Oreo cookies are a great addition to cheesecake, whether you use them in the crust or chop them up and mix them into the batter. The crisp, chocolaty cookies are a nice textural contrast to the creamy cream cheese base of the cake, and the creme filling of the cookie blends in smoothly and sweetly to the rest of the dessert. I like them in any kind of cheesecake, but when I saw the Halloween Oreos - with their bright orange centers - on the shelves, I knew that they would make a fabulous Halloween-themed cheesecake.

I lined the muffin tin with paper liners and then placed a whole Oreo cookie into each cup to act as the crust of these cheesecakes. Not only does it make for a good, solid base, but you don’t need to spend time fussing with getting graham cracker crumbs into the muffin cups or prebaking crusts and waiting for them to cool. I also chopped up some Oreo cookies and stirred them into the cake batter. The cheesecake itself is very easy and mixes up in one bowl. Just pour it on top of the cookie bases and you’re ready to bake! Once all your ingredients are at room temperature, you can actually have these in the oven in less than 10 minutes.

I took these to a little party recently and they were a huge hit with both adults and kids alike. It was really fun to see faces light up when they bit into the cheesecake and realized that you could see the whole Oreo cookie, complete with bright orange filling, sitting at the base of the cake. The cupcakes travel very well as the cheesecake is relatively firm. Also, since the orange filling isn’t orange flavored, these taste just like cookies n’ cream.

Don’t forget, regular Oreos (or similar brands) of cookies will work well in this recipe, too, and you can always opt for a non-Halloween colored version in the off season.

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I recently had an interesting discussion about how many types of cheesecake there are. My friend seemed to feel that there were an almost uncountable number of cheesecake flavors - cookie dough, mocha, raspberry, marble, etc. - that all these were types of cheesecake. I disagreed. While there are lots of different cheesecake recipes, a basic cheesecake with different types of add-ins does not make it a new type of cheesecake. Changing the base ingredients, like the cheese cheese, sour cream, milk and other primary elements, does. For me, different types of cheesecakes give you different textures and consistencies, not just different flavors.

This cheesecake, for instance, is a yogurt cheesecake. It uses some cream cheese, quite a bit of thick, Greek-style yogurt, and uses eggs to bind everything together (making it gluten free). Unlike some cheesecakes that use two or three times as much cream cheese, this one has a slightly lighter texture and tastes a bit less rich, although it is still creamy and delivers a wonderfully familiar cheesecake flavor. It’s definitely less filling than some of its counterparts, and I appreciate the fact that I can eat more than tiny slice in one sitting. You can use low fat or full fat greek yogurt. I’m not sure how nonfat will be, but it might be worth experimenting with!

It’s pretty important to have all your ingredients at room temperature when you’re going to make a cheesecake because cream cheese likes to firm up fast when it gets cold. Keeping everything at room temperature will help to ensure that you have a very smooth finished product. A lump or two won’t effect the flavor, but ideally you’d like the cake to be as smooth as possible. I’d definitely recommend making the cheesecake mixture in a food processor, although an electric mixer is the next best thing.

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Light and fluffy souffle-like cheesecakes are nice, but not everyone is going to be satisfied with that type of texture for a cheesecake. Others want their cheesecake to be rich, creamy and dense. In fact, this sort of texture is almost a signature of cheesecakes, since few other baked good can (or would want to) achieve it. This Mocha Chocolate Chip Cheesecake is a great example of this type of cheesecake. It is rich and filling to the point where you really only want to eat a small slice at a time, but it has a great flavor and is satisfyingly smooth and creamy to eat.

The flavor for this cake was, not surprisingly, inspired by one of my favorite drink combinations: coffee and chocolate. I started out with a chocolate crust, an easy one to make that doesn’t need to be cooled before the batter is poured on top. Cheesecakes don’t typically have a lot of liquid added to them, and when they do, it is often something that adds extra richness, like cream. I opted to use instant espresso powder to add a good shot of coffee flavor to the cheesecake. Instant coffee powder will work just as well, so use what you have on hand.

I used melted chocolate to get the chocolate into the cheesecake. I used semisweet chocolate (61% cacao), but you can go with a darker or milder chocolate as long as you choose a good-quality one. You can either use the microwave or a double boiler to melt your chocolate, but be sure to let it cool down before incorporating it into the batter. The melted chocolate doesn’t do too much to change the consistency of the batter (unlike a dry ingredient like cocoa powder that might thicken it up too much). The batter will be quite thick, perfect for suspending chocolate chips or chocolate chunks without letting them fall to the bottom of the cake.

The finished cake is absolutely gorgeous looking, and mine baked up to be both even and smooth. Thicker batters seem to hold together better during baking and not crack as much (although I don’t personally mind if the cake cracks), and there is no need to use a waterbath for this cake, either. The coffee flavor is mild, but comes through the chocolate flavor just enough to round out the dessert and give the flavor some dimension. I could only handle small slices, but you can bet that I went back for a few of them. (more…)

The first time I ever had cheesecake brownies, they were a variation on a box brownie mix that my mom baked. I had cheesecake brownies this way for years. Some of those box brownie mixes are very good (Ghiradelli is one of my favorites) and I always enjoyed it when I found a batch in the kitchen. Presentation-wise, it’s a beautiful dessert, but the thing that makes it good is how the creamy cheesecake really contrasts with the rich chocolate flavor and texture of brownies.

