Swirled Cheesecake

I’m not sure if cheesecake is a traditional dessert at most Thanksgiving meals, but I can’t remember a Turkey Day when we didn’t have it.  You get no complaint from me.

This is the standard size recipe.  We always  do 1 ½ times the recipe and make it in a really large spring-form pan, but this original recipe calls for an 8-inch pan.

Swirled Cheesecake

For the crust:

• 1 ¼ cups crushed chocolate wafers
• 2 T. confectioner’s sugar
• 2 t. unsweetened cocoa powder
• 5 T. unsalted butter, melted

For the filling:

• 1 c. semisweet chocolate chips
• 1 lb. cream cheese, room temperature
• ½ c. granulated sugar
• 4 large eggs
• 1 tsp. vanilla extract
• 1 c. sour cream
• 3 T. (firmly packed) brown sugar

Heat oven to 350 degrees. Lightly butter an 8-inch springform pan. To prepare the crust, mix all ingredients except butter in mixing bowl.  Drizzle butter over mixture and stir until crumbs are moistened.  Press over bottom and halfway up side of buttered pan.  Bake 6 minutes.  Let cool on wire rack, then refrigerate until cold.

Heat oven to 425 degrees.  To make the filling, melt chocolate in top of double boiler over simmering water.  Beat cream cheese and granulated sugar in mixer bowl until light and fluffy.  Beat in eggs one at a time, then beat in vanilla.  Divide batter in half.  Beat 1/3 cup sour cream, the brown sugar, and melted chocolate into half the batter.  Beat remaining 2/3 cup sour cream into second half.

Pour chocolate batter into chilled crust.  Gently pour white batter on top.  Swirl batters together using thin knife; do not overmix.

Bake cake 12 minutes.  Reduce heat to 250 degrees and bake until 1-inch circle in center of cake is barely soft, 55-60 minutes.  Let cake cool on wire rack to room temperature, then refrigerate several hours or overnight.

To serve, run knife around side of cake and remove side of pan.