An Edible Valentine

Friday evening, I made this. And it was seriously delicious. I don't really love cheesecake usually, but I have a boyfriend who, when it comes to dessert, pretty much only likes cheesecake. Because I'm a nice girlfriend, I like to make him special cheesecakes for special occasions (what a sacrifice....) For my recipes I have gone to my favorite food blog (Smitten Kitchen) for inspiration. Last summer I made a caramel chocolate cheese(birthday)cake (which was fabulous by the way... I had seconds), and now for Valentine's Day I made a brownie mosaic cheesecake.

And let me tell you-- it was AMAZING. For one thing, it had (well, still has-- two people can't eat a whole cheesecake no matter how hard they try) a chocolate graham cracker crust, and for another thing, it had two cups of homemade brownie cubes inside which managed to make it into every bite. YUM.

I followed the Smitten Kitchen recipe almost to a T. I did the double crust, because usually a crust is my favorite part of cheesecake. Instead of chocolate teddy grahams, I just used chocolate graham crackers, and I also used Smart Balance buttery spread instead of real butter. For the brownies, I used bittersweet chocolate instead of unsweetened and then just added less sugar (like half as much or less). And for the cheesecake, I used two packages of regular cream cheese and one of fat free (next time I might even try two fat free to one full-fat). The only big change was that I didn't make the chocolate ganache frosting. I did melt down an ounce of bittersweet chocolate and made some hearts which I scattered over the top of the cake, but it didn't even need that. I think the extra ganache on top would have put it over the edge in terms of sweetness and richness. As it stands, it was just perfect.

A not-very-appetizing photo of a VERY-very-appetizing cake

Two thumbs up. Five stars. If we have to go up a pants size, so be it. What else can I say?