Vampire Weekend

In case you haven’t figured this out by now, we’re a little obsessed with certain reading materials around here.

So of course it is only natural that there will be a DVD release party tonight attended by certain friends and family.

I was simply told to bring a dessert and that “we’re going with a red theme.” I came up with something that I hope will taste as amazing as it looks (I tried the raw batter and it tasted wonderful, but can’t have the finished product until tonight). Yes, that’s right folks you get TWO Gourmet Lisa posts about dessert from me in a single week. I guess you could say I’ve been feeling particularly inspired lately.

Before I go any further though I have to admit that I did look to The Pioneer Woman’s Carmel Pumpkin Gingersnap Cheesecake recipe for a little help in constructing this recipe.

Vampire Cheesecake

Ingredients
Crust:
-Joe-Joe’s (I bought the chocolate filled kind, but the filling doesn’t really matter)
-3 tbsp butter
-1 .63 oz Trader Joe’s 100 Calorie 70% Dark super smooth Belgian chocolate bar

Filling:
-2 pkgs cream cheese, room temperature (this is important, you don’t want to wind up with lumps in your cheesecake)
-1/2 cup sugar
-1 16oz pkg strawberries (I actually bought a 32oz pkg so I’d have leftovers)
-2 eggs
-1 tbsp heavy cream
-red food coloring

Optional:
-Chocolate powder for decorating (I used Trader Joe’s Sipping Chocolate)

Directions
Use a butter knife to remove the filling from your Joe-Joe’s. In a food processor crush the cookie part of the Joe Joe’s. I used about 2 rows from a box of Joe-Joe’s.

Now you should stop and have a Joe-Joe’s and milk break while you melt butter and the chocolate bar. Also, if you bought extra strawberries like me that leftover filling tastes excellent with them.

Add butter and chocolate to food processor and pulse until thoroughly combined. Press into bottom and sides of a springform pan or pie plate. Chill for 20-30 minutes.

While this is going on take a moment to clean up your kitchen or at least clean out your food processor. I had a sink full of dishes so I had to clean the kitchen in order to continue with the recipe.

Top and quarter the strawberries.

Place them in your food processor and pulse them until you have a nice smooth pulp.

In a mixing bowl beat cream cheese and sugar until light and fluffy. Add strawberries and continue mixing. Add eggs and then cream beating between each one until combined.

Add food coloring until desired redness is achieved (I used the whole 1oz bottle).

The vampires are now salivating.

Remove crust from fridge. Gently pour cheesecake into pan. If necessary, even out the top with a flat spatula.

Bake at 350 for 1 hour 15 minutes or until no longer soupy. Cheesecake should still be somewhat jiggly. Cool on counter 30 minutes. Cover and chill in the fridge at least four hours or overnight. Or if you are like me and you waited too long to figure out what you are going to make, chill in the freezer for like an hour or so.

And if you want, you can decorate it with some chocolate powder. I made a template/mask out of some cardstock, placed it on my cheesecake and then dusted with the chocolate powder.

I’m not sure if my decoration will make it in tact to the party, but one can hope. At least I took a picture for evidence.

Incidentally, the title of this post is one of my new favorite bands and not just because they have the word “vampire” in their name. Check them out.