German Chocolate Cheesecake

Mom and Dad were having company this week and asked if I would make a dessert.  She knew she wanted a cheesecake but could not decide on a flavour.  When I asked what she was looking for she only said “make something ooey and gooey’, instantly I thought of German Chocolate Cake, but in a cheesecake.  She loves my German Chocolate Cake and quickly agreed!  I had never made a German Chocolate Cheesecake, but I had made a German chocolate Cake as well as a chocolate cheesecake, so I just combined the two.

I used my favourite cheesecake recipe and added some chocolate then topped it with the pecan frosting from my German Chocolate Cake.

Cheesecake:
3 sticks of cream cheese, 8 oz each
1 cup sugar
3 large eggs
1 cup heavy cream
1 tbsp. lemon juice
1 tbsp. vanilla extract

DIRECTIONS:
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Begin to boil a large pot of water for the water bath.

2. In a double boiler melt 8 oz of semi sweet chocolate – set aside to cool

3.. Mix together the crust ingredients and press into your preferred pan. You can press the crust just into the bottom, or up the sides of the pan too – baker’s choice. Set crust aside.

4. Combine cream cheese and sugar in the bowl of a stand-mixer and cream together until smooth.

5. Add eggs, one at a time, fully incorporating each before adding the next. Make sure to scrape down the bowl in between each egg.

6. Add heavy cream, vanilla, and blend until smooth and creamy.

7. Prepare your spring form pan for a water bath.  I wrap in parchment and tinfoil

8. Combine melted chocolate and cheesecake batter – stir until well combined

9.  Pour batter into prepared crust and tap the pan on the counter a few times to bring all air bubbles to the surface. Place pan into a larger pan and pour boiling water into the larger pan until halfway up the side of the cheesecake pan. If cheesecake pan is not airtight, cover bottom securely with foil before adding water.

10. Bake 45 to 55 minutes, until it is almost done – this can be hard to judge, but you’re looking for the cake to hold together, but still have a lot of jiggle to it in the center. You don’t want it to be completely firm at this stage. Close the oven door, turn the heat off, and let rest in the cooling oven for one hour. This lets the cake finish cooking and cool down gently enough so that it won’t crack on the top. After one hour, remove cheesecake from oven and lift carefully out of water bath. Let it finish cooling on the counter, and then cover and put in the fridge to chill. Once fully chilled, it is ready to serve.

COCONUT PECAN FROSTING

1 can (14 oz.) sweetened condensed milk
3 egg yolks, slightly beaten
1/2 cup butter or margarine
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1-1/3 cups Sweetened Coconut Flakes
1 cup chopped pecans

Directions

1. Stir together sweetened condensed milk, egg yolks and butter in a medium saucepan.

2. Cook over low heat, stirring constantly, until mixture is thickened and bubbly.

3. Remove from heat; stir in vanilla, coconut and pecans.

4. Cool to room temperature.

Assembly

The next day (yes, the next day! Waiting for cheesecake is horrid!)  spread frosting on top of cheesecake and decorate with your favourite chocolate frosting

Look at that! A think of beauty!

I think I said this the last time I made a cheesecake (turtle tuxedo cheesecake with a twist), but this was the best cheesecake I have ever made!  Everything came out just perfect! The cheesecake was so smooth and creamy with a decadent chocolate flavour.  The pecan frosting was the perfect consistency, just a little ‘drippage’. It was one of those times where you take a bite, close your eyes and say ‘oh my God!’ It was amazing! It was a huge hit at the dinner.  Dad does not like coconut so he scraped the topping off and still ate the delicious cheesecake.  Not sure I can top this one, though I will continue to try

Crazy Cooking Challenge – Cheesecake!

I am very excited, as I have joined another baking group!  This is my first month as a Crazy Cook!  This months challenge was Cheesecake.  We had to choose a new cheesecake recipe, we were not to use a recipe that we had already posted about.  This was hard for me because I really, really wanted to use my ‘go to‘ cheesecake recipe.  It is my all time favourite and have not tasted a cheesecake as good since I first made it.  So, in sticking with the rules I hunted for a new recipe!  I searched and searched, which one to try??

