Strawberry Daiquiris go so well with Chocolate!

One day after making cheesecake...
I just had to follow my craving and make my homemade strawberry daiquiris to go with my next piece of deep dark chocolate cheesecake!

I love strawberry daiquiris and have found this to be the best recipe so far. I have messed around with the amounts and tried omitting some items (like the sugar), but they were never quite as tasty. For an extra bubbly sensation, Sprite makes a great addition to the drink.



Ingredients:
1 cup chopped strawberries (fresh or frozen)
6 cups ice (give or take depending on how big your blender is)
3/4 cup rum (I use Captain Morgan's spiced but others prefer silver rum)
1/2 cup fresh squeezed orange juice (or from concentrate)*
1/8 cup sugar

Throw it all in a blender and enjoy!

*Note: When I don't have any oranges or even orange juice around, I have been known to use Pineapple juice as a substitute. It is very tasty!

I enjoyed my smooth, thick daiquiri with another piece of the deep dark chocolate cheesecake. For an added bonus, add sugar to the rim like they do in the restaurants! Simply take a plate and put some water on it. Lightly dip the rim of your glass on that plate making sure to get water evenly around the edge. Put some sugar on another plate and dip the rim of the glass in the sugar, turning it so the sugar spreads evenly. Garnish with a strawberry and voila! A tasty treat.

Deep Dark Chocolate Cheesecake Review with Tips!

With the help of my friend Marisha (who's oven is currently working, while mine, alas, is not), I was able to make this delightful treat in the course of an afternoon. Needless to say, it is a bit of a lengthy process with much time spent waiting for things to bake, cool, and bake some more! However, it is well worth the wait.
The crust was incredibly easy to make. We used a food processor to crush the cookies. Then we put the cookie crumbs into a bowl with the sugar and melted butter to mix. I personally prefer mixing by hand as opposed to trying to scrape things out of a food processor, but that may be just me! Once the crumbs starting sticking together in clumps, I dumped them into my greased spring-form pan and squished them down. They baked for five minutes and we moved on to the filling.
I was initially concerned that the amount of dark chocolate would be overwhelming. However, after melting the dark chocolate and mixing it in with the sugar, cream cheese, cocoa powder and eggs, I soon discovered it was perfect! It also filled the mixing bowl to the top with a heavy cream cheese filling. We poured it into the spring-form pan and spread it as evenly as possible with a rubber scraper.
Then the waiting began. After one hour, we checked the cheesecake and it appeared rather strange to us. It looked more like a regular cake with all the cracking on the top. We cooked it for another 10-15 minutes before pulling it out to cool.

I know, I know! More waiting, right? We were a little on the impatient side, so after it was just cool enough to pick up with our hands, we threw it into the fridge and watched a movie. Then, despite the directions recommending waiting overnight (can you imagine?!), after only two hours, we got the topping ready and poured it. When it was just barely set, we tried our first piece of deep dark chocolate cheesecake.
Brace yourselves: this chocolate-y delight is incredible! Although it took hours to prepare, it is an incredibly rich, chocolate satisfying dessert that is well worth the time.
I paired my piece of chocolate cheesecake with a touch of whipped cream (you may notice it on the plate in the photo) and strawberries. I think with my next piece I will have a strawberry daiquiri. Who's with me? :)