CHOCOLATE CHEESECAKE TRUFFLES: National Cheese Day!

Today is National Cheese Day, and I immediately thought of Cheesecake! I love truffles, so here's a simple recipe for Chocolate Cheesecake Truffles to celebrate National Cheese Day. Easy and delicious! As always, use the very best chocolate. There are three different ways to coat these.. It's up to you!

CHOCOLATE CHEESECAKE TRUFFLES

Ingredients 
8 ounces cream cheese
4 cups powdered sugar
5 ounces bittersweet dark chocolate, melted (I use 70% cacao)
1 tsp pure vanilla

Coatings for truffles:
toasted pecans, chopped (or other nuts)
pulverized graham crackers (gives you a true cheesecake taste)
cocoa powder

Directions
Using mixer, slowly add powdered sugar to cream cheese, mixing well after each addition.
Add melted chocolate and vanilla and mix until smooth.
Chill several hours.
Shape into 1-inch balls. Roll in coatings.

How easy is that?

CHOCOLATE & CHEESE PAIRING & CREAM CHEESE TRUFFLE RECIPE: National Cheese Day

Today is National Cheese Day, and Chocolate and Cheese go perfectly together. You just have to have the right pairing.

Here are a few guidelines for the perfect CHEESE and CHOCOLATE pairing. Foods with similar flavor profiles work best together. For Darker Chocolates, choose a more complex, aged cheese. For Milk Chocolates choose a buttery cheese such as a Triple Brie. For Fruity Chocolates pair with a sharper cheese. For Nuttier chocolates pair with cheese high in butterfat. Spicy chocolates pair with sharp cheeses,

A few examples of Savory-Sweet Pairings:
Dark chocolate (80% or more cocoa) with a delicious true Blue cheese.
Burnt caramel chocolates with a beer-washed Cheese.
Bordeaux-style chocolate with a creamy triple crème Brie.
Citrus-y chocolate with a semi-hard, buttery table cheese (feta or havarti).

Here's an easy recipe for Cream Cheese Chocolate Truffles. You might also want to try my recipes for Goat Cheese Truffles or Blue Cheese Truffles.

Cream Cheese Chocolate Truffles

Ingredients
3 1/2 cups powdered sugar
8 ounces softened cream cheese
4 ounces unsweetened or bittersweet chocolate, chopped
1/2 cup DARK cocoa powder, for rolling (or ground/chopped walnuts)

Directions
Pour cocoa powder or nuts into a shallow pie pan and set aside.
Chop chocolate into small pieces and melt in top of doubleboiler (or a pot over a pot of simmering water), stirring after every 45 seconds to prevent overheating. Set chocolate aside.
In large bowl of electric mixer, beat softened cream cheese. Gradually add powdered sugar. Beat mixture on medium speed for a few minutes, until well-blended.
Stop mixer and stir in melted chocolate. Beat until well combined.
Remove bowl from mixer, cover it with plastic wrap, and refrigerate until firm enough to scoop, about 20-30 minutes.
Once candy is firm but not hard, scoop into 1 inch balls using teaspoon or candy/cookie scoop.
Roll truffles in cocoa powder or ground/chopped walnuts.
Serve truffles at room temperature, but if you're not eating right away, put in airtight container and keep in refrigerator.

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.