Chocolate Goodness!

For Easter, like all family gatherings, the Hubby and I go to two place each holiday. Depending on what holiday it is depends on whose house we go to first.

Since Easter falls on Sunday every year, we are at church. So we get together with my side of the family immediately following services and eat with them. Then after lunch with them the hubby's side likes to get together around 2:00 and eat their lunch.

I asked both sides what I could bring to help out with food. My side said I could bring a potato casserole (click on potato casserole to see that recipe). Hubby's side said they wanted deviled eggs and a chocolate dessert. So, that's what I made. Below is the chocolate cheese cake that I took.

After church services we ate lunch with my side and then left after lunch to head to hubby's family's get together.


I changed the recipe up a little. I did a different toping then the one they have in the picture. I used a raspberry jelly with fresh raspberries.

Source

I got the cheesecake recipe here, but I tweaked it a little. I only used the core recipe for making the cheesecake.

Chocolate Cheesecake

• 2 (8oz.) packages of Philadelphia Cream Cheese (softened)
• 1/2c. sugar
• 3 eggs
• 2 c. Nestle Dark Chocolate Morsels (melted)
• 1 c. heavy whipping cream
• 2 tbsp. margarine (melted)
• 3 tsp. vanilla

DIRECTIONS:

Cheesecake:

• Preheat oven to 325 degrees
• Crush cookies into fine crumbs and add melted margarine.  Combine well and press into the bottom of a 9-Inch Springform Pan
• Beat softened cream cheese with sugar until smooth.
• Add eggs one at a time, beating in between each one.
• Add remaining cheesecake ingredients, beating until smooth.
• Pour into crust and allow to sit at room temp for 30 minutes.
• Place on a cookie sheet and bake for 60 minutes,
• Turn off oven, open oven door a little and allow to sit for another 30 minutes.
• Remove from oven and run knife around edge of pan.  Remove edge of pan. 
• Allow cheesecake to cool to room temperature before adding toppings.

* I used the Nestle Dark Chocolate Morsels and it was great. Normally I like to use Ghirardelli, because of the wonderful cocoaness that is has, but the that would have ruined this recipe. So stick to the Nestle morsels. It's worth it.

**Make sure you don't do this at 9 o'clock at night when you are wanting to go to bed. It will make the whole cooking experience better. :)



Topping:

I got the topping recipe here. It's from Ina Garten. She makes wonderful dishes.

Her recipe is as follows:

1 cup red jelly (not jam), such as currant, raspberry, or strawberry
3 half-pints fresh raspberries (I only used 2 packages of raspberries. 3 was too many for me).

I heated the jelly on the stove at a low- medium temperature. You want it to get liquified and runny so it makes it easy to spread. 

Then I added one package of raspberries to it on the stove to warm it up. Then I mashed them so there were chunks in my sauce. 

I then poured the topping on my cheesecake and put it back in the fridge to harden. I also added the fresh raspberries on top for extra goodness.

Cut then serve.

This is how mine came out. It was delicious, chocolaty, smooth, and rich. If you love chocolate or cheesecake, then this is a great dish to take.

It was a hit to make, but boy did I learn my lesson. I had no idea that it took 2 hours to make a cheesecake!!

Happy eating!!