Our home has a very open floor plan. When you walk in the front door, our table is one of the first things that you see. It sits right in the center of our dining room / sitting room. Lately, we have been thinking about the significance of our table – It’s really such a large part of our lives! During the winter & spring, our business is a bit slower & we are able to take more time than we normally would around our table. This includes: cooking & trying new recipes, hosting friends & community group, & long, long dinners with just the two of us. (Pass the wine please!)

And this table? It really has seen it all! The night we dreamt up our business, we were sitting around this table. It’s where we commit our day first thing in the morning & finish our day together in the evening. But, we’ve been recently convicted of this: we are VERY eager to rush off & finish our to-do list after we finish a meal. We feel the temptation to rush a beautiful meal & move onto the next thing. But it’s here that we want to commit more time!

This got us thinking …

We love our table too much & the stories that come with it. And by golly — we want to celebrate our table! And we want to invite you into the celebration with us by sharing some of our favorite recipes from our table & hope that they make it to yours. Today we are sharing one of our very favorite desserts – one that we definitely can’t live without!

This recipe comes from our dear friends, Bob & Wendy. Not only has it stood the test of time in their kitchen, but we also have made this dark chocolate amaretto cheesecake many, many times & its never let us down. It’s always a crowd pleaser! In fact, we made a double batch a few days leading up to Christmas a few months ago & every home we visited, we took a quarter of the dark chocolate cheesecake with us. Every single home RAVED about it!

We hope that you enjoy making this dark chocolate cheesecake & it becomes a part of your table for many years to come! Enjoy, friends!

Decadent Dark Amaretto Cheesecake

Crust:

• 1/4 cup butter
• 1 cup graham cracker crust
• 1/4 cup cocoa powder (we recommend dutch dark chocolate)

Filling:

• 8 oz dark chocolate pieces
• 16 oz cream cheese
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 3 large eggs
• 8 oz sour cream
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1 teaspoon almond extract
• 1/3 cup amaretto liqueur

*Preheat oven to 300 degrees*

To make the crust:

• Melt the butter & combine with other crust ingredients. Press the mixture into the bottom & 1 inch up the sides of a 10-inch springform pan.

To make the filling

• Melt the chocolate & set aside to cool.
• Soften the cream cheese & beat it with the sugar until the mixture is smooth.
• Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Stir in the sour cream, melted chocolate, vanilla, almond extract, and amaretto.
• Turn the mixture into the crust & bake for 1 hour. Turn the oven off & let the cheesecake cool in the oven for 1 hour.
• Remove the rack & allow to cool completely; then cover loosely & chill for at least 12 hours before serving.