Brownie Chunk Cheesecake with Mocha Whipped Cream

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    Do you know what today is?  It’s Cake Slice Day!  It is so fun to have an excuse to bake something a little extra special once a month and share it with my cake baking friends!  We have been baking our way through Maida Heatter’s Cakes since November.

     Each month we are given four recipes to choose from and we each bake one.  Usually it is a surprise what everyone else baked, but there has been a little cheating on that this month! 😉

    In the end, that only ends up being a win for you guys as there is a great chance you will get to see them all!  I love the book, but there are no pictures and I have no imagination so I love seeing what everyone made!

    So I was choosing knowing 2 of the 4 choices has already been baked.  I wanted to do a different one, so the remaining options were the Mocha Chip Chiffon Cake and the Chocolate Brownie Cheesecake.

    Having done a coffee flavored cake in the Coffee and Cream Sponge Cake last month (it was delicious and you should totally make one!), I almost through the chiffon cake out based on it being another mocha cake.

     But, I really like using this group to further my baking skills and I have never made a chiffon cake.  I was in a real quandry.  So, I turned to my trusty assistant, otherwise known as my husband, for a verdict.  He doesn’t have nearly as hard of a time making a decision as I do.

     He chose the cheesecake based on the fact he didn’t know what a chiffon cake was.  Goofball!  But I asked, so I didn’t have to like the reasoning, I just had to bake a cheesecake!

    The cheesecake was fun to make too. I simplified the process quite a bit.  I love hearing how Maida does it, but I feel like she adds a lot of steps in just for the sake of adding steps. First you bake a batch of Fabulously Fudgy Brownies. Then you cut them into small pieces and freeze them.

    Maida makes cheesecakes in a solid pan, dumps them, presses in graham cracker crumbs and inverts the whole thing.  I just pulled out a trusty springform pan and made a more common graham cracker crust.  I do like to keep the crust layer thin though, I don’t like a huge crust on my cheesecake.

    I loved the recipe, even with my simplified instructions.  The texture of the cheesecake was great and the fact that it was studded with brownie made it all the better.

   The only place I really went wrong was choosing my heart shaped springform pan.  I couldn’t find a pan large enough to do the water bath, so I just gave it a steamy oven instead.

     I really should have dropped the temperature a bit, but didn’t think of it until after my cheesecake had already cracked.  So, I did what anyone in my position would do, made Mocha Whipped Cream to cover the crack! The whipped cream was completely to hide a boo-boo, but it was DELICIOUS!

     I’ll say it’s optional as it wasn’t part of the original recipe, but it is HIGHLY encouraged!  When one of my brothers asked what kind of cheesecake it was, my youngest brother Collin (who had already taken a couple bites of his slice) said “too good!”  I’ll take that as a win!

Update:  Chloe has been wanting this cheesecake ever since she saw it on the blog.  So much so that she requested one for her birthday.  Of course I had to make her one and it was as big of a hit the second time around as it was the first!  She was happy to keep the leftovers too.

A photo posted by Carlee Scharnhorst (@carleecooks) on Jun 5, 2016 at 6:20am PDT

Yield: 24 servingsAuthor: Cooking With CarleePrint Recipe

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Chocolate Brownie Cheesecake with Mocha Whipped Cream

You are going to fall for this chocolate brownie cheesecake topped with a mocha whipped cream. The combination is absolutely amazing and sure to impress!

prep time: 45 MINScook time: 1 hour and 30 MINStotal time: 1 hours and 75 mins

ingredients:

Brownies

• 1 cup flour
• 3 T cocoa powder
• 1/2 cup butter
• 2 oz bittersweet chocolate
• 1 tsp instant coffee
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• 1/4 tsp almond extract
• pinch of salt
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 2 eggs

Cheesecake

• 3/4 cup graham cracker crumbs
• 2 T cocoa powder
• 3 T butter, melted
• 2 T sugar
• 2 pounds cream cheese, at room temperature
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• pinch of salt
• 1 1/2 cups sugar
• 4 eggs

Mocha Whipped Cream

• 2 T bittersweet chocolate
• 1 T water
• 1 T instant coffee
• 1 cup cream (super cold)
• 1/2 tsp vanilla
• 1 T sugar

instructions

1. Bake the brownies according to the directions found here. Allow them to cool.  Save 1/3 of the pan for your treat and cut the other 2/3 of the brownies into really small pieces, about 1/2″ squares. Freeze the small pieces until ready to use.
2. Preheat your oven to 350 F and grease your springform pan.  Mix together graham cracker crumbs, cocoa powder, sugar and butter.  Press into the bottom of your pan.  (Feel free to double those ingredients if you like a more substantial crust.)  Bake for 7 minutes, then set aside.
3. In your mixer, beat the cream cheese until it is soft and completely smooth scraping the bowl a few times along the way.  Add the vanilla, salt and sugar and beat until well mixed.  Add the eggs, one at a time.  Mix on low speed after each addition and for no longer than is necessary to incorporate the egg.  
4. Pour enough of the cheesecake batter onto the graham crust to form a layer about 1/2″ thick.  Fold the frozen brownie bits into the remaining cheesecake, being careful to leave them as intact as possible.  Spread the batter with brownies into the pan, smoothing the top.
5. If possible, place the pan into a water bath (if not, turn the oven down to 325 F and bake for about 1 hour and 45 minutes).  Bake for 1 1/2 hours.  The top should brown and the middle should be mostly set. You can check the internal temperature if you’d like, it should be at least 150 F. 
6. Remove from water bath if using and allow to cool at room temperature for a couple of hours.  Refrigerate until ready to serve.
7. If you are making the mocha whipped cream (good for you!), make it according to the directions here. Pipe or spread over cold cheesecake.  Garnish with mini chocolate chips if desired.
8. This cheesecake cuts best when cold.  It can be eaten straight from the fridge, but it better at closer to room temperature.  I suggest you cut it while it is still cold and allow it to come to room temperature as individual pieces already on their serving dishes.  This will cut the time needed to come up to temperature considerably and will give you the nicest looking pieces of cheesecake.

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Copyright: Cooking With Carlee 2018

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