Dark Chocolate Truffle Brownie Cheesecake

I found this pin on Pinterest and immediately thought of The Thinker who, like his momma (pregnant or not) can never get too much chocolate.  When I asked for his birthday dinner request, he asked for frozen pizza, Ruffles potato chips, and chocolate cheesecake.

I had only ever made one cheesecake in my life, not being a HUGE fan of cheesecake and always discouraged by the cost and uncertain results, but when a child requests something as simple as frozen pizza, how can you NOT attempt to make him a cheesecake?

This was a very simple recipe, simply bake the brownie layer, while it is baking prepare the cheesecake layer, pour it on, bake it up, pray, pray, pray that it doesn't crack, chill and serve.  Be wild and throw some birthday candles on if you like.  And if you want to get super crazy with a side of nuts, let your children go crazy garnish with the can of chocolate whipped cream that you bought in a moment of weakness just to get the children to the check out counter quickly and quietly after a thoughtful moment of consideration.  Man, that stuff is really nasty.  The children like it but blech.

The middle was still a bit gooey after baking for 50 minutes, I'm blaming it on the fact that I had no idea what I was doing.  I'm wondering if my springform pan is 8 inches instead of 9?  The top never cracked in the slightest bit - it is simply a gorgeous cheesecake.  Boy howdy, is this thing rich.

UPDATE: Today I had another piece and it wasn't gooey at all.  The recipe said "chill several hours" and while it was baking I did some other researching that said you should refrigerate overnight or even up to 24 hours.  I only chilled it for about 2 hours so I think this was why it was gooey...if you try this recipe, make it the day before.

The birthday boy was very pleased with his birthday "cake".  My dad and his wife took The Thinker out for his birthday lunch, he requested Fazoli's and they took him to Olive Garden!  What a treat!  Happiest of birthdays, Thinker!