here (what do kindergardeners eat? :D ), so we substituted vanilla cookies for the crust. I didn't taste this cake, because we gave it as a present, so I hope everything worked. I am so proud of myself, because this cheesecake didn't crack! :D

If you want the recipe, BUY THE BOOK. Okay? ;D

Cheesecake!

Some friends from out of town were coming to have dinner with us, so I decided that I would make a totally american dessert; cheesecake made with cream cheese. The reason for the topping is that I forgot to grease the springform (bad idea), so the cheesecake cracked. I topped it with sweetened whipped cream, fresh berries, and graham cracker crust crumbs. I might do this in the future even if my cheesecake doesn't crack, because it added an extra level of yumminess. This recipe was on the back of a box of graham cracker crumbs. (Does anybody else know about those? Because I always thought that you had to crush the graham crackers...) This recipe is really good.

      New York Cheesecake

Ingredients:

2 cups graham cracker crumbs

1/2 cup margarine or butter, melted

2 tablespoons sugar

4 packages (8 oz.) cream cheese, softened

1 1/3 cups sugar

2 tablespoons cornstarch

1 tablespoon vanilla

3 eggs

1 cup sour cream

Instructions:

In a small bowl toss together graham cracker crumbs, margarine or butter and 2 tablespoons sugar. Reserve 2 tablespoons of crumb mixture for garnish. Press remaining crumb mixture onto bottom and 2 1/4 inches up sides of 9-inch springform pan. Chill in freezer while preparing filling.

In a large mixing bowl beat cream cheese on medium speed of electric mixer until fluffy. Add 1 1/3 cups sugar, cornstarch and vanilla. Beat until combined. Add eggs, one at a time, beating until just combined after each addition. Stir in sour cream.

Pour into crust. Bake at 325 F about 1 1/4 hours or until center is almost set. Cool on wire rack for 15 minutes. Loosen sides of pan. Continue cooling on wire rack for 45 minutes more. Sprinkle top with reserved crumbs. Refrigerate at least three hours. Garnish as desired. Store in refrigerator.

 

Yield 16 servings.

Bon Appetite!