Chocolate cheesecake, re-engineered

Chocolate cheesecake just got even easier to make! I used to use a recipe with egg whites but never felt entirely comfortable including raw eggs. (I've done a couple of courses in food safety and, although I've never had a problem with it, am aware that raw eggs can be associated with salmonella.) So over the years I've tinkered with the recipe, removing the sugar from the base (it's sweet enough without it), halving the sugar in the topping, deleting the egg whites and increasing the amount of chocolate. It works well.

First, make the base

200 grams plain, sweet biscuits * [I like to use Malt or Digestive biscuits]
100 grams butter

Crush the biscuits. Melt the butter and combine well with the crushed biscuits. Press the mixture onto the bottom of a foil-lined springform pan and chill.

Next, make the cheesy topping

250 grams cream cheese
50 grams raw sugar
150 grams chocolate [milk, dark or white]
300 ml pouring cream

Soften the cream cheese a little and beat well. Beat in the sugar. Melt the chocolate over a bowl of hot water or in a microwave. Allow the chocolate to cool slightly, them combine with the cream cheese mixture. Whip the cream. Combine the chocolate and cream mixtures well, and pile on top of the base. Decorate with extra cream, grated chocolate, or fresh fruit. Refrigerate until ready to eat.

So yummy and so easy!

* Terminology clarification: here in Australia, a biscuit is what people in the USA might call a cookie or a cracker. (What someone in the USA would call a biscuit, we would call a scone or a muffin. Confused yet?) Anyway, if you're making this recipe in the USA, graham crackers are probably a good approximation. You may also need a metric to imperial measurement conversion facility.