I have a confession. Until last night, I had never made a whole “real” cheesecake before! How can that be?! I have made mini cheesecakes before at the holidays and everyone loves them but this was my first real attempt at a whole real cheesecake. I think I did OK! My daughter could live off cheesecake, it’s her favorite food ever and she has been begging me to make one so she was thrilled when she got home from school yesterday and saw I made it!

I did not attempt to write my own cheesecake recipe yet. Instead I used a recipe from one of my favorite cookbooks and figured we would start safe, then I can play with the future cheesecakes to make them mine. This gave me a great feel for the  cheesecake process and made me realize how simple it really is! I can’t wait to make another! Every day of the week while I suffer through my Jillian Michaels workouts saying bad things about her to the screen I vow to never eat sweets again because of the torture it takes to work them off. While she screams in that scary military like voice at me, I scream back! I may be little but I can be mean too! Well, when forced, I don’t like being mean:-) Then, I finish the workout, shut Jillian off as fast as I can, take a breather, do my cardio workout and around lunchtime start looking for the sweets. I have a raging sweet tooth! Does anyone else workout and yell and mumble things to the instructor on the TV like it’s all their fault you are suffering through that torture, like they made you eat those treats you need to work off? Please tell me I’m not alone. I own almost all of Jilllians DVDS because to be honest, they are pretty quick and to the point and they work! When you are a food blogger, you must work out, a lot, unless you are just blessed with perfect genetics that never gain weight! Jillian needs job security after all so that she can keep cranking out new DVD’s and I very much help provide her with that security.

This Cheesecake recipe I used came from the cookbook Great American Favorite Brand Name Cookboook, Collectors Edition. I love this book. It’s hard cover so it’s easy to clean when I mess it up, it has lots of pictures of food which is a must for me because I want to see what the food looks like, and the recipes are not complicated! This is the cover:

 

This is the recipe:

 

You can all read that right?! Well I’m going to type it up for you anyways so no worries! And no offense to this awesome cookbook, but I think my cheesecake looked better when it was done! teehee! The only thing I did different in this recipe was where the recipe called for 1/2 cup Crisco Oil, I used 1/2 cup vegetable oil, where they call for 3/4 cup mini chocolate chips, I used the whole bag (don’t judge me, it’s chocolate chip cheesecake!) and I used 1 tbsp flour on the chocolate chips instead of 1 tsp. All this will make more sense below!

Ingredients Crust:

1 package Duncan Hines Moist Deluxe Devil’s Food Cake Mix ( I used Betty Crocker)

1/2 Cup Crisco Oil or Crisco Puritan Oil ( I used Vegetable)

Ingredients Filling:

3 packages cream cheese (8 oz each), softened

1 1/2 cups sugar

1 cup sour cream

1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract

4 eggs, slightly beaten

3/4 cup mini semi sweet chocolate chips, divided (I used the whole bag)

1 tsp all purpose flour (I used 1 tbsp)

Directions:

Preaheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease a 10″ springform pan.

 

For the crust combine the cake mix and oil in a large bowl. Mix well. Press into bottom of pan. bake at 350 degrees for about 22 to 25 minutes. Remove from the oven and increase your oven temp to 450 degrees.

For the filling place cream cheese in a large bowl. Beat at low speed with electric mixer adding the sugar gradually. Add sour cream and vanilla extract, mixing until blended. Add eggs, mixing only until incorporated. Toss 3/4 of the chocolate chips with the four in a baggie. Fold them into the cream cheese mixture.

Pour filling onto crust and sprinkle with the remaining chocolate chips. Bake at 450 degrees for 5-7 minutes (I did 5) the reduce the temperature to 250 degrees and bake for 60-65 minutes longer or until set. Loosen cake from sides of pan with knife or spatula. Cool completely on cooling rack. Refrigerate until ready to serve. Remove sides of pan.

One lesson I did learn here is do not mess with the temperature when making cheese cake! I ended up cooking mine for about 70-75 minutes and because I thought it was setting up enough in the center I turned the heat up to 300 degrees. Do. Not. Do. That. Cheese and cheesecake is delicate and that is why mine came out browned, almost burned on top, but thankfully I checked it quickly and saved it by reducing the heat back down! Just be patient:-) This cheesecake is so good. Make sure to chill it through completely before serving to get a great texture and all the great flavors! We topped it with whipped cream!