The recipe I chose was Tall and Creamy Cheesecake from Smells Like home.  Let me explaine why I chose this recipe.  While searching, many of the reicpes that were coming up were the same ‘base recipe’ I use, as it was a Daring Bakers Challenge a few years ago.  As  I was reading this one post the blogger mentioned how she really didn’t like the cheesecake and liked her ‘go to’ recipe much better.  What? a cheesecake better then my favourite? I knew I had to try it!

Next big decision? What flavour will I make? I usually sturggle with this one.  Most people like cheesecake, but not everyone like the same flavours.  It is hard to please everyone but this time I tried.  Instead of making one cheesecake I made many, many individual cheesecakes, this way I could make several different flavours.

Tall and Creamy Cheesecake

Adapted from Smells Like Home

Crusts

I made 3 different crusts, grahm crumb, Oreo crumb and Oreo Cookies.

Grahm Crumb Crust

1 cup Grahm crumbs

3 T Sugar

3 T butter melted

Directions

1. Combine crumbs, sugar and butter – Stir and set aside

Oreo Cookie Crust

1 cup cookie crumbs

3 T sugar

2 T butter melted

Directions

1. Combine crumbs, sugar and butter – stri

Preparing the cursts

1. Spoon a generous tablespoon of prepared crust into lined muffin tins

2. Press frimly to create the base – I found a glass that worked perfect

3. For remainder place an Oreo Cookie in the cup

4.  Set aside to prepare Cheesecake

Cheesecake

• 4 pkgs cream cheese, at room temperature
• 1 1/3 cups sugar
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 2 tsp pure vanilla extract
• 4 large eggs, at room temperature
• 1 1/3 cups sour cream or heavy cream, or a combination of the two
• 24 Oreo Cookies, 12 whole and 12 chopped
• 2 Skor Bars
• 2 pkg of mini Rolo’s

Directions:

1. Working with a stand mixer (I strongly recomend using a stand mixer, as a last resort an electric beater, but dont even attemt it with a whisk, your arm will fall off, there is alot of mixing), preferably fitted with a paddle attachment, beat the cream cheese at a medium speed until soft and creamy; about 4 minutes.

2. With the mixer running, add the sugar and salt and continue to beat for another 4 minutes or so, until the cream cheese is light.

3. Beat in the vanilla.

4. Add the eggs one by one, beating for a full minute after each addition – you want a well-aerated batter.

5. Reduce the mixer speed to low and mix in the sour cream and/or heavy cream.

Look at that! So creamy and light.  It looks like a dream!

6. Give the batter a few stirs with a rubber spatula , just to make sure that there is nothing left unmixed at the bottom of the bowl

7. Scoop the plain batter into the cups filled with Grahm crumb crust

At this point I notice that there is A LOT of batter still left, I didn’t even look like I used any.  I ended up making 12 plain and started dividing the batter into 2 other batches

8. Chop and crush remining 12 Oreo cookies

9. I crushed some (wacked them with a frying pan) and roughly chopped some – Stir to combine

10. Scoop onto the Oreo Cookie “crust’

11. Melt 5 oz of semi sweet chocolate allow to cool and add to remaining batter

12. I then divided the batter again.  One half chopped Skor Bar, other half chopped Mini Rolo’s

13 Stir and scoop into prepared cookie crumb crust

14. Bake at 325 F they are done when the centers are just about firm and only a tiny bit jiggly.

NOW DISASTER STRIKES!

I was so excited! The batter came together like a dream, so fluffy and creamy, it looked heavenly! I could not wait to try one of these little cheesecakes (who am I kidding? I wanted to try them all!)

I put them in the oven for their bake…

Everything seemed to be going perfectly.  They had a slight rise, as the recipe suggested.  The aroma in the kitchen was delightfully tangy and sweet.

Then………..They ALL FELL!!

I was devistated! Keep in mind they were still baking.  It’s not like I took them out too early and they were under cooked.

