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There’s a cozy feeling and a sense of nostalgia associated with creating desserts from scratch. Maybe it’s because of the patience needed to spend an afternoon making a tasty treat, stirring in love and anticipation, filling the house with the wonderful smells of sugar and chocolate. Or maybe it happens when you use your grandma’s recipe card that has a smudge of melted chocolate on one corner and you think of her making the same dessert years and years ago.
Anna loves homemade desserts, and she fills the bakery with a variety of options that rotate depending on the day of the week. But Anna also understands that some much-loved treats created in bulk are also comforting and delicious.
Cookies are one of Anna’s go-to choices for desserts. They’re easy to grab on the go. They’re a simple after-dinner treat, and there are classic choices that are crowd pleasers, like Oreos. How can you take a cookie you love and elevate it? Add it to another dessert you love!
Oreo Cheesecake
Level of Difficulty: Above average; lots of patience
Serves: 12–14
Ingredients
Crumb Crust:
1 ¼ c chocolate Teddy Grahams (or other chocolate cookie), finely ground
1/3 c unsalted butter, melted
¼ c firmly packed brown sugar
1 tsp cinnamon
Filling:
2 lbs cream cheese (4 8-oz blocks), softened at room temperature
1 ½ c sugar
¾ c firmly packed brown sugar
2 tbsp flour
4 large eggs
2 large egg yolks
1/3 heavy cream
2 tsp vanilla extract
1 ½ c coarsely chopped Oreo cookies
Glaze:
2 c heavy cream
16 oz semisweet or dark chocolate, chopped or chips
2 tsp vanilla extract
Oreo cookies for garnish
How to Make
Crumb Crust:
Cover the bottom of a 9-inch springform pan with a sheet of parchment paper. Close the side around it, leaving the parchment paper to hang out slightly around the edges. Trim as necessary. Grease the bottom and sides of the pan.
Blend all crust ingredients together. Press into the bottom of the springform pan. Chill in the refrigerator while preparing the filling.
Filling:
Preheat oven to 425 degrees. In the large bowl of an electric mixer, beat the cream cheese at low speed until smooth.
Beat in the sugar and flour until well blended.
Add the eggs and egg yolks one at a time, beating the mixture until smooth.
Stir in the vanilla extract and heavy cream.
Pour half of the prepared batter onto the prepared crust.
Sprinkle the chopped Oreos across the batter. Smooth the remaining batter over the top of Oreos.
Bake for 15 minutes, then reduce oven temperature to 350 degrees and continue baking for 45–50 minutes. If the cheesecake browns too quickly, cover loosely with foil. Don’t worry about cracks in the cheesecake.
Remove from oven. Refrigerate immediately.
When cool, cover cake with plastic wrap, and continue to chill overnight.
Glaze:
Scald 1 c of heavy cream in a heavy saucepan over high heat.
Add 1 tsp vanilla and 8 ounces of the chocolate chips, and stir for 1 minute.
Remove from heat. Continue stirring until all chocolate is melted. Place pan in refrigerator for 10 minutes.
Pour glaze across top of cheesecake and return to refrigerator for 20 minutes.
Carefully remove cheesecake from pan. Remove parchment from bottom of cake, and place the cake on a serving platter that has strips of wax paper lined around the edges. This is to help the glaze from pouring all over the serving platter. Once the glaze has cooled and hardened, these strips of wax paper can be gently removed, leaving the platter clean.
Repeat steps 1–3.
Pour glaze over top of cake, using an offset spatula to gently spread the glaze across the top of cake and down the sides.
Garnish with Oreos. Let glaze harden before cutting and serving.
The Baker’s Man can be purchased in paperback or for the Kindle from Amazon, Barnes and Noble, iBooks, and other major retailers.