Ultimate Chick Food

          Cheesecake just shouldn't be allowed; it's that good. I had a few girls over for a movie the other night and decided I'd make us the ultimate chick food: Chocolate Cheesecake. I always get nervous when I'm making a cheesecake because they are notoriously temperamental. You do the slightest thing wrong and it's ruined. After much trial and error, the cheesecake I made this weekend at least proves I'm learning something. It turned out perfectly silky, smooth, and rich! I can't say as much for my first several cheesecake attempts. It just takes some patience and practice. And believe me, it's worth getting good at because then you can make and eat a  homemade cheesecake whenever you want! I have to end up giving about half of every cheesecake I make away though because I'll make myself sick eating too much! Worth it. Try it.

Chocolate Cheesecake

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• Ingredients
• Crust:
•      1 cup packaged chocolate cookie crumbs (such as Oreo)
•      2 tablespoons sugar 
•      1 tablespoon butter or stick margarine, melted
•      Cooking spray 
• Filling:
•      1/2 cup Dutch process cocoa
•      1/4 cup 1% low-fat milk 
•      3 ounces semisweet chocolate, melted
•      4 (8-ounce) blocks fat-free cream cheese, softened 
•      1 (8-ounce) block 1/3-less-fat cream cheese, softened 
•      1 1/2 cups sugar 3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
•      2 teaspoons vanilla extract
•      4 large eggs 
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• Directions:
•      1. Preheat oven to 325°.
•      2. To prepare crust, combine first 3 ingredients; toss with a fork until moist. Press into bottom of a 9-inch springform pan coated with cooking spray.
•      3. To prepare the filling, combine cocoa, milk, and chocolate, and stir well with a whisk. Beat cheeses at high speed of a mixer until smooth. Add 1 1/2 cups sugar, flour, and vanilla; beat well. Add chocolate mixture; beat well. Add eggs, 1 at a time, beating well after each addition.
•      4. Pour cheese mixture into prepared pan; bake at 325° for 1 hour and 10 minutes or until almost set. Cheesecake is done when the center barely moves when the pan is touched. Remove cheesecake from oven, and run a knife around outside edge. Cool to room temperature. Cover and chill for at least 8 hours. 
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• Tips:
•           Grease the springform pan well. This ensures that when you remove the cheesecake from it, the sides of the cheesecake don't rip apart.
•           I can't stress this enough: use room temperature cream cheese! If you use cold cream cheese, you'll get a lumpy cheesecake batter. Been there done that! To soften cream cheese, let it sit out at room temperature for an hour or so or pop it in the microwave for about 30 seconds. Use room temperature eggs too. It helps the ingredients incorporate better when you mix. If you forget and use cool cream cheese anyway and get lumpy batter, all is not lost: when you're done making the batter, pour it through a fine sieve, mash up the lumps that are left over, and reincorporate into your batter.
•           Bake your cheesecake in a water bath. Follow the recipe as normal, but wrap the bottom of your springform pan tightly with aluminum foil to prevent water leaking into the cheesecake. Place the springform pan onto a jelly roll pan and pour hot water into the jelly roll pan, about a couple inches deep. Bake as usual. Using a water bath ensures that the cheesecake bakes evenly (so the edges don't brown and overbake while the center is still mush). 
•           Check on your cheesecake about 10-15 minutes before the recipe's given bake time. Depending on your oven, sometimes it's done sooner than the recipe suggests it is and it's very easy to overbake a cheesecake. There are a few ways to tell if your cheesecake is done (this is the tricky part!). If the cheesecake is mostly set but still jiggles a little (but not liquid-y), it's probably done. Some people stick a knife into the cheesecake (about an inch from the center) and if it comes out clean it's done, but I've found that I've had perfectly done cheesecakes in which the knife did not come out clean and if I'd kept baking it it would have overbaked. The most precise way which I have not yet tried is to stick an instant-read thermometer into the center of the cheesecake (the ideal internal temperature for a cheesecake is about 160-165 degrees).          
•           Allow the cheesecake to cool COMPLETELY before putting it in the fridge or freezer. If you don't, the condensation from the plastic wrap you cover the cheesecake with will make your cheesecake soggy and gross.
•           If you want to speed up the chilling process, wrap the cooled cheesecake with plastic wrap and put it in the freezer for about an hour before then putting it in the fridge to continue chilling. Or, you can leave it in the freezer (wrapped with both plastic wrap and aluminum foil) for about 2 months and thaw in the refrigerator when you're ready to eat it.
•           For clean and pretty slicing, dip a thin, sharp knife in warm water, dry it off completely, and slowly cut into the cheesecake. Wipe the knife clean, dip it back in the warm water, and dry completely before you cut each slice.