“All is Right with the World” Chocolate Oreo Cheesecake

Get out two large bowls and start separating the Oreo cookies from the filling, using one bowl for the chocolate cookies and one for the cream filling.

Break the cookies up with your hands so they are in several pieces.

Heat 1/4 cup butter in the microwave and pour it over the cookies. Take a fork and begin mashing the cookies into even smaller crumbles, as small as you can get. (If you have a food processor or dry/grains attachment to your blender and you want to use that to make the process go quicker, you may.)

Get out a pie dish and spray with cooking spray. Transfer the cookie crumbles into the dish and spread them out evenly.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and pre-bake the crust for 5 minutes. Take it out of the oven when done.

In the bowl of a large stand mixer, combine cream cheese, heavy cream, vanilla extract, confectioner’s sugar, cocoa powder, and eggs, and whip it until thoroughly combined.

Spoon the filling from the stand mixer into the pie dish over the crust.

Get out a larger dish or pan and pour a small amount of water in it, just enough so when you place the pie dish inside this larger pan, the very bottom inch or half inch or so will be in water. Place the pie dish inside the larger pan. (This is called a water bath.)

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and bake the cheesecake in the water bath for about 50 minutes.

While you are waiting for the cheesecake to bake, make the whipped cream topping and the ganache.

If you have not already washed out the stand mixer from making the filling, do so. You will need it cleaned out before starting the whipped cream.

Add heavy cream, confectioner’s sugar, and Oreo cream filling to the stand mixer and mix for about six minutes or until the consistency of whipped cream is reached. Scrape it out of the stand mixer bowl into a storage container and put it in the fridge while the cheesecake is baking. Then, you can clean out the stand mixer again. You won’t need it again.

When the time gets closer on the cheesecake, start making the ganache. All you have to do is pour the heavy cream in a bowl with the dark chocolate chips and microwave for about a minute, then whisk with a fork.

Once the cheesecake is done, take it out of the oven, and let it cool at room temperature for about fifteen minutes.

Pour the chocolate ganache over the top of the cheesecake. If you have any Oreos left over from the crust, you can also stick those on top of the cheesecake at various intervals. (The ganache adheres the Oreos to the cake.)

Refrigerate the cheesecake for four to six hours to let it chill and set.

Once the cheesecake is done setting, you can get out some piping tips and piping bags and pipe the whipped cream topping on to finish it off.