They Look more like Tart Shells than cheesecakes

The Oreo one’s survived the best

Skor

Rolo

What can I say? I was very disapointed! I really don’t know what went wrong.  They tasted ok… but, I like my recipe better. They were very dence, which I was not expecing from the fluffy and airy batter. Chalk this one up as a (very expensive) learning experience.

This was my first Crazy Cooks  Challenge and now I find out that this was the LAST challenge! They will no longer be running.   I guess I will have to search for another monthly baking group.  Anyone know of any?

 

Turtle Tuxedo Cheesecake with a Twist

Cheesecake time again!  Yes, it is another Turtle Tuxedo Cheesecake, but this time with a twist.  This is Mom’s favourite Cheesecake, she loves it, and this is someone who really doesn’t eat dessert.  When she requested it this time I thought I would do something a little different, same recipe, just made it a little different.

See here for the Original Recipe

As I mentioned the recipe is still the same, BUT this time I made it more like a true candy “Turtle” nuts and caramel, inside.

After layering the white chocolate layer drizzle with  melted caramel

Now, sprinkle with chopped pecans

Now, cover with the chocolate cheesecake layer

The next day

Simply decorated with chocolate frosting, pecan pieces and more melted caramel

I really don’t know what happened to this cake.  It was good before, but this time it was AMAZING!  I think the caramel and nuts preformed some sort of baking magic in the oven.  The extra hint of sweetness and the occasional crunch of the hidden pecans….wow!  This IS how I will be making the Turtle Tuxedo Cheesecake from now on.  Normally I am very critical of my desserts, but this one I found no flaws.  I was blown away!

Chocolate Swirl Cheesecake

Thanksgiving is always a great time of year.  It is one of the few times a year my large family manages to all get together.  It is wonderful to be able to spend the afternoon with family and friends, catch up on what everyone has been doing, draw names for the upcoming Christmas and eat wonderful food!  This year was by far the best Thanksgiving in the way of eats!  Normally at Thanksgiving we seem to end up having anything but turkey (I know sad, isn’t it).  This year my cousin Mary and I started nagging extra early to have a turkey on Thanksgiving, and WE WON!!  It was amazing, Big Turkey, Gramma’s homemade dressing, homemade ceaser salad and Gramma’s home-made baked beans (the baked beans took a little working as well, but Gramma did eventually give in) it was the best Thanksgiving dinner we have had in a long time.  There were some other veggies and potatoes there as well, but I can have that anytime, so they really were not worth mentioning, haha!

There are an awful lot of us so we all pitch in to the dinner, I was in charge of dessert! This years request was cheesecake of any kind, easily done!  I had to think of another something to bring, as there were a few people who were not crazy about cheesecake (weird, I know!)  After  going through many different flavour profiles I settled on chocolate swirl cheesecake with chocolate ganache and nuts.  I figured everyone loves chocolate, so it would please the masses, as well as pumpkin pie and an apple crostata.

I started making the cheesecake the night before Thanksgiving dinner, I had made them before and they super easy to make, figured there would be no problems.  I was wrong…..

Chocolate Cookie Crumb Crust

2 cups Oreo cookie crumbs

1/2 cup melted butter

1/2 cup sugar

Combine crumbs, sugar and melted butter in a bowl and mix well

press into a spring-form pan.

Bake the crust at 350 degrees for approx 10 minutes.  Cool.

*** Now is a good time to waterproof your spring from pan for the water bath.

I have found that just because foil is just not wide enough and I can’t seem to fold 2 pieces well enough to make it seal, I like to put a layer of parchment paper on first. Then the foil.  This keeps the water out every time!

Chocolate Swirl Cheesecake

3 sticks of cream cheese, 8 oz each, room temperature
1 cup
3 large eggs
1 cup heavy cream
1 tbsp. vanilla extract

6 oz semi sweet chocolate, melted and cooled

3 oz white chocolate, melted and cooled

DIRECTIONS:

1. In 2 double boilers melt the chocolate and white chocolate and allow to cool.

2. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F . Begin to boil a large pot of water for the water bath.

