Baking 101: Chocolate Cheesecake - My New Found Love

Here's an addition to my cheesecake recipe collection...the chocolate cheesecake. I used the the basic cheesecake recipe from Dessert Comes First, added some chocolates and voila...a mouth-watering dessert! Yum-o! (borrow lang rachel ray heheheh!)

From this recipe, I was able to fill a 6-inch spring form pan and 9 cupcake liners.

Here's the recipe.

Ingredients

For the cheesecake
Make sure that all the ingredients are at room temperature.
2 - 8oz bars of cream cheese
1 can of condensed milk
3 large eggs
juice from 2 calamansi or lemon juice
120g semisweet chocolate (must be of good quality!!!)

For the Crust
1 1/2 cups crushed chocolate biscuits (crushed oreo or crushed hi-ro)
1/4 cup sugar
2 tbsps melted butter

Procedure

Crust:
1. Mix crushed cookies and sugar in a bowl.
2. Pour melted butter into the cookie-sugar mixture. Mix until well incorporated.
3. Press the mixture firmly into the bottom of the baking pan. Bake for 5 mins in a preheated oven (375 degrees F).
4. Set aside.

Cheesecake Mixture:
**Preheat oven to 300 degrees F
1. In a double broiler, melt chocolate. Cool.
2. Beat creamcheese with wire whisk or electric mixer until fluffy and lumps free.
3. Gradually stir in the condensed milk until smooth.
4. Add the eggs one at a time and the juice of calamansi. Mix well.
5. Pour the mixture into the prepared pan.
6. For spring form pan, bake the cheese for 50-55 minutes or until the center is jiggly.
    For cupcakes, bake for 20 mins.
7. Cool the cheesecakes before you chill them.

You can garnish it with whipped cream. I used whipped all purpose cream (eheheeh).

My Favorite Cheesecake Recipes

I have mentioned before that cheesecake is my favorite dessert of all time. I like it with fruits on top and plain. yum yum!


Eversince I learned to bake this rich and decadent dessert, I never bought the commercially made cheesecakes. Thanks to the following sites, where I got my 3 best cheesecake recipes.

1. Joy of Baking



2. Homecooking Rocks - i also sent this picture to the blogger, to thank her for the cheesecake recipe! Thanks again!


3. Lastly, from Dessert Comes First. I don't have a picture of the cheesecake, but it was also equally good!

Try any of the recipe from the above mentioned blogs, and be a little adventurous with the toppings and I'm very sure that you'll have the best cheesecake! Trust me!

Baking 101: Cheesecake Brownies

I love brownies as much as I love cheesecakes…whoever invented or accidentally combined both desserts is a genius!

I got my first recipe from my friend Rowena. I tried it once and it was a hit! But I got so lazy making brownies from scratch, and switched to the brownie mix available in the groceries. Then after a couple of years, an FB friend posted a picture of her version of this treat, my mouth watered and I immediately looked for my notebook where I wrote my precious recipe…unfortunately, I didn’t find the notebook! Grrr! I called my friend and she lost hers na. (double grrrr!)

After a week of browsing the net, I finally found a recipe that looked closely the same as ours.

Here’s the recipe.

Brownie Batter5 ounces unsweetened chocolate
1 cup butter
2 cups white sugar
3 large eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 1/3 cup all purpose flour
A pinch of salt
1 tsp baking powder

Cheesecake Batter
2 (8oz) packages of cream cheese, softened at room temperature
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract

Procedure:
For Brownies
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees Farenheit.
2. Grease and line an 8x8 inch baking pan with parchment paper.
3. Melt butter and chocolate in the microwave, whisk occasionally.
4. Pour the butter and chocolate mixture into a mixing bowl. Add sugar, eggs, vanilla and salt until well combined.
5. Mix flour and baking powder into the wet ingredients until just combined. I did not user the mixer, coz it will make the batter bread-y.
6. Pour the batter in the pan, and reserved a cup of the brownie batter for swirling.

For Cheesecake
1. Using a mixer, mix all the ingredients until smooth.
2. Pour the mixture over the brownie mixture.

Mixing of the 2 batters
1. Scoop spoonfuls of the remaining brownie batter over the cheesecake batter. Cheesecake should have a polka dot effect.
2. Using a toothpick or a knife, swirl the brownie batter.
3. Bake for 45 minutes or until the cheesecake is set.

This recipe can fill two 8x8 inches pans. Or about 50 pcs of 1.5x1.5 inches squares