Marbled Chocolate Cheesecake

One last decadent dessert, before returning to my usual style of baking, with lowered saturated fat content. This was made to use up the cream cheese bought 'in case' before Christmas. I chose this recipe because it suited the amounts of cream cheese and sour cream I had in the fridge. One change I made was to use gingernut biscuits and 2 teaspoons of cocoa for the crumb crust, instead of the Australian biscuits specified. The other change was a mistake - I inadvertently picked up half-fat sour cream, which was a bit of a worry when I realised (as I was pouring it on top of the cream cheese!).

Chocolate wouldn't be my first choice for flavouring a cheesecake, but when I asked FB what she would like, chocolate is what she chose! I was considering a refreshing lemon, or even a tongue-tingling ginger, but it was not to be.

This is the first time I've made a cheesecake in a full crumb case, rather than just on a base, and I'm pleased at how well it turned out, although I only just built up the sides high enough. The crumb crust was very thin, and it wouldn't hurt to use a few more biscuits - another 50g, perhaps - but a thin crust is easy to cut and keeps the calories down a little.

Another thing I need to learn is to recognise the end-point when cooking a cheesecake. When I opened the oven door at 1 hour, the mixture was still very wobbly, and 7 minutes later it was still wobbling a lot! However, after another 5 minutes the cheesecake was solid, which inevitably lead to cracking as it cooled, so the mid-point is where I should have stopped cooking and turned off the heat.

This overcooking, and the use of half-fat sour cream, didn't seem to affect the texture too badly - the cheesecake was still soft and creamy, with enough chocolate to give it a good flavour.