Ultimate Chocolate Cheesecake
This cheesecake is one of my all-time favourite things to eat. It’s basically a light and airy chocolate mousse atop a classic biscuit base. The mousse itself would be great served in individual glasses for dinner party guests.
This is what you need to have your own cheesecake in just a few simple steps…
200 g biscuits
100 g butter
2 eggs
85 g caster sugar
225 g full fat cream cheese
170 g dark chocolate (minimum 70%)
300 ml double cream
Melt the chocolate over a bain marie (glass bowl over a pan of boiling water, ensuring the water doesn’t touch the bottom of the bowl) and then set aside to cool.
Whilst the chocolate is cooling, crush the biscuits, either with a rolling pin or in a food processor. Melt the butter and stir through the biscuits. Press this down firmly into an 8 inch loose bottomed cake tin to make the cheesecake base. Refrigerate the base whilst you move onto the chocolate mousse.
Next, separate your eggs and put the whites into a spotlessly clean bowl and the yolks into a separate bowl. Whisk the egg whites until soft peaks. (I always do the whites first as it means there’s no need to wash the whisk afterwards.)
In another bowl, whip the double cream until that also forms soft peaks.
Add the sugar and cream cheese to the bowl with the egg yolks and mix until combined. Now add the cooled melted chocolate to this bowl and mix again.
Add the double cream to the chocolate mix and fold through gently. You don’t want to lose the air you’ve incorporated or overwhip the cream by mixing too vigorously.
Finally add the egg whites in 3 parts. Mix the first 1/3 in relatively vigorously as you want to loosen the mix to make it easier to fold through the remaining whites. Add the next 1/3 and fold in with a metal spoon using a figure of 8 motion. This doesn’t need to be completely incorporated when you add the final 1/3 as you are still going to continue folding gently through the mix. Add the final 1/3 and stop folding when you can’t see any more egg white as you fold.
Add the chocolate mousse to the top of the cheesecake base and smooth until uniform with the back of a spoon or a palette knife. Return to the fridge for a minimum of 4 hours or preferably overnight to set.
The finished cake can be eaten as is or decorated with chocolate shards and homemade Nutella (see my Walnutella recipe) for a special occasion.