Death by Chocolate Cheesecake
The most decadent cheesecake, ever. Serve small slices! You’ve been warned! 🙂
- Yield: 8 to 12 servings 1x
Ingredients
Crust:
- 24 Oreo cookies, finely crushed (use the ones with the chocolate middle if possible)
- 4 tablespoons butter, melted
- additional butter or spray for the pan
Filling:
- 10 ounces of good 70% Cocoa Bittersweet Chocolate, chopped (see note)
- 4 (8-ounce) packages cream cheese, room temperature
- 1 1/4 cups plus 2 tablespoons sugar
- 1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder (see note)
- 4 large eggs
Topping:
- 5 tablespoons whipping cream
- 5 tablespoons light corn syrup
- 8 ounces semisweet chocolate chips (about 1 1/3 cups)
Chocolate Curls:
- 6 ounces chocolate, cut into small pieces or 2/3 cup chocolate chips
- 2 teaspoons shortening (do not use butter)
Instructions
For the crust:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Lightly spray or butter a 9″ springform pan (preferably about 3″ tall, at least 2 1/2 inches tall.) Mix together cookies and melted butter and press in the bottom and about 2″ up the sides of pan. Bake for 5 to 7 minutes, until just set, remove and cool while preparing filling.
For the filling:
Heat chocolate in the microwave for one minute, stir and continue to heat in 30-second increments until melted and smooth. Set aside until lukewarm but still pourable.
Blend cream cheese, sugar, and cocoa powder in a food processor or stand mixer until smooth. Blend in eggs 1 at a time, barely mixing after each. Mix in lukewarm chocolate. You may need to scrape down and use your spatula several times during mixing. Pour filling over crust; smooth top.
Bake until set around the edges but the very center is still jiggly. The top will appear dry and crusty, about 1 hour. Cool 5 minutes. Run knife around sides of cake to loosen. Place on a rack and leave until room temperature, about two hours, then chill overnight.
For the topping:
Bring cream and syrup to simmer in medium saucepan. Remove from heat. Add chocolate chips; whisk until smooth. Cool to just lukewarm before pouring over cake completely cool cheesecake. Drizzle, allowing some to flow down the outside edge of the cake. Allow to set up for about two hours, in the fridge. Top with chocolate curls just before serving. Allow to come up to room temperature, if possible, for about 2 hours before serving.
For the chocolate curls:
Line a small container with aluminum foil. Place chocolate and shortening in a microwave container and melt in 30-second increments, stirring after each pour into foil-lined container. Cool in refrigerator until chilled all the way through.. When cool, remove the foil-lined chocolate from the container and let sit at room temperature for about 10 minutes. Holding with a hot pad (so as not to transfer too much heat from your hand) scrape across chocolate forming rough “curls”. Vary the width by changing the angle of the peeler.
May be made several days ahead and stored in a single layer in a cool place.
Notes
- Serve with a little chocolate syrup drizzled on the plate.
- Cake may be made up to three days ahead without the topping or chocolate curls and tightly wrapped and refrigerated.
- On chocolate: Do use the best quality chocolate you can find for this recipe and try to find 70 percent for the cheesecake. A different percentage could affect the texture.
- On Cocoa: Use the Natural, not Dutch Processed.