Chocolate Cheesecake

Recipe Overview

A luxurious baked chocolate cheesecake made with cream cheese, dark cocoa, citrus and vanilla, set over a cookie crust and finished with cocoa cream and shaved dark chocolate.

Ingredients

• Philadelphia Cream Cheese — 900 g · softenedphiladelphia_cream_cheese
• Dark Cocoa Powder — 115 g · for fillingdark_cocoa_powder
• Heavy Cream — 240 ml · for fillingheavy_cream_filling
• Granulated Sugar — 200 g · for fillinggranulated_sugar_filling
• Orange — 1 each · zest and juiceorange
• Vanilla Bean — 1 each · split and scrapedvanilla_bean
• Whole Eggs — 8 each · whole eggswhole_eggs
• Sea Salt — 1 pinch · fine sea saltsea_salt
• Ground Sugar Cookies — 450 g · baked shortbread-style Pasta Frolla cookies, cooled and finely crumbled for the crustground_sugar_cookies
• Cane Sugar — 200 g · for crustcane_sugar
• Unsalted Butter — 60 g · meltedunsalted_butter
• Cream Cheese — 225 g · for toppingcream_cheese_topping
• Granulated Sugar — 50 g · for toppingsugar_topping
• Heavy Cream — 120 ml · for toppingheavy_cream_topping
• Cocoa Powder — 30 g · for toppingcocoa_powder_topping
• Shaved Dark Chocolate — 110 g · for garnishshaved_dark_chocolate

Preparation

1. Blend the cream cheese, sugar and cocoa until completely smooth. Add orange zest, vanilla, whole eggs, heavy cream, orange juice and sea salt. Mix only until homogeneous, then chill briefly.
2. Prepare the sugar-cookie crumb crust: the “ground sugar cookies” in this recipe are made from a baked shortbread-style pastry dough, represented in the Tuscany Cuisine system by Pasta Frolla. Roll or shape the pastry dough, bake it until fully cooked and lightly golden, then cool it completely. Break the baked cookies or shortbread into pieces and process or crush them into fine, even crumbs. Weigh 450 g of the crumbs, combine them with the cane sugar and melted butter, then press the mixture firmly and evenly into the bottom of a buttered springform pan. Chill the crust before adding the cheesecake filling. This method gives the cheesecake a true pastry-based cookie crust rather than using raw flour or uncooked dough.
3. Pour the chocolate cheesecake filling into the prepared crust and bake at 300°F / 150°C for approximately 55 minutes.
4. Cool completely, then refrigerate until fully chilled and set before finishing.
5. Whip the topping cream cheese, sugar, heavy cream and cocoa until light and fluffy. Pipe over the cheesecake and finish with shaved dark chocolate.