Chocolate Ricotta Cheesecake

Ingredients:

nonstick cooking spray
1 14oz pkg. oreo cookies
5 Tbls. butter, melted
14oz semi-sweet chocolate chips
2 15 oz containers skim milk ricotta cheese
2/4 cup heavy cream
1/2 tsp vanilla
1/4 tsp. sea salt


I wanted to do a special cake for our Valentine's dinner this year.  For my birthday, I recieved three mini heart-shaped springform pans from my mother-in-law.  I intended to use them to make minature versions of this cake but when the time came to get in the kitchen I wasn't feeling it.  We had a death in our family this weekend and I was feeling melancholy and not in the mood to fuss.  I had already realized that I didn't have the correct ingredients on hand and was going to need to do some improvising, that was enough fuss for the evening for me.

So let the fussing begin:

1. Prepare your pan with wax paper.  Cut a 10" circle and using a 9" springform pan, cover the bottom with wax paper and secure the sides. Spray cooking spray to coat the bottom and sides of the pan.  Next, cover the sides with wax paper, using a strip 24" x 2".

2. Using a food processor crush oreos.  In a mixing bowl add crushed oreos and melted butter.  Add half of the cookie mixture to the bottom of the pan and pat down to form the bottom crust.  Put pan in the fridge to firm.

4. Add chocolate chips to a metal or glass mixing bowl that can be put on top of a pan of boiling water. Melt chocolate while stirring.

5. Using a food processor add two containers ricotta and cream for about 3-4 minutes.  Then add the melted choclate to ricotta and cream together for another 2-3 minutes. In a large bowl, whip heavy cream until stiff peaks are formed.  Gently fold chocolate ricotta into the heavy cream.

6. Take your pan out of the fridge to assmeble the cake.  Add half of the ricotta mixure to the pan and smooth the top.  Next, add the remaining oreo mixture and smooth the layer.  And finally, top with the ricotta mixture.  Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate.  The cake can be refrigerated for 6 hours or up to two days.

7. To serve, remove the sides of the pan and the wax paper from the sides.

8. I chose to top the cake with raspberries to bring in the red for valentines day. Any fruit would do or just shaved chocolate would look good too!

This cake was wonderful and a good way to celebrate the holiday.  I do have a bit of a problem with the mealy texture that the ricotta brings, but that isn't avoidable. I will do some research to see if homemade ricotta cheese would be creamier.  With that said, I would still make this cake again, the chocolate ricotta has a lot of flavor and the oreo crust is the perfect end to every bite.

Happy Valentine's Day! Tell me what you ate for dessert on this holiday.