I know I’m in the middle of a cake series and this might be a little too outside the box, but the word cake is in the title so I think it counts. Plus it’s a nice little break from typical cake.

Cheesecake is great, but it’s often finicky and the water bath can be a bit intimidating. This particular recipe eliminates the water bath, which is great; and it’s chocolate with an Oreo crust.

The crust is pretty simple; you just crush up the Oreo cookies in a food processor, add melted butter, and then press the mixture into a spring form pan. You can use a cup with a smooth bottom/sides to help press the mixture onto the sides and smooth it out.

We heated the milk/chocolate chips in the microwave and just kept an eye on it so it didn’t burn. If you take it out a little sooner than you might think and just stirring it should melt any remaining chocolate chips. Once it’s completely smooth then you can stir in the espresso powder. As a note, we love using this stuff in chocolate recipes since it helps add a nice complexity to the chocolate without tasting like coffee.

From there you just keep adding ingredients in slowly and stirring. Once you’ve got everything in and the mixture is smooth then you pour it onto the crust. Bake and then once it reaches the right temperature turn off the heat and crack the door. You’ll leave the cheesecake in the oven for another hour and this is supposed to help keep it from cracking (since we didn’t use a water bath).

All in all, this is a pretty easy cheesecake recipe; however, despite our efforts the top still cracked. We didn’t save any crushed Oreo’s for the top so my husband whipped up a quick ganache and poured it over the top; adding additional chocolatey flavor and covering up the crack.

Taste-wise, it was very rich of course but so delicious! We’d definitely make this again!

Baking Ease	8
Time Spent	7
Taste	10
Visual	10

Recipe Used: King Arthur