I may like versions of this dessert made with box brownie mix, but these blow them away. The brownie base is dark and rich, the cheesecake is light by comparison and the ratio between the two is spot-on.

The brownies don’t have a tremendous amount of chocolate in them - some melted chocolate and a small amount of cocoa powder - but deliver a lot of flavor. Chocolate makes the brownies taste richer than cocoa alone, while the cocoa powder deepens the flavor. I used dark (65% cacao) chocolate and, while you could use semisweet chocolate in a pinch, I think that darker chocolate (or even half dark and half unsweetened) will give you the best finished flavor. The brownies are very fudgy when served at room temperature, largely because there is no leavening in the brownie batter aside from eggs, and they have a great chewiness to them when refrigerated. I usually prefer things at room temperature, but this is one that I actually prefer chilled.

Since this batch of brownies bakes in a fairly small pan (8×8-inches), there is a generous ratio of cheesecake to brownie, which makes this a good choice for cheesecake fans. The cheesecake is not too dense and I found that the flavor of the cream cheese, combined with the hint of vanilla in the mix, made a great match to the brownie. I didn’t swirl my brownies too much and, as a result, most of my pieces were brownies on the bottom and cheesecake on top. If you want more of a mixture, you can be a bit more aggressive with the “swirling” of the two batters.

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Cheesecakes can be creamy or fluffy, dense or light, and silky or feathery in texture. As long as there is cream cheese in the recipe, it still pretty much qualifies as a cheesecake no matter what specific kind of cheesecake it is. There is only one kind of cheesecake that tends to deliver the same feel over and over because it is so well-established: the New York Style Cheesecake. This type of cheesecake is famous for being very rich, as it uses lots of cream cheese, and very silky. The individual recipes vary, but they all use a water bath to preserve the smooth texture of the cake because it creates a gentler heat than direct oven air.

A water bath may seem like a bit of a hassle, but as long as you have a large roasting pan or something that can accommodate your springform pan, it really doesn’t take up any extra time and the results are well worth it. You can see how much it contributes to temperature control by how even the top of the cake is. Even after cooling, the top is smooth and flat - no sign of a sunken, potentially undercooked center or high-rising overcooked sides. And there wasn’t a crack in sight.

For my cheesecake, I started with a lot of cream cheese to ensure that the cake had a strong cream cheese flavor. I used only a small amount of sour cream to lighten up the overall texture of the cake; the very slight tang of the sour cream isn’t noticeable in the finished cake, but it cuts perfectly through the denseness that can occur in cheesecakes made only with cream cheese. I think that the flavor is perfect and the cake comes out to be very creamy and smooth, without being so heavy or dense that you will feel as though you need a nap after eating.

If you look at the photo, you’ll probably notice that I didn’t put a crust on this cheesecake. I’ve noticed that a lot of recipes that claim to be for “ny style cheesecake” only call for dusting the bottom of the pan with a couple of tablespoons of graham cracker crumbs. While I personally like having a crust on my cheesecake, I decided to give the no-crust option a try and used just 2-3 tbsp of graham cracker crumbs to coat the bottom of the pan. You couldn’t really taste it, but it definitely helped to prevent the cake from sticking and make it easier to move the slices around. Feel free to substitute flour or other cookie crumbs to dust the pan, or just bake a graham cracker crust in advance and bake the cake on top.

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Can a dessert be a cheesecake when it doesn’t start with cheese? My gut feeling tells me that it can’t. In spite of that, I can’t resist calling these little yogurt-based souffles, “cheesecake souffles” because they taste exactly like a light and fluffy cheesecake - only without all the calories and fat of a “real cheesecake.”

When I first set about making these, I was simply experimenting with yogurt as a potential souffle base ingredient in a recipe that was originally created by Alice Medrich. Souffles are such classy little desserts and always make a great presentation, so I enjoy making them. But because I don’t want to spend too much time in the kitchen, I have a slight preference for souffles that don’t require pre-cooked bases. Yogurt has an appealing thickness to it, but it isn’t generally known for its ability to stand up to heat well. I shouldn’t have been worried because the eggs, sugar and flour that also go into the base of this dish serve to support the yogurt and give plenty of structure to the souffle.

The texture is very light and fluffy, similar to some souffle-style ricotta cheesecakes I’ve tried in the past, and has a very fine, pillowy consistency. If your egg whites are beaten well and you give each of your ramekins a tap on the counter before putting the into the oven, you should have no large air pockets in the souffles to mar their beautiful interiors. The souffles have a very slightly tangy flavor to them from the yogurt. They are lightly sweet and have a pleasant vanilla flavor. If you prefer your souffles/cheesecake to be sweeter, you can add 1 or 2 additional tablespoons of sugar or top off the finished souffles with a drizzle of chocolate syrup or fruit.

I used thick, Greek-style yogurt for this recipe and opted for a low fat instead of full-fat. Nonfat Greek yogurt actually works well, too, although the souffles will be very slightly richer with the low fat variety. If you don’t have Greek-style yogurt, you can use regular, plain yogurt. Make sure to choose a brand that is all natural, then pour the yogurt into a cheesecloth-lined strainer for about 15 minutes before using to thicken it up and drain off excess liquid.

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