3. Combine cream cheese and sugar in the bowl of a stand-mixer (or in a large bowl if using a hand-mixer) and cream together until smooth.

4. Add eggs, one at a time, fully incorporating each before adding the next. Make sure to scrape down the bowl in between each egg.

5. Add heavy cream and vanilla, blend until smooth and creamy.

6. When chocolate has cooled divide chocolate.  I used 2 cups to mix with white chocolate and mixed the remaining with the white…..here is where things started to go horribly wrong!

I did not allow the chocolate to fully cool, being in a rush, and it seem to go grainy, and separated the cream cheese, made it look clumpy, not smooth.

I knew I could not take this one to Thanksgiving, it looked awful!  I was already planning on making another similar cheesecake the next day for our other small family Thanksgiving dinner, so I figured I’d just use this one for that dinner and make another one for Tomorrow, problem solved!  But wait, I only have 1 spring from pan!!! After much debate and slight panic I decide I will cut the crust down to fit into a 8 inch cake pan, the sides are high and it will be water proof.  I cut it down to fit perfectly, im quite proud of myself at this point, just about to pour the cheesecake batter in and suddenly I realize, HOW AM I GOING TO GET IT OUT???????? After a few choice words under my breath I get the brain wave to line it with parchment paper so I can lift it out.

After digging it out of the pan and lining the pan and putting it back in, the crust totally fell apart, but I firmly pat it down and think, no one will notice with the lovely cheesecake on top.  At this point pictures went out the window, I was really running behind and had to get this one cooked because we were going out to dinner.  So, got everything figured out, cheesecake was in the water bath in the oven, jump in the shower while its cooking, and it would cool in the oven while we were out to dinner.  Things seem to be  coming together.

***3 hours later 8:00 pm I finally get home ready to make cheesecake #2 to take to the big family Thanksgiving dinner.

First thing I do when I get home is rush over to the oven and crank it to 350 F and start into the second cheesecake.

Followed the above steps until the blending of the chocolate

Turned out perfectly smooth

The chocolate and batter melded wonderfully this time.

7. Drop spoonfuls of the white chocolate on top of the chocolate and lightly stir to make a swirl

8. Pour batter onto prepared crust and place in a large pan, I use a large roasting pan.  Fill the roasting pan with the boiling water, half way up the sides of the cake pan.

****This is when I realized that I forgot to take the first cheesecake out of the oven!! It has been re-cooking this whole time, as I preheated and made cheesecake #2, oh dear…. Well, we know it wont be undercooked, but can you overcook a cheesecake?

9. Bake 45 to 55 minutes, until it is almost done – this can be hard to judge, but you’re looking for the cake to hold together, but still have a lot of jiggle to it in the center. You don’t want it to be completely firm at this stage. Close the oven door, turn the heat off, and let rest in the cooling oven for one hour. This lets the cake finish cooking and cool down gently enough so that it won’t crack on the top. After one hour, remove cheesecake from oven and lift carefully out of water bath. Let it finish cooling on the counter, and then cover and put in the fridge to chill over night.

The next day….

The Cheesecake #2, spring form removed, came out perfect

I chose a chocolate ganache frosting from Nish Whips Up A Dish

Chocolate Ganache Frosting

1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons unsweetened Dutch-process cocoa powder

1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons boiling water

1 and 1/2 cups (3 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature

1/2 cup confectioners’ sugar, sifted

Pinch of salt

1 pound semi-sweet chocolate, melted and cooled

Directions

1. Combine cocoa and the boiling water, stirring until cocoa has dissolved.

2. With an electric mixer on medium-high speed, beat butter, confectioners’ sugar, and salt until pale and fluffy.

3. Reduce speed to low.

4. Add melted and cooled chocolate, beating until combined and scraping down the sides of the bowl as needed.

5.  Beat in the cocoa mixture.

6. Let sit at room temperature while the cupcakes cool.

The piped boarder and some crushed nuts finished the cheesecake off nicely.  It tunred out very well.  It even converted  a  non-cheesecake eater.  It was delicious!!!

