Deliciously decadent mocha cheesecake is a rich cream cheese mixture flavored with coffee and chocolate. It's the perfect filling to pile inside these dark chocolate cookie cups or just to eat by itself. Sure to be a hit for your next party!
I love chocolate! Which is why I was so happy when PinterTest Kitchen decided to run #Choctoberfest again this year. I took part last year, check it out here, and loved seeing all the delicious chocolate desserts that my fellow food bloggers had made. It kept me knee deep in chocolaty goodness all the way through the holidays!
I had to put on my chocolate thinking cap to decide what to make this year using several products from our new sponsor, Caveman Coffee Company. Caveman Coffee Co. not only offers the best single origin, single estate coffee but, being the health-conscious athlete owners they are, they also carry the highest grade Coconut MCT Oil and Organic Cacao Butter.
So what did I decide to make? Mocha Cheesecake Cookie Cups - oh, they are so so rich and so so good - just look at that creamy chocolaty, coffee-flavored filling! I'm drooling just thinking about them.
I'd been dreaming of making cookie cups and filling them with something decadent for a while and it seemed like a good time to make my dreams come true. I decided to make a chocolate cookie cup, because after all it is Choctoberfest, and fill it with my favorite dessert - cheesecake.
Now, not just any cheesecake would do, nope, I went whole hog and decided to make a mocha cheesecake filling using Caveman's Blacklisted coffee and rich dark cocoa powder.
I also received a package of Caveman Coffee Co.'s cacao butter. I'd never used cacao butter before so I had to do a little research to see how to cook with it and what swap outs I could make.
What is cacao butter used for?
I found it is primarily used for making homemade chocolate. OK, yum, that is definitely next on my list for sure but I really wanted to bake something with it. So I decided to use it in the cookie cups instead of butter. It was a little harder to work with, I had to melt it first, and the dough was a little more crumbly, but the chocolate flavor in the cookie cups was awesome!
I finished with a firm, crunchy cookie dish of rich chocolate that was filled with creamy coffee-chocolate cheesecake in its own single serve package. One of my friends commented that they were something you would see served at a 5-star restaurant, Wow! Gee, thanks!
These Mocha Cheesecake Cookie Cups may look like a gourmet dessert but not to worry, they're easy to make.
That makes it sound like some gourmet dessert that was difficult to make but they are really pretty easy. You can even skip the chocolate cookie cup part and just use refrigerated pre-made chocolate chip cookie dough for the cups, then fill with cheesecake. They can be made ahead of time and stored in the refrigerator and are perfect for dinner parties, buffets, a romantic tête-à-tête or Valentine's Day.
Have you ever used cacao butter before? What did you make with it?
MOCHA CHEESECAKE COOKIE CUPS
Ingredients
Cookie Cups
- ¾ cup Imperial sugar
- ½ cup Caveman Coffee Co. Cacao Butter (or 1 stick dairy butter, softened)
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- 1 egg
- 1 ½ cups all-purpose flour
- ½ cup dark cocoa powder
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- ½ teaspoon baking powder
Mocha Cheesecake Filling
- ¼ cup strong brewed Caveman Coffee Co. "Blacklisted" coffee
- ½ envelope unflavored gelatin
- 8 oz pkg cream cheese, room temperature
- ⅜ cup Imperial sugar
- ½ cup sour cream
- 3 oz 85% cacao high quality chocolate, melted
Optional garnishes
- grated dark chocolate, chocolate covered coffee beans
Instructions
Chocolate Cookie Cups
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray a 12-cup muffin pan with non-stick spray.
- Beat sugar and softened cacao butter (or room temperature butter) with an electric mixer until light and creamy, about 5 minutes.
- Add vanilla extract & egg and continue to mix until well blended.
- Combine all dry ingredients and add to wet ingredients, beating on low speed until incorporated.
- Divide evenly between 12 muffin cups & press into bottom and halfway up sides to form cups.
- Bake for 12 minutes.
- Remove from oven and immediately press down the center of each cookie cup with the back of a medium cookie scoop.
- Set on wire rack to cool for 15 minutes.
- To remove, use a fork & slide down one side of cookie cup and lift carefully. Place on wire rack to cool completely. Repeat with remaining cookie cups.
Mocha Cheesecake Filling
- Brew coffee then measure ¼ cup. Pour into small bowl and sprinkle with gelatin. Stir until dissolved then set aside.
- In a large bowl of electric mixer, combine cream cheese and sugar and beat until smooth.
- Continue beating while adding sour cream, melted chocolate and coffee gelatin mixture until incorporated.
- Tip: To melt chocolate, place broken up bars in a microwave-safe dish & microwave for 1 minute. Stir. If not completely melted, place back in microwave in 15-second increments.
To assemble:
- I like to use my electric cookie press with the hors d'oeuvre attachment. Fill tube then fill in desired pattern. You can also scoop mixture into the cups with a spoon.
- Garnish with shaved chocolate and a few chocolate covered coffee beans.
Notes
Nutrition
I received complimentary samples of Caveman Coffee Co. products as well as Imperial Sugar to produce a recipe for Choctoberfest. As always, all opinions are 100% my own.