Mocha Swirl Light Cheesecake

This was a recipe in Southern Living's Best Cakes and Pies Ever, special edition magazine. One of my student's mother's gave it to me during Teacher Appreciation Week, one of the best gifts aside from teaching a student with autism, was this magazine!

Original recipe is here: http://find.myrecipes.com/recipes/recipefinder.dyn?action=displayRecipe&recipe_id=1176228
and calls for a mocha sauce, which after tasting the cheesecake seems highly unnecessary because of the coffee and baking chocolate, it is a super mocha flavor anyway.

Original Photo

Original Ingredients

• 2 cups crushed chocolate graham crackers (about 18)
• 1/3 cup reduced-fat butter, melted
• Vegetable cooking spray
• 4 (8-oz.) packages reduced-fat cream cheese, softened
• 1 cup sugar
• 1/4 cup coffee liquor
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 teaspoon instant coffee granules
• 4 large eggs
• 4 (1-oz.) bittersweet baking chocolate squares

B-Healthy Ingredients:

2 cups crushed honey graham crackers (about 18 )

1/3 cup Smart Balance Butter, melted

Vegetable cooking spray

4 (8-oz.) packages reduced-fat cream cheese, softened ( 2 Fat Free, 2 with 1/3 less)

1 cup sugar

1/4 cup Bailey's Irish Cream

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 teaspoon instant coffee granules

2 Eggs, 2 Egg Whites

3 (1-oz.) bittersweet baking chocolate squares ( We only used 3- I would use 2 next time, not 4 my gosh!)

Get -It- Made:

1. Stir together crushed graham crackers and melted butter; press mixture into bottom and up sides of a 9-inch springform pan coated with cooking spray.

2. Bake at 350° for 10 minutes. Cool on a wire rack. Reduce oven temperature to 325°.

3. Beat cream cheese and sugar at medium speed with an electric mixer until blended. Add liqueur, vanilla, and coffee granules, beating at low speed until well blended. Add eggs, 1 at a time, beating just until yellow disappears after each addition.

4. Remove and reserve 1 cup cream cheese mixture. Pour remaining batter into prepared crust.

5. Microwave chocolate in a medium-size, microwave-safe bowl 1 minute or until melted, stirring after 30 seconds. Stir reserved 1 cup cream cheese mixture into melted chocolate, blending well. (Mixture will be thick.) Spoon mixture in lines on top of batter in pan; gently swirl with a knife.

6. Bake at 325° for 1 hour or until almost set. Turn oven off. Let cheesecake stand in oven, with door closed, 30 minutes. Remove cheesecake from oven, and gently run a knife around outer edge of cheesecake to loosen from sides of pan. (Do not remove sides of pan.) Cool 1 hour on a wire rack. Cover and chill at least 4 hours.

7. Remove sides of springform pan.

Nutritional Information ( I adapted this for ours based on the original recipe's. This is just a good estimate, not exact. It does not include the mocha sauce in the original recipe showed online since we did not make it because it was so rich without it! Whipped cream would be much better!)

(makes 10 servings, each serving provides approx.)
Calories:

360

Fat:

20 g ( about 8 g saturated, 5 g unsaturated)

Protein:

15 g

Carbohydrate:
31 g

Fiber:

2g

Cholesterol:

68mg ( from 131 original!)

After pouring most of the batter into the pan, on top of the crust

After globbing:

After swirling...

After baking at 325 for (55 minutes in regular oven, we did 30 in the convection), and sitting for 30 minutes:


( oh my-please excuse the no make up and pj's!)

my slice for EATING!

Yes I portioned out the cheesecake because I wanted to get a good idea of what 1/10th aka 360 calories was! I just lightly drew half the cake with a knife, then 1/2 that. That quarter would be 2.5 servings so then I drew three lines for that- meaning I had slightly less than a 1/10th if you are interested! I am not so much interested in the calories, but it is easy enough to give you a good idea that you are eating 360 calories with 40% of it from fat. Not super healthy- but the taste &texture was highly comparable to The Factory, which has slices at 900 calories + .

My personal opinion is bias- I don't like cheesecake anywhere near as much most other desserts. However, it was incredibly rich ( love rich dessert) and dense- so I was content. My mom and dad LOVED it!! They are both BIG cheesecake fans! Hence why we made it, my mom just bought a nice springform pan!