Cheesecake with Chocolate-Orange Ganache

A couple of weeks ago, we celebrated my son-in-law's birthday. He and I share a love for cooking/baking and overall good food. Really good. So given his love for cheesecake, I decided to step it up a notch and not only make the best cheesecake ever, but to try out a new recipe for ganache.

As you can see from the picture, my cheesecake got so tall, I didn't have a lot of room for ganache. I didn't use a spring form pan, so I couldn't take it out and let it run down the sides. Therefore, I had a lot of ganache left over, which was a good problem to have!

This is not an every day cheesecake. (Is there such a thing as and every day cheesecake? There should be.) I'm just saying, you might look at this recipe and start to calculate the calories. STOP! Just enjoy the cheesecake. I promise, it's worth every calorie.

The cheesecake is a modification of an old Amish recipe, the ganache is my own version. I do hope you enjoy it!

Leni's Notes:

~I had a chocolate-orange ganache in mind, so I went looking for ways to accomplish this. In the end, I decided on some premium chocolate with orange peel in it. (Linked below.) The orange peel had a wonderfully crispy crunch to it that went perfectly with the creaminess of the cake.

~I bake mine in a silicone pan, which makes it deeper, so if you use a wider pan, reduce the baking time. It will need at least one hour.

~Save any leftovers of ganache for a quick chocolate pick-me-up or stir into hot milk for cocoa. ;o)

Ingredients:
Crust
12 graham crackers
1/2 C butter, melted

Cheesecake
5 (8 oz) pkg cream cheese, room temp
1 3/4 C sugar
3 T flour
1/2 t. vanilla
7 eggs, unbeaten, room temp
1/2 C heavy whipping cream, room temp

Chocolate-Orange Ganache
8 oz. semisweet baking chocolate, chopped
2 (3.2 oz) Chocolove Orange Peel in Dark Chocolate, chopped
1 C heavy whipping cream

Instructions:
Preheat oven to 250. (Not a typo, 250)

~Pulse graham crackers in a food processor until completely reduced to crumbs.
~Drizzle melted butter in, continue to pulse.
~Press mixture into silicone cake pan (on top of a cookie sheet, so you can move it around.)
~Place in fridge until ready to fill.
~In mixer, combine cream cheese, sugar, flour and vanilla.
You want this to be well combined and smooth, but do not overbeat!!
~Beat in eggs, one at a time.
~Stir in cream.
~Bake in 250 oven for 2 hours, then turn off heat and leave pan in oven for one hour.
~Cool at room temperature.
~Place chopped chocolate in a bowl.
~Heat cream until just about boiling, stirring so it does not scorch.
~Remove from heat, pour over chocolate, and stir until chocolate is completely melted.
~Allow to cool a bit before pouring over cheesecake.
~Pour slowly and allow for puddling of the ganache.
You might not use it all, so don't flood your dish!
~Chill cake before serving.

Blessings from my busy home to yours,
Leni