My favorite... Oreo cheesecake...

Mmmmm......

My absolute favorite cheesecake in the world is Oreo Cheesecake. Because I am lactose-intolerant, I can't have it too often. But it is definitely worth it when I do.

While I was out of my mind with boredom during my sick leave from work, I decided to flip thru some of my old recipes. I used to just love browsing the internet and different sites and just copying recipes that I found to be interesting and printing them up. I would just copy and paste them to Microsoft Word and then print them up and add them to the growing stack of other recipes I've found. While I was flipping thru these printed pages, I found this plain cheesecake recipe. My normal cheesecake recipe (you can see it in an older blog) was similar, but there was flour in it. I personally never really liked the flour because it always made the cheesecake batter kinda lumpy. The finished, baked product was always smooth, but it still bothered me. (I'm kinda OCD about certain things) Well, this recipe didn't have any flour or cornstarch in it so I thought I'd give it a try.

The recipe used graham crackers for the crust, but I hate graham crackers and besides, this was going to be an Oreo cheesecake, so I took half a bag of Oreo cookies, scraped off the cream filling and tossed the cookies in the food processor with a 1/2 stick of melted butter. I pressed the crumbs into the bottom of a 10 inch springform pan that was sprayed with Pam. I then baked the crust in a 350 degree oven for about 5 minutes to set it.

Here is the recipe for the batter:

3- 8ox pkgs of cream cheese
1 1/3 cup sugar
1/2 tsp salt
4 large eggs, lightly beaten
2 tsp vanilla
32 oz sour cream

Using a mixer w/ a paddle attachment, I beat the cream cheese for about 2 minutes on medium setting. I then added the sugar and salt and mixed until the cream cheese is light and a little fluffy. You have to be careful here b/c you do not want to over beat the cream cheese, otherwise it'll start to break down on you.
Then you add the eggs, a little at a time to make sure that it is completely incorporated. You may have to stop and scrape the sides of the bwol before continuing.
Add the vanilla next and the sour cream immediately after.
Once it is just blended, you need to fold in the Oreo cookies. I used the remaining half bag of cookies (and a couple extra from a second bag, I love Oreos) and just broke them into small pieces right over the bowl. I carefully folded them into the batter, making sure it was evenly distributed.
Pour the prepared batter into the springform pan.
Bake at 350 degrees for 1 hour and 30 mins. The cheesecake will rise above the edge of the pan.
If you would prefer to do this in a water bath, make sure that the water is boiling and the springform pan is wrapped tightly in foil. Try using heavy duty foil and wrapping it a few times to ensure the water will not leak into the pan.
Bake at 350 degrees for 1 hour and 30 mins, then turn off the heat, prop the oven door open, but just slightly and leave in there for another hour to set.
To cool, leave cheesecake in its pan on a wire cooling rack. If you did the water bath, take the foil off, but be careful in case water managed to leak in there.
When it has cooled, remove from the pan and cover. Cool it in the refridgerator for at least 4 hours, but for a cheesecake this size, overnight is best.


A couple of things on this. This cheesecake was monstrous. I hate doing water baths, so I didn't use one. For this cheesecake, I think I would. The reaon being, since it is so thick, the middle didn't bake enough in the 1 hour and 30 mins the recipe said it should. So I left it in just a bit longer. The tops and edges were too brown for me. I cut off about 1/4 inch from the edge when I had a piece and scraped off the top. I was still left w/ a huge piece and the inside was great, but I think I would be more careful about that next time.
Also, I think it was way too much sour cream. I think next time I might add another package of cream cheese and cut the sour cream in half.

But this is definitely going to be my new recipe for a cheesecake base. It is creamy and smooth and so rich and decadent. I loved it and I think you will too, even if it is time consuming!