Chocolate Raspberry Cheesecake

Hello gorgeous!

No seriously, gorgeous.

And no oven involved? Yup.

Hope you guys are okay with the occasional Instagram filter ... I am!

This cheesecake is so pretty, I squealed. The top layer is speckled with the profile of fresh raspberries, the middle layer is whipped chocolate deliciousness, and the bottom is ...well, it's chocolate graham cracker crust - how do you think it is?

Really though, I was squealing for a while.

Chocolate Raspberry Cheesecake

Adapted from: tasteofhome

For the crust:
2 cups chocolate wafer crumbs ...orrrrr...chocolate teddy grahams gone for a ride in the food processor :(
1/3 cup sugar
1/2 cup melted butter

Combine ingredients and press into the bottom and up the sides a bit of a 9" springform pan. You can also conceivably do this in a normal rectangular pan, but you won't be able to lift the sides off. Just don't let the pan stop you from tasting this!

For the filling
1 envelope unflavored gelatin
3/4 cup cold water
2 cups heavy whipping cream
19 ounces of cream cheese, softened.
1/3 cup sugar
6 ounces semisweet chocolate chips or bar broken into pieces
1 cup fresh raspberries

Get some bowls ready!

Melt your chocolate first - taking 30 second spins in the microwave until fully melted, stirring after each 30 seconds. Set aside and let cool.

Sprinkle your gelatin over the cold water into a small sauce pan. Let this stand for a minute and then heat over low heat. Stir every minute or two or until the gelatin has dissolved and it looks like a crystal clear mixture in the pan. This should take about 5 minutes. No need to let it boil, just let the heat melt the gelatin. Leave in the pan and turn off the heat.

Here come the bowls!
Bowl 1: beat your whipping cream until you get nice stiff peaks. Hand mixer highly recommended.

Bowl 2: beat cream cheese and sugar. Slowly add in gelatin which at this point should be slightly cooled, but not hardened. Your mixture may look clumpy and gross - hand mixer to the rescue! Mix mix mix and it'll become incorporated into one homogenous mixture. Adding the gelatin mixture in slowly also helps.

Bowl 3: Add in half of bowl #1, half of bowl #2, and fold in your melted chocolate. Fold so you don't lose all that lovely air you put into your whipped cream! Yes, this is the chocolate layer. Once well incorporated, pour over your crust.

Bowl 4: Add in the other half of bowl #1, the other half of bowl #2, and fold in the raspberries. Begin squealing. Pour this layer over your chocolate layer and carefully spread out the top with whatever you please. If you have an angled spatula, I have to recommend it. Worked like magic.

No more bowls! Cover and refrigerate for 6 hours or overnight. When you're ready to remove the sides of your pan, run a knife along the edge and the lift away. I garnished the top with some more raspberries - totally optional. Dig in! I also froze a huge slice for a special visitor, and snuck a bite. It's awesome frozen.

Enjoy!

Sam