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Saturday, June 08, 2013

Triple Chocolate Kahlua Cheesecake

To say that it has been a difficult week is an understatement. But to keep things mess-free for you and me, I shall not rant about it here. Let's just end it at "I'm glad the weekend is finally here.".
Triple Chocolate Kahlua Cheesecake
Chocolate teddy cookies; Ferrero Rochers

But anyway, let's move on and talk about the cake since that's what you're here for right?

I made this cheesecake right before my Korea 2013 trip about one and a half months ago. A girlfriend had gave me a few blocks of cream cheese that she had in her fridge as it was expiring like real soon and she had no idea how to deal with it. Lol. I guess I'm her solution then.

I had some chocolate teddy bears in the house that I had bought in a sale, they are actually quite bland, (I prefer another brand of chocolate teddies, those are the ones I had eaten when I was a kid) so I decided that I shall use some of it for the cheesecake base.

No one in the house likes cheesecake, so I had to make the cheesecake a flavour that I knew could tempt the Sis into trying - chocolate flavour of course. I was browsing through online recipes, but I just couldn't find anything that caught my eye. Instead, I combined a few recipes, and tweaked the proportions and ingredients to come up with my own recipe.
Drippin'

One thing about cheesecake is that it is not an instant gratification kinda dessert. Nope. Even if you were about to die of chocolate withdrawal cravings, and the whole cake is staring at you (daring you even) in your face, you gotta give it ample time to rest and chill in the fridge before slicing into it. But. This? Is so worth it.


It is everything that a chocolate cheesecake should be. Intensely creamy, chocolate-y, smooth and packed full of different types of chocolates. There's chocolate cookies as the base, followed by cocoa powder and chocolate in the cheesecake filling, then a chocolate ganache layer, and finally, crowned with ferrero rocher chocolates. Now, if that's not chocolate nimiety, then I wonder what is.


I knew it was a sign of good things when I removed the cheesecake from the oven, and the surface was almost perfectly smooth, save for a slight crack at one of the sides that is shown above. Wasn't the appearance gorgeously smooth and promising?


What sealed it as a keeper was definitely when it even managed to win over a non-cheesecake fan. The Sis, who detests cheesecake, actually liked it and ate more than I had expected. And I gave some to the girlfriend who gave me the cream cheese, she told me her fiancé inhaled a whole slice by himself and gave a thumbs up. She was shocked because he doesn't normally take sweets.

I personally thought that it was the ultimate dream chocolate cheesecake. It ticks all my checkboxes that I was having and more. And to think I randomly whacked up a recipe and succeeded on my first try! It is really rich though, so I really recommend slicing a really thin slice. In fact, if you want, you can double the number of ferrero rocher chocolate toppings so that it is side by side and looks prettier when cut so that each slice will have one rocher chocolate (if you get what I mean). Which means you get 16 individual slices. That's plenty to go around isn't it? But if you're a serious chocoholic, who am I to get between you and your cake right? Just slice it up according to your own whim (I promise I won't judge how thick your slice is) and take the time to savour every single mouthful.


Triple Chocolate Kahlua Cheesecake
(makes one 7.5" cake)

Crust
285g chocolate cookies
25g sugar
5g cocoa
pinch of salt
85g unsalted butter, melted

Preheat oven to 175C.
Combine all the above ingredients (except for the butter) in a large bowl of a food processor. Pulse several times until mixture is finely ground.
Add the melted butter, pulse a few more seconds to combine.
Butter a 7.5" cake tin with a detachable base. Press the crust crumbs into the sides and bottom of the cake tin.
Bake for 10 minutes till slightly set. Set aside to cool. Keep the oven on in the meantime.

Filling
200g chocolate, chopped
1 tsp coffee powder
680g cream cheese, room temperature
160g sugar
23g cocoa
3 large eggs
1/2 tsp vanilla paste
3 tbsp kahlua (or other liquor of your choice)

Combine chocolate and coffee powder in a bowl. Place over double boiler over low heat, stirring once in a while, till the chocolate is smooth and melted. Set aside.
In a large mixing bowl, roughly dice the cream cheese into smaller pieces. Add sugar and cocoa and beat together till well combined, remembering to scrape the sides of the bowl in the process.
Add the eggs one at a time, beating for 30s till combined after each addition before adding the next.
Add the vanilla and kahlua, beat for another 1 minute or so till combined.
Add the melted chocolate, beat for another few minutes till mixture is homogenous.
Wrap the outside of the cake tin with aluminium foil. (This is for later when you place it in the water bath to prevent the crust from becoming soggy - which I forgot to do so only after I had added the hot water. *Cue round of cursing before I hastily lifted the cake tin out before lining the foil.)
Pour the filling into the cooled crust. Place the cake tin into a larger deeper pan. Pour hot water into the larger pan till half way mark so that it forms a water bath.
Carefully transfer large pan (containing the cake tin) to a baking tray. Bake for 1 hour, or till center is just set and slightly wobbly. Cool cheesecake completely. Chill overnight in fridge.
Slice and serve.

18 comments:

  1. Michelle, there appears to be another layer on top of the filling - is that the ganache layer or is the ganache the drippy layer?

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  2. Oh my, this looks like insanity! Stunning pictures, I love your pictures as always.

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  3. Carol | a cup of mascarponeSunday, June 09, 2013 9:48:00 pm

    GORGEOUS!!!

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  4. I love your pictures and recipes, they are mouth watering. Would love for you to share them with us at foodieportal.com. Over at foodieportal.com we are not photography expert snobs, we are just foodies, so pretty much all your pictures will get accepted.

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  5. This looks intense and fabulous, and I'd love to try it. Unfortunately, I am firmly rooted in the measuring cup system, and not the metric system, so all your measurements make no sense to me. Guess I'll just have to admire from afar....

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  6. This looks absolutely stunning - chocolate and kahlua is a match made in heaven.

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  7. janine - the drippy layer is the ganache. i was too ambitious in pouring all the choco atop the cheesecake so the excess kinda dripped down the sides a lil. ;)

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  8. oh dear, whereas im firmly rooted in the metric system cos i find it really helpful. i wonder if it's possible to convert metric to cups (since i don norm have a prob doing the opp way), if so you can prob try converting! :)

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  9. thanks! yeps. i reckon u could prob experiment and add more kahlua for an added alcohol taste. ;)

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  10. Here you go! Hoping this works http://www.metric-conversions.org/weight/grams-to-ounces.htm

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  11. when do i add the chocolate ganache? befor or after putting the cake in the fridge? or even befor let it cool up?

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  12. hi laura, i added the chocolate ganache after it has been chilled in the fridge.

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  13. hello! do u have a recipe for the chocolate ganache?
    so i have to chill the cake, add in the ganache, then rechill it? :)

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  14. hi sarah, sorry i don't remember the proportions i used for the ganache - but i think an equal 1:1 part chopped choc and cream should work.
    yep, that's what i did, chill cake, add ganache and rechill. :)

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  15. will definitely be making this one..

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  16. Hi Michelle,

    Chanced upon your blog and fell in love with everything you baked! Just wondering if there's a need to use any form of flour mixture for this recipe? I am planning to bake this for my dad's birthday really soon but I just realized that you did not use flour or any form of binding agents in this cake.


    Hope to hear from you super duper soon! Do excuse the beginner baker mind of mine >.<

    Many thanks,
    Erika

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  17. Hi Erika, so sorry for the late reply - i din see the comments section for quite a while. nope, the recipe did not req the use of flour. i would think the eggs act as the binding agent? i hope u did try the recipe (or will do so)!

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