I have made a couple attempts at baked cheesecake before and had mediocre results. Did I tell you I loooove cheesecake? Especially baked cheesecake. I did some research and found a website where the chef made all kinds of impressive eggless desserts, albeit way more fancy than I would ever make.

This is her link:

http://www.korasoi.com/blog/2012/01/eggless-dark-chocolate-truffle-fennel-seed-cheesecake-with-almond-pralines

Turns out she’s on the Food Network. Go figure!

She has at least 3 eggless baked cheesecakes on her website so I decided to adapt the chocolate one (of course). I did not make as large a one as she did mainly (nor as fancy) because I was experimenting and cheesecakes are expensive to make.

Eggless Chocolate Almond Cheesecake

Crust:

• about half 400 g box graham crumbs
• 1/4 cup melted butter
• 1/3 cup ground almonds ( I use Blue Diamond almonds because they are peanut free)

Mix together and press into the bottom of a 9 inch springform pan

Mix: ( I used food processor)

• 2 pkgs cream cheese (250g each)
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 1 cup whipping cream
• 1/2 tbsp cornstarch
• 1/2 tbsp egg replacer not mixed with water (this was not in her recipe but I figured what the heck)
• 5 tbsp cocoa
• 2 tbsp lemon juice (I was out so I used orange juice)

Mix until just smooth.

Pour onto crust and bake 1 hour at 325 degrees F. Then I turned off the heat and left it in the oven for another 15 minutes.

Cool completely and then top with ganache and extra chopped almonds.

Chocolate ganache:

• 3 tbsp heavy cream
• 1/2 cup chopped semi-sweet chocolate

Heat the cream until almost boiling and pour over chocolate. Mix until melted, cool for a few minutes and pour over cooled cheesecake.

Refrigerate overnight if you can stand it! ( I waited 3 hours)

Note: Omit almonds if your child is allergic to tree nuts and substitute with white chocolate chips.