chocolate cheesecake

Doesn't the photograph above look tempting? *grin*

This chocolate cheesecake is very easy to make, trust me! The more tricky aspect to slice the cheesecake evenly. The trick, according to Da's niece, is to freeze the cheesecake and cut the cheesecake cake using a hot knife. It seems that this is the way to cut an ice-cream cake as well.

You could, of course, make the biscuit base from scratch using 227g digestive biscuits and 115g butter. For this, you will need a 9" loose-bottomed tin. Put the biscuits in a plastic bag and bash them with a rolling pin until they are finely crushed. Melt the butter (in a microwave oven or a saucepan) and add the biscuit crumb, mixing well so that all are nicely coated. Press the mixture into the base of the tin. Flatten it down and make sure that the base is evenly covered, taking the mixture up the sides just a little.

Alternatively, you can do what I did - buy 2 Ready Crusts. The recipe below is sufficient for 2 cheesecakes, so if you only intend to make 1 cheesecake, simply halve the recipe.

Ingredients

700g cheese (mixture of cream cheese and cottage cheese)

100g chocolate biscuits (crushed) (I used whatever chocolate biscuits I found in the refrigerator when I made the cheesecake, which in this case were oreos and tim tams)

227g castor sugar

3 eggs

1 tsp vanilla essence

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 150 degrees celsius.

2. Whisk the cheese, chocolate biscuits, eggs, sugar and vanilla essence until you have a smooth mixture. If you use cottage cheese, the mixture may be a little lumpy - this will even out during the baking process.

3. Pour the mixture onto the biscuit base.

4. Bake at the middle shelf of the preheated oven for 45 minutes by which time there should just be a hint of wobble about the centre of the cheesecake. Turn the oven off, leaving the cheesecake inside to go completely cold. If you leave the oven door ajar during this time, your cake will have a creamier, less dry centre. It also helps prevent cracks forming.

5. Refrigerate for at least 2 hours before removing the cheesecake from the tin.

6. If you add topping to the cheesecake, refrigerate for 8 hours before eating.

7. Serve with fresh strawberries.

Topping (Option A)

Cover the cheesecake with a layer of *whipped cream and fresh fruit (slices of kiwi, peaches, grapes, strawberries, etc).

* As whipping cream tends to be sold in 1 litre packets, you can whip the entire packet and save the unused whipped cream to be added to your coffee.

To whip the whipping cream, whisk the whipping cream at the highest speed until soft peaks form (do not overwhip - underwhipped would be desirable). Add 2 tbsp of sugar and finish whipping by hand.


Topping (Option B)

Mix 200ml sour cream, 1 tbsp castor sugar and 2 tsp lemon juice and spread over the cheesecake.