Tutorial: Brownie Cheesecake

This is the must have birthday dessert in our home and since my hubby is the birthday boy this week, I had to make this cake today. This recipe is from Rosie's All-Butter Fresh Cream Sugar-Packed Baking Book by Judy Rosenberg. What more can I say?? I've altered it a tad. Let's say I CASEd it! Before you start, take 16 ounces (2 regular packages) of cream cheese and 4 large eggs and let them sit on the counter until they get to room temperature. Set the oven for 350 degrees. Ingredients for crust: Crust: You can make a typical graham cracker crust or use this recipe, which offsets the deep chocolate nicely: 30 crushed vanilla wafers (I throw them in the food processor) 1 cup chopped nuts (I throw whatever I have in the food processor, but pecans are best) 6 Tablespoons melted unsalted butter (salted will be fine, but not as upscale!) Mix and press the above ingredients in a 9" springform pan, making sure that the bottom is covered and any extra goes up the sides. This will not form a crust to the top. This is ok, in fact, I've made this without a crust and it came out fine. Wrap the pan with aluminum foil and bake for about 10 minutes. Remove from oven and set aside to cool a bit. Lower the oven to 300 degrees. Fill a 9 x 13 pan with water and put that pan on the bottom shelf. Ingredients for Brownie Cheesecake 2 packages (8 ounce each) creamcheese 1 cup sugar (you can substitute Splenda for all or part of the sugar and most folks can't tell the difference) 4 large eggs 2 teaspoons vanilla 1/4 teaspoon salt 12 ounces chocolate chips -- the darker the better. I just found bittersweet chips, but semisweet will do. 1/2 boiling water with a tablespoon of instant coffee mixed in Put the chocolate chips and the coffee on the top of a double boiler. Do not let the water in the bottom of the double boiler boil or the chocolate will "seize" (turn into a hard hunk) -- just get it warm enough to melt the chips. Stir until smooth, remove from double boiler and set aside. Add the salt and vanilla. Mix again. Add the chocolate/coffee mixture and blend until dark and creamy. Put the mixture in the springform pan and bake for 85 minutes. Lick the bowl before cleaning up your mess! (Actually, since the batter contains raw eggs, this probably is not a good idea, but ....) After the cake is done, remove from oven (duh) and cool before putting in refrigerator. Eat this before your kids do! This is intense chocolate and at this point a dollop of whipped cream is not going to kill you any faster than the cake will, and adds to the pleasure of this cheesecake!