Now back to the disaster cake…

The next day hoping it would come out in one piece…

Success!!! nothing that a little ganache and nuts wont fix

Taken in a dimly lit dinning room with my phone.  But it was delicious!!! It didn’t look that great inside or out, but it tasted just as good.  surprisingly the extra hour in the oven didn’t affect it at all.

Peanut Butter Cup Cheesecake

This year I was on dessert duty for Christmas Eve.  I racked my brains for ever trying to come up with something ‘Christmasy’ that everyone would enjoy. I came up with nothing!  I knew that everyone loved chocolate and peanut butter because I made a  Chocolate Peanut Butter Cake last Easter for dessert and it was a huge hit, so I went with Peanut Butter Cup Cheesecake!!

Peanut Butter Cup Cheesecake

Chocolate Cookie Crumb Crust

1 1/4 cups Chocolate Cookie Crumbs
1/4 cup butter, melted

Combine crumbs and melted butter and press into a spring-form pan.

Bake the crust at 350 degrees for approx 10 minutes.  Cool.

*** Now is a good time to waterproof your spring from pan for the water bath.

I have found that just because foil is just not wide enough and I can’t seem to fold 2 pieces well enough to make it seal, I like to put a layer of parchment paper on first. Then the foil.  This keeps the water out every time!

cheesecake:

3 sticks of cream cheese, 8 oz each (total of 24 oz) room temperature
1 cup / 210 g sugar
3 large eggs
1 cup / 8 oz heavy cream
1 tbsp. vanilla extract (or the innards of a vanilla bean)
1 cup Peanut Butter

DIRECTIONS:
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (Gas Mark 4 = 180C = Moderate heat). Begin to boil a large pot of water for the water bath.

2. Combine cream cheese and sugar in the bowl of a stand-mixer (or in a large bowl if using a hand-mixer) and cream together until smooth.

3. Add eggs, one at a time, fully incorporating each before adding the next. Make sure to scrape down the bowl in between each egg.

4. Add heavy cream and vanilla, blend until smooth and creamy.

5. Add peanut butter and mix until fully combine

6. Chop up peanut butter cups and stir them into the cheesecake batter

7. Pour batter onto prepared crust and place in a large pan, I use a large roasting pan.  Fill the roasting pan with the boiling water, half way up the sides of the cake pan.

8. Bake 45 to 55 minutes, until it is almost done – this can be hard to judge, but you’re looking for the cake to hold together, but still have a lot of jiggle to it in the center. You don’t want it to be completely firm at this stage. Close the oven door, turn the heat off, and let rest in the cooling oven for one hour. This lets the cake finish cooking and cool down gently enough so that it won’t crack on the top. After one hour, remove cheesecake from oven and lift carefully out of water bath. Let it finish cooling on the counter, and then cover and put in the fridge to chill over night.

Chocolate Ganache

4 oz semi sweet Chocolate

1/2 cup heavy cream

2 tbsp butter

1. Chop chocolate into small pieces

2. Scaled the heavy cream in a put, bringing it just to a boil, then our it over the chocolate, let it sit for a minute to start to melt the chocolate then stir to combine. Add the butter while it is still warm. Chocolate will be thick and shinny

When you first start to stir it will look like it is curdling, but don’t worry, it will come together, Keep stirring!!

3. Pour ganache on top of cheesecake and top with more chopped peanut butter cups.

This cheesecake was delicious, just the right combination of chocolate and peanut butter.  Everyone loved it.  I will definitely be making this one again!

Chocolate Cheesecake

This week Mom was having company for dinner and asked if I would make her a cheesecake.  Her only request was that it be a chocolate base and after that I had free range of flavours.

I knew for sure that I would be using my go to base cheesecake recipe Abby’s Infamous Cheesecake, a recipe I used in a Daring Baker’s Challenge.

Chocolate Cookie Crumb Crust

2 1/2 cups Chocolate Cookie Crumbs
1/2 cup butter, melted

Combine crumbs and melted butter and press into a spring-form pan, I like to bring it up the sides a ways.  If you only like crust on the bottom of our Cheesecake only use 1 1/4 cup of crumbs and 1/4 cup of butter

Bake the crust at 350 degrees for approx 10 minutes.  Cool.

