Chocolate Cherry Cheesecake

This is an altered recipe based on Alton's Brown's Sour Cream Cheesecake.
Mine is, of course, crust-less because that's the traditional way of making cheesecake. Though maybe someday I'll do a brownie crust. Or a sugar cookie crust. Oh, the possibilities.


Chocolate Cheesecake

20 ounces cream cheese
10 ounces sour cream
1 cup sugar
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
2 eggs
3 yolks
1/3 cup heavy cream
6 oz semi-sweet chocolate (this is approximately 1 cup of chips)
3 Tbls cocoa powder
1 Tbls shortening


Lightly butter a 9 inch springform pan. Line with parchment paper.
Preheat oven to 300 degrees F. Brush some of the melted butter around a 9 by 3-inch cake pan. Adhere parchment to the bottom and the sides.

In a small glass bowl, heat the chocolate along with the cocoa powder and shortening, in a microwave, stirring every 30 seconds until completely melted. Cool.

In a large bowl, beat sour cream for 10 seconds. Add the cream cheese and sugar and beat on low for 30 seconds and then turn up to medium. Scrape the bowl.

In a separate container, combine vanilla, eggs, yolks, and heavy cream. While continuing to beat the cream cheese mixture, slowly pour the liquid mixture in.
When half of it is incorporated, stop and scrape. Fold in the remaining egg mixture. Fold in the cooled chocolate.

Pour into prepared pan.

Lower the oven temperature to 250 degrees F. Bake the cheesecake for 1 hour. Turn the oven off and open the door for one minute. Close the door for one more hour. Chill the cheesecake for at least 6 hours, but no more than 24 hours before serving.

To serve, run a knife around the outside of the pan. Dip the bottom of the pan in hot water bath for about 15 seconds. Remove cheesecake to a serving plate. (This works best if you turn it out into your hand, protected by a sheet of plastic wrap, before turning right-side up onto the platter).

Top with homemade cherry pie filling.


Homemade Cherry Pie Filling

2 ½ cups tart pie cherries
½ cup + 1 Tbls sugar
2 Tbls corn starch
½ tsp almond extract

Combine cherries, sugar and corn starch in a medium saucepan. Bring to a boil over medium heat, stirring constantly. Cook for one minute. Remove from heat and stir in the almond extract.