Cheesecake is one of the most beautiful cakes in the world. Lightweight and creamy, and relatively simple to prepare is the perfect dessert for any occasion and has therefore become popular, especially among young housewives. Here in Macedonia, mascarpone cheese which is mostly used for making cheesecake is relatively new and since it is imported it is quite expensive, 500 grams of this cheese will cost you minimum 300 denars (about 6 $). That's why other substitutes are invented for this cheese, you can use unsalted ricotta, but the cheese has no creamy texture. So I discovered another substitute for mascarpone, high-fat sour cream with at at least 20% milk fat. The cream should be drained from the liquid for several hours beforehand. The taste is the same as using mascarpone cream cheese and costs 4 times less. Since we love more chocolate flavors at home, I opted for a chocolate cheesecake which is definitely a great replacement for a classic chocolate cake and is 100 times simpler to make.
Ingredients:
Biscuit:
- 150 grams of crushed petit beurre biscuits (5,3 oz)
- 100 grams of melted butter (3,5 oz)
- 2 tablespoons cocoa
- 300 grams of high quality chocolate for cooking (10,5 oz)
- 700 ml (24 fluid oz) sour cream with 20% fat or 500 g (18 oz) mascarpone cream cheese
- 200 grams of powdered sugar (7 oz)
- 300 ml heavy whipping cream (10 fluid oz)
- 200 ml heavy whipping cream (hopla) (7 fluid oz)
- 100 g of high quality chocolate for cooking (3,5 oz)
- First put the sour cream onto a larger piece of gauze, wrap it well in 1 layer and if possibly hang it for a few hours. Press gently from time to time to allow the fluid to drain faster.
- Mix crushed biscuits and with cocoa and melted butter. Mix thoroughly and apply this mixture in a cheesecake mold pre-coated with baking paper and the sides smeared with melted butter.
- Stir the whipping cream with the mixer until it becomes a cream, add the squeezed sour cream or mascarpone and mix slowly, add the powdered sugar and finally the melted chocolate (not to be hot). Blend well until the filling is smooth and pour the filling evenly onto the biscuit.
- Put the cheesecake in the refrigerator to cool thoroughly and firm. After cooling, pour over the glaze that is prepared by warming the whipping cream and adding the crushed chocolate, mixing until a uniform liquid chocolate mixture is obtained. The chocolate mixture is poured over the cheesecake and well distributed.
- Return the cake to the fridge again and allow it to harden nicely.
- Decorate as desired.