*** Now is a good time to waterproof your springfrom pan for the water bath.

I have found that just because foil is just not wide enough and I can’t seem to fold 2 pieces well enough to make it seal, I like to put a layer of parchment paper on first. Then the foil.  This keeps the water out every time!

I added a few pecan pieces on the bottom

Cheesecake:

3 sticks of cream cheese, 8 oz each (total of 24 oz) room temperature
1 cup / 210 g sugar
3 large eggs
1 cup / 8 oz heavy cream
1 tbsp. lemon juice (When using chocolate I omit)
1 tbsp. vanilla extract (or the innards of a vanilla bean)
8 oz of Semi sweet Chocolate

DIRECTIONS:
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (Gas Mark 4 = 180C = Moderate heat). Begin to boil a large pot of water for the water bath.

2. Using a double boiler melt the chocolate and set aside to cool.

3. Combine cream cheese and sugar in the bowl of a stand-mixer (or in a large bowl if using a hand-mixer) and cream together until smooth.

4. Add eggs, one at a time, fully incorporating each before adding the next. Make sure to scrape down the bowl in between each egg.

5. Add heavy cream and vanilla, blend until smooth and creamy.

6. Add the cooled chocolate and stir

7. Pour batter into prepared crust and tap the pan on the counter a few times to bring all air bubbles to the surface. Place pan into a larger pan and pour boiling water into the larger pan until halfway up the side of the cheesecake pan.

8. Bake 45 to 55 minutes, until it is almost done – this can be hard to judge, but you’re looking for the cake to hold together, but still have a lot of jiggle to it in the center. You don’t want it to be completely firm at this stage. Close the oven door, turn the heat off, and let rest in the cooling oven for one hour. This lets the cake finish cooking and cool down gently enough so that it won’t crack on the top. After one hour, remove cheesecake from oven and lift carefully out of water bath. Let it finish cooling on the counter, and then cover and put in the fridge to chill. Once fully chilled, it is ready to serve.

Final touches were Chocolate butter cream rosettes, a caramel drizzle and a rim of pecan pieces.

Another Cheesecake success.  A lot of people don’t make cheesecake because they thing it’s too difficult.  They could not be more wrong.  Cheesecake is a simple dessert give it a try.  But when people tell you how good it is that is when you can tell them how you slaved over it in the kitchen ALL DAY! lol

4th of July

Every year we do something for my fiance, who is from the states, for forth of July.  I know how patriotic he is so I try to have all the things he asks for that day.  This years request was a bbq, fireworks and an American Flag Cheesecake.  BBQ was fabulous, Fire works were great (even though we were almost eaten alive by mosquitoes!)  and the cheesecake was oh so good!

He loved it, as did everyone else, it was very tasty!

Daring Bakers! Challenge #1 Turtle Tuxedo Cheesecake!

The April 2009 challenge is hosted by Jenny from Jenny Bakes. She has chosen Abbey’s Infamous Cheesecake as the challenge.

Let me start by saying how excited I am to be posting for my very first Daring Bakers Challenge!! I was delighted when I saw my first challenge was going to be making Cheesecake! I absolutely LOVE Cheesecake!!! Over the years I have eaten a tone of Cheesecakes and made a few that were ok, but this was by far the best I have ever had.

We were given a plain Cheesecake recipe and were told to be creative! This really got my mind going, free range of flavour??? What was I going to do??? So many flavour options and combinations to consider. After many days of deliberation and discussion with my fiancé I finally decided on what I called “Tuxedo Turtle Cheesecake”. Despite a few chocolate disasters (stayed tuned!) the Cheesecake turned out amazing!

I got a little carried away when I was making it and forgot to take pictures! There are a few of the process, but I will have to remember to do more next time. Here is how it goes….

