The Big Five-Oh
To celebrate the event, Penguin Young Readers is releasing a new paperback edition and is running a golden ticket sweepstakes. Five young readers will win a trip to New York City and a VIP experience at Dylan's Candy Bar, which sounds like fun, but the best part of all is that they'll get a year's supply of chocolate, plus other things. It's the year's supply of chocolate I'm hyped about. I wonder if I put on some knee-high stockings and pulled my hair into a ponytail if I could pass for a fifth grader.
Nah. The gray might be a giveaway.
But that doesn't mean we can't celebrate here at Writer Off the Leash. In honor of Charlie's birthday, here is a drool-worthy chocolate recipe from my tried and true collection of yumminess.
CHOCOLATE ESPRESSO CHEESECAKE
3 - 8oz. packages of cream cheese
1 1/2 cups Oreo crumbles
2 tablespoons sugar
1/4 cup butter, melted
3/4 cup sugar
12 ounces chocolate chips, melted
2 tablespoons espresso
3 tablespoons flour
3 eggs
3 egg yolks
1 cup heavy cream
1. Let the cream cheese soften. No, really. If you nuke it, it gets all cooky/bubbly/radioactive on the outside edges and the inside stays hard as a rock.
2. Blend Oreo crumbs (and you might as well make extra because you know half of them are going to end up in your mouth at this stage), 2 tablespoons sugar, and melted butter in a bowl. And don't forget to wash your hands after licking your fingers you big slob. Press firmly over bottom and halfway up the side of a lightly buttered 9" springform pan. What's that? You don't own a springform? You've got 2 choices, Hoss. You can sprint over to Goodwill and pick one up, or just use a dang pie pan. Yeah, it'll be harder to take out in neat slices, but as long as you're not taking pictures for Pinterest, who cares?
3. Beat the cream cheese with a mixer until smooth, as in smooth like a puppy's fat belly after she's eaten the slab of lunchmeat you left on the table.
4. Add rest of sugar (hey, I never claimed this was healthy) and beat until light and fluffy and looking like a ginormous cumulus cloud. Sprinkle the flour over this mixture and blend in.
5. Add eggs and egg yolks one at a time, beating well after each addition. I know there's a lot of beating. Get over it. Or put on some loud music and rock out while you're beating.
6. Beat in melted chocolate -- yes, you can lick the bowl later -- and espresso and cream. Pour into the prepared pan.
7. Bake at 350 for one hour. While it's baking, whip up that heavy cream and refrigerate and don't forget to lick the chocolate bowl. When the hour is up, turn off oven heat and let the cake remain in the oven with the door closed for 40 minutes. It's nappy time. Catch some zzzz's.
8. Ding! When the timer goes off, haul your rear off the couch and remove the cake from the oven. Refrigerate.
9. Eat it for dinner. Go ahead. You know you want to. Slather on some of that whipped cream and ignore the gazillion calories.