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| Chocolate Mousse Cheesecake |
Today marks the 5th anniversary of Rock Recipes! When I started a personal recipe blog back in 2007, I never imagined that it would grow as much as it has. Up until that point, I had never written down recipes that I came up with or modified to suit our family's taste. My sister started insisting that I provide her with some of my favorite recipes and with an upcoming major ankle surgery looming that would have me in a wheelchair for several months, I decided having all that time away from work was a good opportunity to start a recipe blog as a reference for family and friends.
Over 100 of the very first recipes on Rock Recipes, with the enormous help of Spouse, were made, written and photographed from that wheelchair. One of the visual memories I carry from that time is of the kitchen door frame. My wheelchair just barely fit through that door and over the months, I gradually wore all the paint off the door frame from so many trips back and forth to the kitchen. I must have tried Lynn's patience to the limit. I'm demanding enough at the best of times, so having me immobilized was no treat, to be sure!
In the first 30 days the website went online it received 6,830 hits, as family and friends started following our recipes. I thought at the time that was great that a couple of hundred times a day someone was visiting a page on our site. Fast forward five years and incredibly, the number of page hits in the last 30 days was 453,528!!
I never would have predicted that level of growth but with the advent of social media, more and more folks started following Rock Recipes on Facebook, Twitter, by email, RSS feeds and most recently Pinterest. Slowly and steadily our readership has increased. This past year has seen the biggest growth ever and we are looking forward to seeing what the year ahead holds. Thanks to you all for your continued support for what we do here, it is very much appreciated and stay tuned, we are not finished yet.
To celebrate our anniversary we return to an updated version of our chocolate cheesecake which was one of the very first recipes we posted on that first day, five years ago. I've updated the recipe and introduced a new method for adding the whipping cream to the batter, which results in a silky smooth, lighter textured cheesecake. I will be incorporating that idea into future cheesecake recipes for sure.
I bake my cheesecakes in a 10 inch spring form pan that has the bottom and sides wrapped in multiple layers of wide heavy duty aluminum foil which forms a sort of boat that the cheesecake pan sits in. The roll of aluminum foil that I use is about 16 inches wide. I use at least 4 layers of foil to make sure that no water leaks in and ruins the crust of my cheesecake. The aluminum foil wrapped pan is then placed inside a larger baking pan; I use a 12 inch cake pan. Boiling water is then poured into the larger pan filling it from 1/2 to 2/3 of the way to the top.
I find it best to pour the boiling water into the pan after it is placed on the rack in the oven as you are less likely to splash water onto the cheesecake or inside the aluminum foil. I reuse the aluminum foil for several future cheesecakes, adding a couple of layers to it each time just to be safe.
Even if you choose not to use a water bath method, wrapping the outside of your spring form pan with 4 or 5 layers of heavy duty aluminum foil will greatly help the even distribution of heat through your cheesecake as it bakes, making it more evenly creamy from edges to middle.
Line the bottom of a 9 or 10 inch spring form pan with parchment paper. You can grease the bottom of the pan but using parchment paper is the best way to easily release a cheesecake from the bottom of the pan. I just lay a sheet over the bottom of the pan before clicking the side portion of the pan into place and then trim the excess paper.
Mix together and press into pan :
1 ½ cups Oreo Cookie Crumbs
1/3 cup melted butter
3 tbsp sugar
Cream together:
1 ½ pounds cream cheese ( three 8 oz blocks)
3 squares unsweetened baking chocolate, melted
( In a pinch you can substitute 2/3 cup cocoa)
1 ¼ cups sugar
Add, one at a time:
3 eggs
Then add:
2 tsp vanilla extract
To the bowl of your electric mixer add
1 cup whipping cream
2 tbsp powdered sugar
1 tsp vanilla
Whip to soft peaks and then fold gently into the cheesecake batter.
Pour into prepared springform pan. Bake in a water bath (bain marie) at 300 degrees F for about an hour or until the surface of the cake no longer looks glossy. Remove from oven and immediately run a sharp knife around the edge of the pan to release the cake. Cool completely in the pan. Top with chocolate ganache glaze.
Ganache glaze:
In a small saucepan, scald but do not boil:
¼ cup whipping cream
Then melt in on low heat:
¾ cup semisweet chocolate chips.
Pour over cooled cake and garnish with fresh berries if you like.
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