I hope you all had a happy 4th of July weekend! We really really missed being in Greenville with the Kruithof family. I made this cheesecake for small group last Wednesday and then group was canceled. I ended up serving it to my family Friday night, and it was still delicious!
The recipe is from Southern Living. I found it online forever ago, and have been holding on to it for who knows how long. Thank goodness for CWC which gives me a reason to make all these things!
Recipe:
Ingredients
- 3 cups crushed chocolate graham crackers (about 20 sheets)
- 1/2 cup butter or margarine, melted
- Cooking Spray
- 4 (8-ounce) packages Cream Cheese, softened
- 1 cup Granulated Sugar
- 1/4 cup coffee liqueur - I used 1/4 cup espresso
- 1 teaspoon instant coffee granules
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 4 large eggs
- 4 (1-ounce) bittersweet baking chocolate squares
1. Stir together crushed graham crackers and butter; press mixture into bottom and up sides of a 9-inch springform pan coated with cooking spray.
2. Bake at 350° for 10 minutes. Cool crust in pan on a wire rack. Reduce oven temperature to 325°.
3. Beat cream cheese and 1 cup sugar at medium speed with an electric mixer until blended. Add coffee liqueur, coffee granules, and 1 teaspoon vanilla, beating at low speed until well blended. Add eggs, 1 at a time, beating just until yellow disappears after each addition.
4. Remove and reserve 1 cup cream cheese mixture. Pour remaining batter into prepared crust.
5. Microwave chocolate squares in a medium-size glass bowl 1 minute or until melted, stirring after 30 seconds; let cool slightly. Stir reserved 1 cup cream cheese mixture into melted chocolate, blending well. Spoon chocolate mixture in lines on top of batter in springform pan; gently swirl with a knife.
6. Bake at 325° for 1 hour or until almost set. Turn oven off. Let cheesecake stand in oven, with door closed, 30 minutes. Remove cheesecake from oven, and gently run a knife around outer edge of cheesecake to loosen from sides of pan. (Do not remove sides of pan.) Cool on a wire rack. Cover and chill at least 4 hours.
7. Remove sides of springform pan. Serve with Mocha Sauce.
MOCHA SAUCE
Ingredients
- 1 (12-ounce) package semisweet chocolate morsels
- 1/2 cup whipping cream
- 1 tablespoon butter or margarine
- 1/4 cup strong brewed coffee
Preparation
1. Cook chocolate morsels, whipping cream, and butter in a small heavy saucepan over low heat, stirring often, 2 to 3 minutes or until smooth. Remove from heat, and stir in 1/4 cup brewed coffee. Serve sauce warm.
Here's the crust and cheesecake batter:
This is the chocolate cheesecake process. You are supposed to put the chocolate batter in lines on top. That was kind of hard with the thick consistency. You can see mine is pretty much random spoonfuls. I think swirling it with the knife mixed it up pretty well though.
Right out of the oven - all puffed up:
The finished cheesecake, making the sauce. I made the sauce a couple hours in advance and just kept it in the pot. I turned the heat on low right before serving to warm it up.
Beautiful
This was a super yummy recipe. It's a fun one to make and serve. I like making fancy cheesecakes...with a name like "Chocolate-Coffee Cheesecake with Mocha Sauce" it sounds like I'm serving something from Cheesecake Factory. It was just the right amount of coffee-flavoring. Not at all overbearing. My favorite part by far was the Mocha Sauce. I kept going back to get more for my cheesecake. Now I have some extra, but I think it will be really good on ice cream. My only complaint was the crust. It seemed really thick on the side and kind of dry. It wasn't a big deal, I just left a lot of mine on the plate.
Brent gave this a "solid 8." Sarah said "No way" and gave it a 9.5 (only 0.5 taken off for the crust). If you like cheesecake, mocha and impressing guests :), I definitely recommend it!