Abbey’s Infamous Cheesecake:

Crust:
2 cups / 180 g graham cracker crumbs
1 stick / 4 oz butter, melted
2 tbsp. / 24 g sugar
1 tsp. vanilla extract

**We were able to use a crust that suited our cheesecake so I decided to use an Oreo Cookie Crust. 1¼ cups of cookie crumbs and ¼ cup of melted butter. (I doubled the recipe; I like a lot of crust and wanted it to come up the edges a bit)

Cheesecake:
3 sticks of cream cheese, 8 oz each (total of 24 oz) room temperature
1 cup / 210 g sugar
3 large eggs
1 cup / 8 oz heavy cream
1 tbsp. lemon juice
1 tbsp. vanilla extract (or the innards of a vanilla bean)
1 tbsp liqueur, optional, but choose what will work well with your cheesecake

**I followed the recipe very closely. I only omitted the lemon juice and added Chocolate, I will explain later…

DIRECTIONS:
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (Gas Mark 4 = 180C = Moderate heat). Begin to boil a large pot of water for the water bath.

2. Mix together the crust ingredients and press into your preferred pan. You can press the crust just into the bottom, or up the sides of the pan too – baker’s choice. Set crust aside.

Cookie crust baked and cooled

3. Combine cream cheese and sugar in the bowl of a stand-mixer (or in a large bowl if using a hand-mixer) and cream together until smooth. Add eggs, one at a time, fully incorporating each before adding the next. Make sure to scrape down the bowl in between each egg. Add heavy cream, vanilla, lemon juice, and alcohol and blend until smooth and creamy.

Notes: This is where I omitted the lemon juice. When all the above ingredients were well mixed I separated the batter in half. Using 2 double boilers I melted 6 oz of semi sweet baking chocolate and 3 oz of white baking chocolate. Once they were cooled I stirred semi sweet into one half of the better and the white chocolate into the other.

4. Pour batter into prepared crust and tap the pan on the counter a few times to bring all air bubbles to the surface. Place pan into a larger pan and pour boiling water into the larger pan until halfway up the side of the cheesecake pan. If cheesecake pan is not airtight, cover bottom securely with foil before adding water.

Notes:  First I poured the semi sweet chocolate onto the crust then carefully layering the white chocolate.

5. Bake 45 to 55 minutes, until it is almost done – this can be hard to judge, but you’re looking for the cake to hold together, but still have a lot of jiggle to it in the center. You don’t want it to be completely firm at this stage. Close the oven door, turn the heat off, and let rest in the cooling oven for one hour. This lets the cake finish cooking and cool down gently enough so that it won’t crack on the top. After one hour, remove cheesecake from oven and lift carefully out of water bath. Let it finish cooling on the counter, and then cover and put in the fridge to chill. Once fully chilled, it is ready to serve.

Pan note: The creator of this recipe used to use a springform pan, but no matter how well she wrapped the thing in tin foil, water would always seep in and make the crust soggy. Now she uses one of those 1-use foil “casserole” shaped pans from the grocery store. They’re 8 or 9 inches wide and really deep, and best of all, water-tight. When it comes time to serve, just cut the foil away.

Prep notes: While the actual making of this cheesecake is a minimal time commitment, it does need to bake for almost an hour, cool in the oven for an hour, and chill overnight before it is served. Please plan accordingly!

The next day I finished it off with melted caramels. A thick ring of caramel around the top kept the nuts in place.

Next came my chocolate disaster!!! I will say there is no English word strong enough to show how much I hate working with melted chocolate!

Attempt #1 I had originally wanted to put a chocolate gnash on top, so I made one and it just would not thicken, so I gave up. I thought, ok ill just drizzle some chocolate on top.

Attempt #2 I used semi sweet chocolate = it seized!

Attempt #3 I used Easter eggs = chocolate was so cheap it was like pasty goo!

Attempt #4 I ended up melting 2 Lindtt chocolate bunnies I got for Easter. They worked very well and tasted amazing! A few spoonfuls didn’t make it to the cheesecake lol.

The melting of my Lindtt Chocolate bunnies

I drizzled layers of the melted chocolate and melted caramels over the top as garnish.

The final product was absolutely amazing! I will definitely be making this recipe in the future! Looking forward to next months challenge.