Chocolate-Almond Layered Cheesecake

Crust:

Preheat oven to 350. Grease a 9" spring form pan. Place almonds on a baking sheet and toast in preheated oven for 3 minutes. Allow them to cool. Place the toasted almonds in food processor and process until finely ground.

Combine wafer crumbs, ground almonds, and butter; mix well. Press onto the bottom and up the sides of the prepared pan. Bake 8 minutes. Place on a wire rack and cool completely.

Filling:

Melt the chocolate however you prefer (I did mine in the microwave), stir until smooth, and set aside.

In medium-sized missing bowl, beat the cream cheese on low just until smooth. Gradually add the sugar and continue beating until smooth. Scrape down the sides of the bowl and beaters with a rubber spatula.

Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition and scraping down the bowl as needed.

With the mixer on low, gradually add the sour cream, Amaretto, and slat, beating just until smooth.

Remove 1 ¾ cups of batter and add to the bowl of melted chocolate and stir until fully incorporated. Pour the chocolate batter into the crust; spread to create one even layer. Carefully pour the plain batter on top of the chocolate batter. Place the pan in the oven and immediately reduce the temperature to 325. Bake 50-60 minutes, or until center is just set. Turn the oven off and leave the cake inside for 30 minutes with the oven door shut. Transfer cheesecake to a wire rack. Loosen it from the sides of the pan, let it cool completely, and then chill at least 8 hours or overnight. Store covered in the refrigerator.

NOTE: This cheesecake is from the Ghirardelli Chocolate Cookbook and I got it from a friend in Eustis. It was actually quite easy to make. The directions said to toast the almonds 3-4 minutes, but when I did it 4 minutes, part of them burned; so I threw them out and just did another batch for 3 minutes. I also counted the vanilla wafers just to see how many it would take to get the required amount (I crushed them in a gallon zip-lok bag, using my rolling pin) and it was 30 cookies. The recipe did not specify Amaretto, just "almond flavored liqueur, but that is what I used. The directions say it will serve sixteen. I also followed the directions on the chocolate package for melting it in the microwave, as the directions specified melting it in a bowl over boiling water. I cooked mine for 60 minutes because I didn’t want to open the oven door and "test" it since it had to stay inside another half hour with the door shut.