Guinness® and Chocolate Cheesecake

"First, let me say how annoying it is to me to read reviews that give a poor rating when the reviewer doesn't follow the recipe! I followed the recipe EXACTLY, and this is without a doubt one of the mo..." See morest heavenly chocolate cheesecakes I've ever made. Just remember, the crust calls for chocolate cookies crumbs--not OREO cookie crumbs. So the butter to crumb ratio is just fine. I used chocolate graham cookie crumbs. It is very important to not leave out the heavy cream when melting the chocolate. The cream makes the chocolate into a nice, thick ganache. Eliminating the cream would result in a much thinner batter. My batter before cooking was a bit thinner than some cheesecakes I've made, but not significantly so. I was expecting it to be more runny based upon reviews that I had read. I did cook it for about 5 minutes longer because my oven runs a little cooler. The recommendation to wrap the pan in foil before submerging it in water was key--if you've never done a submerged waterbath and didn't know to wrap the pan, I can see where that would cause poor results. I took this to a St. Patrick's Day party and everyone went nuts--it was completely devoured! I'll be making this again, for sure."

"For the love of God & the Holy Mother, drink the Guinness while you're looking for a DIFFERENT recipe. Seriously. This one is horrible. I cook cheesecakes all the time. (DH loves cheesecake almost..." See more as much as Guinness.) So I should have trusted my instincts on this one & skipped the beer as the recipe was already too loose. The person even got the crust part wrong: cookie crusts need 2 cups crumbs, 2 TB butter (hello, the stuff in the middle is already fat & sweet & chocolate); graham cracker crusts need 1-1/2 cups crumbs, 1/4 cup butter, 1/4 cup sugar. Too much butter leaves cookie crusts tasting like lard & cracker crusts hard. It's not necessary to reinvent the wheel just because you're going to post your recipe. No idea what the 1/4 tsp cocoa was for...I've never seen 1/4 tsp of anything called for in a recipe. Why bother? The eggs, sour cream, cream cheese is all a normal cheesecake recipe...so, it's either the 3/4 cup beer puts the liquidity over the top or its the water bath cooking method. (I didn't immerse my springform by the way, a pan of water underneath in an oven would be sufficient in a recipe that NEEDS moisture, UNLIKE this one.) Finally, 90 minutes on 350, I take it out as the perimeter is starting to pull & crust, center looks iffy. (Left in the oven, turned off, door ajar for another hour.) & oh surprise, surprise crust is soggy, cake completely raw. I'm so mad at myself because I fell for all the hocus pocus thinking it might be interesting b"

"I've made this cheesecake twice, both times with stellar results. The first time I didn't make any changes to the ingredients, and followed the instructions to the letter. It was exceedingly good. The..." See more texture was silky and crack free, the flavor was a mature chocolate with subtle stout undertones. (NOTE: When I was pouring the batter into my springform, I was nervous because it seemed too thin to set. It wasn't! Actually, I think that's why it was so silky smooth.) The second time I made the recipe, I added an extra 1/4 tsp unsweetened cocoa powder to the crust, and instead of Guinness I subbed Young's Double Chocolate Stout (a heady English Stout in a purple bottle/can that can be found in the Microbrew section of most liquor stores). What a winner! The extra cocoa powder and the Young's achieved the complex bittersweet flavor I had been looking for. This is a Five Star recipe with no changes, and (in my opinion)MORE than five with heavier stout."