Cheeeese! Cake!

Here is the promised recipe for the chocolate cheesecake I recently made. So, if you need an excuse for a calorie fest, Valentine's Day might be your candidate:

Chocolate Cheesecake

Ingredients

275 g chocolate (preferably dark, but feel free to mix with milk chocolate if you want it - even - sweeter)
1,2 kg (!) cream cheese (I used half of low fat Philadelphia-type cream-cheese and half of what is available as Topfen (quark, curd cheese) here
200 g sugar
1 vanilla pod (or vanilla sugar/aroma)
4 eggs (at room temperature)
175 ml sour cream
1 tbsp cocoa powder

for the base:

200 g chocolate cookies, crumbled (you can also use other cookies, such as digestives)
75 g butter, melted
1/2 tsp cinnamon powder

******************************

Preheat your oven to 180° (fan setting, preferably). In a bowl, blend the crumbled cookies with butter and cinnamon. Carefully spread out on the base of a spring form and press down.

Melt the chocolate and set aside.

Smoothly stir all the cheese together, then add sugar and vanilla. Add eggs one by one.

Mix sour cream and cocoa powder together to get a pasty consistency, then add to cheese mixture. Add melted chocolate and blend together to a smooth cream.

Pour filling onto cookie base. Bake for an hour. Let the cake cool in the form before removing the side of the spring form and placing the cake onto a serving plate. Serve chilled.

(Note: don't be tempted to switch to "bottom heat" setting towards the end to prevent the top from getting too brown, rather cover the top with aluminium foil. The cream is very fatty and the fat will find its way through the tiny crevice where bottom and side of the spring form connect, dripping onto the bottom of your oven, where it evaporates and smells. Trust me, I found out the hard way!).