Deep Dark Chocolate Cheesecake(s)

I know this is going to make me sound like such a grump, especially fresh on the heels of my declaration of  feelings towards football, but I'm just not a fan of Valentines Day. To be completely honest I usually wear all black on Valentines Day. All black seems entirely appropriate to wear in honor of St. Valentine. Yep folks, St. Valentine was a real person with a real story. Not just a day made up by Hallmark. St. Valentine was actually a bishop somewhere around the year 270 AD under the reign of the Roman emperor Claudius II. All the surrounding nations were in great turmoil during this time for various reasons. Claudius held the belief that men who were married would not make as strong and effective soldiers as those who were not married so he issued an edict banning all marriages. As you can probably imagine, this raised quite the ruckus. Not just with the soldiers but with Valentine as well. He felt this ban was completely unreasonable so he secretly defied Claudius and began performing secret marriage ceremonies. Naturally, his defiance could only stay hidden for so long and Claudius found out. Valentine was sent to jail. Claudius was impressed by Valentine and  tried to convince Valentine  to accept his marriage ban and also to accept his belief in the roman gods. When Valentine refused, Claudius sentenced him to death. While Valentine was in jail he befriended his jailer, named Asterius, who had a blind daughter. It is said that Valentine's deep faith healed her blindness. Eventually, Valentine fell in love with the daughter and just before his death he sent her a note which he signed, "from your Valentine." After his death he was named a patron saint. In 500 AD Pope Gelasius I set aside February 14 as a day to honor the martyr, St. Valentine. During the Middle Ages Geoffrey Chaucer started associating Valentines Day with love. It was believed that birds mated on this day. There are a couple slight variations to this story but this is basically it in a nutshell.

So now here we are centuries later, celebrating love by passing out notes, hanging up hearts, and handing out chocolates. Which brings me to my deep dark chocolate cheesecake.

 Whether you are trying to snag a Valentine, keep the one you got, or just simply let your friends know how much they mean to you, this cheesecake is a great way to go. It is very rich. I chose to bake mine as little tiny cheesecakes in jumbo muffin tins but you can also make just one cheesecake in a 9-inch-diameter springform pan.  If you choose the mini cheesecake options it will make about 24 cheesecakes. Speaking of love, don't you just love having options.

Lets choose a crust...

12 chocolate graham crackers or 12 plain graham crackers or 24 chocolate chip cookies ground into crumbs in the food processor

1/4 cup melted butter

Mix the melted butter into the crumbs and then press the crumbs into your springform pan or your muffin tins. If you are using the muffin tins you want to use about a tablespoon of crumbs in each one.

Okay, that was easy. Now lets make the cheesecake filling

(courtesy of Bon Appetit)

9.7 oz melted bittersweet chocolate - 70% or higher

4 8-oz packages of cream cheese

1/ 1/4 c. sugar

1/4 c. cocoa powder

4 eggs

Melt the chocolate. It is important to do this first because you need to let the chocolate cool while you are mixing the rest of the ingredients. Click here if you need to see my directions on melting chocolate. Blend together the cream cheese, sugar, and eggs until smooth. You can do this in your food processor or with an electric mixer. Blend in the eggs 1 at a time. Mix in the chocolate. Pour the filling over the crust. Bake at 350 for about 1 hour. Let cheesecake cool completely and then...

Lets garnish

12 oz bag of semi-sweet or bittersweet chocolate chips

1/3 c. sugar

1/4 c. cream (or milk)

1/2 c. butter or margarine

Dissolve the sugar in the cream over low heat on the stove. When the sugar dissolves add the butter or margarine. When this has melted add the chocolate chips, remove from the direct heat and stir until melted. When the chocolate has melted spread over the top of the cheesecake and let this cool.

1/2 c. melted white chocolate chips

1/4 c. melted dark chocolate chips

Spread the melted white chocolate over the top of the cheesecake. Use the dark chocolate to decorate. I used a paintbrush to paint hearts on the top but you can also use a pastry bag fitted with a small circular tip. If you don't like hearts then don't do 'em. Do something else like swirls. Or get super fancy and write your valentine's name. Another option is to just sprinkle the top of the cake(s) with the chocolate chips rather than melting them down. It is entirely up to you how you want to make them look pretty. Maybe you don't want to make them look pretty at all. That's fine too. These taste awesome enough that nobody is really going to care what they look like.