To say that it has been a difficult week is an understatement. But to keep things mess-free for you and me, I shall not rant about it here. Let's just end it at "I'm glad the weekend is finally here.".
Triple Chocolate Kahlua Cheesecake
Chocolate teddy cookies; Ferrero Rochers
But anyway, let's move on and talk about the cake since that's what you're here for right?
I made this cheesecake right before my Korea 2013 trip about one and a half months ago. A girlfriend had gave me a few blocks of cream cheese that she had in her fridge as it was expiring like real soon and she had no idea how to deal with it. Lol. I guess I'm her solution then.
I had some chocolate teddy bears in the house that I had bought in a sale, they are actually quite bland, (I prefer another brand of chocolate teddies, those are the ones I had eaten when I was a kid) so I decided that I shall use some of it for the cheesecake base.
No one in the house likes cheesecake, so I had to make the cheesecake a flavour that I knew could tempt the Sis into trying - chocolate flavour of course. I was browsing through online recipes, but I just couldn't find anything that caught my eye. Instead, I combined a few recipes, and tweaked the proportions and ingredients to come up with my own recipe.
Drippin'
One thing about cheesecake is that it is not an instant gratification kinda dessert. Nope. Even if you were about to die of chocolate withdrawal cravings, and the whole cake is staring at you (daring you even) in your face, you gotta give it ample time to rest and chill in the fridge before slicing into it. But. This? Is so worth it.
It is everything that a chocolate cheesecake should be. Intensely creamy, chocolate-y, smooth and packed full of different types of chocolates. There's chocolate cookies as the base, followed by cocoa powder and chocolate in the cheesecake filling, then a chocolate ganache layer, and finally, crowned with ferrero rocher chocolates. Now, if that's not chocolate nimiety, then I wonder what is.
I knew it was a sign of good things when I removed the cheesecake from the oven, and the surface was almost perfectly smooth, save for a slight crack at one of the sides that is shown above. Wasn't the appearance gorgeously smooth and promising?
What sealed it as a keeper was definitely when it even managed to win over a non-cheesecake fan. The Sis, who detests cheesecake, actually liked it and ate more than I had expected. And I gave some to the girlfriend who gave me the cream cheese, she told me her fiancé inhaled a whole slice by himself and gave a thumbs up. She was shocked because he doesn't normally take sweets.
I personally thought that it was the ultimate dream chocolate cheesecake. It ticks all my checkboxes that I was having and more. And to think I randomly whacked up a recipe and succeeded on my first try! It is really rich though, so I really recommend slicing a really thin slice. In fact, if you want, you can double the number of ferrero rocher chocolate toppings so that it is side by side and looks prettier when cut so that each slice will have one rocher chocolate (if you get what I mean). Which means you get 16 individual slices. That's plenty to go around isn't it? But if you're a serious chocoholic, who am I to get between you and your cake right? Just slice it up according to your own whim (I promise I won't judge how thick your slice is) and take the time to savour every single mouthful.
Triple Chocolate Kahlua Cheesecake
(makes one 7.5" cake)
Crust
285g chocolate cookies
25g sugar
5g cocoa
pinch of salt
85g unsalted butter, melted
Preheat oven to 175C.
Combine all the above ingredients (except for the butter) in a large bowl of a food processor. Pulse several times until mixture is finely ground.
Add the melted butter, pulse a few more seconds to combine.
Butter a 7.5" cake tin with a detachable base. Press the crust crumbs into the sides and bottom of the cake tin.
Bake for 10 minutes till slightly set. Set aside to cool. Keep the oven on in the meantime.
Filling
200g chocolate, chopped
1 tsp coffee powder
680g cream cheese, room temperature
160g sugar
23g cocoa
3 large eggs
1/2 tsp vanilla paste
3 tbsp kahlua (or other liquor of your choice)
Combine chocolate and coffee powder in a bowl. Place over double boiler over low heat, stirring once in a while, till the chocolate is smooth and melted. Set aside.
In a large mixing bowl, roughly dice the cream cheese into smaller pieces. Add sugar and cocoa and beat together till well combined, remembering to scrape the sides of the bowl in the process.
Add the eggs one at a time, beating for 30s till combined after each addition before adding the next.
Add the vanilla and kahlua, beat for another 1 minute or so till combined.
Add the melted chocolate, beat for another few minutes till mixture is hom*ogenous.
Wrap the outside of the cake tin with aluminium foil. (This is for later when you place it in the water bath to prevent the crust from becoming soggy - which I forgot to do so only after I had added the hot water. *Cue round of cursing before I hastily lifted the cake tin out before lining the foil.)
Pour the filling into the cooled crust. Place the cake tin into a larger deeper pan. Pour hot water into the larger pan till half way mark so that it forms a water bath.
Carefully transfer large pan (containing the cake tin) to a baking tray. Bake for 1 hour, or till center is just set and slightly wobbly. Cool cheesecake completely. Chill overnight in fridge.
Slice and serve.
