Mark asked for this recipe. He made it. He is the cheesecake king of western Indiana, or so I heard at his graduation party from all in attendance who had partaken of even a piece two days old. And we have sent a couple of these up to the nether reaches of the continental U.S., but only one person up there has had this chocolate chip cheesecake. She didn't even share it with her kids, waiting until well past midnight to unbox it and dive in with a fork. Why cut it when you're the only one having any?
Ingredients:
For the crust:
15 chocolate wafers -- In a food processor, grind up the chocolate wafers until fine.
9-inch springform pan, coated very, very heavily with butter on the bottom and about half-way up the side.
1. Take the ground chocolate wafers and pour into springform pan and spread them evenly on the bottom, pressing them down with something flat.
2. Set the pan aside.
3. Preheat oven to 275 F
For the cheesecake:
12 oz. semi-sweet chocolate chips, chopped coarse in a food processor
2 1/2 lbs. cream cheese, softened
1 3/4 C granulated sugar
1/4 C all-purpose flour
2 tsp. vanilla extract
6 large eggs
1/4 C Half & Half
1. With an electric mixer, cream the softened cream cheese until it is smooth.
Add in the sugar, flour, vanilla, and the eggs one at a time until the mixture is smooth.
2. Stir in the half & half and the chocolate chips until mixture is uniform.
3. Pour the cheesecake mixture into the springform pan.
4. Bake in the 275 F for 2 1/2 hours.
Chill it, covered, overnight. Loosen the side of springform pan by sliding knife around it before unlatching it.
Let us know how it comes out.
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I have experimented with this recipe, substituting for the chocolate chips and making different crusts., e.g., fresh-squeezed lime juice (keep tasting the mixture -- I didn't write down how many limes I used) and the zest of one lime for the chips and crushed macadamia nuts and graham cracker crumb mixture for the crust.