(Milk) Chocolate Cheesecake

My cousin Chiara is one of my favorite people. She's pretty much the closest thing I have to a sister. So when she graduated from the high school/running start program she's been part of the last few years, I volunteered to bake some treats for her graduation party. She wanted 2 things: 1) Chocolate Chip Cookies (simple) and 2) the chocolate cheesecake I'd made Matteo and Declan for their birthdays. I told her I'd make a chocolate cheesecake since I wanted to make a different recipe (although I did keep the original in mind just in case I couldn't find what I wanted). I did find a Bittersweet Chocolate Cheesecake in the Betty Crocker Best Desserts 2011 magazine. To change things up, I decided to switch the bittersweet chocolate out for milk chocolate (I've noticed that for the most part you can pretty much switch out one type of chocolate for another. Obviously there are some exceptions, like milk for unsweetened and vice versa).

(Milk) Chocolate Cheesecake (Betty Crocker Best Desserts 2011, on shelves until 9/2011, pg. 71)

Ingredients

Crust

• 40 thin chocolate wafer cookies (from 9-oz. package), crushed (about 2 1/2 cups) (I used Nabisco Famous chocolate wafer cookies, found in the cookie/cracker aisle)*
• 1/3 cup granulated sugar
• 1/4 cup butter, melted (I had 3 tablespoons of a stick leftover from something I made a few months ago so I used that instead and added a little bit of vegetable oil to make up the difference. Seemed to work out)

Filling

• 2 packages (8 oz. each) cream cheese, softened
• 2/3 cup granulated sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
• 3 eggs
• 8 oz. bittersweet baking chocolate, melted, cooled (I just bought a bag of milk chocolate chips)

Garnish (optional)

• Powdered sugar
• Fresh raspberries

Directions

1. Heat oven to 325F. Wrap outside bottom and side of 9-inch springform pan with foil to prevent leaking. Lightly spray inside bottom and side of pan with cooking spray. In medium bowl, mix crust ingredients with fork until crumbly. Press mixture in bottom and 1 inch up side of pan (again, I didn't do the 1 inch up. I'm just not sure how to do it and make it stay). Bake 10 minutes or until set. Place on cooling rack; cool completely.
2. In another medium bowl, beat cream cheese, 2/3 cup granulated sugar, and vanilla with electric mixer on medium speed until light and fluffy. Beat in flour. Beat in eggs, one at a time, just until blended. Beat in chocolate. Pour over crust.
3. Bake 1 hour 15 minutes or until edge of cheese is set at least 2 inches from edge of pan but center of cheesecake still jiggles slightly when moved. Turn oven off; open oven door at least 4 inches. Let cheesecake remain in oven 30 minutes. Run small metal spatula around edge of pan to loosen cheesecake. Cool on cooling rack 30 minutes. Refrigerate at least 6 hours or overnight before serving (I ended up running out of time but it still worked out)
4. Just before serving, run small metal spatula around edge of pan; carefully remove foil and side of pan. Let cheesecake stand at room temperature 15 minutes before cutting. Sprinkle with powdered sugar; garnish with raspberries. Cover and refrigerate any remaining cheesecake. (because of time I just removed the foil and side when Anthony and Kati picked me up. I don't think anything different happened. Also, as you can see, I didn't use the garnish.)

*Don't make the mistake I did and think that "crushed" means "pieces of all sizes" for the wafer cookies. To crush them I put the cookies in a Ziplock bag and used my/Auntie's rolling pin to crush them up into pieces ranging from small-medium to crumbs. Next time, I'll break them into pieces and throw them into the food processor. Even if it is 8:30 a.m. on a Saturday (sorry neighbors!)

Everyone loved it, big-pieced crust included (which created a bit of a mess, something I hate to get from the end result)! It was all gone by the time I got ready to leave (my preference).