DISH NAME : CHOCOLATE CHEESE CAKE-BAKED

Preparation Time : 45 minutes + 2 hours chilling of base

Cooking Time : 55 minutes

Chilling Time : 6 hours

Description

Cheese cakes usually are sweet and consists of a base layer made up of some biscuit and butter and a top layer with sweetened cheese. It can have a glaze of chocolate, whipped cream or fruit sauce. Cheese cakes can either be baked or just set in fridge. The origin of cheesecake is not very clear. According to some its from Greece, where as others credit it to England.

Note

1) You can use pure dark chocolate, but since i had only Morde dark compound, i used that.
2) I used cream cheese bought from kodai cheese shop at Kodaikanal. You can substitute with Philadelphia cream cheese.
3) Use spring form tin for cheese cake as it cannot be upturned (see pot and pans in Glossary for spring form tin).

Method

For the base:-
1) Melt butter.
2) Process biscuits in a blender to form coarse crumbs.
3) Then add cooled butter and process again till it looks like wet sand.
4) Press this mixture into a 9 inch spring form tin. Keep in the fridge to chill for about 2 hours.
5) Pre-heat oven to 180 degree C.

For the filling:-
1) Melt chocolate in a microwave in 20 second bursts or in a double boiler. keep aside to cool slightly.
2) Gently beat cream cheese to soften.
3) Add castor sugar, vanilla essence and cornflour and mix in gently.
4) Beat eggs with egg yolks.
5) Add this to cream cheese.
6) Beat buttermilk/ sour cream. Add this to cream cheese and mix in.
7) Finally add melted chocolate and mix well to form a smooth batter.

Preparing spring form tin:-
1) Take spring form tin out of fridge. Cover the base and sides of the tin with cling wrap. Then cover on top of the cling wrap with a good layer or two of aluminium foil. This is done to prevent water from entering cheesecake.
2) Pour the cheese mixture on top of biscuit base in the springform tin.
3) Keep the spring form tin in a tray with a depth that covers half the the depth of springform tin.
4) Pour boiling water in the tray . Boiling water should come to about half way up the cake tin. 5) Bake in the pre-heated oven for about 55 minutes. Start checking from 45 minutes. Top of the cheese cake should be set, but below the cheese cake will be a little wobbly.
6) Peel of the foil and cling wrap. Keep the spring form tin on a cooling rack. After it has cooled, keep in the fridge covered with cling wrap to chill for atleast 6 hours or overnight.
7) Next day remove tin from fridge and remove cheese cake gently from the tin.
8)Before serving, pour ganache (not hot) over cheese cake and spread with a light hand. The cheese cake should not crumble.

Serving Suggestions

Serve cold .