This week’s Sweet Melissa Sundays treat is Chocolate Espresso Cheesecake with (or in my case without) Blackberry Glaze. It comes from the “Sunday Supper’s Grand Finale” section of the book and it is the group’s grand finale for 2009. We’ll be taking a short break for the holidays and returning in January. I am not a huge fan of cheesecake, but they’re generally appreciated by others and I knew Josh would be seeing his friends this weekend, so I made an entire recipe. This recipe revealed a couple deficiencies in my seemingly well-equipped kitchen. It was meant to be baked in an 8-inch springform pan, which I don’t have. I was going to scale up the recipe a bit and bake it in my 9-inch springform pan, but then I realized I didn’t have a roasting pan that would fit the 9-inch pan for its water bath, so I made cheesecake bars instead. This ended up working really well, since bars are more portable and I didn’t have to worry about water leaking into my pan, since they were baked in a standard 8x8 square pan (with 1.5 times the amount of crust) rather than a springform pan.
I have to say, I think this is a contender for “richest recipe I’ve ever made.” Seriously: a chocolate crust, chocolate on top of the crust, and half a pound of chocolate in the cheesecake, not to mention a healthy dose of cream. We ended cutting the cheesecake into 16 squares and even small squares seemed pretty intense. The recipe comes together fairly quickly and easily, but it does involve a bit of planning, as it bakes at two different temperatures (three if you count the initial baking of the crust), and then is supposed to sit in the oven for an hour after its second bake. I got as far as baking the crust on Friday night, then realized I would be up much later than I wanted to be if I continued the project, so the rest got left until Saturday. I actually had to defer the oven monitoring to Josh yesterday afternoon since I had an appointment, and he did a great job – the cheesecake baked and set perfectly!
I thought the crumbly chocolate hazelnut crust was superb, I might secretly scrape some cheesecake off a bar or two and just eat them as chocolate cookies. Josh liked the bars a lot and rated this recipe an 8.5 for Deliciousness. I give it a 3.7 for Effort, for an EDR of 2.29. Many thanks to Shandy of Pastry Heaven for selecting this decadent treat. You can find the recipe here on Shandy’s site and visit the SMS blogroll to see what the other bakers thought of this dessert.
16 comments:
Cheesecake bars ~ what a great idea! This really was a rich dessert wasn't it? Thank you for baking along with me this week and for stopping by. I wish you and your family a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!
I never would have thought to make bars out of this. Now I will have to remember that for other cheesecakes. Your bars look great!
oh cheesecake bars! These look amazing!
Bars were a great idea. Especially if you want to see the bottom of your springform pan again. :)
Seeing all these cheese cakes is making me sad I didn't bake it :(
Katie xox
I was surprised by how good the crust was. Definitely worth eating on its own!
Great idea to make bars! Since they're so rich, cutting it into small squares sounds like the way to go.
These were super delicious! Thanks! It's nice that Josh is helping out in the kitchen like when he was a kid. That dude has mad oven monitoring skillz!
Another fantastic dessert! Seriously, if Josh can do oven duty, he's a keeper!
I didn't have the 8" springform either so I went with minis but I love your idea to make cheesecake bars. It makes them so easy to share, which was definitely necessary with this recipe since it's so rich!
I love the idea of cheesecake bars! Fantastic! This was one rich dessert, wasn't it? I love cheesecake, though, and I thought this was amazing. One of my favorite SMS treats so far!
Bars! What an awesome idea -- I love it!!
Oh my, two labor intensive recipes in a row. You'll be glad to make some cookies, I'll bet.
This does look rich, no doubt. And tasty. I like the idea of using a square pan instead of round. Good call!
Cheesecake bars - you clever girl! I wish I had thought of that...
That cheesecake truly does look decadent; I can see how you'd want to cut it in very small pieces. The cheesecake bars were an inspired solution to the age-old pan dilemma. I'm going to remember that one!
Margot, those cheesecake bars look divine! Those are right up my alley-I love, love , love cheesecake, choc & espresso! I would have left off the BB glaze as well. Good call on making the bars in the 8x8 pan! Worked out nicely--they look absolutely delicious!
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