This chocolate cheesecake recipe has earned me holiday party invites for decades

Indulgent, no-fail holiday party dessert. See notes for extra tips.

Chocolate crumb crust

• 1 1/2 cups vanilla wafers, crushed
• 1/2 cup powered sugar
• 1/3 cocoa powder
• 1/3 cup melted butter

Cheesecake filling

• 12 oz. semisweet chocolate chips
• 24 oz. cream cheese, softened (three 8 oz packages)
• 14 oz. sweetened condensed milk
• 4 eggs
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1. Prep. Set out your cream cheese an hour early to soften. Preheat your oven to 300°F or 149°C. Crush the vanilla wafers. I use a food processor, then dump them into a zip-top bag and finish crushing with a rolling pin. After crushing, measure 1 1/2 cups and add to a medium-sized bowl. Melt 1/3 cup butter in a small saucepan or in the microwave in 10-second intervals.
2. Make the crust. To the bowl with the vanilla wafer crumbs, add 1/2 cup powered sugar, 1/3 cup cocoa powder, and 1/3 cup melted butter. Stir until fully combined. Press the crust into a 9-inch spring form pan.
3. Melt the chocolate chips. Pour a bag of chocolate chips into a glass bowl. Microwave it for 90 seconds and stir. If the melted chips aren’t completely smooth after stirring, microwave 15 seconds at a time until they are.
4. Make the filling. Add softened cream cheese to a stand mixer bowl and beat just until it looks smooth and fluffy. With the mixer running, pour in the sweetened condensed milk. Turn off the mixer and scoop the melted chocolate into the cream cheese mixture. Add 4 eggs and 2 teaspoons vanilla. Mix just until evenly combined.
5. Bake. Pour filling into spring form pan with prepared crust. Smooth out the top with a plastic spatula, then pick up the pan and tap it gently several times on the countertop. This helps release trapped air to avoid cracks. Place a baking sheet in the lower rack of your oven and add 1 to 2 cups of water. Then put the cheesecake on a higher rack and bake for 60 minutes.
6. Cool. After an hour, the cake should look drier around the outside and slightly darker in the middle third. If it’s not quite there, keep cooking but recheck every 3 minutes. Once it looks ready, shut off the oven and open the door. Let the cake cool in the oven for at least an hour, then finish cooling on a rack on the counter.

Minimize cracks. Don’t overmix the filling as this can contribute to cracking. The water bath in the oven and the slow cooling process also helps minimize cracks. Sometimes, you can do all the right things and the cake will still rise in the oven and then crack when it cools. It won’t affect the taste, but the presentation may not meet your standards.

Cover cracks. If you’re worried about it, have ingredients on hand (heavy cream and more chocolate chips) to make a chocolate ganache — you can spread it over the top to cover any imperfections.

Next level recipe upgrades. You can take this recipe to the next level by making your own sweetened, condensed milk or by adding mix-ins. Homemade sweetened, condensed milk is a surprising upgrade. I only did that once because my husband bought evaporated milk by accident, but the difference was noticeable. As for mix-ins, I have mixed in chopped Oreo cookies and, separately, chopped peanut butter cups. Just stir them into the filling before you pour it in the pan.