Am I the only person who sees someone eat something and suddenly develops an intense craving for that food?

It can happen with recipes, too. I’ll see something that looks interesting, and I know immediately I need to try it as quickly as possible.

This happened a couple of weeks ago with a slice of cheesecake.

A colleague had a slice of chocolate cheesecake with a chocolate cookie crust in her lunch. It looked delicious.

“Did you make that?” I asked.

“The cheesecake? Oh, no. This is just from Walmart,” she replied.

But could I just go get myself a slice of chocolate cheesecake from Walmart like a normal person would?

No. No, of course I couldn’t.

Because I needed to make the cheesecake. Never mind that the cheesecake I was salivating over was literally from the grocery store. Never mind that I didn’t even have a recipe for chocolate cheesecake.

I had cream cheese, and I had the internet.

Luckily, that’s all I needed.

But this is where I need to come clean about my willingness to go the extra mile when it comes to homemade desserts: I’m not.
I feel like making a dessert from scratch is already going the extra mile, so expecting me to make some complicated recipe that requires a water bath or seven bags of icing is a bridge too far.

I’ll be extra when it comes to taste. I will not be extra when it comes to appearance.

That’s one reason this recipe appealed to me: “No water bath!” the recipe crowed.

“Well, good,” I thought. “Because I was never going to use a water bath anyway.”

Water baths are usually used to prevent cheesecakes from cracking. To answer your next question: Yes. Yes, it did crack.

It cracked along the outside edges early in the baking process. Then it cracked in the middle later in the bake.

I don’t care about that, but I thought I should mention it, in case you plan to enter this cheesecake into some sort of dessert contest. (And if you do, let me know. I don’t want to enter, but I will throw my hat in the ring to judge.)

This recipe hit all the high notes for me in terms of ease and taste, though. Huge, velvety and delicious, it was worth the effort.

CHOCOLATE CHEESECAKE

(Adapted from Sugar Spun Run)

Crust ingredients:
4 tablespoons (1/2 stick) butter, melted
25 Oreo cookies

Cheesecake filling ingredients:
10 ounces dark chocolate (I used a bag of dark chocolate chunks from Aldi’s baking section. The original recipe recommended baking bars.)
Four 8-ounce bricks cream cheese, room temperature
1 1/3 cups white sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla
2/3 cup sour cream
4 large eggs

Directions:
■ Preheat oven to 325 degrees. If your cream cheese is chilled, place the four wrapped bricks of cream cheese into a bowl of warm water to bring the temperature up without melting it. Set aside.
■ Spray the bottom and sides of a 9-inch springform pan with oil. Line the bottom of the pan with a circle of nonstick parchment paper and spray again. (I cut my circle a little big and pressed it up the sides a bit.)
■ Pulverize the Oreo cookies in a food processor and mix with the melted butter. Pour buttered crumbs onto the parchment paper and press over the bottom and partially up the sides of the springform pan. Set aside.
■ Place chocolate chips or chopped chocolate bar in a microwave-safe bowl. Microwave 30 seconds. Stir. Microwave 15 seconds more and stir again. Continue microwaving in 15-second intervals, stirring between each heating, until chunks are melted and smooth. Set aside.
■ In the bowl of a stand mixer or large mixing bowl, place room-temperature cream cheese and sugar. Mix on low speed until smooth and creamy, scraping down sides as needed. Add sour cream and vanilla. Mix only until blended.
■ Check the temperature of the chocolate. It should be warm but not hot to the inside of your wrist. When it’s room temperature, drizzle chocolate into the cream cheese mixture and stir on low until combined.
■ Add eggs, one at a time, mixing on low after each addition. Mixing on low only until combined is the key to a velvety consistency for cheesecake.
■ Pour cheesecake into prepared crust. Place pan on a rimmed baking sheet in case your pan leaks. Bake for 70-75 minutes. The center will be a bit jiggly even when it is done.
■ Remove from oven. Run a knife blade around the outside edges of the cheesecake before it cools.
■ Allow cheesecake to cool on the counter until it reaches room temperature, several hours.
■ Place in refrigerator to chill for at least six hours or overnight.

Amelia Plair is a mom and high school teacher in Starkville. Email reaches her at [email protected].

Amelia Plair is a Starkville resident who writes occasional food columns.