(CWF)-Dark Chocolate Cheesecake with Orange Marmalade

O-la-la!  It's time for another round of chocolate deliciousness with Chocolate with Francois!  This month it's Dark Chocolate Cheesecake with Orange Marmalade.

I have been excited about this since I saw it come up on the "to make" list!

Susan at Baking with Susan picked this one.  Great choice!

This recipe has all the bases covered-dark chocolate, cheesecake, sable breton but the orange marmalade was striking out with me.

I was never a fan of orange marmalade.  The thought of it brought back memories of chunks of chewy orange rind on burnt toast.  I almost went to the bullpen for a relief ingredient.  Or just toss it out of the game altogether.

But I didn't.  As I read the recipe and noticed there was an enormous amount  zest of 2 oranges that was to be incorporated into the filling.  And the ingredients for the filling are remarkable similar to the ingredients for a Martha Stewart cheesecake recipe I have and adore.  So I surmised that the combination of orange and chocolate could be devine even though it reminded me of a piece of candy from one of those candy boxes that you don't know what you're gonna get till you take a tiny bite so you can put it back if it's yucky.

But I digress....

I used low-fat cream cheese and low-fat sour cream.  I had 4 ounces of 60% chocolate and used 4 ounces of milk chocolate.  I am the only one around here that likes dark chocolate so I have to cut it back in recipes or no one (but me!) will eat it.  That would be a bad thing here!

The cheesecake cooked up like a dream!  It was cooked in a water bath and there was no cracking in the crust!  The Martha Stewart cheesecake cooks in a water bath too and you're supposed to turn off the oven and leave the oven door ajar to let it cool and I always do that and the cheesecake is always cracked.  This recipe does not require the door ajar cooling.  Nice!

The sable breton was easy peasy to make.  I made the full recipe and saved half to make some cookies with.
I still cannot force myself to pay unreasonable such a high price for almond flour so I did the finely ground almond trick.

The making of the cheesecake and then the crust was something new to me.  It all seemed to go together well but with the addition of the marmalade to the sable breton then the cheesecake on that, the pieces kinda came apart on the plate and slicing a piece was a nightmare!  I totally destroyed the piece!  Hence no pictures of slices! 

I think the sable breton crust was actually my favorite part of the whole thing!  Not that the cheesecake was bad!  Because it was actually very good!  And very filling!

Since I did the grinding of the almonds, I decided to sprinkle some almonds over the top of the cheesecake.  What a genius!  (hahahaha!)

I thought the flavor of the orange zest was lost in the cheesecake.  And the orange marmalade was lost in there too.  The 1/2 cup I spread on the sable breton seemed too little.  whatever.

I was happy to make this!  So happy I put a picture of it on Instagram and labeled it chocolate with francois!  (Instagram is my new addition!)

It makes a pretty picture!  It's makes a tasty, though filling treat!

Thanks Susan!

Check out what the other bakers at Chocolate with Francois came up with!

Till next month!