chocolate marbled cheesecake

Cheesecake and I have a rather odd relationship. At one point, I was quite vocal about the fact that I (gasp) didn't like cheesecake. A lot of this comes back to my squicky feeling about creamy white foodlike substances. You can't pay me to get near mayonaisse or sour cream, I'm not a fan of yogurt and for years I wouldn't even come near cream cheese. Over the years, spinach dip made me change my mind a little bit about the cream cheese but I still won't go near the others. I still won't eat cream cheese on a bagel, but over the past few years I have discovered that it has another good use: cheesecake.

If I'm being honest, I still don't like most cheesecakes. I don't like the commercial ones, I don't like the big, tall fluffy ones that run rampant in many restaurants. My tastes are very defined: if I'm going to have a cheesecake it will be a dense, rich slightly tangy cake with a lovely crust. And just for fun, I'm going to make sure that I incorporate some sort of chocolate into them. Otherwise I just really can't be bothered.

My cheesecakes tend to be simple, with just cream cheese, sugar, eggs, vanilla some chocolate and a crust. No extras. No heavy canned cherry toppings. Just simple. I also break one of the biggest cheesecake rules and sometimes use tubs of cream cheese instead of blocks. Honestly? This has never turned into a problem and I still get the same dense, moist deliciousness. This one is everything I need it to be be. It was a bit of an experiment though: more cream cheese, more egg and different baking instructions than usual. I tend to go with a slow, even bake, which tends to come out perfectly even without a water bath. This time I decided to try to a recipe that had a high/low baking instruction which gave a deliciously creamy texture, but skipping the waterbath resulted in some large cracks across the top of the cake.

The perfection in the looks, though? Not necessary. This was pure delight.

Marbled Chocolate Cheesecake
adapted from food.com

Ingredients:

Crust:

• 1 cup chocolate crumbs (or, if you're feeling decadent, crushed oreos)
• 1/4 cup buttter

Filling:

• 600 grams plain cream cheese (this worked out to 1 1/2 large tubs for me)
• 3 eggs
• 3/4 cups white sugar
• 1 tablespoon vanilla
• 1/2 cup semi sweet or dark chocolate chips or wafers

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350*.
2. Make the crust. Melt the butter, either over low heat or just put it in the microwave for about a minute. In a medium bowl, pour the butter over the chocolate crumbs. Combine with a fork until everything is evenly moistened.
3. Spread the crust over the bottom of a 8 or 9 inch spring form pan. Press down and ensure the crust is even across the bottom.
4. Bake the crust for ten minutes. When you remove it from the oven, bring the heat up to 450* F.
5. In a large bowl, combine the softened cream cheese with the sugar. Using an electric mixer, beat until smooth. You can also easily do this with a wooden spoon, I just didn't.
6. Add the eggs one at a time, and beat again until each is fully incorporated. Incorporate the vanilla in along with the last egg.
7. Pour three quarters of your filling into the springform pan over the crust. Set the rest aside for a few minutes.
8. In a double boiler, melt the chocolate. Once melted, pour the chocolate into the remaining cream cheese filling. Beat until the filling and chocolate are well mixed.
9. Pour the chocolate filling over the rest of the cheesecake. Take a knife and run it in swirls through the batter, so that you'll have lovely marbled swirls going through the whole thing.
10. Transfer to the oven, bake for 10 minutes.
11. Reduce the heat to 325* F and bake for a further 20-25 minutes, until the centre is wobbly and not quite set. This will cook through once you remove the cake and let it rest.
12. Let the cake cool for about 10 minutes, then run a knife around the outside edge of the pan and release the springform. Let cool completely, then cut into wedges and serve.