Tips for success
Mixing on low speed at all time
To avoid massive crack on the surface of your cheesecake during baking, avoid incorporating any air into the cheesecake batter at all time. The whole mixing process for this cake is on the lowest speed.
Before baking, it is also recommended to gently tap the cake in the tin to burst any air pockets that may have been incorporated during mixing.
Scrape down the bowl as much as you can
If you are looking for a smooth batter, make sure to scrape down the bowl as much as you can before adding in the liquid ingredients. This will ensure that you do not get chunks of cream cheese that are not well mixed through.
If, however, you ended up with lumpy bits in your final mix, strain them through a sift .
Use room temperature ingredients
To avoid the cheesecake batter from separating, ensure that you remove the eggs, cream cheese and cream to room temperature prior to mixing.
Having the melted chocolate standing at 35°C to 40°C will stop the mixture from cooling down the chocolate too quickly and create lumps of chocolate chips. This will especially happen if the other ingredients are too cold.
Sift all dry ingredients
Because of the nature of cocoa powder having the tendency to clump together, it is recommended that you sift all the dry ingredients in to the mixture.
If you love this recipe, check out my Lemony Burnt Basque Cheesecake!
RECIPE
Equipment & Tools: 18 cm x 6.5 cm (depth) removable base baking tin
Yield: 1 x cheesecake
260 g Coverture Dark 53% Chocolate
500 g Cream Cheese
120 g Castor Sugar
2 u /40 g Egg Yolks
4 u /200 g Whole Eggs
15 g Plain Flour
10 g Cocoa Powder
260 g Thickened Cream or Mascarpone Cream
Method
Preparation
Before starting, take eggs and cream cheese out from the fridge for a couple of hours to bring them to room temperature (This is to ensure that the ingredients can combine better without separating if too cold).
Spray the removable base baking tin with oil and line with a slightly larger parchment paper. Press the parchment paper into the tin with folds on the edges to create a more rustic finish. Ensure that the parchment paper is slightly taller than the rim of the baking tin.
1. Pre heat the oven to 200°C .
Melt the Chocolate in the microwave or warm water bath and set aside to cool slightly.
2. Place the cream cheese into a stand mixer bowl with a paddle attachment and mix over low speed until smooth. Ensure that you scrape the side and bottom frequently to avoid lumps after adding the rest of the ingredients.
Then add in the castor sugar and continue mixing until smooth.
3. Add in the yolks one at a time then the whole eggs, making sure that you add each addition after they are well incorporated in the cream cheese mix. Keep the mixing speed on low at all times.
4. Add the slightly cooled melted chocolate and mix until smooth. Then add in the sifted plain flour and Cocoa Powder. Mix until well combined then add in the thickened cream last.
5. Pour the runny mix over the prepared cake tin, tap the tin gently to remove as much air bubble as possible.
6. Place the baking tin on to a tray (to avoid any leakage during baking) and position the tray as close to the heating bar at the top of your preheated oven as possible (factoring in that the cheesecake mix will rise quite a bit).
Place the cheesecake in the pre heated oven and bake for roughly around 50 minutes to an hour, increasing the oven temperature to 210°C ten minutes before the finishing baking time. The top should look "burnt". The cheesecake should still be wobbly when moved.
7. Turn off the heat and leave the cheesecake in the oven with the door close for 20 minutes before removing it. Leave the cake still in the tin to cool slightly then remove it from the tin to fully cool at room temperature then store in the fridge covered overnight.
TIPS
Mix all the ingredients at low speed at all time and try not to aerate the mix as this can cause the batter to rise too much and have too many crack at the top during baking.
The cake is best served cold and rested in the fridge overnight.
Video Summary
Note: The mixture are mixed at speed 1 at all time on the mixer to avoid any aeration. Video is set at speed 2
Variations
If you want to add a even more delicious element to this scrumptious cheesecake, add a layer of rich ganache on top and some berries to balance it out.
The ganache recipe is as follow:
Chocolate Ganache
75 g Full Cream 35% Fat
60 g Dark Coverture Chocolate 54% Cocoa
25 g Unsalted butter
Bring the cream to a mere boil to around 90 °C. Pour the hot cream over the chocolate ensuring that all the chocolate buttons are well submerge in the cream and leave it to sit in the hot cream for 2 minutes. Whisk the ganache together by adding the room temperature softened butter until the ingredients are homogenous. Spread the ganache over the top of the cooled cheesecake and serve with berries.
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