Goat Cheese Chocolate Chip Cheesecake

Today is National Cheese Day. Chocolate goes so well with so many different cheeses, but I'm partial to goat cheese. Make a Goat Cheese Chocolate Chip Cheese Cake today! So many wonderful goat cheeses available. As always, the quality and taste of your Goat Cheese Chocolate Chip Cheese Cake will vary with the cheese and chocolate you choose, so choose wisely--and experiment. If you're new to goat cheese, start with a mild one. Ask your local cheese purveyor.

Here's the recipe I use for Goat Cheese Chocolate Chip Cheese Cake. I think the recipe was originally from Whole Foods. Whole Foods stores always have a great selection of goat cheese, all over the country. 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 sometimes 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 sweet butter

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

Cheesecake
16 ounces cream cheese, cut into pieces (softened)
12 ounces fresh goat cheese, crumbled (leave out to soften, and it will be more crumbly)
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 dark 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.
In two or three additions, beat in sugar until mixture is creamy.
Add eggs, one at time, beating and scraping down sides of 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.