Cheesecake and Kisses

It's April again which means that my best friend, April gets a cheesecake made by me for her birthday! I emailed her and asked her if she had any ideas. She sent me 4 links to recipes found on blogs. I had been wanting to make a chocolate cheesecake and this one looked amazing! I read through the recipe and my mouth dropped to the floor when I read how much cream cheese is in this recipe! 32oz!!! But oh boy those 32 oz. made the creamiest most decadent cheesecake ever. And April's husband would agree as well because he kissed me on the forehead after he tasted it! The only alteration that I made to this cheesecake was to add a couple dashes of cinnamon to the crust! If you haven't tried this in your cheesecake crust, do it! It makes it even more amazing! And I used regular graham crackers because I had them on hand but it worked out just fine!

Double Chocolate Italian Cheesecake

Ingredients:

Crust Ingredients:

1 cup chocolate graham cracker crumbs
3 tablespoons melted butter
2 tablespoons sugar

Cheesecake Ingredients:

32 ounces cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup heavy whipping cream
4 tablespoons butter, softened
1 1/3 cups sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
4 eggs
6 ounces bittersweet (or semi-sweet) chocolate, melted and cooled to just above room temperature
6 ounces white chocolate, melted and cooled to just above room temperature

Glaze Ingredients:

8 ounces semi-sweet chocolate, chopped
3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) butter
1 1/2 tablespoons light corn syrup

Instructions:

1. Combine crust ingredients in a mixing bowl. Pour mixture into a greased 9-inch spring form pan and press flat. Wrap the bottom and outside of the pan with foil. We recommend two layers of extra-wide heavy-duty foil. We also use a rectangular piece of cardboard (4-6 inches long and 2-3 inches wide) placed between the latch (on the outside of the spring form) and the foil, to prevent the latch from piercing the foil.

2. Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Put softened cream cheese, whipping cream, softened butter, and sugar in a large bowl. Mix at medium-low speed just until smooth. Stir in vanilla. Add eggs one at a time and mix on low speed until blended.

3. Divide cream cheese mixture evenly into two bowls. Add melted bittersweet chocolate to one, stirring to mix. Add melted white chocolate to the other, stirring to mix.

4. Pour white chocolate cheesecake batter into prepared pan, smoothing into a flat layer. Gently spoon bittersweet chocolate in a layer over the white chocolate batter. Place spring form pan in a large shallow roaster or broiler pan. Fill pan with an inch of hot water.

5. Bake 60-80 minutes or until edges are puffed and top looks dull and is dry to the touch. Center should move slightly when side of pan is tapped. Turn off oven. Let cheesecake stand in oven for an hour. Cool to room temperature; refrigerate overnight.

6. Make glaze by melting chocolate and butter over medium heat, stirring occasionally. Remove from heat and stir in corn syrup. Allow glaze to cool slightly (to about 80 degrees).

7. Remove sides from spring form pan. Place cheesecake on a wire rack over a baking sheet or counter top. Pour glaze over top and sides of cheesecake, spreading with a spatula. Refrigerate until set. Slice into 16 pieces. Store in refrigerator or freeze for longer storage

**Recipe from Tammysrecipes.com