Chocolate Raspberry Cheesecake

For Valentine's Day this year, I made our family this cheesecake from the newest Taste of Home magazine.  It was good, especially if you're a chocolate lover.  I can't take too much chocolate at once, so this was almost too much for me, even thought it was part vanilla cheesecake, part chocolate.  I still enjoyed it though- just in small portions (which is a good idea with cheesecake anyway!).  I really don't like dark or semisweet chocolate at all (sorry, rest of the world!) so I cut back on the amount of chocolate in the batter, and I used milk chocolate for the ganache. 

I thought that there would just be small, delicated little blobs of chocolate batter in this, but it ended up being almost half chocolate.  It was still good, just not what I was expecting from the picture in the magazine. 

I have a tiny, Easy-bake-sized, European oven, and the heating element is on the top (roof).  I should have kept this in mind when I put this very tall cheesecake in the oven, on the middle rack.  Sadly, I didn't take that into consideration, and when I checked the cheesecake at 50 minutes, the whole top was black, and even smoking.  Nice!!  There was really nothing I could do at that point; it wasn't fully baked yet, so I just turned the heat down a tiny bit and moved the oven rack to the lowest position.  No worries though- after it was done, my husband helped me carefully peel off the burned layer (we were cheesecake doctors!), and it looked and tasted fine underneath.  The chocolate ganache helped to cover any ugliness. 

Chocolate Raspberry Cheesecake
from Tasteofhome.com

1-1/2 cups cream-filled chocolate sandwich cookie crumbs (Oreos, people)
2 tablespoons butter, melted
4 packages (8 ounces each) cream cheese, softened
1-1/4 cups sugar
1 cup (8 ounces) sour cream
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3 eggs, lightly beaten
9 ounces semisweet chocolate, chopped (I used 7 oz)
1/2 cup seedless raspberry preserves

6 ounces milk or semisweet chocolate, chopped
1/3 cup heavy whipping cream
Fresh raspberries and whipped cream, optional

Place a greased 9-in. springform pan on a double thickness of heavy-duty foil (about 18 in. square). Securely wrap foil around pan. Combine cookie crumbs and butter; press onto the bottom of prepared pan. (I never bother to wrap in foil or do a water bath, but the directions are here in case you want to). 

In a large bowl, beat cream cheese and sugar until smooth. Beat in sour cream and vanilla. Add eggs; beat on low speed just until combined. Set aside 1-1/2 cups; pour remaining batter over crust.

In a microwave, melt chocolate; stir in preserves until blended. Stir in reserved batter just until blended. Drop by tablespoonfuls over the plain batter (do not swirl). Place springform pan in a large baking pan; add 1 in. of hot water to larger pan.

Bake at 325° for 65-75 minutes or until center is just set and top appears dull. Remove springform pan from water bath. Cool on a wire rack for 10 minutes. Carefully run a knife around edge of pan to loosen; cool 1 hour longer.

For topping, place chocolate in a small bowl. In a small saucepan, bring cream just to a boil. Pour over chocolate; whisk until smooth. Cool slightly. Spread over top of cheesecake. Refrigerate overnight. Garnish with raspberries and whipped cream if desired. Yield: 16 servings.

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