Brownie Latte Cheesecake

Let's say, you need to make a birthday cake for someone very special. What do you do? I'd really like to know. Please feel free to leave a comment, telling me about your approach.

Here's what I did for my husband's birthday cake. I stared at all my cookbooks in the bookshelf for a long time, and then grabbed a couple of them and browsed through them, hoping "the" recipe would just jump at me. Pretty scientific, huh? :o). Well, it sure did! I was sold as soon as I saw this beautiful picture of a slice of this rich and decadent Brownie Latte Cheesecake from The Cake Book by Tish Boyle. This would be the first time I had made a cheesecake for any birthday. One could argue it's not traditional. My argument: you're getting two desserts for the price of one, so who cares! :o) The fact that Tish gave it two thumbs up certainly helped a lot too!

Happy birthday, sweetie!

A slice of heavenly Brownie Latte Cheesecake

Although this recipe is not hard to make, it does require a little bit of time, but it's so worth it! First you make the coffee-flavored brownie batter and bake it in a 9" spring form pan. Instead of using heavy duty aluminum foil, I used my silicone baking pan to wrap around the spring form pan to prevent water from seeping in during the water bath later on. Although I don't like to bake in silicone pans, I have to say that using them for a water bath is just perfect (and cheaper in the long run compared to heavy duty alu foil, and not to mention "greener").

The coffee-flavored cheesecake filling can be made while the brownie base is baking. To soften cream cheese, I like to use the microwave, that way you don't have to plan hours in advance. It's also a good idea to have your eggs at room temperature. Just place them in a bowl with very hot tap water for about 10 minutes and you have room temp eggs. The other thing I like about this recipe is that a little bit of corn starch is used in the cheesecake filling to help with the thickening. I usually use a little flour but corn starch makes the filling gluten-free (in case you're sharing your cheesecake minus brownie layer with gluten-intolerant friends).

I don't use alcohol when I bake, so as I went to the fridge to grab either milk or cream to substitute the Kahlua, I noticed a carton of eggnog, so I used that instead :o) I just love the aroma of eggnog in baked goods.

Ready for its water bath

After 70 minutes in the oven

 I like to line the inside of my spring form pan with parchment paper. When the cheesecake is baked and cooled, just remove the parchment paper and you're done. You never have to worry about the cheesecake sticking to the side of the pan or cracking in the middle because the parchment paper gives if it has to.

It's very rich so a small slice goes a long way :o)

Look fudgy the brownie base is and how creamy the filling is!

Bon appetit!

Final thoughts/tips:

• Let me start by saying that I don't like coffee and never drink coffee, but that I love this cheesecake. The coffee flavor is definitely noticeable but it just works so well with the creaminess and sweetness of the filling and the chocolaty and fudgy brownie base.
• My husband loved the cheesecake too, and gave it a 9.5 out of 10 rating. He was also kind enough to allow me to share some of the cheesecake with a few of my friends. Almost everyone said "OMG" after they took their first bite and asked for the recipe!! No joke!
• If this has your mouth watering, go and get yourself a copy of The Cake Book and find out for yourself how awesome this dessert is. You can also find the recipe online on the NYWCA site.
• Changes: substituted Kahlua with an equal amount of eggnog (you could also use cream or milk).
• The border on the cheesecake is piped on there using chocolate whipped cream.
• A big Thank You to Tish for developing this recipe. It's one of my all-time favorite desserts!