My Sweetheart loves three things, German’s chocolate, cheesecake
and me. I will share two of those three with you. No one can resist a classic
New York Style cheesecake and I’m not talking about one of those air-filled-fluffy-whipped-cream-like imitation cheesecakes. I’m speaking of a rich, dense (make
you wanna slap somebody), classic cheesecake like you get at ‘Junior’s ‘in Brooklyn, NY. Yes a real cheesecake drizzled with sweet German’s
chocolate (created by Samuel German in 1852 for Baker's Chocolate hence the name), gooey caramel and topped
with sliced almonds …or pecans, or walnuts or whatever you like!
This is an easy recipe with baking tips (from yours truly) to help you get it
right the first time. Cheesecake can be very temperamental (it’s prone to
crack; it can be dry caused by over baking or too airy from whipping with an electric mixer). First of all
cheesecake is not a cake, it is a custard (an egg and milk
mixture), which means you must handle it with care, this recipe can be made a day or two in advance (it only gets better
with time). You will need a non-stick nine-inch spring form
pan they are essential (YOU CANNOT MAKE A CLASSIC CHEESECAKE WITHOUT ONE) and relatively
inexpensive; I purchased one at Wal-Mart for $11.00 and you will use it again
and again after this recipe…because you will love this cheesecake. You will
also need 2 large heavy duty Ziploc bags and a hand mixer to use sparingly
(optional).
INGREDIENTS
For the crust:
2 cups of chocolate graham
cracker crumbs (about two inner packages of graham crackers)
Chocolate cookie crumbs (Oreo) or
traditional graham crackers may be substituted
6 tablespoons butter (melted)
For the filling:
2 ½ eight-ounce packages of Philadelphia
cream cheese (don’t be cheap get the good stuff)
1 cup of granulated sugar
2 tablespoons of all-purpose
flour
¼ teaspoon of salt
3 large eggs
1 teaspoon of ‘real’ vanilla
extract
2 tablespoons of milk
1 tablespoon of cornstarch
For the toppings:
1 cup of sliced almonds or
chopped pecans (or walnuts, whatever you like)
1 package (4oz) of Baker's sweet German’s
chocolate
2 tablespoons of heavy whipping
cream
1 tablespoon of butter
1 bottle of Caramel sundae syrup
DIRECTIONS
Set out the Philadelphia cream
cheese (it’s easier to work with when it’s soft) and eggs; allow these
ingredients to get room temperature before you start (about 30-45minutes).
1. Preheat the oven to 450 degrees with the oven rack
placed directly in the center of the oven, crush the graham crackers in a Ziploc bag; you can use
a rolling pin for this. In the nine-inch spring-form pan (I lightly coated it
with Pam cooking spray prior to this), mix the cracker crumbs and the melted
butter. Press the crumb mixture into a crust across the bottom and about one
inch up the sides. Bake the crust for 6-7mintues. Don’t let the butter burn so pay attention!
2. In
a large bowl, cream the cream cheese with the sugar (I used the hand mixer on slow
to just slightly mix the cheese, about 10 seconds DO NOT over mix, you don't want to incorporate air into the filling). Then add
flour, cornstarch and salt, stir a few times with a wooden spoon or spatula. In a separate bowl combine eggs, vanilla and
milk, add to cream cheese mixture and stir until just combined (be careful not
to over mix) scraping down the sides into the bowl. Pour the filling mix into the crust.
3. Bake
for 10 minutes at 450 degrees. Lower the temperature to 200 degrees and bake
for an additional 30 to 35 minutes or until the cheesecake filing is set. You can use the jiggle test by shaking the
cake it should “jiggle” slightly in the center or look wet and translucent in
the center (don't use the toothpick/knife-in-the-center test you will mess up the surface of the cake). If your cheesecake is browning on top it is over done (so watch it as you approach the thirty-minute mark). It will
completely solidify as it cools.
4. After
the cheesecake has cooled for 10 minutes, with a sharp knife, loosen the edges
of the cheese cake from the pan so that the cake will pull away from the pan as
it cools. Place the cheesecake on a cooling rack away from any draft (DO NOT sit cheesecake on top of the stove, the pilot lights or residual heat from the oven will dry it out). Remove the rim of the pan after it has cooled for about 45 minutes.
5. For
the topping combine the German's chocolate, heavy whipping cream and 1 tablespoon of
butter, melt over very low heat stirring until completely combined. Remove from
heat and spoon into the corner of the other Ziploc bag. Gently squeeze all the
chocolate to one corner of the bag, cut a very small piece of the corner
off (this will make it an inexpensive piping
bag), drizzle the cheesecake with caramel first then chocolate. Sprinkle
nuts on the cake. Refrigerate until completely cool before serving. Enjoy!!!
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