Happy Birthday To Me - Double-Decker Oreo Cheesecake

For Christmas dessert, I had an absolutely disgusting cheesecake. This was the first time I met a cheesecake I didn't like, and the experience was unsettling, both in my stomach and in my life views. In order to fix the last memory of cheesecake I had, I decided I simply had to make a better one. And what better time to have cheesecake than for my birthday?

Every year for my birthday I have the same cake. Or rather, pie. My mom buys an Oreo crust from the store, and it's filled with chocolate pudding made with sour cream. It's delicious. Oreos are my all-time favorite cookie, and I only have this pie for my birthday, so I start out whatever year it is on a good note.

Lately, however, Oreo crusts have become harder and harder to locate. They sell those chocolate crusts and graham cracker, but no Oreo.

It is obviously time for a change.

In order to fix both my cheesecake and Oreo crust problem, I decided to make an Oreo cheesecake. The next problem was deciding on a recipe. I ended up mixing 3 different recipes: for the crust, for the mixed in Oreos, and for the chocolate top. Some reviews on the recipe for the mixed in Oreos said the crust was kind of strange, so I decided to look elsewhere for the crust recipe.

Before you begin making the cheesecake, I recommend this website. Whether you're a cheesecake pro or a newbie, I found this website very helpful. Even if you are a pro, you could still learn something!

In combined form, here's what I did:

Supplies:
-1 large bowl
-1 smaller bowl
-hand mixer or stand mixer
-Spring-form pan

Ingredients:
For the crust
-2 cups of Oreo cookie "dust" with the cream removed - it was very finely chopped
-1/2 stick of butter, melted
-2 tbsp white sugar

For the bottom (white) layer
-4 packages of cream cheese
-3/4 cup sugar
-1 cup sour cream
-1 tsp vanilla
-4 eggs
-some Oreo "chunks" to mix in to batter - as many or as few as you see fit (with or without cream)

For the top (chocolate) layer
-1 cup semisweet chocolate chips (or darker, if you wish)

Instructions:
First, get the eggs and cream cheese out of the refrigerator, as they both need to get to room temperature.

I went ahead and put the cream cheese and the sugar into a bowl to warm up. 

Preheat the oven to 350 F, and fill an oven safe bowl with water to put in the oven. Cheesecakes, like bacteria, like warm, moist environments (science in every day life!). 

While everything is warming up, start chopping cookies for the crust and for the actual cheesey part. I ended up using about 12 oz. of cookies in order to reach 2 cups of cookie crumbs. When I said dust above, it literally was dust. It got EVERYWHERE. Do not make this in nice clothes. 

Oh hey Oreo, you lookin' fiiiiiiiiiiiine. (pun intended)

After your Oreo dust is all cut up, go ahead and put it in a bowl with the melted butter and 2 tbsp of sugar, and stir together. When mixed, press it into a well-greased spring form pan. I like for the crust to go up the sides a little bit. 

When the crust is done, now you get to do the filling. Beat up the 4 packages of now softened cream cheese with 3/4 cup of sugar, until smooth. Then add in the 1 cup of sour cream and 1 teaspoon of vanilla. Add in the room temperature eggs, one at a time. Do not add the next egg until the other is all blended in. 

When everything is all smoothed out, pour in some coarsely chopped Oreos into the batter, and stir around with a spoon. I took the cream out of my Oreos because I prefer the cream of the cheesecake to the cream of the Oreo, but it's your call. 

When the batter is all mixed, and it is a homogeneous mixture, as my science books would say, pour about half of the batter into the Oreo-lined spring-form pan. At this point, heat up that cup of chocolate chips in the microwave for about a minute. 

When you're done adding in half of the batter to the spring form pan, your chocolate should be ready. Give it a stir, and put it in for another minute.  Pour this melted chocolate into the remaining batter, and stir until it is all combined. Then pour this chocolately mixture on top of the white layer. 

Bake at 350 F for 45 mins. When done, the middle should still be a little jiggly, but the edges should be nice and poofy.