Chocolate cheesecake

• 90 minutes to prepare • 35 minutes to cook • Serves 12

Life is better with cheesecake

 

Everyone's a cheese lover when it comes to this special dessert.
"It melts in your mouth!" and "Very smooth and fudgy!" are typical comments I've heard after guests take a bite.

This straightforward chocolate cheesecake is everything you want it to be: rich, moist, dense, and...chocolate-y.
Not only that — it's simple to put together, requiring neither special ingredients, just some patience.
If you're looking for a very rich dessert, stop seeking, you've found it!

Here are ingredients for a 12-serving recipe (24-cm diameter baking pan):

 

For the pastry

200 g flour 00
125 g sugar
125 g butter
40 g cocoa powder
1 egg
1/2 sachet vanilla baking powder
salt

For the stuffing

3 egg yolks
4 egg whites
1 vanilla bean
85 g  cow milk 
95 g sugar
10 g potato starch
30 g flour 00
300 g  cow milk ricotta cheese
40 g fresh milk cream
30 g butter
100 g chopped dark chocolate

For the garnish

apricot jam

1. Start preparing the pastry: cut the butter into cubes and place it in a bowl. Add sugar, a pinch of salt and knead it quickly
2. Stir in the egg, then mix again. Finally add flour, cocoa powder and vanilla baking powder, all sifted. Knead it again
3. Form a ball, wrap it with plastic wrap and let it rest in the refrigerator for 1 hour
4. Drain ricotta cheese in a colander and store it in the refrigerator
5. When we are close to the the 1-hour resting time of the pastry, preheat oven to 180°C
6. Move on to the filling preparation: pour the milk into a saucepan with the vanilla pod engraved lengthwise and bring to a boil
7. Meanwhile, beat 1 egg yolk with 15 g of sugar until stiff for about 15 minutes
8. Incorporate sifted potato starch to the mixture. Whisk well
9. Pour everything into the saucepan with the hot milk. Let the custard to thicken over medium heat, stirring constantly to avoid lumps
10. Pour the custard into a bowl and sprinkle with granulated sugar to prevent skin from forming over the surface. Let it cool down
11. Grease and dust the baking pan with cocoa powder, then cover bottom and sides with half of the pastry cut into a flattened disc-shape, about 5 mm thick
12. Start preparing the filling: add ricotta cheese, the remaining 2 egg yolks, flour, fresh milk and butter - already melted - to the custard and whisk
13. Beat the egg whites until stiff, then add the remaining 80 g of sugar
14. Incorporate egg whites to the mixture. Mix gently with a spoon
15. Scoop the chopped dark chocolate into the mixture. Stir gently to distribute the chocolate through the cream
16. Pour the filling into the pastry pan and level well
17. Bake the cake at 180° for 35 minutes. (Do not open the oven for at least the first half of the baking time and perform the toothpick test at the end, to be sure baking is done)
18. Let the cake to cool down completely, then transfer it on a serving platter and brush the apricot jam over the cake

Nutrition Facts are detailed in the table below. Data is provided per serving.

I'm not shallow. I don't run marathons for the medals.
I run for the bragging rights, feelings of superiority and the right to put an end to any triple layer chocolate cheesecake that dare to defy me.