Chocolate Cheesecake
“What am I, chopped liver?!” Dad reacts after Mom refuses a staged kiss suggested by their wedding photographer. She always had class, that one…
John & Dale’s Excellent Adventure
For my Valentine’s Day post, I figured I would write about the most formative Valentines in my life: my parents. They met in high school in Kingsport, Tennessee. Mom was one year ahead of Dad. I can’t recall the specifics of the story, but my Volberg grandmother was somehow involved. I think she may have been helping with costumes for a play and met Dad? Anyway, she saw something special in him and thought, “Dale could use some of that!”. My father gives a lot of credit to my Nonnie for this.
Mom and Dad dated throughout college even though she was in North Carolina and he was in Massachusetts. Mom moved up to Cambridge when she was done with school and they got married after Dad completed his undergraduate degree. When Mom died in 2018, they had been married for 54 years. Mom and Dad were totally intertwined. My sister and I jokingly referred to them as The Borg! They shared the same values and interests and had a common language, which came in handy since they wrote books together. I guess that is what happens when you literally grow up with someone. But, still, there was some magic at play. When Mom was in the nursing unit at Carolina Meadows before she was able to move back home to live out her final days, it was heartwarming (and a little heartbreaking) to see her eyes light up when Dad entered the room to visit. He would kiss her and call her his “sweetheart”. After I moved away from Chapel Hill, I would often get reports from friends of mine who would see Mom and Dad around town, remarking that they were always holding hands or dancing. Mom and Dad genuinely loved AND LIKED one another! I do have to say that they set the bar impossibly high for my relationships. But, I’ve managed pretty well. (Happy Valentine’s Day, Chris!)
Mom and Dad did a lot of things as a team. And, one HOT summer, for whatever reason, Team Reed decided to help me move my stuff from a storage unit in Providence to New York City. My roommate and I had found this gem of a deal which, of course, we later discovered was not. It was a 5th floor walk up in the gentrifying East Village. I swear that half the reason we got the apartment was that the realtor was cute and had an English accent. This smooth operator was the genius who suggested that we demo a wall to open up one of the bedrooms to the hall, thereby creating a bigger living space. And, guess what? He had JUST THE GUY TO DO IT! Being young and stupid, we assumed that he worked for the building and that this was kosher. He did not and it was not. We got a very aggressive phone call from the Super when he discovered workmen walking down the stairs with large pieces of drywall. We made good by building back the wall, losing both money and pride. And, then it was time to move in to our less cool apartment which no longer had the promise of an open living area.
So, August in the city with an illegally parked U-Haul and 5 flights of stairs. What did Mom and Dad sign up for?! We made a few runs to the apartment and saw the writing on the wall: it was going to be miserable. Just then a homeless gentleman walked up to my dad and asked if we had any work for him. Dad, to my horror, said, “Why, YES!”. The guy was carrying a stack of pornography magazines (he was one of those people who would put stuff out on a blanket on the sidewalk to sell). He turned to my Mom and said “would you please watch these for me?” and then threw my desk on top of his shoulders and started climbing the endless stairs. (He was actually an amazingly hard worker.) I’m here to tell you that my sweet mother sat next to that stack of porno magazines for hours, keeping an eye over this fellow’s inventory. We later found out he was from North Carolina. Mom had a good chat with him. He was charmed. When we were done, he told my mom, “Don’t worry about your daughter, I’ll keep an eye on her. If any of her stuff goes missing, just let me know!” Sweet? A little creepy? Both?!
So, in honor of New York’s famous dessert and our NYC friend’s “cheesecake” photos, I give you Mom’s chocolate cheesecake recipe for Valentine’s. I think it’s actually Linda Folda’s but she’s great, too! They used to share recipes a lot. The hint of orange really does it for me. And I had no idea it had 3 packages of cream cheese in it. That explains a lot. You’ll need a spring-form pan.
CHOCOLATE CHEESECAKE
Preheat oven to 350 degrees
serves 12-16
1 1/3 c. chocolate wafer crumbs [fine. ½ package plus 6]
[or less than 1 package of chocolate grahams, in which case omit the sugar]
I once had to use something called BelVita Breakfast Biscuits – used only 1 T. of sugar
2 T. sugar
½ t ground cinnamon
¼ c. butter, softened
12 oz. semisweet chocolate pieces
3 8-oz pkgs. cream cheese
1 c sugar
3 eggs
2 egg yolks
3 T flour
1 T grated orange rind
1 c. heavy cream
Prepare crust: Blend crumbs, sugar, and cinnamon with the softened butter in a small bowl. Press crumb mixture onto side and bottom of a well-buttered 9-inch spring-form pan. Chill while preparing filling.
Prepare filling;
Melt chocolate in a medium-sized pan over hot, not boiling, water.
Soften cream cheese in a LARGE bowl. Add sugar gradually and beat with electric mixer until smooth.
Beat in eggs and egg yolks until mixture is light and fluffy. Blend in flour.
Add melted chocolate and cream. Beat until well-blended. Blend in orange rind [with a spoon, not mixer]. Pour into prepared pan.
Place a piece of foil under the pan to catch any butter that may seep through pan during baking. Bake in a moderate oven [350 degrees] for 1 hour. Turn off oven heat and let cake remain in oven with door closed 40 minutes longer.
Remove cake from oven. cool in pan on wire rack at least 2 hours. [Cake will sink slightly.] Loosen cake around edge with metal spatula then remove side of pan. Pipe whipped cream on top, if you wish.
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