#1244 - Chocolate Cheesecake

(by Aunt Eileen [Knouse] Carter)

Crust: chocolate wafer cookies (enough to make 1 cup when crushed); 1/2 stick butter (melted)
Cake: 3 - 8oz. Philadelphia cream cheese (softened); 1 1/4 cups white sugar; 1 - 8oz. Breakstone's sour cream; 2 tsp. vanilla; 1/2 cup Hershey's cocoa; 2 TBSP flour; 3 eggs
Drizzle: 1/2 cup Nestle's semi-sweet chocolate chips; 2 tsp. solid Crisco (NO substitutes)

Place chocolate wafer cookies in a Ziploc bag--crush with a rolling pin. Repeat until you have 1 cup crumbs. Place crumbs in a bowl with 1/2 stick butter (melted)--stir. Spray the inside of a 9" springform cake pan with Pam. Press crumb mixture into the bottom (not the sides) of the springform pan. In a mixer add cream cheese--beat. Add white sugar--beat. Add sour cream and vanilla--beat. Add cocoa and flour--beat. Add eggs--beat. Pour batter on top of the crust. Bake at 450 degrees for 10 minutes--reduce heat to 250 degrees (without opening the oven door) and bake for 40 minutes. Cool completely. Remove the side wall of the springform pan carefully. Drizzle: in a microwave safe bowl melt semi-sweet chocolate bits and 2 tsp. Crisco--heat in the microwave on high for 20-30 seconds--stir. Heat longer if not completely melted. Use a spoon to drizzle the melted chocolate mixture on the top of the cheesecake. Refrigerate overnight.