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I have a cheesecake recipe that I have used many times, and absolutely love. I also love chocolate. So I was thinking, why not combine the two? There are plenty of recipes out there for chocolate cheesecake. My concern is that these are all new and different recipes to me, and while there is nothing wrong with that, I was wondering if I might be able to simply use the recipe I already know?

My thinking was that I would melt some semi-sweet chocolate and mix it into the batter, perhaps with a dash of chocolate extract as well to enhance the chocolate flavor. Is this a reasonable approach? or would the addition of the melted chocolate change the consistency/character of the batter such that it wouldn't work, perhaps not setting up properly or something? Would there be any caveats I should be aware of, or adjustments I would need to make for it to work?

Apparently (according to comments) the specific recipe makes a difference, and the technique can't be generalized to cheesecakes in general, or baking in general. As such, here is the recipe I use. Nothing special, it's just one I know works and produces results I like. It actually came from the box of cream cheese originally:

1 cup graham cracker crumbs
3 Tbsp. sugar
3 Tbsp. butter, melted
5 pkg. (8 oz. each) PHILADELPHIA Cream Cheese, softened
1 cup sugar
3 Tbsp. flour
1 Tbsp. vanilla
1 cup BREAKSTONE'S or KNUDSEN Sour Cream
4 eggs

Heat oven to 325°F
Mix crumbs, 3 Tbsp. sugar and butter; press onto bottom of 9-inch springform pan. Bake 10 min.
Beat cream cheese, 1 cup sugar, flour and vanilla with mixer until well blended. Add sour cream; mix well. Add eggs, 1 at a time, mixing on low speed after each just until blended. Pour over crust.
Bake 1 hour 10 min. or until center is almost set. Run knife around rim of pan to loosen cake; cool before removing rim. Refrigerate 4 hours.

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    In particular if there's egg in the mix, you have to be careful with the sequence you combine the ingredients in -- melted chocolate+beaten egg -> melted chocolate+partly cooked egg
    – Chris H
    Commented Dec 1, 2017 at 10:48
  • @ChrisH I'd assume that's why, when using melted chocolate, you typically cool it first before adding to the mix - to avoid that.
    – ibrewster
    Commented Dec 1, 2017 at 14:37
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    but if you cool it too far it solidifies again; when I've made them you don't cool it but add to cool ingredients then add the egg.
    – Chris H
    Commented Dec 1, 2017 at 14:49
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    "My concern is that these are all new and different recipes to me, and while there is nothing wrong with that, I was wondering if I might be able to simply use the recipe I already know?" - this reasoning is incorrect. Changing a recipe ycan be many things, but it is never simpler than using an existing recipe which you have to learn. This doesn't mean that you shouldn't try doing it, just be prepared that, if you want to reach the same quality as with one of the existing recipes, it will be a long process, not a simple thing.
    – rumtscho ♦
    Commented Dec 1, 2017 at 19:58
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    I understand the motivation, yes. What I meant is that designing a new recipe (even when based on an old one) is hard. It requires the ability to predict what will work - and choosing a good recipe requires the same ability, and is easier. So, if your recognition ability is at such a level that you have to bake 6 existing recipes to find a good one, then improving your own will take you many more than just 6 tries until you have a good recipe. There are good reasons to go down that path, but "getting to a good recipe with a minimal amount of failed trials" is not one of them.
    – rumtscho ♦
    Commented Dec 1, 2017 at 20:54

1 Answer 1

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Some additional digging with more specific search terms turned up this recipe: http://www.kraftrecipes.com/recipes/philadelphia-new-york-chocolate-cheesecake-52676.aspx which is effectively exactly what I suggested doing. The only difference is that the number of eggs used is decreased by one, and, of course, the recipe doesn't use any chocolate extract. So apparently I was on the right track :)

5 pkg. (8 oz. each) PHILADELPHIA Cream Cheese, softened
1 cup sugar
3 Tbsp. flour
1 Tbsp. vanilla
2 pkg. (4 oz. each) BAKER'S Semi-Sweet Chocolate, broken into pieces, melted, slightly cooled
1 cup BREAKSTONE'S or KNUDSEN Sour Cream
3 eggs

Beat cream cheese, 1 cup sugar, the flour and vanilla in large bowl with electric mixer on medium speed until well blended. Add melted chocolate and sour cream; mix well. Add eggs, one at a time, mixing on low speed after each addition just until blended. Pour over crust.
Bake 1 hour 5 min. to 1 hour 10 min. or until center is almost set. Run knife around rim of pan to loosen cake; cool before removing rim of pan. Refrigerate at least 4 hours or overnight. Store leftover cheesecake in refrigerator.

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