Dark Chocolate Cheesecake with Wine Macerated Strawberries
So much chocolate. So little time!
Dark Chocolate Cheesecake with Wine Macerated Strawberries is really as good as it sounds and looks, and tastes even better. The cheesecake is a chocolate lovers delight – deep, dark, rich, sensuous, indulgent, sinful. With so many superlatives, I might well throw another in. It’s dead S I M P L E too! Make it ASAP and you’ll know just what I mean.
It’s a recipe I’ve minimally adapted from Ruchira @ Cookaroo. She’s quite the best ‘chef’ I know. Her recipes are always quick, simple and foolproof. I’ve made this Dark Chocolate Cheesecake before and it was SO GOOD that I couldn’t wait to make it again.
The recipe now lives in my head. I go about tweaking it here and there depending on what I have on hand. It’s a keeper! Minimal fuss, maximum taste! I throw it together in my Thermomix and it takes under 20 minutes to come together. I used digestive biscuits the last time. Didn’t have digestives on hand this time, so I threw in Hobnobs instead. Just as good! 
I do a lot of chocolate desserts, simple ones mostly. Simple recipes like these leave you a lot of time to think about what more you can do. I could have just gone naked {ahem} with the cheesecake, but a luscious rich chocolate ganache takes this beautiful Dark Chocolate Cheesecake to a delicious new level. How could I skip it. The cake was for a birthday, so now something had to be celebratory, I mean a little more celebratory. Also, so much time on hand makes me fidgety. I just have to do something more!
I thought maybe salter butter caramel and had visions of gooey goodness dripping off the edges. Yet when I opened the fridge, I saw a box of juicy fresh strawberries and I knew I had to have them on some way. Maybe do strawberries in balsamic vinegar? No, no, strawberries in red wine screamed the bottle of Shiraz at me.
You might remember these Lamb Chops with Red Wine I made recently, best I’ve ever made. Rosemary, garlic, and a limited edition Shiraz came together ever so beautifully to create this dish with so much character and loads of depth. There was some wine left over, so red wine macerated strawberries it was going to be.
Anything on my kitchen counter becomes an ingredient in my recipes. Loads of fresh oranges and star anise sitting pretty on the counter could only mean one thing. They would help flavour my macerated strawberries. In went the zest of an orange and a few star anise. They created delightful undertones as you can well imagine.
The result was a flavoursome, beautifully coloured red wine topping which tastes as good as it looks. Here you go, the recipe is a must try. For me, it’s the only chocolate cheesecake recipe I’ll ever need! Thank you Ruchira ♥!
Dark Chocolate Cheesecake Red wine macerated strawberries
Ingredients
Biscuit base
- 150 g Hobnobs or digestive biscuits
- 30 g cocoa powder
- 20 g organic jaggery granules
- 50 g butter
Dark Chocolate Filling
- 200 g dark couverture chocolate melted
- 300 g cream cheese
- 200 ml single cream
- 30 g cup cocoa
- 3 eggs
- 1 tsp pure vanilla extract
- 90 g organic jaggery granules
Ganache
- 100 g 52% couverture
- 100 ml single cream
Red wine macerated strawberries
- 250 g strawberries chopped
- 50-75 g brown sugar
- 2-3 star anise
- zest of one orange
- 100 ml red wine
- 40 ml orange juice
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 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 of the filling in bowl of food processor, and blend well to mix, 1-2 minutes on medium speed.
- Pour into crust, and bake for an hour. Leave to cool in the oven, then cover and chill for 4-6 hours, better overnight.
Red Wine Macerated Strawberries
- in a non reactive bowl, put in the strawberries, star anise, orange zest and brown sugar. Stir to mix, then pour in the wine. Stand covered in the fridge overnight.
- Discard the star anise, and strain the strawberries. Reserve in a bowl. Place wine in a small saucepan with a quarter cup orange juice, and simmer until thick and syrupy. taste and adjust sweetness if required. Cool slightly, then pour over the strawberries.
- Ladle the strawberries over the ganache. If the syrup is thin, reduce it further until nice and thick. Cool and pour over strawberries.
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.
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.
22 Comments
Jaglusia
Pięknie wygląda. 🙂
https://jaglusia.wordpress.com/
Dhanya Samuel
Love wine macerated strawberries but only had it with icecreams before; looks so indulgent and lush with a chocolate cheesecake.
rashmee
this sounds brilliant. can i replace the jaggery with brown sugar? and is the jaggery the regular one or specifically granules?
Deeba @ PAB
Hi Rashmee, thank you. Brown sugar would be perfect. 🙂
Adarsh Sharma
That was a delectable recipe!
Indhuja Ravi
how long can i store it at room temp?
Deeba @ PAB
What are you asking about Indhuja? The cake or the strawberries?
Vibha
Can I use white wine instead of red wine ?
Deeba @ PAB
I think strawberries work best with red wine in baking, but no harm trying this with white wine. You never know! Do let me know how it turns out. Thank you.
Ruchita
Perfect timing ! I’m going to make this for my wedding anniversary,I just wanted to check if it’s ok to use premium baking bars instead of coverture? Also what is single cream? Can I replace this with half-half? However,I will definitely try and look for single cream.Thank you so much for sharing this recipe!
Deeba @ PAB
Hi Ruchita, Premium baking bars sound good to me! Single cream is low fat cream like Mother Dairy & Amul in India. I guess half & half should work, else use normal whipping cream.
Nidhi
Hi Deeba ! Sounds really inviting. This is on my to do for tomorrow
Wanted to check , what can I use instead of red wine that goes best with strawberries. Would balsamic vinegar also be good. Plz suggest the best. Thanks so much
Deeba @ PAB
Hi Nidhi. Yes, balsamic will work well. Please add a tbsp.of brown sugar to it. ?
Archana Poddar
Can i replace the orange juice with something else as no body like orang flavour in my house.
And since its a cheese cake do we have to bake it in water bath.
Deeba @ PAB
Hi Archana, please feel free to skip the orange. Also, I sometimes use a water bath and sometimes don’t since I always top my cheesecake so any cracks get covered in any case. Hope this helps.
Archana Poddar
For how long can we store marcerated strawberries in fridge . And can frozen strawberries be used if they are not in season.
Deeba @ PAB
You can store them for 2-3 days in the fridge Archana. And yes, frozen strawberries can be used. They will break down more, but will taste fine.
Archana Poddar
Thanx a ton
Archana Poddar
Hi Deeba..made the cheesecake today it taste awesome .but it sank after cooling and became very heavy…can u advice pls where cud i have gone wrong. I still have to top it with strawberries…have kept it in fridge for cooling.
Deeba @ PAB
Archana, maybe you whipped it too much. The chocolate cheesecake is normally dense but not heavy. Next time perhaps whip the egg whites separately and fold them in?
Laurie-Anne
WoW this looks delicious! I want to bake it for a birthday, but there will be more then 10 persons there… It is a good idea to make a 1 1/2 recipe and adjust baking time or put it in a bigger (10″) pan? or would you advise to simply make two?
Thanks for your advice ?
Deeba @ PAB
Hey Laurie, thank you. This would possibly be good enough for 10, but not for seconds I think. I’d say make 2 rather than 1 1/2. Sometimes they don’t bake all the way to the centre if they are too big.