Ridiculous Oreo Cheesecake

I like when I'm making something and as I am doing so, I start to get the feeling of a mad scientist, or that if the government was watching me create the concoction, I might just get a cease and desist order to stop immediately, it's too much, you can not legally put all that butter, cheese, cream and sweet together. That's how it was when I was making this cheesecake, there I am separating Oreo cookie from stuff, ending up with a pile of stuff, that in a more squeamish bakers kitchen may have went to waste.

Was I going to waste any of that stuff? Of course not, it went right into the cheesecake batter and layered on top of the crust before pouring the batter on the crust (it still blows me away that Oreo still offers a single stuffed cookie, and why have they not come out with triple or 4x stuffed Oreos yet, everyone knows the best part of an oreo is the stuff). I have a few other recipes that I've been meaning to post, but I made this cheesecake this past weekend and needed bump it to the front of the line. The recipe is loosely adapted from this brownie mosaic cheesecake recipe from Deb over at my favorite food blog, Smitten Kitchen. The idea for this cheesecake came from the Oreo ice cream at J.P. Licks, that I never could have too much of, and talked about in my Beantown post. With the Oreo ice cream from J.P. Licks you know you're eating ice cream, but if you closed your eyes you might think you were just eating a pile of Oreos. That's how I wanted this cheesecake to be, you know your were eating cheesecake, but the Oreo-ness of it was cranked up to maximum, and I think I succeeded. Just go out now buy the ingredients for this and make it yourself, it needs to be done.

*A few notes about the recipe. Deb made her cheesecake in a spring form cheesecake pan, I don't have one of those, so I just used a 9 inch circular cake pan. I lined the whole thing with parchment paper and it came out just fine, but I only ended up using about 2/3 of the cheesecake batter. I just poured the excess in a small parchment paper lined square glass baking dish (without any crust), baked it with the standard cake, and just had straight cheesecake (homie), which will be good to mix in with some ice cream, or just to eat straight up. If your going to use the 9 inch cake pan like I did and don't want the excess cheesecake (but who wouldn't) then I would suggest cutting each ingredient down by 2/3, except the ingredients for the crust.

Also about the cooking time. I ended up baking mine for over 60 minutes. Apparently it is hard to tell exactly when a cheesecake is fully cooked, because for the brownie mosaic cheesecake recipe, Deb suggests about 45 minutes, but for some of her other cheesecake recipes she suggests 55-60 minutes. I also was reading some of the comments on her cheesecake recipes and it seemed people trying her recipes were having the biggest problem with the cook time, and not being able to tell when their cheesecakes were done. Since I didn't want an undercooked pudding like mess on my hands, I went for a little overcooked, rather than a little undercooked. She says bake it until the cheesecake is set 3 inches from the edge, but still wobbly in the center (a jello-like wobble, not a liquid-like wobble), I went until the whole cake was just about set, and it didn't burn or dry out and the consistency was still great. I guess what I'm trying to get at is the bake time is just a suggestion, not set in stone, everybody's ovens cook differently, use your best judgement when baking your cheesecake.

Ridiculous Oreo Cheesecake

Adapted from some of Deb's cheesecake recipes at Smitten Kitchen

Makes 1 spring form pan cheesecake or 1 9 inch cake pan cheesecake with some more left over for fun

Crust:

1 package of doublestuffed Oreos, cookies separated from stuff and set in separate bowls

6 tbs of melted butter

1/3 c sugar

1/8 tsp salt

Cheesecake:

3 8 oz packages of cream cheese, softened

4 large eggs

2 tsp vanilla

1 cup sugar

1/4 tsp salt

about half of another package of double stuffed Oreos, plus stuff from first package

Chocolate Topping:

1 bar of good quality milk chocolate (I used Lindt)

2 tablespoons butter

For the crust place all of the separated Oreo cookies in a ziploc bag, with a few pieces of the stuff, and pound until finely ground.

In a mixing bowl, mix together the finely ground Oreos, melted butter, sugar and salt.

In the parchment lined cake pan (or greased spring form pan), press the cookie mixture in to the pan to form the crust. Bring it as far up the sides as you are able to, then layer with extra stuff from the separated cookies.

For the cheesecake filling, make sure the cream cheese is very soft (especially if whipping by hand like I did), and whip the cream cheese with the sugar and vanilla, until fully combined. Then add the eggs one at a time, until incorporated.

In a ziploc bag, place about half of the Oreos from a second package. Pound the slightly, just to break them up, then fold them with more of the stuff from the separated cookies used for the crust.

Pour the filling over the crust and bake for 55-60 minutes (see note above for more detailed cooking instructions).

Take cheesecake out of oven and allow to cool for about an hour. After about an hour, cover lightly and allow to set in the refrigerator for at least 3 hours.

When cheesecake is completely cool, melt chocolate over a double boiler and stir in butter. Drizzle over cheesecake and put back in to refrigerator so chocolate re-hardens.

Eat well, Live well