Deep Dark Chocolate Cheesecake

Submitted by Juenessa

"From Bon Appetit, October, 1996. A creamy, rich, and gorgeous dessert. What more could you want? Don't let the specific chocolate that Bon Appetit suggests scare you away from making the recipe. I use a 70% Cocoa Belgian chocolate that I get from Tuesday Morning (a discount store)."

 

• Ready In: 1hr 30mins
• Ingredients: 13
• Serves: 12

ingredients

• Crust

• 24 chocolate wafer cookies (from one 9-ounce package)
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• 1⁄4 cup butter, melted

• Filling

• 9 2⁄3 ounces bar scharffen berger 70% cocoa bittersweet chocolate
• 4 (8 ounce) packages cream cheese, room temperature
• 1 1⁄4 cups sugar, plus
• 2 tablespoons sugar
• 1⁄4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder (preferably Scharffen Berger)
• 4 large eggs

• Topping

• 3⁄4 cup whipping cream
• 6 ounces scharffen berger 70% cocoa bittersweet chocolate
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• bittersweet chocolate curls

directions

1. For crust:

2. Preheat oven to 350°F
3. Butter 9-inch-diameter springform pan with 3-inch-high sides.
4. Blend cookies in processor until finely ground; blend in sugar.
5. Add melted butter and process until well blended.
6. Press crumbs evenly onto bottom (not sides) of prepared pan.
7. Bake just until set, about 5 minutes.
8. Cool while preparing filling.
9. Maintain oven temperature.

10. For filling:

11. Stir chopped chocolate in metal bowl set over saucepan of simmering water until melted and smooth.
12. Remove bowl from over water; cool chocolate until lukewarm but still pourable.
13. Blend cream cheese, sugar, and cocoa powder in processor until smooth.
14. Blend in eggs 1 at a time.
15. Mix in lukewarm chocolate.
16. Pour filling over crust; smooth top.
17. Bake until center is just set and just appears dry, about 1 hour.
18. Cool 5 minutes.
19. Run knife around sides of cake to loosen. Chill overnight.

20. For topping:

21. Stir cream, 6 ounces chocolate, and sugar in heavy medium saucepan over low heat until smooth.
22. Cool slightly.
23. Pour over center of cheesecake, spreading to within 1/2 inch of edge and filling any cracks.
24. Chill until topping is set, about 1 hour.
25. Do ahead: Can be made 3 days ahead.
26. Cover with foil and keep refrigerated.
27. Release pan sides.
28. Transfer cheesecake to platter.
29. Top with chocolate curls.
30. Let stand 2 hours at room temperature before serving.
31. ***Cook time does not include chilling overnight and the 2 hours cheesecake needs to sit at room temperature before serving.

Reviews

[chocoholic]

This is seriously the best cheesecake I've ever made! It's a little rich but very hard to stop eating... I used semisweet chocolate and thus reduced the sugar that I added (by about 1/8 or so of a cup) and it worked great. I took what was leftover (not that there was a lack of will to eat it but more so that I wanted to see how it froze) and froze it and a month later, after defrosting it overnight in the fridge, it tasted just as good. I recommend this for all chocolate lovers out there!

 

[Go Gators]

Made this for Thanksgiving and everyone loved it. My husband said it was good enough to be served at the Cheesecake Factory. I made a few changes. First I couldn't find the chocolate listed in the recipe so I used Ghirardelli 60% Cacao Bittersweet Chips. I also used chocolate graham crackers to make the crust. The biggest change though was that I used 1/3 Less Fat Cream Cheese and Egg Beaters. I was worried about doing that but it turned out great. Not sure how much that reduced the calories and fat but I'm sure it was quite a bit.

 

[wildcat3081]

I made cheesecake lollipops with this recipe and dipped them in dark chocolate, that want over so well that i won a baking contest. It was very time consuming but ohh so worth it.

 

[frozen_rain]

This is incredibly rich, but to die for! It also presents beautifully. The changes I made were to use oreo cookie crumbs for the crust (which worked fine), and Bernard Callebaut dark chocolate instead of the Scharffen berger bittersweet. This, too, worked fine, with no need to adjust the sugar. Thanks for posting!