Oreo Cheesecake
If you love Oreos and you love cookies and cream ice cream, then you will certainly love this Oreo Cookies & Cream Cheesecake with Oreo cookies in so many forms! There's an Oreo cookie crust, creamy vanilla cheesecake with Oreo chunks and cookie crumbs & cream swirl. It's topped with dark chocolate ganache and more Oreo cookie pieces.
Ingredients
Oreo Cookie Crust:
- 200 g Oreo cookies (16-18 whole cookies with filling)
- 2 tablespoons (28g) unsalted butter, melted and cooled
Cheesecake Batter:
- 18 ounces (500g) full-fat cream cheese, softened to room temperature
- ⅔ cup (135g) granulated sugar
- ⅔ cup (160ml) full fat sour cream
- 1 teaspoon (5ml) pure vanilla extract
- 2 large eggs, at room temperature
- ¼ crushed Oreo cookies, from about 2 Oreos
- 8 Oreo cookies broken into pieces (I chop each cookie into 8 pieces)
Chocolate Ganache Topping:
- 4 oz (113g) semisweet chocolate, finely chopped
- ⅓ cup (80ml) 35% whipping cream
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350°F. Lightly grease the sides of an 8-inch round non-stick springform pan and line the bottom with a round of parchment paper.
- Make the crust. Add the Oreo cookies (whole cookies, with the cream filling) into the bowl of a food processor and pulse until finely ground. You should have about 1 ⅓ cups of crumbs. Do not over-process or it will make the crust greasy. Add melted butter and pulse just a few times until moistened. To prevent over-mixing, you can also tip the crumbs into a medium bowl and stir in the butter until the crumbs are evenly coated. Add the crust mixture into the bottom of the prepared baking pan and press it firmly and evenly over the base and up the edges about 1-inch high to make an edge crust. Bake for 10-12 minutes until it feels dry and fragrant.
- NOTE: pulse carefully after you add the butter or STIR it into the crumbs. If you process too much then the butter will seep out as the crust bakes.
- Reduce the oven temperature to 325°F.
- Make the cheesecake batter. Place soft cream cheese into a large bowl and mix with an electric hand mixer on medium speed until smooth. Add sugar and mix until very smooth and creamy. Stop to scrape down the sides of the bowl several times to ensure there are no lumps at this stage and everything is well combined. The mixture should be lump-free before you move on to the next step.
- Add sour cream and vanilla and mix until smooth and evenly incorporated. Scrape down the sides and around the bottom of the bowl again and mix on low for 5 seconds to ensure everything is blended. Scrape down the sides and around the bottom of the bowl again and mix in eggs, one at a time until everything is blended. Transfer 1 cup of batter to another clean bowl and stir in crushed Oreo cookie crumbs. Add Oreo cookie pieces to the rest of the vanilla batter and fold them through. Set both batters aside for 10 minutes. This lets the Oreos hydrate so they get softer and the flavor infuses. It also lets the crushed Oreos blend more into the batter so the batter has a nice soft grey color to look like cookies & cream.
- Assemble the cheesecake. Pour the vanilla cheesecake batter with the Oreo pieces into the pre-baked crust, spreading it out evenly and popping any air bubbles that you see. Gently spoon dollops of the cookie crumb batter over top (or use a cookie scoop to portion it) and gently swirl it in with a butter knife so you get nice defined swirls. Don't swirl too much or it will fade into the batter and don't go too deep or you will disturb the crust.
- Place a rimmed cookie sheet or roasting on the bottom rack of the oven and fill it with at least and inch of boiling water. Place the cheesecake above on the center rack and bake for 30 minutes. Reduce oven temperature to 300°F and bake for another 15-20 minutes until the edges are set and the center of the cheesecake has a slight wobble when you shake the pan.
- Transfer pan to a wire rack and immediately run a butter knife or offset spatula around the sides of the pan to release the cheesecake, then let cool completely. Once cool, cover with foil and place in the fridge for at least 4 hours or over night.
- Make the ganache. Place chopped chocolate in a medium bowl. Heat cream in a saucepan over medium-low heat with occasional stirring until it comes to simmer. Immediately pour the hot cream over the chocolate in the bowl, cover and let stand for 2 minutes. Then, stir gently making concentric circles starting in the center and working your way out to the edges until the mixture emulsifies and turns into a silky glossy ganache. Let it cool for 5 minutes, then pour it over the cooled cheesecake and spread it out to the edges to allow it to drip over the sides. Decorate with more Oreo cookie pieces. Chill for 20 minutes to let the ganache set, then enjoy!
