Cheese Cake Recipe

Ohhh this sounds so good. Thanks to Betsy from the coupon board!


Chocolate Chip Cheesecake

Crust: 2 C chocolate wafer crumbs
1/2 C sugar
1/2 C butter, melted

Filling: 24 oz cream cheese
1 C sugar
2 T flour
4 eggs
1/3 C whipping cream
1 tsp vanilla
6 oz miniature chocolate chips

To make crust: In a medium bowl, stir together crumbs and sugar, pour in butter. Press onto the bottom and 2 inches up the sides of a 9-inch springform pan; set aside.

To make filling: beat cream cheese and sugar until smooth. Add flour and beat well. Add eggs, beating on low speed just until combined. Add whipping cream and vanilla, beat just until combined. Stir in 3/4 C of the chocolate chips. Pour into crust. Sprinkle with remaining chocolate chips. Bake at 325 for 50-55 minutes or until center is almost set. Cool on wire rack for 1 hour. Refrigerate overnight. Let stand 30 minutes at room temp before slicing.

Notes:

For the "chocolate wafer crumbs" you can use any type of solid chocolate cookie/cracker such as chocolate graham crackers or teddy grahams. The cheapest alternative I have found is the big bag of chocolate animal crackers. Run them through a food processor to quickly crush them, or do it by hand.
For the whipping cream, buy the smallest container there is (it looks like a small milk carton you would get in grade school). It contains 1 C of whipping cream, so after you use 1/3 C, measure out two more 1/3 C servings and put into zip lock bags, then freeze them. You can use them in your next cheesecake! Unless of course, you have other plans for the leftover whipping cream, but mine always expires before I find another use for it, so I started freezing it.
On my last cheesecake I raised the oven temp to 330 and it cooked closer to the time frame in the recipe. Otherwise I sometimes have it in there for close to double the time! Just keep checking it, take it out when the very center is not liquid/ jiggly anymore. If the outside edges start to get brown, put some tin foil on it.
When baking in the springform pan, some of the butter may leak out (depending on how tight your pan is), so place another pan underneath to catch the butter, preferably something with sides, like a jelly roll pan. If possible, put the pan on the rack below so the springform pan doesn't end up directly sitting in butter. Regardless, you may want to wipe down the outside bottom of the springform pan once it's cooled so you don't get grease wherever you set it down.
If making cupcakes, bake at 330 for 35 minutes (approx). Use cupcake liners, or spray with non-stick spray, but I honestly don't know how easy they would be to get out without liners. I put in 1 T crust and 1/4 C filling for the ones I brought last Sunday. To easily pack it down, find a measuring cup that fits into the cupcake pan and press down the crust with that.
If making mini cupcakes, bake at 330 for 20-25 minutes (approx). I didn't use liners in my mini pan, I sprayed and since it was a silicone pan I could easily push them out. I used a baby spoon to press down the crust.
You can make lots of "flavors" using this recipe as a base. Just switch out the crust if you want regular graham cracker crust, leave out the chocolate chips and add in whatever you want like raspberry/strawberry preserves, nuts, caramel, etc. The possibilities are endless! (And delicious!)