Ingredient: milk, semi-sweet, or dark chocolate chips

Here are some tips to make the perfect chocolate cheesecake:

• Use ROOM TEMPERATURE cream cheese: room temperature cream cheese becomes creamier when it is mixed and it incorporates much better with the other ingredients in this recipe. If your cream cheese is too cold, it tends to stay lumpy in the batter doesn’t fully mix. You’ll also likely be tempted to over-beat the batter (which is no good for a cheesecake!) to get rid of the lumps. Quick tip to get room temperature cream cheese: remove the cream cheese from the packaging and microwave in bursts of 15-20 seconds until it is room temperature (not softened or melted at all) It’s also important when you are using room temperature cream cheese that you also use room temperature eggs.
• Use a SPRINGFORM pan: a springform pan (a pan that has a spring to hold the sides of the pan in place) is the best for cheesecakes. Because of the final texture of the cheesecake it can’t be inverted from a pan (like your typical cake) and so the removable sides of the springform pan make it easy to keep the form and shape of the cheesecake. (Still make sure to generously grease your springform pan first).
• Line your springform pan with FOIL: since this cheesecake bakes in a water bath (I promise it’s still easy!) you’ll want to line the outside in foil (I line it twice in heavy duty foil) to ensure absolutely NO water from the water bath seeps into your cheesecake.
• DON’T OVERMIX the batter:  it’s important to mix the cream cheese enough to remove the lumps and to combine the ingredients sufficiently, but over-mixing the batter will introduce too much air into the mixture. Too much air will cause the cheesecake to rise too quickly in the oven and then fall (how you get cracks in your cheesecake). You also want to mix the cheesecake at low and consistent speeds to again reduce the risk of beating in too much air.
• Bake this cheesecake in a WATER BATH: the water bath is simply putting your cheesecake into a larger baking pan that is filled with about an inch of water. Why use a water bath? The water helps to evenly disperse the heat which will help to ensure your cheesecake is evenly baked. You’ll also be able to avoid the cracks in the cheesecake.
• Allow the cheesecake to cool COMPLETELY at room temperature: It might not seem like a big deal to expedite the chilling process of a cheesecake and put it in the fridge right out of the oven, but it you do this, the cheesecake tends to get an ugly appearance on top. This appearance comes from condensation that forms on top of the too quickly chilled cheesecake. If you chill the cheesecake too quickly, you can also get some cracks on it.
• Slice the cheesecake with a very sharp and HOT KNIFE: To get the perfect slices, you’ll want to use a large and very sharp knife. Run the knife under very hot water, quickly (but still completely) dry it off, and then make quick cuts to get a perfect chocolate cheesecake slice.