Cookies and Cream Cheesecake


Next to chocolate, cheesecake is one of my favorite dessert. However, I must admit cheesecake and I never seen eye to eye, most of the time I get that soggy crust even though I wrapped the bottom of my springform pan with aluminium foil. I even double wrapped it but still leaky bottom. Fed up with the soggy bottomed cheesecake, I switched to using a standard cake tin instead of the springform pan and it works! No more soggy crust! I just have to make sure that the cheesecake is really really cold inside out, before trying to remove it from the cake tin. If not totally chilled, it might split in half when trying to unmold it and we wouldn't want that right? Though will still taste excellent I'm sure but for presentation purposes no cracks are ideal.
For those lazy bakers (like me), who craves cheesecakes during HOT summer days and standing in front of a hot oven is simply impossible a no baked cheesecake is a nice alternative. This kind of no baked cheesecake is actually quite popular here because it's less tedious to do, no ban marie no nothing, just mix everything together and chill in the fridge. After few hours you can dig tight in. But for me personally if I'm offered a baked or a no bake cheesecake, the baked cheesecake wins no question ask.

For cheesecake recipe, my favorite is Tyler Florence's, his recipe is easy and straight forward. But lazy ol' me was feeling lazy, what else is new right? I wanted an individual sized cheesecake for portion control and it looks way cutter than having a huge cheesecake. Having loads of Oreo cookie stashed leftover in my pantry, I wanted to use them all up. So really making this cheesecake is a necessity and not some frivolous whims (^_^)
On a normal day I wouldn't choose Martha Stewart cheesecake recipe, don't get me wrong I love Martha, I'm one of her followers but when it comes to her cheesecake recipes most of them are over the top, most of her recipe calls for 4 bars of cream cheese! That is a lot! But then after busy week in the office, a little sinful Cookies and Cream Cheesecake is in order. I got this from Martha's Cupcake book, the first time I saw it I quickly bookmarked it. What's so special about this version you ask? the Oreos, of course. I love love love Oreos! I can live without other store bought cookies but please let me have my Oreos. A whole Oreo gets to be the crust, no need to pat down the cookie crumb/butter mixture. This recipe has none of that. Just pop in a whole cookie in your muffin or cupcake lined pan and off to make the cheesecake. Before starting though be sure that everything is at room temperature specially the cream cheese to ensure a smooth and creamy cheesecake. Mixing on low speed to avoid having lots of air bubbles in the batter which would cause it to puff up during the baking process. The cheesecake batter ended up chunky and thick with the chopped cookies, using an ice cream scooper to evenly distribute the batter is ideal. Although I didn't do that took the lazy way out and just gingerly pour the batter on top of the Oreo crust until almost full. I didn't actually get 30 pieces, I barely reached 20 pieces because instead of using a cupcake tin, I used a muffin tin, didn't have a clear cupcake liner handy so my version of this cookies and cream are much bigger than it should and bake it for an additional 5 minutes. More cheesecake in one serving! Yummy! ^_^

COOKIES AND CREAM CHEESECAKE
from Martha Stewart Cupcakes
makes 30 cheesecakes

  • 42 Oreos – 30 left whole, and 12 coarsely chopped
  • 2 pounds cream cheese, room temperature
  • 1 cup sugar
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract
  • 4 large eggs, room temperature, lightly beaten
  • 1 cup sour cream
  • Pinch of salt

  1. Preheat oven to 275 degrees. Line standard muffin tins with paper liners.
  2. Place 1 whole cookie in the bottom of each lined cup.
  3. With an electric mixer on medium high speed, beat cream cheese until smooth, scraping down sides of bowl as needed. Gradually add sugar, and beat until combined.
  4. Beat in vanilla. Drizzle in eggs, a bit at a time, beating to combine and scraping down the sides of the bowl as needed. Beat in sour cream and salt.
  5. Stir in chopped cookies by hand. Divide batter evenly among cookie-lined cups, filling each almost to the top. Bake, rotating pan halfway through, until filling is set, about 22 minutes.
  6. Transfer to wire racks to cool completely. Refrigerate at least 4 hours (or up to overnight).

nikcreate

I'm a nine to five pencil pusher who loves to play with flour and paper during my free time. Dreams of going to Europe and eat croissants and make pastries all day long!

5 comments:

  1. Whoa, that is 4 bars of cream cheese indeed. I'm glad it was worth it.
    I don't usually use that much cream cheese for my (whole) cheesecakes, but I tend to use a 6" pan, or recipes that use extenders like cottage cheese (which isn't that cheap anyway, so...)

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  2. I tried using cottage cheese before and I couldn't remove the lumps! ^_^

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  3. Oreo cookies...count me in.

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  4. I literally gasped when I saw your first photo! Adorable! I used to make Oreo cheesecake all of the time and Oreo Truffles are a favorite around here. I agree with you that baked cheesecakes are better, but I occassionally use a no bake recipe as well.

    This is my first time visiting your site. It is beautiful!

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  5. This is my first time visiting your site also! And, I must say I like what I see! I'll be back, and I must try the Oreo Cheesecake recipe but using wheat/dairy free Newman's own Cookies and Tofutti (soy cream cheese). I don't do well with wheat or dairy...but, your photos look SO tempting, it's worth a try!

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