Goat Cheese Chocolate Chip Cheesecake with Chocolate Crust

August is National Goat Cheese Month. The other day I blogged an easy Goat Cheese Truffle recipe, and I mentioned two of my favorite goat cheese companies. However, I failed to mention one of the best known of the American original goat cheeses and another of my personal favorites: Humboldt Fog from Cypress Grove Chevre in California. This cheese is fabulous!

Here's my recipe for Goat Cheese Chocolate Chip Cheese Cake. I think the recipe was originally from Whole Foods. Whole Foods stores, by the way, always have a great selection of goat cheese, all over the country. I like that Whole Foods stocks local brands.  I'm sure the original recipe didn't use a Chocolate Crust, but I'm all about Chocolate, and this recipe works well with it. I also added Chocolate Chips, because once again, you can never have enough chocolate. I use mini-chocolate chips in cheesecake rather than regular because the bigger chips usually sink to the bottom. That's not really a bad thing because it just means your crust will be that much more chocolatey! So you can choose. When you use the mini-chocolate chips, you see the chips in the cheesecake.

Goat Cheese Chocolate Chip Cheesecake with Chocolate Crust

Crust
1 cup chocolate wafer crumbs (whirl in a blender or just crush with rolling pin between two sheets of wax paper)
1/4 cup melted butter

Combine crumbs and butter and press into the bottom of a 9” springform pan.

Cheesecake
16 ounces cream cheese, cut into pieces (leave out to soften and it will be more crumbly)
12 ounces fresh goat cheese, crumbled
2 teaspoons grated lemon zest
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
1 1/2 teaspoons Madagascar vanilla extract
1 1/4 cups sugar
4 eggs
about 8 ounces mini-chocolate chips (must be mini or they'll sink to the bottom)*

Pre-heat oven to 325°F.
Place cream cheese, goat cheese, lemon zest, lemon juice and vanilla in a large mixing bowl.  Using mixer, beat until just smooth, scraping down sides of the bowl as you go along.
In two or three additions, beat in sugar until mixture is creamy.
Add eggs, one at a time, beating and scraping down sides of the bowl after each addition. Continue to beat until mixture is very smooth.
Fold in mini-chocolate chips.
Pour batter into prepared crust. Bake about 50-60 minutes.
Place pan on a rack to cool completely in the pan.
Cover and refrigerate for at least 6 hours or overnight.