S'mores Cheesecake: Stuff Your Face with a Campfire Treat

S'mores cheesecake.

Yes. You read that right.

Graham cracker crust. Ghirardelli dark chocolate cheesecake. Whipped meringue with melted marshmallows topping. Dotted with chocolate drops and mini marshmallows.

Make sure you have a ton of friends, family or a hungry boyfriend (or girlfriend) before reading more on how to make this. Trust me, it's not something that you want to - or could - eat all yourself.

When I first saw this in my  Bon Appetit Desserts: The Cookbook for All Things Sweet and Wonderful cookbook, I thought it was batshit crazy. A s'mores cheesecake? WTF? Seriously? Does it... will it... wait, I must make this!

I thought about making it for my mother's requested of "bake me a cake" for her birthday. However, my Vanilla Bean Cheesecake won out instead. Once she was done with that (she loved it so much that she pretty much ate the cheesecake herself within a week) I decided that I wanted to tackle this great chocolate and marshmallow cookbook curiosity.

I told Karly that I was making the S'mores cheesecake. She said she wanted a photo. After seeing said photos in my cooking album on Facebook, she said that she wanted a piece. Too bad she's 2k miles away.

Want to know a secret? This cake is so chocolatey and rich that I couldn't finish one solid piece in one sitting. I had to eat it in stages. I think I've only eaten 2 pieces, combined? I've been pawing it off on my friends and family.

S'mores Cheesecake

adapted from Bon Appetit Desserts: The Cookbook for All Things Sweet and Wonderful by Barbara Fairchild

Crust
8	whole graham crackers
3 tbsp	sugar
6 tbsp	unsalted butter, melted
Chocolate Cheesecake
9 ounces	chocolate bits. I prefered dark chocolate. It calls for milk chocolate.
16 ounces	cream cheese. Get the huge Philly tub from Costco if you can.
3/4 cup	sugar
1/8 tsp	salt
3/4 cup	heavy whipping cream
3	large eggs
Marshmallow Meringue Whipped Topping
1 cup	sugar
2	large egg whites
3 tbsp	water
1 tsp	cream of tartar
1/8 tsp	salt
1 cup	little marshmallows
1 tsp	vanilla extract

Crust: Preheat oven to 350, rack in the middle. In the food processor, beat the shit out of graham crackers and sugar until they're ground up within an inch of their life. Next, with the blade still turning, pour in the melted butter. Pulse, making sure the mixture is well moistened. Dump into the bottom of a lubed up and floured spring form pan.

Note: I use Nordic Ware Bakers Joy Non-Stick Spray or something similar to spray on a nice coating. Also, for easy sliding off the bottom once the cheesecake was done, I cut a round of parchment paper and placed it in the bottom of the pan.

Press crumbled crust to be into the bottom of the pan. You can press the crust up the side, if you want. But, I tend to keep it at the bottom. Bake graham cracker crust at 350 degrees for about 12 minutes. Take out and set aside. Drop oven temp to 325 degrees.

Chocolate Cheesecake: Take the chocolate and measure out the 1 1/4 cup / 9 ounces. Get your double boiler saucepans out and start the water boiling in the bottom one. When the water is nice and hot (barely boiling but just right), pour the chocolate in the top boiler and connect the dots. Stir the chocolate as it melts, so that you don't get any weird burnt chocolate pieces. When smooth, remove from the water.

Get out your stand mixer, beater attachment. Cream cheesecake, sugar and salt until creamy and smooth. I found that I needed to scrape down a couple times to fully incorporate. While it's going, add the heavy whipping cream. After blended, add that delicious melted chocolate, careful not to constantly lick it while pouring in. Then, add the three eggs, one at a time, waiting until the first one is fully incorporated before adding the next.

Make sure the mixture is smooth. This will ensure a lighter cheesecake.

Pour cheesecake batter into graham cracker crusted spring form pan. Bake in the oven until your toothpick poke comes out clean. It should be barely set in the center and still slightly wobble.

The recipe called for a bake time of 55 minutes. But, I had to cook mine for about 1 hour and 20 minutes. I have no rational reasoning for the baking discrepancy, as I hadn't deviated from the recipe at this point. I just baked until it was set to the consistency that I wanted using the toothpick test.

Once the cake is done, take it out of the oven and let it set for 10 minutes. Take a knife and slowly slide around the circular pan sides to loosen the cake from the side. This is the ease the amount of tension and pull that will arise from the cake's cooling.  Remember, it will fall and crack naturally as it cools and settles. This makes sure it does so evenly.

Stick it in the fridge and wait about 8 hours for the cake to fully cool.

Marshmallow Meringue Whipped Topping: Refill the water in the bottom part of your double boiler (or any saucepan, at this juncture) and get the water nice and hot, barely boiling. While that's happening, with the wisk attachment whisk sugar, egg whites, 3 tablespoons water, cream of tartar and salt in your Kitchen Aid's metal bowl. When the mixture is fully incorporated, set the bowl on top of the boiling water and continue to wisk constantly until the sugar dissolves and the bowl is hot to touch. About 3 minutes.

Take off heat and pour in your marshmallows. Slowly, the marshmallows will melt into the mixture. I then attached the bowl back to my Kitchen Aid and beat the mixture slowly, making sure the  marshmallows were 90% incorporated into the sugary mixture. Take bowl and place again over simmering water in the saucepan. With a handheld beater, beat meringue into shape. You'll know it's "there" when soft peaks form. It should take about 4 - 5 minutes.

Once the peaks start forming, take off the heat and pour in the vanilla extract, mixing well.

If the cake is cool enough at this point, you can start plopping and swirling the meringue topping onto your chocolate base. For a finish, I dropped little marshmallows and chocolates on top. Set it into the fridge for an overnight setting and volia!

Each bite is like camping in Big Sur, smelling the trees and enjoy nature. Except, without the fear that a bear is going to rip through your car, searching for food, while you sleep.

Like what happened here: Bear Takes Car on Short Joyride in Colorado