Recipe: Raspberry Oreo Chocolate Cheesecake

For a friend's birthday during Christmas holidays, I decided to make a cake. Her roommate is allergic to gluten, so I had to whip up something that didn't have any flour. After scrolling through Pinterest, I came across this recipe and I absolutely loved it. I'm not a huge fan of cheesecake, but the Oreo cookie base and chocolate ganache topping made it irresistible. The red raspberries also add to the colours of Christmas. I like this recipe as it doesn't require any icing or decoration, which saved me a lot of time!

Ingredients:

*For the Oreo crust, you can choose between making your own from Oreo cookies, or buy the oreo baking crust in a box. I have tried both ways and the results are the same. I usually go for the box if I can find it since it's less work and I don't want to waste the icing filling. 

Oreo crust from Oreo cookies:

• 20 Oreo cookies, remove the fillings
• 1/4 cup granulated sugar
• 5 tablespoons of melted butter 

Otherwise, follow instructions on the baking crumbs box

Cheesecake:

• 8 ounces of cream cheese, at room temperature
• 2/3 cup granulated sugar
• 1/2 cup sour cream
• 4 large eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract (you can also use raspberry extract for a tangy twist)

Chocolate ganache topping:

• 4 ounces bittersweet chocolate, chopped
• 4 ounces semi-sweet chocolate, chopped
• 1/2 cup heavy cream 

Raspberry topping:

• 2-4 boxes fresh raspberries 

Baking tools needed:

• 9 x 3 inch springform pan with removable bottom (normal cake pans will make it much harder so I do suggest using a springform one) 
• electric hand mixer or stand mixer with paddle attachment 
• measuring cups and spoons
• spatula 
• whisk

Instructions:

Oreo Crust:

1. Preheat oven to 350°F. Crush Oreo cookies to small bits or crumbs, whichever you like as long as they are smaller than half a finger nail. Mix crumbs with sugar. Add melted butter and mix until combined. 
2. Press cookie mixture into the bottom of a 9 x 3 inch springform pan. Bake for 10 minutes and remove to cool completely. 

Cheesecake:

1. Reduce oven temperature to 325°F. 
2. Use hand mixer or stand mixer with paddle attachment to mix together cream cheese, sugar and sour cream until well combined, about 2 minutes. Beat in each egg one at a time, mixing well before adding the each egg. Mix in vanilla or raspberry extract and pour onto Oreo crust. 
3. To avoid crust from burning, set the springform pan on a piece of wide aluminum foil. Fold the foil up the sides without any tears. 
4. Set the pan in a large baking dish or roasting pan and pour in boiling water to reach halfway up sides of the springform pan. I also tried will room temperature water and it works the same in case you don't have boiling water handy. 
5. Bake for one hour at 325°F. Turn off the oven and prop the door open and let the cake cool for an hour. Remove from oven and let cool completely before removing carefully from springform pan. 

Chocolate ganache topping:

1. Place chopped chocolate in a small bowl and set aside. The smaller the pieces the better as they will melt better. 
2. Heat heavy cream in a small saucepan over medium-low heat until small bubbles appear at the outside edge of the cream. Careful not to let the cream boil. 
3. Pour hot cream mixture over the chocolate, and using a small whisk, gently stir from middle out until a smooth shiny mixture.
4. Allow the chocolate ganache to cool slightly and then pour over the cheesecake. 

Raspberry topping:
Place raspberries on top the chocolate ganache covered cheesecake. You can choose to cover the whole cake or just to have a circle around. 


Tips:

Make sure raspberries are completely dry after wash before placing on top of the chocolate ganache topping. 

If you are tight on time, I've tried letting the cake cool in room temperature for 20 minutes after the bake. I kept it in the freezer overnight and added the chocolate ganache topping the next day.  If you do this, make sure the cake is defrosted before pouring on the chocolate ganache or it the ganache will freeze as your pour on and it will be hard to spread and you will lose the nice and smooth shiny texture.

Hope you enjoyed this recipe! It was adapted from Hip Foodie Mom.

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