DB + Cheesecake + Ferrero Rocher = Happiness!

I'm happy to introduce you to my Ferrero Rocher Cheesecake!

It's Daring Bakers time! The April 2009 challenge is hosted by Jenny from Jenny Bakes. She has chosen Abbey's Infamous Cheesecake as the challenge.

Jenny provided us with a wonderful cheesecake recipe from her friend Abbey and told us to use it as a blank canvas and be creative with flavours. What a great idea!

I love Ferrero Rocher chocolates (who doesn't, really?) and I wanted to use it in baked goods for a while so this seamed like the perfect opportunity!

Here's the recipe with my changes in italic:

ABBEY'S INFAMOUS CHEESECAKE

Crust:

• 2 cups / 180 g graham cracker crumbs (I’ve used Digestive biscuits)
• 1 stick / 4 oz butter, melted
• 2 tbsp. / 24 g sugar
• 1 tsp. vanilla extract
• 4 tbsp cocoa powder

Cheesecake:

• 3 sticks of cream cheese, 8 oz each (total of 24 oz) room temperature
• 1 cup / 210 g sugar
• 3 large eggs
• 1 cup / 8 oz heavy cream
• 1 tbsp. lemon juice (I didn’t use it)
• 1 tbsp. vanilla extract (or the innards of a vanilla bean)
• 1 tbsp liqueur, optional (I’ve used Frangelico)
• ½ tsp salt
• 10 Ferrero Rocher chocolates cut into large chunks
• 3/4 cup Nutella
• 2 tbsp chopped roasted hazelnuts

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (Gas Mark 4 = 180C = Moderate heat). Begin to boil a large pot of water for the water bath.
2. Mix together the crust ingredients and press into your preferred pan. You can press the crust just into the bottom, or up the sides of the pan. Set crust aside.
3. Combine cream cheese and sugar in the bowl of a stand-mixer (or in a large bowl if using a hand-mixer) and cream together until smooth. Add eggs, one at a time, fully incorporating each before adding the next. Make sure to scrape down the bowl in between each egg. Add heavy cream, vanilla, and Frangelico and blend until smooth and creamy. Lastly add the chopped Ferrero Rocher.
4. Pour batter into prepared crust and tap the pan on the counter a few times to bring all air bubbles to the surface. Place pan into a larger pan and pour boiling water into the larger pan until halfway up the side of the cheesecake pan. If cheesecake pan is not airtight, cover bottom securely with foil before adding water. 5. Bake 45 to 55 minutes, until it is almost done - this can be hard to judge, but you're looking for the cake to hold together, but still have a lot of jiggle to it in the center. You don't want it to be completely firm at this stage. Close the oven door, turn the heat off, and let rest in the cooling oven for one hour. This lets the cake finish cooking and cool down gently enough so that it won't crack on the top. After one hour, remove cheesecake from oven and lift carefully out of water bath. Let it finish cooling on the counter, and then cover and put in the fridge to chill. Once fully chilled, it is ready to serve.

Then playing a little bit with the Ferrero Rocher theme, I covered the top with Nutella (softened a bit in the microwave) and chopped roasted hazelnuts.

I've also baked 4 little cheesecakelets, with a whole Ferrero Rocher inside. They weren't bad either...

They got the same Nutella and hazelnuts treatment on top.

Look at the whole Ferrero Rocher inside!!! You get crunchy, then creamy, then crunchy again, the chocolate, the hazelnut, and creamy again... You know, the kind of thing that makes me happy!

Saying this was good, is a complete understatement.

Ok, take this last bite and go check all the other creative cheesecakes from my fellow Daring Bakers.