Chocolate Chocolate Cheesecake

For 9 or 10" cheesecake:

5 8-oz. packages cream cheese at room temperature
5 eggs
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 TBS vanilla
6 oz. (1 cup) semi sweet choc chips
1 1/2 - 2 cups chocolate (I use Oreo) crumbs -- you can buy a box of them just like graham cracker crumbs
1/2 stick butter/marg

Melt butter/marg on low in small saucepan, remove from heat, then add chocolate crumbs. Stir in until the crumbs come away from the pan leaving it "clean." Pat crumbs with hands or spatula into springform pan to desired thickness. You can also press the crumbs up the sides of the pan to give the cake an outside crust.

Beat cream cheese with mixer until light, fluffy and lumpless. Add sugar and ensure that there are no lumps of hard cheese. All lumps must be removed before you add the eggs, otherwise you WILL have lumpy cheesecake. Add vanilla, then eggs one at a time.

Melt chocolate in a double boiler or chocolate pot until it is fully liquid. Pour melted chocolate into batter and stir in immediately. Waiting even 30 seconds will mean semi sweet chocolate lumps instead of chocolate batter. Pour batter into springform pan and bake at 325 for 1 hr 20 to 1 hr 30 minutes. Center should not be set. Turn off oven, leaving oven door slightly ajar. Allow cake to cool slowly in oven for at least 2 - 3 hours. Taking it out of the oven to cool will mean severe cracking. Refrigerate overnight. Save me a piece.

(recipe courtesy of Brandy)