coconut chocolate cheesecake

choppy waves at sea,
grab hold of the mast, don’t let
yourself overboard!

coconut chocolate cheesecake!

YUM.

coconut chocolate cheesecake!Some cute boy and I decided it was necessary to make a cheesecake! Of course we couldn’t make an average cheesecake… we had to experiment! And I impulsively add coconut to everything I bake. So coconut chocolate it was.

After reading somewhere online that people have made crusts solely out of coconut and butter, I substituted half of the graham cracker crumbs of my recipe for coconut flakes. That was a good choice. Totally successful. I’m pretty sure I could use this crust for pretty much anything… or just eat it plain. (which i did, since i had extra.)

We used my dad’s super awesome cheesecake recipe for the basics, then split it in half for the layers. One half was the chocolate layer, and we mixed that up and stuck it in the fridge to firm up before adding the top layer. The top layer had extra vanilla and some – just enough – coconut. Then we topped it with a thin chocolate ganache and let it chill.

coconut chocolate cheesecake! Then it was eating time! We topped it with homemade whipped cream, since there was whipping cream left over from the ganache, and toasted coconut. (a tip: toasting coconut is definitely easiest to do in a frying pan, not in the oven!) And I took terrible pictures, since I just wanted to eat the stuff. Can you blame me?

And I feel super awesome, because how many college kids do you know who can bake successful cheesecakes in their dorm kitchens? Not many. And I’d say it’s a very worthwhile and completely awesome use of time and procrastinatory skills.