Chocolate Covered Orange Cheesecake

Cast of Characters (aka: Ingredients)

Scene 1
5 Tbs unsalted butter, melted
18 Pamela's Organic Dark Chocolate, Chocolate Chunk cookies (2 pkgs cookies)

Scene 2
4 Box Organic Valley real Cream Cheese (at room temperature)
4 Larry Schultz Organic Eggs (at room temperature)
½ C Xylitol
1 tsp pure Vanilla extract
¾ can Orange Juice Concentrate
1 tsp Orange Zest finely shredded
½ C dark chocolate chips
2 Tbs Dark Dutch Cocoa powder
1 tsp Orange extract
6 drops red food coloring
2 drops yellow food coloring

Scene 3
Orange Marmalade
¼ can Orange Juice Concentrate
½ C Dark Chocolate chips
3 Tbs Organic Valley Sour Cream

The Script (aka: Directions)
Act 1: Crust
Preheat oven to 350°F. Grease a 9" spring form pan. Grind the Chocolate Cookies until powdered. Combine butter and Chocolate Cookie crumbs until thoroughly blended. Press the crumb mixture into the bottom of the prepared pan. Bake the crust until crisp, about 10 to 12 minutes. Cool on a rack.

Act 2: Filling
If needed, grease the exposed inner sides of the spring form pan with butter to keep cheesecake from sticking to pan. Wrap pan in 2 layers of foil to prevent water in water bath from getting to the cake.

In the bowl of your electric mixer beat cream cheese one at a time on medium speed until smooth (about 2 minutes), scraping down the bowl as needed. Mix in xylitol, then eggs one at a time and beat on low about 30 seconds each, until thoroughly combined after each addition. Scrape down sides of the bowl once or twice during the process. Add the vanilla, zest & OJ. Beat on low until completely smooth and all ingredients are incorporated. 

Pour about 2 cups of the filling into a separate container and retain for later. Add the Orange Extract and food coloring a little at a time to the remainder of the filling still left in the bowl. Gently pour half the filling into the prebaked crust in the spring form pan. Sprinkle chocolate chips evenly across the filling. Gently pour the other half of the filling into the pan, covering the chocolate chips. 

Put the retained filling into the mixing bowl and thoroughly mix the Cocoa powder into the retained filling. Very gently spoon the chocolate filling on top of the orange filling in the pan. If it is not laid in the pan gently it will plop through the orange filling causing swirl like patterns in the finished cake. (Which may be desirable, but not what I was going for this time.)

Place the cheesecake pan in a larger baking pan (I use a 12" skillet with the handle removed) and place in the oven. Add hot water to the larger pan to create a water bath. Bake at 350 for 20 Minutes, then change temp to 200 for ~1.5-2 hours more. Check the water bath level at 1 hour to make sure it has not boiled off. Turn off oven, slide a knife around edge of cake to loosen it from the sides of the pan. This helps prevent cake from cracking as it cools. Return cake to oven for 1 hour to cool slowly, and leave the door open a crack. Remove from oven and place on cooling rack for 1 hour. Then refrigerate overnight (at least 6 hours).

 
Act 3: Topping
Melt the chocolate chips in a double boiler, once melted combine with the sour cream. In a separate double boiler warm the marmalade and OJ and stir until thickened. Pipe the two toppings onto the cake in a decorative fashion.