Chocolate Cheesecake Dippers Recipe

I love chocolate. For being such a chocoholic, I don’t talk about it much. So today I’m blogging about my favorite chocolate cheesecake.

The original recipe is from Nestle. But I’ve modified it just a bit, because while I could eat a quarter of a cake, most people like smaller portions than are easily sliced. There are also some cheaper substitutions I’ve made.

The first thing you want to do is to set out your cream cheese. I put mine on the stove while it is preheating for the cookies to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. You will need two 8-ounce packages, and it’s ok if this is off brand, because you’re going to mix it with chocolate and with sugar! (Walmart usually has the cheapest. You can also stock up when cream cheese is on sale during the holidays, because cream cheese has a long refrigerator life.)

Next, you’re going to make the cookies. You can use your favorite chocolate chip cookie recipe or this one, which is a family classic.

Mix 1 cup (2 sticks) of margarine with ¾ cup of sugar and ¾ cup of brown sugar and 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract. Cream. Add 2 eggs. Stir thoroughly, until the batter forms pea-sized chunks in the liquid of the whites. Now mix in the dry ingredients: 3 cups of flour, 1 teaspoon of baking soda, and 1 teaspoon of salt. When batter is the stiff consistency of cookie dough, add 2 cups of semi-sweet chocolate chips.

Scoop heaping tablespoons of dough onto a cookie sheet and bake for 15-20 minutes, until golden brown. While the first pan is cooking, refrigerate your dough if possible. Remove cookies from pan to wire rack to cool. When all your cookies are done baking, you can start the filling.

Begin with the two 8-ounce packages of cream cheese. Add 1 cup of sugar, 12 tablespoons of cocoa powder, and 4 tablespoons of Crisco (solid vegetable shortening). Stir for a really long time until: 1) your hand feels like it will fall off, 2) the bowl gets a hole in it, 3) the spoon breaks, 4) you can get a friend or family member to take over. You will need the mixture to look thoroughly chocolate brown with no white showing.

Then you are ready to add two 8-ounce tubs of whipped topping. This will initially turn all of that lovely chocolate brown to fluffy white. Stir, and you will begin to see signs of the brown reemerging. Then stir some more, and your mixture may turn a lighter brown. Stir, cream, press, beat until the whole thing is an even medium-brown color with a smooth texture. Don’t use a mixer at any time, because the whole thing is pointless: the beaters get stalled in the thickness of the cream cheese, and you spend more time scraping than mixing.

When this is accomplished you’re pretty much done. Spoon the cheesecake filling into a pretty glass bowl, and line the sides with cookies or cookie halves. You may want to provide spoons or knives with which to spread the dip over the cookies. Cover with plastic and refrigerate at least for a couple hours before serving.

The image at the beginning is half a batch. I almost forgot the sugar on that one, and we got a Marine to do the beating, so my mom’s plastic mixing bowl broke. Oops! But oh, this is so yummy, and really popular. Plus, except for it being really important not to forget the sugar, you can adjust almost any of the rest of the ingredients. Use the low-fat or low-calorie versions of the whipped topping and the cream cheese. Or use less whipped topping. You can do less cream cheese. And if when you’re counting you miss a tablespoon or two of cocoa, I dare you to notice the difference. This recipe is very forgiving, and tastes great. I’ve stored it in the refrigerator for over a week, still good. The original recipe is actually a cake, where the cookie dough is the crust in the spring-form pan. I’ve also thought about doing this parfait style in glass cups. In the comment section of Nestle’s website, a few women mentioned making them in muffin cups and swirling the cheesecake filling like you would frosting. Finally, I hear the filling is great frozen, almost like ice cream.

To God be all glory.