Cakes + Cupcakes Indulgent

November 18, 2012

Dark Chocolate Cheesecake with Chocolate Hazelnut Ganache, Toasted Hazelnuts, & Sea Salt

Name: Dark Chocolate Cheesecake with Chocolate Hazelnut Ganache, Toasted Hazelnuts, & Sea Salt
Prep time: 30 min
Cook time: 75 min
Total time: 105 min
Ingredients: 3/4 cup FAGE Total Greek Yogurt 2%; 24 ounces cream cheese, softened at room temperature; 3 large eggs; 1 large egg yolk; 10 ounces (1 1/4 cup) granulated sugar; 1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder (use dark cocoa for more intensity); 10 ounces 72% dark chocolate, chopped; 25 chocolate sandwich cookies (Oreos are good); 1 cup hazelnuts; 1/4 cup butter, melted; Chocolate Hazelnut Ganache:; 4 ounces (1/2 cup) chocolate hazelnut butter (Nutella); 4 ounces (1/2 cup) heavy cream; 2 ounces 72% dark chocolate, chopped; 1/4 cup toasted hazelnuts, chopped; 1 teaspoon coarse sea salt, plus more if desired

Decadent dark chocolate cheesecake with chocolate hazelnut ganache, toasted hazelnuts & sea salt. This indulgent cheesecake has a hazelnut & chocolate cookie crust for the ultimate chocolate lovers’ dessert.

Prep Time

30 mins

Cook Time

1 hour 15 mins

Total Time

1 hour 45 mins

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Hi! I’m so excited to FINALLY publish this recipe!

This past week has been completely crazy! I flew to New York to meet and cook with Bobby Flay at his restaurant! Whattt?! I know! My dessert was selected by Fage Total Greek Yogurt to be served at their event. They transformed Bobby’s restaurant Mesa Grill into a beautiful Pop-up Plain Kitchen restaurant.

I’m so happy that I was able to be a part of it! I can’t express how blessed I feel. I met some fabulous food editors, Fage’s PR team (Mullen!), and of course, Bobby. He was incredibly sweet and complimented me on how delicious this cheesecake was. We also made a spice-crusted lamb, which was by far my favorite entree of the evening!

BUT THE CHEESECAKE?! Can we just talk about it? It’s a dense, smooth, chocolate-wasted cheesecake that I want to live in for the rest of my life. I’m SERIOUS. Oh and not to mention that it has a creamy, rich chocolate hazelnut butter (Nutella) ganache, toasted hazelnuts, and sea salt.

Please prepare yourself to drool.

Coming up with this recipe was quite a process. I knew that I wanted to use greek yogurt, but also that I wanted to make a dessert that could be presented in a restaurant or made for a special occasion such as a holiday party. It had to be decadent, rich, and basically everything you could ever want in your mouth.

Now here’s the funny part: I’m not a cheesecake girl. I typically go for pie during the holidays, but I wanted to challenge myself into crafting something beautiful and unique. And in my opinion, there’s really nothing better than dark chocolate and sea salt. OBVIOUSLY.

Oh.my.goodness.

I really can’t even deal with how incredible this is. The crust is made with hazelnuts and chocolate sandwich cookies and the filling from cream cheese, greek yogurt, dark chocolate, cocoa powder, eggs, and sugar.

The topping is a mixture of chocolate hazelnut butter, dark chocolate, and heavy cream, then it’s finished with toasted hazelnuts and a sprinkle of coarse sea salt.

There are not enough happy adjectives to describe this cheesecake. There are simply no words.

But I think that if Bobby says it’s good, well then… you know it’s GOOD.

Hope you guys had a good weekend! Enjoy!