Mexican Chocolate Cheesecake

My kids love this and we used it to make mini cheesecake bites for a bake sale too. We found the recipe somewhere and tweeked it a little. If you make cheesecake bites in a mini muffin pan you may want to reduce the recipe some as we made 82 with the full recipe.

• Ready In: 1 hr 50 mins
• Serves: 16
• Yields: 1 cake

Ingredients

• Crust

• 1 1⁄2 cups  crushed  vanilla wafers
• 3⁄4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 3  tablespoons butter or 3  tablespoons margarine, melted

• Cheesecake

• 1 1⁄2 cups  semi-sweet chocolate chips
• 1⁄2 cup  whipping cream
• 3 (8 ounce) packages cream cheese, softened
• 1⁄2 cup sugar
• 1⁄16 teaspoon cayenne pepper, if desired, adjust to taste
• 1  teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1  teaspoon vanilla
• 3  eggs

Directions

1. Heat oven to 350 degrees. Wrap outside bottom and side of 8 or 9 inch springform pan with heavy duty foil. (to prevent leaks) Spray inside of pan with cooking spray. Grind and mix wafers with 3/4 tsp cinnamon (I use a food processor or blender) mix in melted butter; press into bottom of pan. Note: If making Mini's put small amout of crust mix in each muffin liner and tamp down. Bake crust 8 to 10 minutes or until set. (For Mini's just a few minutes) Reduce oven temperature to 300 degrees. Cool crust 10 minutes before filling.
2. In 2 quart saucepan, melt chocolate chips and cream over medium - low heat; stir until smooth. In large bowl, beat cream cheese, sugar, pepper, 1/2 tsp cinnamon and vanilla with mixer on medium speed until fluffy. Beat in eggs, one at a time, just until blended. Stir in chocolate mixture. Pour over crust. Bake at 350 degrees for 1 hour or until edge of cheesecake is set 2 inches from edge of pan but center still jiggles slightly. Turn oven off; open oven door 4 inches. Leave cheesecake in oven 30 minutes. After removing cake from oven run a metal spatula around the edge of pan. Cool on rack for 30 minutes. Refrigerate 6 hours or overnight. Run spatula around edge of pan again; remove side of pan. Top with whipped cream and sprinkle remaining 1/2 tsp cinnamon if desired. You can also put some chocolate shavings on top to fancy it up. Store in refridgerator. Note: Mini's take about 12 min to cook.