Mexican Chocolate Chip Cheesecake

It's almost May, the weather here is in the 70s or 80s daily, and I'm still making winter desserts. It's cheesecake, and it's not a lighty, airy, fruity cheesecake either. Although I made it with ricotta cheese (a more italian style) which does make it a little lighter than traditional cream cheese cheesecake, don't be fooled. It's a deep, rich, chocolate-y, cinnamon-y, spicy cheesecake. But it's so good that I think I could eat it any time of day, any time of year. Breakfast in July? Bring it.

So sorry I'm not sorry, here it is, a recipe for a scrummmptious mexican chocolate chip cheesecake even as summer is on its way.


What you need
For the crust
9 graham cracker sheets
2 Tbsp. cocoa powder
3 Tbsp. sugar
6 Tbsp. butter or butter spread
1 tsp. instant coffee powder


For the filling
3 c. (1 1/2 pounds) Ricotta cheese (I used part skim and it worked great)
1/4 c. all purpose flour
6 eggs, separated
3 tsp. cinn
3/4 tsp. chili powder
1/4 tsp. salt
3/4 c. chocolate chips
7 Tbsp. sugar


For the ganache
1 c. (6 oz.) dark chocolate chips
1 c. (6 oz.) semi sweet chocolate chips
3/4 c. skim milk
2 Tbsp. butter spread
2 tsp. corn starch
1 tsp. instant coffee powder
1 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 tsp. chili powder


What you do
Preheat oven to 350. Heat butter (in the microwave or over the stove, either way is fine) until melted and very hot. Stir in instant coffee powder until dissolved. Set aside. In a food processor, pulse graham cracker sheets until they resemble fine crumbs. Stir in sugar and cocoa powder. When the mixture looks uniform throughout, stir the butter/coffee mixture into the crumbs. Press onto the bottom and about 1/2-3/4 of the way up the sides of a 9 inch springform pan and bake at 350 for 12 minutes. When it's done, remove the pan from the oven and increase the oven temp to 375.

While the crust is baking, stir together the ricotta cheese, all but 2 Tbsp of the flour, the 6 egg yolks (not the whites), and spices. In another bowl, toss the chocolate chips with the remaining 2 Tbsp flour. (This will coat them and help them not sink to the bottom of the batter.) Then stir them into the ricotta batter.


In a separate bowl, beat the 6 egg whites with an electric mixer until foamy. Add the sugar a couple Tbsp. at a time and continue beating until all sugar is combined and mixture is very, very light and fluffy. (This should only take a couple minutes. Don't over beat or it will become stiff.) Gently fold the egg mixture into the batter.

Pour the batter into the crust and bake at 375 for 40-50 minutes or just until set. Turn the oven off and crack the door until the cheesecake has come down to being just slightly warm. (This helps prevent the middle from falling in which can happen if it's cooled too quickly.) Once cooled, stick it in the fridge for at least 4 hours or overnight.


An hour and a half before you want to serve the cheesecake, make the ganache.

Place chopped chocolate/chocolate chips in a bowl. In a small saucepan over medium heat, cook milk and butter until warm but not scalded, stiring constantly with a whisk. Whisk in the cornstarch and continue whisking.

When the mixture begins to thicken, whisk in coffee powder and spices until coffee is dissolved. Immediately pour over the chopped chocolate and whisk until all the chocolate is melted and it forms a smooth ganache.

Pour the ganache over the top of the cheesecake and smooth until it forms an even layer over most of the cake. Refrigerate the cake for at least 1 to 1 1/2 hours before serving to give the ganache time to firm up.

Sprinkle the top with some more chili powder and cinnamon, just to make it purdy.

Cut yourself a slice and try not to scarf it down to fast. Or go ahead and inhale the whole slice in no time. I won't judge.

Fresh, Easy Whole Wheat Bread

I have been MIA for a while. I don't have a cool excuse. I didn't get married, have a baby, or move. I didn't change jobs. I just got a little busy and forgot to blog. But since I definitely did NOT forget to cook, I've got tons of new recipes for you.


How would you like delicious, healthy, and easy fresh baked bread? What if the hands on time from start to finish was under 10 minutes? What if you could refrigerate that only-takes-10-minutes-to-make dough for up to two weeks and pull out a piece every time you want some fresh baked bread for dinner? Would you like that? Yes?


This is not my recipe, so I cannot take credit for it. It's the master Whole Wheat Bread in 5 Minutes a Day recipe.


What you need
A VERY large bowl or tupperware container to make this in

1 1/2 Tbsp. yeast

4 c. lukewarm water (you want it to be about 100 degrees)

1 Tbsp kosher salt

4 Tbsp. vital wheat gluten

5 1/2 c. whole wheat
2 c. all purpose flour

What you do
Put yeast in the bottom of the large bowl or container and pour the water over it. Stir with a spoon just for a couple seconds to make sure all the yeast is not clinging to the bottom of the bowl. Leave it for 5 minutes to let it get foamy.

Measure out your other ingredients while you're waiting. After about 5 minutes, stir in the salt and wheat gluten then stir in both flours. When combined, cover the bowl or container with a dishtowel and let it rise in a warm environment (corner of the kitchen or a still oven) for 2 hours.


This recipe makes 4 loaves of bread so after rising for 2 hours you can either pull off a 1/4 of the dough to cook right away or you can cover the bowl or container with the tupperware lid or saran wrap. Make sure you leave the lid cracked or poke some holes in the saran wrap because the dough will continue to produce gas and it needs to be able to escape.

Whenever you're ready for freshly baked bread, pull off a piece of dough (1/4 of the original dough), form it into a ball and let it sit for about 45 minutes to come up in temperature. Preheat the oven to 450F. Place a pan with about 1/2 inch of water on the bottom rack of the oven (this creates steam to make a nice crust on the bread). Place your dough ball on a greased cookie sheet or on a greased sheet of foil for easy clean up. Sprinkle the top with salt and pepper and bake 20-30 minutes or until golden brown. :-)