Chocolate cheesecake with strawberries (no-bake)

Chocolate is such a rich and distinctive flavor, and as a cheesecake, even more deadly. I asked family which cheesecake they wanted me to make this time and it was split in two : plain and choco, so I made both.

I opted for the simplest possible recipe, no-bake and no eggs this time, since I'm on vacation, so the so-called "lazy version". But I did go through the cupboards to find cookies for the base and all I could find were coconut-sesame-chia-sunflower-seed clusters which I pulverized, mixed with a few chocolate butter cookies and 1/4 cup butter for the base. You can also do the (classic graham cracker or) oreo cookie crust. Just mix 4 tablespoons butter with 24 crushed oreos.

As for the cheesecake batter made with a 3-ingredient recipe (ok, ok, 4, with the extract, mister blog police), easy as can be :

16 oz (450 g) softened cream cheese

1 can (14-oz /396 g) sweetened condensed milk
1-3/4 cups semi-sweet dark chocolate

1 teaspoon vanilla extract or 1/.2 vanilla bean

In a bowl, with a beater, mix the cream cheese with condensed milk until creamy. It's important that the cream cheese is first softened (10-15 seconds in the microwave) so that it doesn't form little clusters that don't dissolve easily into the batter. Fold in melted chocolate (make sure it is cooled to room temperature), then vanilla. Pour onto crust, chill in refrigerator overnight.

Here's the chocolate ganache recipe, I kind of improvised because I had an "incident" with the surface. As I'm not in my own kitchen, I didn't have a springform pan, I used a regular cake baking pan and couldn't get the cheesecake out. Who has this happened to?! So I eased the cheesecake out with a knife, put parchment paper on top and flipped it over. Then flipped it over again on a dish. Upon peeling off the parchment paper, the surface was pockmarked. Note to self...

No worries, here comes the ganache :

1 cup heavy whipping cream
4 oz softened cream cheese
1/2 cup softened dark chocolate

Whip the cream in a bowl with a mixer until it forms soft peaks, about 3 minutes. Add the cream cheese, (softened as mentioned above), mix another minute. Fold in softened and room temperature chocolate. This chocolate cream should be thickened, if it's not chill in the refrigerator about 2 hours. Pipe onto cheesecake or decorate with a knife. Add sliced red fruits (strawberries, cherries...) or decorate with edible flower petals, cookies, Ferreros or sprinkles.

Enjoy, everyone !

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