Dark Chocolate Cheesecake … life’s guilty pleasures simply served up
“Dreams are only dreams until you wake up and make them real.”
Ned Vizzini
Dark Chocolate Cheesecake … life’s guilty pleasures simply served up, or life’s simple pleasures maybe with a little guilt. Whichever way you choose to look at it, this recipe is a winner. The recipe isn’t mine. It’s a recipe created by the super talented Ruchira @ Cookaroo, on the go as she said. She did make everything sound so simple, so matter of fact, that of course I didn’t believe her!
That changed very soon. In fact as soon as I put in the cheesecake to bake, I realised that it was really very S I M P L E. Absolutely fuss free. I changed a few minor things. The base for one as hers has Oreos and I prefer Digestives. No big deal there. Both packaged cookies so no work at all. I threw in some cocoa to make mine a chocolate base. Barely any other change other than using brown sugar for white!
The other guilty indulgence I added was topping the chilled cheesecake with a dark chocolate ganache as we had folk over for dinner. I wanted it to look special. the ganache and the dusting of cocoa gave it the ‘bells & whistles‘, and some more yumminess of course.
The beautiful thing about the Dark Chocolate Cheesecake, other than the ease of putting it together of course, is that you can bake it a couple of days before you need to serve it. Keep it covered in the fridge in the tin for a day or two. Demold it the day you intend to serve it, top with ganache and you’re good to go. Do remember to thank the Cookaroo if you make this. I’ve thanked her, and so has a reader of my blog, Tania Fothergill, from Tasmania who I shared the recipe with over 3 weeks week ago. It was Tania’s birthday and she really wanted to bake it. Here’s what she said about the cake.
How sweet is that! Thank you Ruchira.
Dark Chocolate Cheesecake
Ingredients
Biscuit base
- 150 g digestives biscuits
- 30 g cocoa powder
- 20 g brown sugar
- 50 g butter
Dark Chocolate Filling
- 200 g dark couverture chocolate melted
- 400 g cream cheese
- 200 ml single cream
- 1/3 cup cocoa
- 3 eggs
- 1 tsp pure vanilla extract
- 3/4 cup brown sugar
Ganache
- 100 g 52% couverture
- 100 ml single cream
Instructions
Biscuit base
- Whiz the biscuits, brown sugar and cocoa in food processor until you get a fine meal. Add butter, whiz again to mix. Press into 7-8" loose bottom tin. Chill in the freezer while you get the filling ready, and the oven preheats.
Dark Chocolate Filling
- Preheat oven to 160C.
- Place all ingredients in bowl of food processor, and blend well to mix, 1-2 minutes on medium speed.
- Pour into crust, and bake for an hour.
- Cool completely in the oven, then chill covered in the fridge, preferably overnight.
Ganache
- Place chocolate and cream in a heatproof bowl. Heat in microwave for 1 minute. Whisk with a balloon whisk until smooth. Cool about 30 minutes, then whisk again. Chill until a little firm. Whisk once again till glossy and smooth, and holds peaks. Spread over chilled cheesecake. Dust with cocoa.
Deeba @ PAB
About me: I am a freelance food writer, recipe developer and photographer. Food is my passion - baking, cooking, developing recipes, making recipes healthier, using fresh seasonal produce and local products, keeping a check on my carbon footprint and being a responsible foodie! I enjoy food styling, food photography, recipe development and product reviews. I express this through my food photographs which I style and the recipes I blog. My strength lies in 'Doing Food From Scratch'; it must taste as good as it looks, and be healthy too. Baking in India, often my biggest challenge is the non-availability of baking ingredients, and this has now become a platform to get creative on. I enjoy cooking immensely as well.
19 Comments
TKD
Nice blog!!
RS
Hi Deeba Ma’am! Thanks for sharing this awesome recipe, it worked like a charm.
Deeba @ PAB
Oooh that’s nice. Thank you for taking the time to write back. 🙂
Sithara
I can’t see the recipe!!!
Deeba @ PAB
Can you try from the desktop, or remove cache/cookies from the cell please?
Deeba @ PAB
Can you try this link please? Does it work Sithara?
Gloria Gomes
Definitely gotta try this
Karishma
Looks fabulous but I can’t see the recipe here.
Deeba @ PAB
Hi Karishma. Thank you. Could you try viewing via the desktop version? Thank you
Carlos At Spoonabilities
This cake looks so indulgent! The colors are so vibrant!
Deeba @ PAB
Thank you Carlos 🙂
Monisha keswani
Egg substitute?
Deeba @ PAB
That’ll have to be a whole new recipe, possibly using condensed milk etc.
Archana
Hi Deeba ma’am,
Lovely site . And loved this cheesecake , it turned out really well. Blindly followed this recipe and it was awesome. Thank you !
Deeba @ PAB
Thank you so much. Thrilled that it turned out well!
Karminder
Hello ma’am. May I know substitute and brands of cream cheese as this is not easily available at my city?
Deeba @ PAB
Hi Karminder, I use a local artisanal cream cheese available here locally. Maybe you can use Mooz, Brittania etc
Kathryn
Hello, I’d love to make this, but have a standard 9″ cheesecake form. How might I modify?
Deeba @ PAB
Hello. You could use a 9″ pan but it’ll give you a much thinner cheesecake. Alternatively, scale all the ingredients by a 1/4 or 25% and I think that should work.