Chocolate Cheesecake or choccy cheesecake

Hi Tola – this is very yummy and quite a heavy cake, but dead easy to make and foolproof.

Here’s the recipe. By Delia Smith published in her Delia Smith’s Winter Collection book

Base

110g sweet oat biscuits

25g butter

50g chopped toasted hazelnuts

Filling

250g mascarpone

200g natural fromage frais (light works okay)

100g dark 75% cocoa solids chocolate

50g raisins

110g whole hazelnuts

8inch cake tin – depth of minimum 3 inches

Preheat oven to 200C gas mark 6

Place whole hazelnuts in oven and toast until golden brown.  Make the base of the cheesecake by crushing biscuits with a rolling pin, not too finely though as it’s nice to have a fairly even texture.  Scoop all the biscuit crumbs into a bowl and add the chopped nuts and melted butter and mix everything very thoroughly before patting into the base of the cake tin, pressing it very firmly all over.  Now place the tin in the oven and pre-bake the crust for 20 minutes.  Then remove it and let it cool while you make the filling.  Reduce the oven temp to gas mark 2, (150 degrees C).

To make the filling, first place 2 inches (5cm) of water into a saucepan, and then put the saucepan onto heat and meanwhile break the chocolate into small squares and place this into a basin.  As soon as the water is boiling remove the pan from the heat and place the bowl on top until everything melts.  Don’t be tempted to put the bowl on top of the saucepan while the water is still boiling – because of the high cocoa content, this chocolate mustn’t get overheated or it will separate.  Now spoon the mascarpone and fromage frais into a large bowl and whisk together until smooth, preferably with an electric hand whisk. Then add the eggs and sugar and give it another good whisking before adding the melted chocolate – use a rubber spatula so that you get every last of chocolate form the basin and then lightly fold the chocolate into the egg mixture.  Finally add the raisins and toasted hazelnuts.

Now pour the mixture into the tin, smoothing it out with the back of a spoon, and place it on the centre shelf of the oven and bake for 1.25 hours.  After that turn the oven off but leave the cheesecake inside until it is completely cold.