TWD: Chocolate-Mascarpone Cheesecake

Tuesdays with Dorie baking through Baking with Julia
by Dorie Greenspan
Contributing Baker: David Ogonowski

Chocolate-Mascarpone Cheesecake. Sound and look decadent? It is.

Made with cream cheese, mascarpone cheese, sour cream and chocolate. Good thing I was able to ride a couple of extra days this week!

Every time I make a cheesecake (not all that often, but when I do..) I am always nervous as to when to take it out. The baked cake is supposed to be somewhat "jiggly" when pulled from the oven, and firms up as it cools, but just how jiggly? I usually trust my "scent-o-meter" when it comes to baking. And my nose was telling me it was done, though it was like really jiggly at the time specified (50 - 60 minutes) in the recipe. A quick Google search told me most cheesecakes take up to one hour fifteen, to an hour and a half. Mine baked for about an hour twenty before I felt confident in taking it out.

Oh, David.. your recipe needs a little tweeking:
 
One: The cookie crumb bottom. Seriously? You want me to invert the cake onto a cutting board (after baking, obviously) and press the crumbs into the bottom of the cake, then upright it? Why? So much easier to make your typical cheesecake crust and pour the filling over it (this is what I did). And wouldn't inverting the cake maybe damage the top? (I'm interested to see what route the other bakers in our group took.)

Two: Speaking of the top. You say to bake the cake until the top is dry and a little blistery. And you want it to be served this way? No embellishments on top to hide the unattractive, dull looking top? No wonder there was no picture of the cake in the book.
 
I took the initiative to adorn the cake with a chocolate ganache, not only was it way more attractive, it was delicious, as I'm sure it would be without it; but, we do feast with our eyes first, do we not?

I saved a slice for my husband and me, and sent the rest with my sister for her to take into work. She texted me this message the next day:

David, David, David. What were you thinking? You want me to serve this decadent sounding dessert looking like this? Undressed? Maybe you were thinking that looks can be deceiving - and wanting to prove a point. Well, I was not about to go that route - I have a reputation to uphold (especially when it comes to chocolate desserts).
 

What to do, what to do...

 Oooh, a marbled cheesecake would have been pretty!

I decided on a dark chocolate ganache glaze for the top; I also felt there needed to be something on the side of the cake. I was thinking little lace hearts would be perfect! However, the mini lace hearts were not working out for me (I only gave it one try - just was not into it when the time came to get it done). I did make a few larger hearts and ended up using one of those on top of the cake. If I had known that I would not have had any garnishment on the side of the cake, I would have let the glaze drip down the side - that would have been pretty too - even a chocolate lace border.. oh well, another day.

 Amazing how different the lighting is when you move from the corner of the room to the center.

This picture best reflects the true color of the cheesecake.

This is a fairly quick cheesecake to make, but it does require an overnight chill - so plan on making this a day before you want to serve it.

The finished cake can be stored up to four days in the refrigerator - so nice to finally have a recipe from this book that lasts longer than a day!

I read a fellow baker had success with a gluten-free version, check out the post over at Oven Chaos.

This post participates in Tuesdays with Dorie. Click here for the links of all the talented bakers of our group, to see how they fared with this recipe.