Ok, here’s my new entry for the Fair this year:  cheesecake with a kahlua swirl.  Cheesecakes I can do and they come out very tasty!  My question is about the Kahlua swirl.

I checked TCB and found the Cordon Rose Cheesecake recipe with the White Chocolate variation.  I then looked at the various chocolate-based fillings/frostings.  What I’ve decided to try is based on the Light Chocolate ganache, but with an addition of kahlua.

I’m torn between substituting some heavy cream/kahlua or just adding the kahlua.  And I’m not real sure how much kahlua to add.  I’m thinking - a shot or two (1.5 - 3 oz)?  Why chocolate and kahlua?  I like the chocolate (it wins at the Fair) and the kahlua should add that coffee/mocha undertone to play up the slight bitterness in the chocolate.  Plus I’ll be using oreo-like crumbs for the cheesecake crust.

I’m doing a test run tonight and bringing it to a party tomorrow.  We’ll see how it goes.  The real kicker is - since my pregnancy (due in January) - all my taste buds have been off.  If chocolate isn’t milk chocolate or lighter all I taste is the bitterness.  :-(  They’re coming back but slowly.  Good thing hubby’s got good taste buds for this!

Congrats!  On baby and kahlua!  The amount of liquid to substract cream fo kahlua would depend on the cacao percent and on the fat percent on the cream.  Since these are near impossible to computate, it is a good idea to do as you say, replace kahlua for cream, and I would start with the same amount as when making syrup by volume:  3 oz of liqueur for 2 cups.  Rose’s Melting Pot has a good chocolate kahlua glaze recipe.

Hector, thanks.  That was the one specific I wasn’t sure about, the ratio of Kahlua to the entire recipe (3 oz Kahlua: 2 cups finished filling).  I’ve never gone out on a limb like this, tinkering with one of Rose’s recipes, so we’ll see what happens.  Logically, the flavors make sense together and I’m pretty good at that conceptual stage.  Now for the plan execution stage ...