Wow, it's been awhile eh? Ive not blogged anything Ive cooked recently for some unknown reason. I thought to myself since I've never done a cheesecake I'll blog about the one I recently was asked to make. My mother saw this recipe in a magazine ( I think it was Women's First) and asked if I would make it for Mothers Day. I said sure I like a challenge and my mom wanted it so off I went to the store to gather the ingredients.
Ingredients:
10 Chocolate wafer cookies (I only found them at Ingles)
1 cup granulated sugar, divided
1/4 cup melted butter
1 envelope (.25g) unflavored gelatin. (I used Knox)
3 Tbs. Cherry-flavored Liqueur (I didn't have any so I used some grenadine & cherry syrup)
10 oz bittersweet chocolate, melted & divided (I used Ghirardelli bittersweet chips)
3 pkgs. (8oz each) Cream cheese, at room temp.
1/2 cup sour cream
1 container(8oz) Cool Whip
1 can (21oz.) Cherry pie filling, drained.
1 8" well greased spring form pan
I forgot to lay out the cream cheese when I got home from the store. So to help move the room temp. along I cut up the cream cheese so the surface area wasn't so large :) Oops
Directions:
Heat oven to 350 Degreed F. In food processor, pulse cookies until they're fine crumbs. The directions said about 20 cookies. Once crumbs are formed stir in 1/2 cup of sugar and the melted butter. Press into the bottom of a WELL GREASED 8" spring form pan. (I totally forgot to grease the pan... and yea it stuck like crazy. I was so nervous about making it turn out right) Bake for 12minutes and let cool.
In a microwave safe bowl, combine gelatin and 1/2 cup water; let sit 2 minutes. Then stir in liqueur. Microwave for about 30seconds or until the gelatin is disolved. Once disolved stir in 8oz melted chocolate.
In a bowl ofelectric mixer (I used my KA Mixer, thankgoodness for this invention) on medium speed, beat the cream cheese for about 1 minute. Add remaining sugar and sour cream. Beat another 1 min. Add gelatin/chocolate mixture and beat 1 min.
Pour batter into prepared crust and chill for 4 hours. Top with whipped topping, melted chocolate, and cherries. Cut, serve, and enjoy. I'm glad this was such a hit. Simple & a great dessert. I'm not a fan of cheesecake but this was pretty good. The Ghiradeli chocolate brought out the flavor of the cherries.
