Week 3: Black Forest Cheesecake

NO CRACKS!!!  More specifically, no cracks in this week's cheesecake!  Seriously, I was practically jumping up and down for joy when I peeked at the un-cracked cheesecake as it was cooling.  The verdict from those who ate this week's cheesecake is that this is the best one yet (of course you can't go wrong with chocolate and cherries).

Here is the adapted version of George Geary's Black Forest Cheesecake recipe:

1 1/4 cups chocolate sandwich cookie crumbs (I used Oreos)
3 tbsp of melted butter, unsalted

2 packages cream cheese softened
2/3 cup granulated sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
6 oz semi-sweet chocolate chips melted and cooled
1/2 cup whipping cream
2 tbsp granulated sugar
1 can cherry pie filling (21 oz)

For the crust, combine the cookie crumbs and melted butter and press into the bottom of a cheesecake pan (if using a spring form pan, make sure to grease the bottom and sides of pan).  Place pan in freezer and freeze.

For the filling, in a large mixing bowl, beat the cream cheese and sugar on medium high speed for 3 minutes.  Then add the eggs one at a time making sure to beat each egg thoroughly into the batter before adding the next egg.  Mix in vanilla and melted chocolate.  Pour the batter over the frozen crust and bake in a 350 degree pre-heated oven for 45-55 minutes or until the top has a slight golden brown color and the middle has a jiggle to it.  Cool cheesecake on rack for two hours and then cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 6 hours. 

For the topping, in a well chilled bowl, whip cream on medium-high speed until soft peaks form.  With mixer still running, slowly add the 2 tbsp sugar and continue whipping until firm peaks form (I misread the directions and mixed the whipping cream and sugar all at once... it still turned out fine.  Also, I recommend doubling up on the whipping cream and sugar).

So, a few things I did differently this week:

• allowed the cream cheese and eggs to come to room temperature
• pre-heated the oven to 325 degrees, then turned it up to 350 degrees after placing the cheesecake in the oven.
• used a cheesecake pan (and wrapped the bottom in aluminum foil, just in case...)
• kept a watchful eye on the cheesecake as it was baking, and pulled it out at 40 minutes