chocolate cheesecake with raspberries

With this recipe I take part in the contest of the blog of Sayuri Dolci dal Mondo!

cheesecake

I had never liked cheese cake because in my mind the cheese was part of the salty things; but when I tasted it for the first time in London years ago (even if its birthplace is New York, but has Greek origins!) I fell in love, its flavour brings me immediately to London in one of those coffee shops, where I feel in the exact center of the world. So in my passion for pastry I've tried it even in more than one version.
Voilà the recipe....

Serves 6

• 250 g biscuits
• 2 tablespoons of granulated sugar
• 100 g butter

For the cream 

• 300 g dark chocolate
• 2 eggs
• 100 g icing sugar
• 1 vanilla bean
• 500 g of ricotta cheese
• salt

To decorate:

• icing sugar
• 2 tablespoons apricot jam
• chocolate chips
• chocolate little decorations
• raspberries

Preheat oven at 180°

1. Prepare the base of the cake with chopped biscuits, sugar and melted butter. Grease a mold in 24 cm diameter (preferably a hinged) pour the mixture pressing well to form a layer 1/2 cm thick.

2. For the filling, melt the chocolate in the microwave or in a water bath over low flame.

3. Shell the eggs and separate the yolks from the whites; beat the first with icing sugar and the seeds of the vanilla bean, until it becomes a creamy white.

4. Add the ricotta cheese, one tablespoon at a time, add the melted chocolate stirring constantly. Whip the whites until stiff with a pinch of salt, pour them gently stirring from bottom to top in the chocolate mixture and pour everything into the mold.

5. Bake the cheese cake for 1 hour, let cool. Unmold in the serving plate, spread a thin layer of jam over the entire cake, decorate the sides and the topping of the cake with chocolate chips, raspberries and mint leaves.