Copycat Cheesecake Factory Oreo Cheesecake
Just very slightly adapted from CopyKat Recipes
I have a funny story to tell you … my friend has a lake house that she rented out last summer to a group of students from Turkey. She lovingly refers to them as “the Turks” and she just adored them. I wish my schedule had allowed me the opportunity to meet these interesting young people, but it didn’t.
In any case, after the Turks left, my friend opened the freezer and discovered a large “mystery” bag … she opened up the bag and found 25 lbs of oreo cookie crumbs. I laughed when she told me! Why would you have a 25 lb bag of Oreo cookie crumbs! Perhaps one of the Turks was working at the local Dairy Queen? I don’t know, but my friend was suddenly the “lucky” recipient of a very large quantity of cookie crumbs. She tried to hoist off some of those cookie crumbs to me last fall … but I managed to escape without taking any. I wasn’t so “lucky” at Christmas-time! She had a large bag of them all prepared and she MADE me take them along.
Honestly, I am not much of an Oreo cookie fan … I really prefer to make my own cookies, but I’m not one to let food go to waste. My son, on the other hand, really does love Oreo cookies … and he really really loves cheesecake. I’ve never been successful in the past in getting him to eat “my” cheesecakes, but I thought I’d give it another shot, since hey, I’ve got this huge bag of Oreo cookie crumbs to use up!
He liked the cheesecake! So much so that I had to ask him to save me a piece so I could photograph it. I only got to eat one tiny sliver of this baby (my “birthday” cheesecake). The rest was devoured by the teenage boy.
I did lighten the recipe up a bit … I used Neufchatel cheese instead of the full-fat version and nonfat Greek yogurt in place of the sour cream. It’s still a pretty rich, decadent dessert.
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 cups Oreo cookie crumbs (about 23 Oreo cookies finely chopped)
- 2 tablespoons melted butter
- 1/4 cup dark chocolate chips (optional)
- 1 1/2 pounds light cream cheese (three 8 ounce packages)
- 2/3 cup sugar
- 5 large eggs
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 2 teaspoons vanilla
- 1/4 cup flour
- 6 - 8 ounces nonfat greek yogurt (or light sour cream, if you prefer ... my container only had 6 oz. in it so I went with that)
- 5 Oreo cookies, coarsely chopped (I used 1/2 cup of the cookie crumbs)
- For the top: About 10 coarsely chopped Oreo cookies (or just more oreo cookie crumbs)
Instructions
- First get out all the ingredients and let them warm to room temp as much as possible. (Honestly I skipped this step and my cheesecake turned out fine, but that's what the recipe said to do so I thought I'd pass it on ...)
- Now make the crust: If you are using chocolate chips, melt the butter, then stir the chocolate chips into the hot butter right away and stir. The heat from the butter should melt the chocolate chips. Mix the oreo crumbs with the melted butter/chocolate mixture and press into the bottom of a 10-inch springform cheesecake pan.
- Put the cream cheese in a large bowl and beat on low speed with your mixer until it's light and fluffy. Begin adding the sugar, little by little, beating until it's all mixed in. Scrape the sides of the bowl with a rubber scraper as you go to make sure it is all getting mixed in well.
- Then add the eggs one at a time, beating each egg fully into the batter and scraping down the sides of the bowl again before adding the next egg. Add the greek yogurt, vanilla and flour and beat some more until everything is mixed in and smooth.
- Gently fold a few coarsely chopped oreo cookies (or 1/2 cup crumbs) into the batter.
- Pour the batter into the prepared springform pan. Sprinkle the top with more Oreo cookie crumbs.
- Set the top and bottom racks of the oven far enough apart so that you can set a pan of water on the lower rack and the cheesecake on the top rack. Set 2 circular cake pans (or one larger cake pan) filled 2/3 of the way with water on the lower rack. (This will act as your "water bath" without having to go to all the trouble of actually putting the cheesecake in the water.) Preheat the oven to 325.
- Place the cheesecake on the top rack of the oven and bake for about an hour. Test it ... it should be just slightly jiggly in the middle when you shake the pan gently. If it's really jiggly, cook for another 15 minutes. When the time is up, turn the oven off, prop the door of the oven open and let it sit for an hour. Then, remove it from the oven, cover and refrigerate for 24 hours. I didn't think my son would actually wait long enough to let the cheesecake "season", but he did!
- Now you know what to do. Slice it into pieces and enjoy. I recommend small slices because it is a rather rich cheesecake.
Notes
Make this cheesecake the day before you want to eat it to give it time to "season".
This recipe was shared at Foodie Friday, Foodie Friends Friday, Strut your Stuff Saturday, Scrumptious Sunday, Tuesday Talent Show, Show & Share Wednesday, Tasty Thursdays and Clever Chicks Bloghop.
What a wonderful story to go along with a wonderful recipe. I am not much of an oreo fan, but this cheesecake could change that!
Thank you for linking up to Foodie Friends Friday. I look forward to seeing what you bring next week!
January 20, 2013 at 9:40 pm
Thank you Cynthia! I am not an oreo fan either, but this cheesecake is really luscious.
January 20, 2013 at 10:02 pm
This is such a funny story – I have to say, I am a huge fan of Oreos and would probably have eaten that entire bag. I love what you did with this recipe – chocolate and cheesecake can never go wrong!
January 23, 2013 at 11:37 pm
Jessica I am so glad you enjoyed it! My son is really the same way, except he wants his oreos whole. Except in cheesecake.
January 24, 2013 at 9:53 pm
Oh my goodness, Ann. This looks amazing!! Thanks for linking up to Tasty Thursdays. This post will be featured this week. The party will be live tonight. Thanks, Nichi
January 30, 2013 at 5:40 pm
Thank you so much! I’m honored
January 31, 2013 at 8:33 pm
The only problem I had with this was that you included vanilla and flour in your ingredients but didnt say when to put them in during the recipe, so I freaked out a bit. But I’m baking it now, hope it turns out!!
February 7, 2013 at 9:47 pm
Lauren thank you SO MUCH for mentioning that … I will recheck my recipe and update it accordingly!
February 7, 2013 at 11:33 pm
Hi! I’m excited to try this, but there’s no measurement for size of the pan! I was thinking of making several mini cheesecakes instead but i have no idea how much this makes! Any help?
Thanks!
February 13, 2013 at 1:01 am
Oh dear … I’m sorry! Use a 10-inch springform pan.
February 13, 2013 at 8:33 am
Yeah… I wasn’t sure when to put in the flour or vanilla extract so I just threw them in after everything else was mixed. It’s in the oven now!! Smells and looks awesome!
February 13, 2013 at 11:56 am
Oh thank you so much for pointing that out, Ashley! I edited the recipe to tell you where to add them. I am so glad you figured it out!
February 13, 2013 at 7:14 pm
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You probably already know this, but http://www.facebook.com/pages/Incredible-Recipes/117925708371194?fref=ts
stole your picture. I’m sorry. I posted your page on their FB page.
Stop the stealers!
March 24, 2013 at 9:04 pm
Julie thank you so much … I didn’t know … and I am so glad you stood up for me and posted my post on their page. It angers me how they cropped off my name from the photo, and copied/pasted the recipe to their page. Grrrr.
March 24, 2013 at 9:13 pm
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