Strawberry-and-Chocolate-Topped Cheesecake

 On Sunday, tragedy struck in the Cobbler Clobber kitchen.  

They were so innocent.  So helpless.  So tiny.  Yet, they were shown no mercy.

June 20, 2010 will forever be remembered as the day of the Teddy Graham Massacre.

Let us have a moment of silence to remember our fallen friends.

Now that we've had our moment of silence, let's talk about this cheesecake.

There was a chocolate crust, made with chocolate Teddy Grahams*. 

There was a smooth and creamy cheesecake filling, with four blocks of cream cheese and no sour cream to cut the richness. 

There was a shiny chocolate ganache glaze, which added more chocolatey goodness and (shhh!) filled and covered the cracks** in my cheesecake. 

Finally, there were strawberries, artfully arranged on top of the glaze.  I unfortunately have no evidence of the "artfully arranged" part, as I was in a rush to get the cheesecake to a party.

The result?  A ridiculously decadent cheesecake.  It was so rich that none of us could finish our relatively small slices, but believe me when I say that we really, really wanted to.

* I really, truly was going to follow the cheesecake recipe and went to the store for graham crackers.  However, I passed by the Teddy Grahams on my way to the graham crackers and, rather impulsively, grabbed a box, remembering that Smitten Kitchen swears by them. 

** I've heard several theories as to why cracks occur in cheesecakes. One is because of the sudden change of temperature when it goes from the oven to the open air. I tried to prevent this by turning off the oven about 15 minutes before it was set and keeping the cheesecake to cook in the slowly cooking oven. I then opened the oven door a crack to let some hot air escape. The other reason is because it is overbaked, which could very well be the reason why the cheesecake cracked. You would never be able to tell by eating it, though, because it was rich and creamy and not at all dry.
 

Strawberry-and-Chocolate-Topped Cheesecake
The recipe says it serves 12, but I cut it into 16ths.
Crust adapted from Gourmet, November 1999
Filling adapted from Bon Appetit, January 1998
Ganache glaze adapted from Smitten Kitchen

Chocolate Crust:
10 ounces ground chocolate Teddy Grahams
10 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
2/3 cup sugar
1/4 cup salt

Stir all the ingredients together and press into the bottom and sides of buttered springform pan.  Fill right away or chill up to two hours.

Filling:
4 8-oz blocks of cream cheese, softened
1 3/4 cup sugar
2 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
pinch of salt
3 tbsp flour
5 large eggs

Beat cream cheese, sugar, lemon juice, vanilla, and salt until very smooth.  Beat in flour.  Add eggs and beat until just blended.  Pour batter into crust.

Bake cheesecake until outer 2-inch edge of cake is puffed and center is just set, about 55 minutes.  When cool, top with glaze.

Topping:

1/2 cup semisweet chocolate chips

2 ounces butter

1/4 cup heavy cream

1/2 tsp vanilla

1 tablespoon  powdered sugar

16 ounces of strawberries, halved

Heat cream and butter until scalding.  Remove pan from heat and stir in chocolate.  Whisk until the chocolate has melted.  Add vanilla and sugar; whisk until thoroughly combined.  Spread over cheesecake while ganache is still warm.  Arrange strawberry halves on top.  Chill until ready to serve.