Godiva Chocolate Cheesecake

My sister who is turning 50 requested a chocolate cheesecake for her birthday, she recalled a godiva cheesecake that she once had and loved.  I have never made a chocolate cheesecake, but I'm always up to trying something new.   So I searched the godiva website where I found many delicious and decadent looking chocolate recipes including a variety of cheesecakes, you've got to check it out: http://www.godiva.com/recipes/recipes-collect.aspx  I chose the Chocolate Cheesecake with whipped cream topping and made a few slight changes.  This was a very rich and chocolaty cheesecake, I'm happy to say the birthday girl enjoyed it very much!  This cake would be great for the holiday table too!!

Recipe:

Crust

1 1/4 cups oreo cookie crumbs- just the cookie part no cream 

or 1 1/4 cups chocolate wafer cookie crumbs

6 Tbsp melted butter

Filling

3 3.5 oz Godiva Dark Chocolate bars- coarsely chopped (found in the candy/chocolate aisle) or any fine dark chocolate like Lindt

2 8 oz pkgs cream cheese, softened to room temp

1 cup sugar

4 large eggs, room temp

1/4 tsp salt

1/2 cup brewed hot coffee

2 tsp vanilla extract

Whipped cream topping

1 cup heavy cream

1 Tbsp sugar

1 tsp vanilla extract

Garnish

Godiva dark chocolate, grated

Godiva dark chocolate truffles

Preheat oven to 325.  Wrap bottom of 9 inch cheesecake pan with aluminum foil.  Process cookies in a food processor until med-fine crumbs.  Add butter and process until blended.  Press mixture into bottom of pan, refrigerate.

Place chocolate in a microwave safe bowl.  Microwave at 50% power for 1 minute, then stir.  Microwave at 30 second intervals at 50% power, stirring after each interval until melted and smooth, let cool.

Look at all that luscious dark chocolate, I used a combination of Godiva and Lindt

Beat cream cheese in a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment until creamy.  Add sugar  gradually and beat until blended.  Add eggs one at a time, beating after each addition and scraping bowl with spatula as needed.  Dissolve salt in hot coffee.  At low speed slowly beat in the coffee, then the vanilla and chocolate until blended.  Pour mixture over crust.  Place cheesecake in a roasting pan, and pour boiling water into pan till about 1/2 way up the side of the cheesecake pan.  Bake for about 60 minutes or until center is firm.  Turn off oven and crack open door, let cheesecake cool in oven for 45 minutes.  Remove from roasting pan and cool cheesecake on wire rack.  Cover with aluminum foil and refrigerate overnight.

Make the topping:  loosen the edges of cheesecake with a knife and remove sides of pan.  Beat cream, sugar and vanilla in a stand mixer fitted with a whisk attachment, for best results - use cold bowl and whisk by placing these in the freezer a few minutes, the cream should also be very cold.  Beat until soft peaks form.  Spread 1/2 the cream over top.   Fill a pastry bag fitted with a large star tip with remaining cream and pipe a border of rosettes around edge of cheesecake.  Sprinkle grated chocolate on top, and garnish with a few truffles.

Recipe adapted from Godiva's Chocolate Cheesecake

Enjoy!