Chocolate Marbled Cheesecake

Yesterday, I made my first cheesecake.  It came out pretty well so I'm going to go ahead and check it off my 24 before 25 list.  After browsing the internet for a while, I decided to try this recipe.  The only thing I changed was that I used Oreo crust instead of graham cracker.  


So here's what you'll need:

Crust:

1. 2-3 cups Oreo cookies with cream center removed, finely ground.  I found this is almost a whole bag.  How many cups you use depends on how thick you like your crust, but I think thicker is better with this crust.
2. 5-6 tbsp. of butter (melted)
3. 1/3 cup of sugar
4. 1/8 tsp. salt

Cheesecake:

• 5 (8 oz.) packages cream cheese, softened (SOFTENED IS KEY!)
• 5 eggs
• 2 egg yolks
• 2 tsp. vanilla
• 1 3/4 cups sugar
• 1/8 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/4 cup heavy cream
• 4 oz. dark chocolate
• 6 oz. white chocolate

1.  Get your ingredients out so they can reach room temp.  Make sure your cream cheese is very soft or you'll get a lumpy batter!

2.  Remove the inside cream from the oreos and grind them up.  You need 2-3 cups, which is almost the entire bag.  The remaining ones could be crumbled on the top for decoration, but I thought the swirl was pretty too.

3.  Combine crust ingredients and press into the bottom (and sides, if you choose) of a SPRINGFORM PAN.  I stuck this in the oven at 350 for just a few minutes, but I'm not sure that's necessary.

4.   In a large bowl, combine cream cheese, eggs, egg yolks and vanilla; mix until smooth.  Add in the sugar, flour and heavy cream and blend until smooth.  Do not over-mix as this will create more air bubbles which can contribute to your cake cracking.

5.  Melt the two chocolates (separately.)  This should be done with double burners on the stove, but I've found that a couple minutes at a time in the microwave on half power also works.

6. Once melted, remove the dark chocolate from heat and pour 1/3 of the batter into the pan.  Pour the melted white chocolate into the remaining batter.  Mix both until combined.

7. Pour 1/3 of the white chocolate mixture into the prepared crust.  Drop in spoonfuls of the dark chocolate mixture on top.  Pour in the rest of the white chocolate mixture over that.  Finally, drop in spoonfuls of the rest of dark chocolate mixture and swirl it all around with a knife, but don’t overmix.

8. Place in the oven and turn it on to 400 degrees (F).  Bake for 10 minutes and then turn it down to 200 degrees (F).  Bake for 3 hours.  Turn the over off, prop open the door slightly and let cool for 1 hour.  Finally, place in your refrigerator and chill for a full 24 hours before removing the springform pan’s side and serving.

I'll confess I didn't let it chill as long as I was supposed to, but it still came out pretty freakin' good!