Day 193: Chocolate Cheesecake

Yield: 1 9 inch cake
Time (Start to Finish): 4 hours

Ingredients:
1 cup chocolate cookie crumbs
4 oz melted butter
2 tbsp sugar

1 ½ pounds cream cheese
1 cup sugar
5 eggs
1 tbsp vanilla
1 ½ cup chocolate chips
1 cup (8 oz) sour cream

powdered sugar
almond extract
red food coloring

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 450F
2. Combine cookie crumbs, butter and sugar to make a crumbly mixture
3. Press into the bottom of a 9 inch pan and bake for about 2 min only. Remove and cool
4. In a mixer place the sour cream
5. Over a pan of hot water in a bowl, melt the chocolate chips
6. Pour chocolate into the sour cream and turn the mixer on to blend. Add the sugar and scrape the bowl down
7. Add the cream cheese a little at a time and mix until smooth, again scraping the bowl
8. Add the eggs and vanilla at this time and mix again until smooth
9. Pour into the pan and bang the pan down to remove any air bubbles
10. Bake in a cookie sheet of hot water until the cake is shaky like jello not runny like water. It takes about an hour
11. Cool in the fridge or freezer until cool or frozen and depan
12. Take the powdered sugar, about ¼ cup and sift it
13. Add a drop of food coloring and almond extract and blend until smooth enough to pipe with but not runny enough to not stay in place.
14. Fill a plastic ziplock bag and cut a corner off. Pipe hearts onto the cake and let cool. Enjoy!

Rating: 5 strawberries
Notes: The best cheesecake in the world, besides my other 2. I don’t know why, but cheesecakes seem to be my thing. I made this one for some people at work, a sale! Haven’t done that in awhile. Dark chocolate. I suggest serving this in small slices with a dollop of whipped cream and maybe a little strawberry sauce. Too big a slice will lead to not finishing. It stays well in the freezer, and tastes great late at night. Make it for valentines day, that’s what I did!