My (not so) secret love is dessert and I can't resist a good cookbook
for anything sweet. Someone on this newsgroup (I think) once told me
about Marlene Sorosky's, "Dessert Lover's Cookbook". There are really
some great recipes in this book. My favorite chocolate (birthday) cake
recipe comes from this book and contains beets as a 'secret'
ingredient. Everyone who has ever tasted it at my house is amazed
about the beets. As far as I can see, there are no bad recipes in
this book.

Yesterday I browsed through it to find something I hadn't made before
and came up with Banana Fudge Cheesecake. Excellent instructions,
excellent ingredients = excellent result. There are no cracks on the
top; it's color is perfect and it is resting comfortably in my fridge
until I remove the springform pan later today.

I deviated from the recipe for the crust because I didn't have the
time to make a chocolate pastry crust. I used chocolate wafer crumbs
instead. Here's the recipe except for the crust:

5 8-oz packages of cream cheese at room temp.
1.5 cups sugar
1/2 tsp salt
2 tsp vanilla
5 lg eggs, room temp.
1 cup sour cream
4 oz semi sweet chocolate, melted and cooled
3 very ripe bananas (1.5 cups)
1 tbsp lemon juice

10.5" springform pan (I had only a 9" so I made some cheesecake
cupcakes (no crust) with extra batter)

Prepare crumb crust of your choice in advance. Preheat oven to 425°.

Beat cream cheese and sugar on medium speed until light and fluffy,
about 3 minutes. Scrape down sides several times. Beat in vanilla and
salt till blended. Add eggs, one at a time, beating after each addtion
and scraping down sides of bowl. MIx in sour cream. Remove 1.25 cups
of batter and stir in melted chocolate.

Mash bananas and mix along with lemon juice (I mixed juice with
bananas before adding to batter). Add to batter and mix well. Pour
apx. 2/3 of banana mixture into prepared crumb crust. Spoon chocolate
mixture in a ring over banana batter, apx. 1" from side of pan.
Carefully cover chocolate with remaining banana mixture..

Place pan on baking sheet and bake at 425° for 15 minutes. Reduce heat
to 225° and bake for 60-65 minutes longer. Turn off oven and let cool
in oven for at least 2 hours. Remove from oven to wire rack in
draft-free place. Cool to room temp. Cover and refrigerate overnight.
Can be refrigerated for 3 days or frozen, covered with plastic wrap
and foil. Defrost wrapped cake overnight in fridge.

Enjoy,
Ginny