Copycat Cheesecake Factory Oreo Cheesecake Recipe

Copycat Cheesecake Factory Oreo Cheesecake Recipe

Ingredients

For the crust:
• 1 1/2 cups Oreo cookie crumbs (about 23 Oreo cookies finely chopped)
• 2 tablespoons melted butter
• 1/4 cup dark chocolate chips (optional)
For the filling
• 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

1. 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 ...)
2. 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.
3. 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.
4. 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.
5. Gently fold a few coarsely chopped oreo cookies (or 1/2 cup crumbs) into the batter.
6. Pour the batter into the prepared springform pan. Sprinkle the top with more Oreo cookie crumbs.
7. 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.
8. 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!
9. Now you know what to do. Slice it into pieces and enjoy. I recommend small slices because it is a rather rich cheesecake.