Chocolate and Pecan Cheesecake

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This is one of my favorite fall-back chocolate desserts. The original recipe comes from The Book of Cheesecakes by Steven Wheeler. (You can buy a used or new one for $1 from Amazon.com) However, I made some changes/additions to it, and I will share with you this altered version. This is lighter than a cheesecake since it uses ricotta instead of cream cheese, and I find the texture irresistable with crunchy pecan pieces scattered throughout the maple-flavored chocolate filling. It is very simple, too. Just make sure that everything is at room temperature. I must have made more than a hundred of these! (I made it several times for the dergah.)
Photo: courtesy of Mehmet Doganata

Crust:

1/4 c butter
1 1/4 c crushed vanilla (or chocolate) wafers

Filling:

1 1/2 lb ricotta
4 tbs maple syrup
1/4 c brown sugar
2 eggs
2/3 c whipping cream
7 oz semisweet chocolate, broken in pieces
3/4 c coarsely chopped pecans
1 tsp maple extract (optional)

Garnish:

Chopped pecans
Grated chocolate
Powdered sugar

Preheat oven to 350F. To prepare crust, melt butter in a small saucepan over low heat. Stir in crushed vanilla wafers. Press mixture in bottom of springform pan. Set aside. To prepare filling, beat ricotta cheese, maple syrup, brown sugar, extract and eggs in a large bowl until smooth. Bring whipping cream to a boil in a small saucepan; remove from the heat. Stir in chocolate until melted; blend into cheese mixture. Stir in pecans. Spoon filling into prepared crust. Bake in preheated oven 45 minutes or until set. Cool before removing from pan. Garnish as desired.