/  Home  /  Arts and Culture  /  Classical Cuisine

Chocolate Cherry Cheesecake a la Chopin

 Janine Miller, Mid-Morning Announcer/Music Librarian

Chocolate-Cherry Cheesecake a-la-Chopin:

I must admit that a truly decadent dessert is one of my guilty pleasures, especially if it´s chocolate...makes those hours at the gym and otherwise-healthy
diet all worth it!  A  rich Columbian coffee is the perfect complement, along with the smooth sounds of Chopin.

1 package (8 oz.) cream cheese, softened
1 package (3 oz.) cream cheese, softened
3/4 Cup sugar
1/4 Cup cocoa
2 eggs
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1/2 Cup chilled whipping (heavy) cream
8-inch (6 ounces) packaged crumb crust
1 (15 ounce) can cherry pie filling

Heat oven to 350.  In large bowl, combine cream cheese and sugar, blending well.  Blend in cocoa, scraping sides of bowl and beaters frequently.  Add eggs and
vanilla.  Blend in whipping cream.  Pour into crust.  Bake 35 to 40 minutes.  (Center will be soft but will set upon cooling).  Cool to room temperature.  Cover and
chill several hours or overnight.  Garnish with pie filling.

 

Recommended CD: The Rubenstein Collection, Vol 29: Chopin, 14 Waltzes; Fantasie op. 49; Barcarolle  op. 60, Rubenstein, RCA.

 

 

"No great composer has devoted himself as exclusively to the piano as Chopin. By all accounts an inspired improviser, he composed while playing, writing down his thoughts only with difficulty. But he was no mere dreamer - his development can be seen as an ever more sophisticated improvisation on the classical principle of departure and return. For the concert-giving years 1828-32 he wrote brilliant virtuoso pieces (e.g. rondos) and music for piano and orchestra; the teaching side of his career is represented by the studies, preludes, nocturnes, waltzes, impromptus and mazurkas, polished pieces of moderate difficulty. The large-scale works - the later polonaises, scherzos, ballades, sonatas, the Barcarolle and the dramatic Polonaise-fantaisie - he wrote for himself and a small circle of admirers. Apart from the national feeling in the Polish dances, and possibly some narrative background to the ballades, he intended notably few references to literary, pictorial or autobiographical ideas."--Grove Dictionary of Music