I made this for a friend having a party. Two times I've made this in the past and everytime it came out a disaster. The reasons were the same - water leaked inside the cake pan. This type of cheesecake baking needs a water bath wherein the cake pan is immersed in a larger pan filled with hot water. Of course to prevent the water from seeping in the cake pan you have to wrap it well with foil. First time I attempted this, the foil I had was too small/short so when I filled up the bigger pan with water I didn't realise it trickled in resulting in soggy oozing cake mess. Yuk! Three years later I tried it again, I made sure I bought a big roll of foil the one used for turkeys. No problem with that. But then after wrapping it, I was moving the wrapped cake pan on the kitchen table. I didn't realise (again!) that it created a small hole in the foil. Hence, I ended up with the same sorry soggy cake.
This time around not only I made sure I carefully wrapped and handled the cake pan, I even doubled the foil just to be sure. And thank goodness I am finally rewarded with a nice evenly baked chocolate cheesecake.
The only thing is when I had it, I forgot how strong the properly home baked cheesecake would taste. Unlike the store bought ones whose cheesy taste is very very mild. So for this you would need just a small portion coupled with whipped cream or ice cream.
Adapted from the US edition of Ladies' Home Journal issue of November 1993 (yes that old!).
Chocolate Cheesecake
225 g (8 oz) semisweet or dark cooking chocolate
1/4 cup brewed coffee or water
1 cup chocolate wafer crumbs
1/4 cup butter - melted
3 x 225 g (8 oz) cream cheese
1 cup sugar
2 large eggs
1 cup sour cream
1 tsp vanilla
Boiling water
Icing sugar and chocolate curls
- Melt chocolates with coffee in a heat proof bowl (or double boiler) over gently simmering water.
- Preheat oven to 180°C/fan 160°C/350°F. Combine wafer crumbs and butter in a bowl. Press crumbs into the bottom of a 9-inch springform pan.
- Beat cream cheese in a large mixer bowl until smooth. Beat in sugar until light and fluffy. Add eggs one at a time. At low speed, beat in chocolate.
- Add sour cream and vanilla, beating just until blended. Pour batter into prepared pan.
- Wrap outside of the pan with double sheets of thick aluminum foil. Take care that there are no holes in the foil.
- Place in a roasting pan in oven and pour boiling water in the roasting pan to come halfway up sides of springform pan.
- Bake 55 minutes or until sides of cheesecake are puffed and center is just set.
- Remove from water bath and cool completely on wire rack. (Can be made ahead. Cover and refrigerate up to 2 days).
- Remove sides of the pan. Garnish top with confectioner's sugar and chocolate curls.
Note: You may substitute chocolate biscuits/cookies (such as Oreo) for the chocolate wafers.
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