This was a first for me. I’m more of a meat and potatoes guy with an appetite for Cajun cuisine and chocolate, but I had some cheesecake over Thanksgiving that made me want to make a cheesecake of my own. I’ve dabbled in no-bake cheesecake recipes in the past, but this was my first stab at baking a cheesecake and it turned out absolutely delicious. We brought it to a party yesterday evening and it was a big hit. I’m glad I made two! Here’s the recipe I used.

Ingredients:

For the crust:

• 20 Choclate Oreo cookies
• 5 tbsp melted butter

For the filling and topping:

• 24 ounces of cream cheese
• 1 cup of sugar
• 1 tbsp of Vanilla extract
• 1 cup sour cream
• 3 eggs
• 5-10 Chocolate Oreo cookies (crumbled)
• 3 small peppermint candy canes (crumbled)
• 1 small tub of Cool Whip
• 1 can of Redi-whip

You’re going to need a 9-inch springform baking pan, roasting pan and a hand mixer for this recipe but other than that, it’s just a little time consuming.

Instructions I used:

Pre-heat the oven to 350 degrees:

First, I ground up the 20 Oreos in our little food processor until they were finely chopped then I added my melted butter to the Oreos in a small mixing bowl and mixed well. I sprayed the bottom and sides of my springform pan with nonstick spray and packed the crust mixture to the bottom of the pan. I baked the crust for about 10 minutes at 350 and set aside to cool.

You’ll need to line the bottom of the springform pan with an 18-inch by 18-inch heavy tinfoil square to keep water from seeping in the springform pan when it’s baking in submerged water. I used 2 layers of tinfoil making sure there were no tears so water could get in.

In a medium size mixing bowl I mixed the softened cream cheese and sugar with my hand mixer until it was creamy then I slowly added the Vanilla extract, eggs as well as the sour cream. Once it was well mixed and creamy looking, I folded in about 10 crumbled Oreos and poured the mixture in the tinfoil lined springform pan for baking.

I made sure my oven shelf was low enough to accommodate my roasting pan and I centered the springform baking pan with the cheesecake mixture inside the roasting pan. I filled the roasting pan with warm water until the water level got about halfway up the springform pan and I gingerly placed the pan in the oven for 50-60 minutes or until it looked like the center had set. The picture below gives you an idea of what it looked in the oven while baking in the water.

Once it was done, I turned off the oven and opened the door to the oven a bit to let it cool in place for about 30 minutes. Then I removed it from the oven and the roasting pan to further cool. I let it cool 30 minutes on the counter at room temperature and then placed it in the refrigerator for 3 hours.

Topping:

After it cooled in the refrigerator, I gently removed the sides of the springform pan and prepped it for the topping. I put about an inch layer of Cool Whip on the top and sprinkled on the crumbled Oreos and candy canes. I kinda garnished the edge of the cheesecake with Redi Whip right before serving. It was Delicious, enjoy!